Construction on the new Chattanooga Lookout Stadium is expected to begin in earnest next week as the $80 million bond sale closes, officials said.
Chattanooga-Hamilton County Sports Authority Chairman Matt Patterson said Thursday after officials announced a bond sale to fund a major portion of a proposed $115 million baseball stadium. spoke.
At the committee meeting, officials reaffirmed the new schedule for April 2026, when the multipurpose stadium will be ready for baseball and the season for minor league clubs will begin.
“It’s a great day for the Chattanooga Lookouts,” team president Rich Mozingo said in an interview about the bond sale that will help build South Broad Ballpark to replace downtown’s aging AT&T Field.
(Read more: Lookout Stadium groundbreaking draws hundreds)
Andy Stone, a member of the group that owns the former U.S. Pipe/Wieland Foundry site where the stadium will be located, said the facility and adjacent development will reshape the city’s western gateway.
“This is a great day for us,” he said in an interview, noting that the landowner, Perimeter Properties, has been working to redevelop the 140-acre property near Interstate 24 for more than a decade. .
City and Hamilton County leaders originally proposed building the new ballpark in the summer of 2022, with a goal of opening in April 2025. But finalizing the financing plan for the stadium, which is expected to seat 6,000 to 7,000 people and offer more if standing room only, turned out to take longer than many expected.
Mark Mamantov, an attorney advising sports officials, said at the meeting that the bond sale went “much more smoothly” than previous sales to help finance a new minor league stadium in Knoxville, which is under construction. He said that.
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He said other financing elements for Chattanooga Stadium are on track as well.
Marcy Lewis of PFM Financial Advisors told the committee that the combined interest cost on the $80 million taxable and tax-exempt bonds would be 4.68%.
He said strong investor demand for the bonds enabled lower interest rates, reducing debt service by $4 million compared to expectations before the sale. The bond is due to be repaid by 2055.
“There should be enough revenue to cover the debt service on these bonds,” Lewis said.
According to the plan, the bonds would be repaid primarily through new city and county tax revenue generated by the stadium development.
There’s also a $26 million private loan obtained by the team and private landowners on the old foundry lot that will be repaid with new city property tax revenue for the 470-acre tax district surrounding the stadium, but the county’s revenue isn’t it.
The athletic authority would be in debt for $5 million, which could also be repaid from city property tax revenues, hotel and motel taxes and local option sales taxes.
In addition, there is a $3 million advance payment from Lookouts and $1 million in interest income on the notes.
As part of the financing package, the Lookouts will pay at least $1 million a year in fees for the new stadium, officials said.
Sports Authority Commissioner Ann Weeks asked at the meeting about a traffic study of the stadium grounds and the Broad Street corridor.
(Read more: First apartment, office project to target stadium site)
Stone said after a recent meeting with the Tennessee Department of Transportation, the study area was expanded beyond Broad Street to the new Publix supermarket near St. Elmo.
Weeks said he was pleased to hear that research was progressing.
“We have a responsibility to many communities to know that this case is being watched,” she said at the meeting.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly and other officials have said the stadium is the linchpin of a potential $1 billion in new development in and around the old foundry area.
Jim Irwin, hired by Perimeter Properties as the master developer for the parcel, has already announced a $100 million project next to the stadium.
Irwin, president of Atlanta-based developer New City Properties, previously told sports officials that the proposed new project would house 300 apartments along with office, retail space and parking. spoke.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.
Staff photo by Mike Pare / Documents related to an $80 million bond sale to help finance the new Chattanooga Lookout Stadium were signed Thursday. Standing from left are Rich Mozingo, president of Lookouts, and Andy Stone of landowner Perimeter Properties. Sitting on the right are Matt Patterson, chairman of the City-County Sports Authority, and Jesse Harrell of the law firm Bass, Berry & Sims.
