Construction in full swing at South Broad Stadium

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- The future home of the Chattanooga Lookouts is starting to come together.

The future South Broad Stadium broke ground in July, and progress up until now from the outside seemed a little slow.

But now, things are rapidly picking up as the final pieces of the stadium puzzle are warming up in the bullpen.

 The South Broad project has been fully funded through two bond sales totaling over 80 million dollars.

A financial consultant for the developer says that the timing of getting these bonds, which are essentially loans for the $112 million project, potentially could save the city four million dollars in interest payments.

Bond lawyer Mark Mamantov said, “In my plain English view, the rates were good.”

Financial analyst Marcie Lewis added, “Should be plenty of revenues to cover the debt service bonds.”

Developer Andy Stone of Perimeter Properties said of the site’s progress, “The buildings that needed to be removed have been. All the lead and asbestos that needed to be remediated has been removed. Lead based paint work is ongoing right now and it’s about three quarters of the way completed. What they started this week was removing and salvaging slabs that are existing out there that will be used in some of the landscaping and architectural features that you’ll see around the stadium site with the Riverwalk and sort of interfacing with all of that.”

Meanwhile, the traffic study looking into how the stadium will affect the already vulnerable traffic along I-24 and South Broad Street is still ongoing.

Sports Authority board member Rev. Ann Weeks said, “It’s on the radar thinking about the whole community and how when events happen down there we’ll be able to get to it however it is eventually figured out.”

Developers say there’s a lot of factors they have to keep in mind while doing this study.

Stone said, “Pedestrians want a slower Broad Street but TDOT says “Oh my gosh we need to relieve 24, we want to move cars through at a certain pace, so it’s a balancing of that.”

First pitch is still slated for April 2026.

You can watch the ongoing construction live here.