Housing Authority discusses status of One Westside project

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — The current status of the Westside One project was discussed at Tuesday’s Chattanooga Housing Authority board meeting and discussed two key factors in that project.

The first phase of the renovation of the James A. Henry Building was approved.

The project which looks to create a community hub will be done in four phases.

The first phase will include health services, community rooms, and 117 new seats for a head start program to provide early education to the children in the community.

“We divided them into phases based on the funding availability and also city availability. And as you may know the James Avery building is owned by the Chattanooga Housing Authority and Shelia Jennings Park is owned by the city,” said CHA Project Manager Cihan Johnson who is heading the Henry Building project.

The developer of this project emphasized how this process has been a collaborative one.

“Once we started the schematic phase of this James A. Henry hub, we sat down with the community members with literally the markers and the pens and the papers, we sat down and reshaped this whole hub together,” said Johnson.

After this first phase, the second phase would focus on creating a multi purpose center at the hub, which would include a gym, up to three kitchens, and space for community gatherings.

Phase three would focus on Shelia Jennings Park, which is adjacent to College Hill Courts and the James A. Henry Building, as the Housing Authority are currently with Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors to finalize that plan.

Concept drawings shown on Tuesday suggest a soccer field, splash pad, and new playground could be among additions potentially added to Shelia Jennings Park.

The final phase would focus on landscaping and finalizing all upgrades to the James A. Henry hub.

Each phase of the project would begin as grants are given to the Housing Authority.

230 new units are to be built on the former Chattanooga Youth and Family Development Center, on 12th street across from College Hill Courts.

“It will be exciting to see the shovel hit the ground in January and break ground in the very first phase that will set the tone for the rest of the neighborhood,” said CHA Project Manager Hana Ramirez, working on the YFD site.

92 of these units will be dedicated to rehousing families currently living at College Hill Courts as they will be torn down in phases to be rebuilt as they are nearly a century old.

Ramirez emphasized that no current resident would be kicked out of their current home without a replacement new home available to move into.

“There’s a lot of history there and art and culture and we hope to see that incorporated with the new building, to carry that history of college hill courts and the generations that live there,” said Ramirez.

Currently, the Housing Authority is one of nine finalists for the Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grant, which would go towards these new developments.

They are already receiving approximately $103 million from the tax increment financing district associated with The Bend, which is currently under construction across Riverfront Parkway along the Tennessee River.

Ramirez expects to break ground soon and have the first units available by mid 2026 and Johnson expects the John A. Henry Building to be done by this time next year.