Work began Wednesday on one of the largest residential and commercial buildings in years along Riverfront Parkway as the Chattanooga Football Club takes its soccer to a new level with a new headquarters.
“We are in growth mode,” said Alton Byrd, CEO of CFC, at the groundbreaking for the planned six-story building on the west side of downtown.
Byrd told a group at the construction site at 1620 Riverfront Parkway that the 70,000-square-foot building would be transformative for the professional soccer club.
(READ MORE: Westside to be home to CFC)
The building will house 49 apartments for players and team offices, officials said. A restaurant, a rooftop bar and other commercial space are also planned.
Davis Grizzard, owner of the Primary Club and CEO of local group Sage Hill Investors, said that although no leases have been signed for the commercial space, he envisions possible physical therapy or personal training businesses there.
In an interview, he said that the building could house small retail spaces, but also a team shop.
Grizzard declined to disclose the amount invested in the headquarters, but said the facility, which is within walking distance of the club’s home stadium at Finley Stadium, is scheduled to open in early 2026.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, who co-founded the team a decade and a half ago, joked that the site was one of the city’s most hated places for many years because it was home to a motor vehicle inspection station.
“It’s amazing to see our baby growing into a strong, healthy adult,” he told viewers about CFC.
According to Sage Hill Investors, Kelly’s club holdings are contained in a blind trust he set up at his election.
Byrd said CFC’s 30 employees are now housed in offices on Market Street.
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“We have a really bright future ahead of us,” he said.
CFC plays in the MLS Next Pro – a professional men’s soccer league launched by Major League Soccer in 2022. The CFC Women compete as an amateur team in the Women’s Premier Soccer League in the summer.
Charles Altchek, president of MLS Next Pro, said CFC is part of that company’s foundation.
“I’m looking forward to watching the World Cup matches (on TV) from the rooftop bar,” he said at the event when the new headquarters opens.
OTHER DEVELOPMENT
Matt McGauley of Chattanooga-based FTC Development, which will serve as the project’s developer, said it has been years since a similar mixed-use building was constructed on Riverfront Parkway.
A few years ago, a developer built a small residential and commercial building on the riverfront near ML King Boulevard across from Cameron Harbor.
Across from Ross’s Landing, River Pier Landing, a mixed-use building with 5,180 square feet of residential and commercial space on the ground floor and a 350-car garage, was completed in 2005.
Kelly said large parts of the Westside have been either part of urban renewal projects or zoned as industrial areas for years.
The use of the west side will create new areas for the city center, he said.
Not far from the CFC building, The Bend project on the former Alstom factory site is expected to include more than $1.3 billion in new mixed-use projects when completed, officials said. Just Tuesday, a $50 million federal grant was approved to revitalize one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods nearby.
(READ MORE: $50 million federal grant awarded)
Also Monday, groundbreaking took place on the $115 million Chattanooga Lookouts stadium in the South Broad District, which will replace the aging AT&T Field on the downtown riverfront. More than $1 billion worth of new residential and commercial space is planned for the area, officials said.
Behind the proposed CFC building is the old Eureka Foundry site, where developer Chris Curtis of Chattanooga-based Riverside Development is envisioning new apartments, condos, a hotel, offices and restaurants next to Finley Stadium.
Contact Mike Pare at [email protected] or 423-757-6318.
