Hamilton County sells health department building to Erlanger; to relocate to Engel Stadium site

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)-The future of the Hamilton County Health Department was announced this morning.

However, that future will impact a historic Chattanooga site.

Built in 1930, Engel Stadium served as the home for the Chattanooga Lookouts for nearly seven decades.

However, as the team has moved on to new ballparks, this site has sat nearly empty for the last 25 years.

Its future seems to be at least partially outside of the sports realm. 

It was announced Tuesday morning that Hamilton County has agreed to sell their health department building on 3rd Street to Erlanger.

They will look to tear down the current building to expand their campus.

Erlanger CEO Jim Coleman explains, “One of the challenges we had was reconfiguring a very full footprint next door. How do we do that without ceasing operations and bringing a new facility to life in this region?”

To further solidify the 3rd Street corridor as a healthcare hotspot, Hamilton County plans to build their new health department building on the Engel Stadium property, adjacent to the stadium.

Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp remarked, “I’m very excited to hear about how Erlanger envisions the future of the Health Department facility which has served this county for six decades but has seen better days, and we’re excited to explore the future of public health.”

The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga (UTC) currently owns the stadium, and says that the current state of the historic ballpark is not good after a failed attempt to preserve the stadium.

The university chancellor, Dr. Steve Angle said, “We’ve tried to look at what to do. It’s falling in disrepair. It’s crumbling. There’s grass growing up through the carpet.  It’s about what is structurally sound and can be reused, and what cannot.”

He says they’re hoping to still preserve some portion of the stadium, as they consider potentially put a stadium for the school’s women’s soccer program.

“We have had engineers look at what part of…it’s a crumbling facility, Engel Stadium is. So what part of that can we reuse, and adapt. Can we save the entryway? We had a football stadium on our campus, Chamberlain Field, and we have a pavillon that really honors that history when you come on to Chamberlain Field on our campus, and so we’re hoping to do the same thing with Engel Stadium.”

He added that the project would be a “Win-win-win for Hamilton County” to continue modernizing health care in the area as UTC is set to break ground on a new nursing school next week.

Plans for the future health department site at Engel Stadium have not been formally finalized.

We expect to see those finalized plans within the next year.

The sale of the Health Department building will be discussed at the Hamilton County Commission meeting on Wednesday.