Cowart Place By the Numbers
135 The approximate number of condos and townhouses built or planned in Cowart Place.
$450,000 The high-est price for a condo or townhouse in Cowart Place.
$104,000 The lowest price for a condo or townhouse in the Cowart Place neighborhood.
11 The number of developments under construction or completed in Cowart Place.
Source: The RiverCity Co.
What draws us Downtown
1993 Walnut Street Bridge renovation
1995 Creative Discovery Museum
1996 Imax Theatre
1999 Coolidge Park
2000 AT&T Field baseball stadium
2005 21st Century Waterfront, including additions or renovations to the Tennessee Aquarium, Creative Discovery Museum and Hunter Museum of American Art. Tennessee Riverwalk now extends 11 contiguous miles from downtown to Chickamauga Dam
2006 Renaissance Park on the North Shore opens
2008 $300 million BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee headquarters campus built on Cameron Hill
2009 New 12-screen cinema complex will open downtown
Source: The RiverCity Co.
Overview
* Over 1,200 new condos and apartments completed, under way or announced
* Over $300 million in new projects
* More than 30 different developers involved
Source: The RiverCity Co.
In Chattanooga, downtown neighborhoods once known for poverty and crime, have been given a second chance.
As developers and businesses have taken up residence over the last 20 years, marginalized communities have been given a facelift. And residents expect the areas to continue flourishing.
"This was the worst neighborhood (in Hamilton County)," said Tony Peoples, who lives in Cowart Place on the Southside.
More than $40 million in residential and business development has helped grow the Main Street, Southside, Jefferson Heights and Fort Negley areas and attract new residents, officials say.
In Cowart Place, Mr. Peoples is surrounded by new developments looking to pull in more downtown dwellers. At the same time, art galleries, restaurants and boutiques have opened on the adjacent Main Street.
Residents in Alton Park are looking forward to a $6.7 million development, which will add 52 market-rate houses to the area in the next two years.
The project, Mountain View Homes at the Villages, is the last phase of residential building funded by a $35 million Hope VI federal grant that Chattanooga received in 2000.
The Hope VI grant brought revitalization to the Alton Park neighborhood. It funded the demolition of the largest public housing development in the city, McCallie Homes, where the average yearly household income was about $7,000.
Today, people from all walks of life call Alton Park home. The average household income has increased to between $20,000 and $25,000, said Mark Straub, development officer at Pennrose Properties.
