Loudon Has A Plan

Loudon's Hutch property gets a plan

Jonathan Herrmann news-herald.net

After hiring the services of Partners and Associates Inc., in March for a development plan for the former Hutch property, Loudon Utilities Board got a glimpse Monday of the potential future of the riverfront.

The plan included space for a restaurant, an outdoor event area, a possible corporate office space and a mixed-use retail and residential section.

“It was encouraging,” Ty Ross, LUB manager and Loudon city manager, said. “I think it was confirmation of what we felt was the case, which was that the waterfront is an underutilized asset that could be used to attract future investment.”

Any development on the property would start with demolition of nearly all of the current structure, with only one small portion salvaged for possible use as a restaurant.

Demolition would include remediation of any underground fuel tanks and environmental hazards.

“There might be things in some of the structures, for example, trying to retain some of the bricks out of some of the buildings to create pathways on the property for other uses or other architectural features that try to say, ‘This once was here and served a purpose in our community’,” Randy Jenkins, Partners CFO, said.

An informal estimate for eliminating the current structure was $175,000-$500,000.

Costs related to building mixed-used space, office space and a restaurant could come in at $13.8-$15.6 million based on industry standards and would be the most expensive of the proposed structures.

Plans called for outdoor park space that could be used in several ways to attract people to the area.

“What we want to do is leverage your investment in this property, the investment that you might have to make to remove the Hutch property and some infrastructure costs, in order to increase the values of the other areas that we’ve illustrated and cause those areas to be valuable enough to offset, hopefully all or more than, what your investment will be in the property as a whole,” Jenkins said.

The overall plan for the riverfront area was inspired in large part by Coolidge Park in Chattanooga, Ross said.

Hopes are that combining the living, retail and park spaces can bring a similar boost to Loudon.

“It’s amazing what they’ve done down there in Chattanooga on what they call the north shore,” Don Campbell, LUB board chairman, said.

A rough timeline was provided should LUB begin the entire project now, which had a completion date of 2021. However, there are currently no plans for a start date on demolition of the current structure.

“The first thing we’re going to have to do somehow, some way is we’re going to have to get that cleaned up,” Campbell said. “Once we get that cleaned up, then the plan that he presented here tonight, pieces of that can be brought forward. But yeah, I’m encouraged.”

The only big concern raised about the design came from Carlie McEachern.

“He doesn’t have half enough parking shown for the square footage he mentioned,” McEachern said.

“That doesn’t include all the parking we already don’t have in this city. ... That was one thing we were noticeably short on.”

Board member Johnny James was less concerned, believing there would be room for parking to be added in other areas not shown during the presentation.