$5.5 million in new housing planned for Red Bank

photo John Coffelt talks Wednesday about a housing development that will be built on Ashmore Avenue in Red Bank.

THE SPECS

• Name: The Cottages at Ashmore• What: 28 single family homes• Price: Initially less than $200,000 each• Size: 1,600 to 2,000 square feet• Details: 3 bedrooms, 2-and-a-half baths; two stories, though a one-story design can work• Amenities: 1-and-a-half to 2-acre community green• Architect: Larry Reed• Realtor: Caroline Outlaw, Re/MaxSource: HGH Construction LLC

One of the biggest new single-family housing developments to go up in Red Bank in nearly a decade is aimed at putting a little of the Southside in one of Chattanooga's oldest suburbs.

Developers are proposing a 28-unit project with the houses similar to those in the Jefferson Heights neighborhood on the Southside, said John Coffelt, chief executive of HGH Construction Inc.

"The goal is to make it feel like a real neighborhood," Coffelt said about The Cottages at Ashmore.

The units will be built on a 7-acre wooded tract at Memorial Drive and Ashmore Avenue, which his development company bought from a Jehovah's Witnesses church, Coffelt said.

He said the houses will range from 1,600 to 2,000 square feet in size and initially sell for less than $200,000 each.

Coffelt said he believes the project, which he is developing with Jonathan Bailey, will bring new life to an older surrounding neighborhood and should appeal to people who are now looking in nearby North Chattanooga.

"It's adjacent to all the amenities of downtown and the North Shore," he said about the development that he valued at between $5 million and $5.5 million.

But, Coffelt said, his units will be more affordable for some people than in North Chattanooga.

"It addresses a lot of pent-up demand," he said.

Red Bank Mayor John Roberts said city officials are excited about the new development, adding that it "shows that some of the stuff we've been working on is now coming into fruition in regard to selling the city and telling developers we're open for business."

photo Site of planned Red Bank housing project

Roberts said the city is looking at turning Ashmore into a cul-de-sac to improve traffic and aid the development.

"We want to get the right development," he said. "This is some of the stuff we've been going after."

Coffelt said he expects to begin construction in late July or in August, pending final approval from Red Bank officials.

The new project will nearly rival in size the Hill Pointe development built atop Stringer's Ridge in Red Bank almost a decade ago, though that's a gated community.

Coffelt said The Cottages at Ashmore will be surrounded by existing homes in Red Bank, which was one of the Chattanooga's first bedroom communities.

"This will rekindle what was so good about Red Bank," he said, recalling that his grandfather lived near the site when there were only a few residences in the area. "I've known the neighborhood for a long time."

Coffelt said he has been in the construction business for about two decades, having worked for a couple of years with former Chattanooga builder Bob Corker, now Tennessee's junior U.S. senator.

The developer said he was involved in constructing the Cottages at Knickerbocker in North Chattanooga as well as having worked on the Southside. Coffelt believes that an increased residential component will strengthen opportunities for Red Bank to land more commercial space, which occurred in the Southside with the activity off Main Street.

"We hope in a way to offer this to south Red Bank," he said.

The units will face Ashmore and have an area set aside for off-street parking in front. Also, motorists will enter a common driveway in the middle of the development to access a rear private drive where owners can park behind their units, Coffelt said. Garages could be constructed if an owner wishes, but at the least there will be an open pavilion, he said.

The project will contain a tract in the rear that could be developed later, Coffelt said, and it will back up against Chattanooga Memorial Park.

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.

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