Sitting atop a hill with the city’s skyline in the background, Chattanooga’s Westside residents and local officials marked the start of construction Thursday on a vast remake of the community. A new 230-unit apartment complex will go up on 5 acres of land at 501 W. 12th St., which previously held the now-demolished Youth and Family Development Center. The $89 million project, a partnership between Columbia Residential, the Chattanooga Housing Authority, and the City of Chattanooga, will consist of a mixture of one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments and is projected to wrap up in late 2026.

“This project represents a shared dream,” Betsy McCright, executive director of the Chattanooga Housing Authority, told the crowd Thursday. “It’s been shaped by the voices and ideas of Chattanooga’s Westside residents from the very start. Their input helped to guide this vision, making sure that the new community honors the area’s history and meets the real needs of the real people who will live here.”

Read the full story about the groundbreaking in Chattanooga’s Westside »
Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press

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