Chattanooga: Unum: Road closures to create urban campus
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Unum Group told regional planners Monday the insurer wants to close portions of Walnut and East Fifth streets in a $22 million plan to create an urban campus in downtown Chattanooga.
“This would consolidate our footprint into a campus-like environment,” said Tom White, senior vice president for investor relations for the Chattanooga-based company.
However, Chattanooga Municipal Court Judge Russell Bean spoke against the closures, saying he and other public officials worry about reducing access to the Hamilton County Courthouse, which is a block away.
“In this particular situation it’s a bad idea, closing off a public hub,” Judge Bean said.
Unum made its request Monday to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission. The commission delayed voting on the request until February, so Unum could try to address concerns over the street closures.
Judge Bean said closing the roads could pose a safety problem by hampering fire truck access to the courthouse, as well as making it harder for traffic coming from the interstate via Fourth Street to reach the facility.
But Mr. White said the closures would provide a safe environment for Unum’s workers, who must cross streets from the company’s parking lots. The company employs about 3,000 workers downtown.
During questioning by commissioners about the need to shut the roads, Mr. White said the closures are essential to Unum’s growth in Chattanooga.
The road closure also would allow Unum to consolidate its campus, he said, including the construction of a parking lot on the site of the former EPB building on Market Street and Unum’s previously announced parking garage on Cherry Street.
Over time Unum would sell or trade off about 12.4 acres of parking lots north of Fourth Street and east of Georgia Avenue, Mr. White said, making the property available for redevelopment. Surplus space in the Cherry Street garage and EPB lot would be made available to the public, Mr. White said.
Unum also plans to create an employee and visitor drop-off area at the corner of Fourth and Fifth streets and Lookout and Walnut streets, according to documents supplied by Unum. In addition, the company would build a large green space between its buildings.
To compensate for the closures, Unum would pay for the cost of converting one-way streets in the neighborhood to two-way, according to planning commission and Unum documents.
