Tax break considered for Hwy. 58 housing development

The Chattanooga City Council is expected to decide today if it should give a 15-year tax break to a rent-restrictive apartment development on the 5900 block of Highway 58.

Last week, developer Alex Trent described the Flats at Fifty-Eight, a 120-unit apartment complex located near Volkswagen and other commercial enterprises, as family oriented workforce housing. Tenant families will bring in less than $40,000 a year, he said.

“There’s several facilities just next to us that employ these residents, and we think that will generate a lot of our tenants from this employment facility,” Trent said, specifically naming Volkswagen.

Trent said his company has urged the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority to modify bus routes to connect the apartments to Volkswagen.

The Flats at Fifty-Eight will sit across from Linda’s Produce and up the road from Central High School, he said. Woods and a ridge line will separate the apartments from a nearby single-family home community.

The development will offer most of its two- and three-bedroom apartments to tenants who make no more than 60 percent of the area’s average median income. For a family of four in Hamilton County, that amounts to a $36,720 annual salary, according to 2016 Housing and Urban Development figures. Twenty-four of the apartments may be rented only to tenants earning no more than 50 percent of the average median income, which amounts to $30,600 for a family of four.

The proposed rent for the twoand three-bedroom apartments are $595 and $680 for tenants at the 50 percent AMI cap, or $735 and $835 for the tenants at the 60 percent AMI cap, Trent said. The market

rent value for those apartments are $864 and $1,176, respectively, he said.

Five buildings, each housing 24 apartments, will make up the core of the complex’s living spaces, Trent said. Each apartment will have an energy-efficient washer and dryer, plus free access to the internet.

Student facilities include a shelter for school bus riders and a learning center intended for tutoring and afterschool programs, he said. The Flats at Fifty-Eight also will feature other community amenities such as a playground, an outdoor event space, a saltwater pool and a fitness room.

Councilman Ken Smith praised the bus shelter as an example of the developer’s willingness to “go the extra mile” for the residents.

Trent assured the council the project could not happen without a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement that gives the company a 10-year period within which it will not pay property taxes based on improvements it makes to the site, starting in 2019. In 2029, the developer would pay 20 percent of property taxes owed on the property, building up to 100 percent payment in 2033.

In other business, the council also will vote on a $248,170 services agreement with Barge, Waggoner, Sumner & Cannon Inc. to handle design work for the St. Elmo connector to the Tennessee Riverwalk. The company will gather geotechnical research, compose construction documents and facilitate public participation for the project.

Most of the fee — $198,536 — will be paid through a metropolitan surface transportation block grant. The city will pay $49,634.

Last week, council members asked Chattanooga transportation administrator Blythe Bailey for a completion date for the proposed Riverwalk extension, which follows St. Elmo Avenue, running from Middle Street to the Incline Railway.

“I would hesitate to say we’ll be finished at a certain date, but our intention is to be in construction in 2018,” Bailey said, citing processes involved with seeking state money for the pedestrian walkway.

Chattanooga’s fiveyear capital plan calls for a $1.45 million allocation to the St. Elmo connector in fiscal 2018.