Perimeter Properties, which owns around 120 acres of former foundry land around the new Chattanooga Lookouts stadium under construction, completed its ownership with the purchase of a 4 1/2-acre property previously owned by Motor Wheel.
The foundries district around the $115 million minor league baseball stadium, called Erlanger Park, is now close to 145 acres where the landowners and developers expect $1 billion or more in private investment to follow the stadium.
Motor Wheel, owned by Illinois-based manufacturer Hendrickson, produces drum brakes and brake adjusters at the Chattanooga facility. The company will move its operations and jobs to a building 1 mile away off Alton Park Boulevard near a FedEx facility.
Perimeter Properties announced the sale on Thursday, but did not disclose the sale price. The figure will be included in a public deed filing, said Andy Stone, a partner at the company.
Perimeter Properties, led by President Gary Chazen, purchased the 50-acre former Wheland Property site in 2002 and the 90-acre former U.S. Pipe site in 2006. Both post-industrial sites sit between South Broad Street and Interstate 24.
The company donated land to the city of Chattanooga and Hamilton County for the new Lookouts stadium, scheduled to open April 14.
(READ MORE: Lookouts stadium takes shape as year-round event space)
The Motor Wheel facility in a former Wheland building built in the 1880s was not for sale with the rest of the land more than 20 years ago, Stone said in an interview.
“We jokingly call it the center of the doughnut,” Stone said. “It’s the doughnut hole in the middle of the site. It’s a very key, important piece of property for us to have to really round out the foundries district.”
JOBS RETAINED
Motor Wheel moved its casting operations from Michigan to Chattanooga in 1986, according to the company’s website. Perimeter Properties had worked with the company for years on a sale and helped Motor Wheel with the search for a new site that would preserve between 80 and 100 jobs, Stone said. The company has two years to transition to the new site, Stone said.
“Eventually, the goal is to bring them back to life,” Stone said of the old foundry buildings that include the Motor Wheel site.”What the programming is, what that looks like, we don’t currently know.”
The property at 2660 Sidney St. will be folded into a district where Perimeter Properties aims to attract new residential, commercial and office development.
“Our facility on Sidney Street proudly employed generations of Chattanoogans for over a century, and we are thrilled to continue to provide highly skilled manufacturing jobs at our new Alton Park location for many years to come” Jeff Bates, general manager of Motor Wheel, said in a press release. “I look forward to returning to our facility often to see how it will be given new life as a major fixture in the Foundries District.”
Atlanta-based New City Properties will build the first phase of private development, an apartment building and an office building with a pedestrian plaza in between, with construction planned to begin in 2026. Jim Irwin, president and founder of New City Properties, is the master developer overseeing plans for the entire district.
The Motor Wheel sale to Perimeter Properties is a “win-win” because it will expand the foundries district while retaining jobs in an improved facility, said Charles Wood, president and CEO of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.
“I want to applaud both Perimeter Properties and Motor Wheel for finding a solution that will benefit everyone in our community,” Wood said in a press release.
Contact business reporter Daniel Dassow at ddassow@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.
