Redevelopment of Old DuPont Property Moves Ahead

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) — Rise Partners and the City of Chattanooga are moving ahead with their plan to redevelop 88 acres of what used to be the DuPont Chemical Plant on Access Road.

Four buildings will be constructed on the property, totaling eight hundred thousand square feet in industrial work space.

“The project will be roughly a 100 million dollar investment. It’s projected to create 600 jobs at full completion. We have about 20 million dollars of public infrastructure work that will take place, including utility relocation, road improvement, signalization that will occur on access road,” said Matt Phillips of Rise Partners.

The development could become home to business at the local, national, and international levels.

“We’re currently talking to a number of future employers that would locate here from out of state, regionally and even nationally, but we’re also talking to local businesses that are looking for opportunities that are looking for opportunities to expand their business, so that they can stay in Chattanooga,” said Phillips.

The industrial space will be subject to a tax increment financing system where a portion of the tax revenue will be cycled back into the development.

The other portion will be used for Hamilton County School System, increasing their revenue from the site by roughly nine hundred percent.

“The schools right now are receiving about $16,000 dollars a year in tax revenue from that site. Once that site is developed, once there are Class A industrial space there and we’re able to produce things on that site again, we’re talking about going from sixteen thousand to almost $430,000 a year for schools. That’s a huge jump,” said Ellis Smith, Director of Special Projects for the City of Chattanooga.