Red Bank seeks input on former middle school site
Three developers have submitted proposals for the former Red Bank Middle School property, an 11-acre parcel owned by the city of Red Bank that sits in the middle of its central business district.
City commissioners hope to get public feedback on the plans at their next meeting Jan. 19 at 6 p.m.
The proposal from Empire Communities, which has nearly 4,000 home sites under development in the U.S., includes about 150 single-family row houses and town houses on 9 acres, 1 acre of commercial space and 1.7 acres of public green space. Empire projects its total investment in the property to be at least $40 million.
Town Center Development Group, developer of local projects including Cambridge Square in Ooltewah, submitted plans for a mixed-use development that includes two public parks, a proposed library, restaurant and small retail space, office space and a mix of residential options comprising town houses, condos and apartments. The developer estimates its total investment in the property to be at least $45 million.
Plans from Thousand Hills Co. — which now has four active local development projects, including the 54-acre Painted Ridge development on Dayton Boulevard — propose a mixed-use community with a public square, multiple public park spaces, farmers market and food truck space, restaurant and commercial spaces and live-work units. It also includes town houses, multifamily units and single-family homes constructed by GreenTech Homes.
Thousand Hills anticipates its total investment in the property at $28,850,000.
City Manager Tim Thornbury said the commission is not required to take any action on the plans, which were requested by the city in July and are for informational purposes to get ideas on the best use for the property.
“We’re still in the informational process to determine what is best for the citizens of Red Bank and Red Bank as a whole and decide in which direction we want to head,” Thornbury said.
Before any plan for the property can move forward, the commission will need to vote to declare the property as surplus in order to sell it, he said.
“You gotta have an idea of what you want there before you can actually put something out to bid,” Thornbury said. “Nobody really knew exactly what’s the best use for the property, so we decided we would just put out a request for proposals and let different firms tell us their ideas, let them do their studies, their market analysis and what would be the best fit for Red Bank.”
Mayor Hollie Berry and Vice Mayor Stefanie Dalton, who were elected to serve on the commission in November 2020, voted to postpone the Jan. 5 deadline for proposals in order to include a requirement of at least 3 acres of green space. That green space could be used to put the city in compliance with a land conversion agreement negotiated with the U.S. Department of the Interior when the new Red Bank Middle School was built.
The motion to postpone the deadline for proposals failed by a 3-2 vote.
In 2011, the city negotiated for 3 acres of the former middle school property, along with two 5-acre parcels on Stringer’s Ridge, to be swapped for the 14-acre Morrison Springs Park where the new Red Bank Middle School was constructed.
The conversion agreement required the city to convert 3 acres of the former middle school property into recreation space within three years, and the agreement was rescinded in March 2020 for noncompliance. The two parcels on Stringer’s Ridge were also deemed unacceptable since they contained trails and were already being used for recreation, Thornbury said.
He said the city is still in the process of looking for property to use to renegotiate the conversion agreement. The property does not have to match the former Morrison Springs Park in acreage, but it does need to be of the same value to meet the requirements.
The values of other properties in the city are now being assessed.
“The size of Red Bank is not that big, so it’s not like we’ve got beaucoups of property just laying around the city that we can just jump on it and make that happen overnight,” Thornbury said.
Only the Thousand Hills Co. proposal now includes 3 acres of green space.
“Once that agreement is finalized, which is likely to include at least 3 acres of the middle school property, possibly up to 5 acres, then we will need to seriously revamp those proposals,” Berry said, adding that all of the developers who have submitted plans expressed their willingness to work with the city to modify these plans as needed. “It’s also an option for us to reject all the proposals and reissue a new request for proposals that actually lets them know what the new requirements are truly going to be up front.”
The developers’ proposals are available on the city’s website at redbanktn.gov/current_bid_opportunities.html