Chattanooga’s South Broad District Is Experiencing an Urban Renaissance
Chattanooga’s South Broad District is rapidly transforming into the city’s premier spot to live, work and catch a game. The $1.1 billion redevelopment is turning an abandoned industrial site just south of downtown into a vibrant, 400-acre walkable neighborhood filled with homes, offices, local shops and entertainment.
The anchor of this project is Erlanger Park, the new home stadium of the Chattanooga Lookouts Double-A baseball team. The 8,000-seat facility, which opened in April 2026, includes more than 40,000 square feet of interior event space designed to accommodate business functions, wedding receptions, holiday parties and other large gatherings.
“The goal is to utilize the ballpark as a tool to catalyze development on a strategically important site,” says Lookouts owner Jason Freier. “This ballpark is designed to be used 365 days a year, not just the 70 days we have baseball games. It’s a setting that is different than what you’ll see at your typical convention center or hotel ballroom.”
The spin-off effects from the ballpark and overall development already are being seen outside the South Broad District boundaries. For example, in May 2026 the Chattanooga Football Club moved into its new headquarters on Riverfront Parkway less than a mile from South Broad.
“We want this whole area to be a true part of Chattanooga, and not just its own siloed neighborhood,” says Rachel Hanson, the CFC’s chief of staff to ownership. “We built this headquarters with the idea of it being a staple piece for this area.”
A Comeback Season for South Broad
For more than a century, South Broad stood as a proud powerhouse of industrial manufacturing. While the closures of the Wheland Foundry and U.S. Pipe signaled the end of an era, they also paved the way for an exciting fresh start.
Ideas and visionary studies for the area’s revival began sparking almost immediately. Though thoughtful planning and unexpected hurdles – like a global pandemic – took time to navigate, that dedication ultimately set the stage for a dramatic transformation. In 2024, years of vision became reality with the official groundbreaking of the vibrant new South Broad District.
As chairman and CEO of Hardball Capital, an investment and operating firm, Freier is familiar with these types of projects. His group also opened new ballparks and mixed-use developments for teams in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Columbia, South Carolina. “Fort Wayne opened in 2009, and we have about $1.8 billion in development around that,” Freier says. “Columbia opened in 2016, and we have $1 billion in development so far. It will be more than $2 billion when all is said and done. So, we know this model works.”
Erlanger Park incorporates historical elements as well as new amenities into the overall facility. Two buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s were retained and utilized, along with steel beams and bricks from other structures. Meanwhile, construction is underway for 300 units of luxury apartments overlooking left field that will be so close to the ballpark, Freier says, “people on their porch will be able to catch a home run.”
“The idea is to integrate all the pieces together,” Freier says, “so you link the history of the site to the new development.”
A Proven Playbook for Urban Renewal
The Chattanooga Football Club truly embraced the live-work-play concept with the construction of its new 70,000-square-foot headquarters. Nearly every aspect of the CFC is now located in the six-story building, including fully furnished apartments for the players.
“We’ve always provided stipends or had apartments under contract for the players, but we decided we wanted something more internal,” Hanson says. “So, what started as plans for just a new club headquarters grew into player housing, a training facility with workout space, a film room and a player lounge. We’ve always been separated in different places, but now we’re all in one ecosystem.”
In fact, the new CFC headquarters is a microcosm of the direction the surrounding area is taking, led by the South Broad District, with businesses located on the same block as residential and retail.
Combined, it creates a vibrant, amenity-rich urban fabric that is attractive to Gen Z and millennial talent in high-tech sectors, as well as to baseball and soccer fans.
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