New luxury apartments
Slated for site of former Loft restaurant
Goodbye, 1940s-era bungalows. Hello, four-story luxury apartment complex. That scenario will play out in North Chattanooga, where the former Loft restaurant building at Cherokee Boulevard and Manning Street has been demolished and six small houses on Somerville Avenue are being razed to make way for Five Points Northshore, a 189-unit, $37 million apartment complex to be built by the Bristol Development Group of Franklin, Tenn.
“It’s just an exciting, exciting opportunity to bring more residential to this area,” said Scott Black, senior vice president for Bristol Development Group.
The apartment building is slated to open in the fall of 2018, and Black thinks there will be enough demand to fill the 137 one-bedroom units and 52 two-bedroom units. “We’re providing ample parking,” he said. Five Points Northshore will have amenities typical of an upscale suburban apartment
Somerville Avenue resident John Meeks is OK with the Five Points apartment complex planned for next door.
building, Black said, including a community pool, gym and fitness facility.
“We think it’s a great site and great location,” he said, noting that two supermarkets — Whole Foods and Publix — are within walking distance, along with other dining, shopping and recreational opportunities.
The immediate area has seen a surge of construction and investment, ranging from Fletcher Bright Co.’s 30,000-square-foot commercial space to be anchored by a brewery once it’s revamped to Signal Mill, an old, brick knitting mill at 205 Manufacturers Road undergoing renovations that will be home to Chattanooga’s second Mean Mug Coffeehouse and other businesses.
The multiple developments aren’t a coordinated effort, Black said, they all sprang up independently.
“It’s all just a combination of the energy on North Shore,” he said. “It creates a synergy.”
A couple of blocks away, hotel developer Mitch Patel is building a five-story, 84-unit apartment complex near Renaissance Park.
Somerville Avenue resident John Meeks is OK with the Five Points apartment complex being built next door.
“It won’t bother me,” said Meeks, a retired Chattanooga police lieutenant who’s been involved in civic and business ventures, including running a trucking company and the Over There Casual Dining Restaurant in a building at 388 Somerville Ave.
Meeks sold the restaurant building in 2015 and it became home to the Lit Hookah Bar and Lounge, which just surrendered its license Thursday after getting a 30-day beer sales suspension from the Chattanooga Beer Board for violations of city code.
Meeks owns a number of homes on Somerville Avenue and sold two of them to Bristol Development Group. They’re among the six homes to be demolished to make room for the new apartment complex.
“They paid me well for those two homes,” he said, predicting that property values will keep going up in the neighborhood.
“I’ve had five different offers,” Meeks said, for the home he shares with his wife on Somerville Avenue. “Hey, I’ve got a [$37 million] neighbor next door.”