Editor’s Note: It is your gift of 115 million dollars supporting this program…. hope you feel like it was worth it.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / Andy Stone, right, stands by Mayor Tim Kelly as he breaks ground using an excavator. Officials broke ground at the new Chattanooga Lookouts stadium site on Monday.
Hundreds of people joined with the Chattanooga Lookouts and local officials for a groundbreaking Monday for a new ballpark seen by supporters as powering a vast makeover of old foundry land and ushering in a signature gateway to the city.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, seated in the cab of an excavator, ceremonially shoveled the first load of dirt at the 140-acre South Broad District. The minor league club plans to play baseball there for the start of the 2026 season, leaving behind its home since 2000, AT&T Field.
“This could be a strip mall,” Kelly said to some 300 people who showed up at the event at the planned location of the ballpark’s center field. “Instead, it will be an amazing development.”
Kelly and other officials said the $115 million ballpark is the linchpin of a potential $1 billion in new development in and around the old U.S. Pipe/Wheland Foundry tract between Broad Street and Interstate 24.
Lookouts managing partner Jason Freier termed the start of work on the stadium as a new beginning in the more than 100-year history of the minor league team in Chattanooga.
“It will bring increased prosperity to the area,” he said to the onlookers about the ballpark that’s to have 6,000 to 7,000 seats and provide room for more on a standing-room-only basis.
Freier said plans are to save several of the blighted foundry buildings and “reuse those in a way respectful to their history.”
Gary Chazen, a member of the foundry tract’s ownership team, told the group the event was more than two decades in the making as team members dreamed of transforming the beleaguered property.
“We wanted something special,” he said. “We believed Chattanooga wanted something more.”
Chazen said reaching Monday’s groundbreaking “wasn’t easy, but in the end, it’s a success.”
The move comes two years after the proposed new ballpark was unveiled.
(READ MORE: New Lookouts stadium proposed)
An earlier proposal by the city and Hamilton County called for using public and private money for a stadium financed by the sale of 30-year bonds for $79.4 million. But coming to an accord on the financing piece and other agreements proved more time-consuming.
The cost rose to $115 million, and the Lookouts are now eyeing the start of play on opening day of the baseball season in 2026 rather than in 2025 as earlier planned.
The stadium will replace AT&T Field at Hawk Hill on downtown’s riverfront. Freier said earlier that Major League Baseball put Chattanooga “on the cut list” unless there was a big upgrade in where the team plays.
As part of the financing package, the Lookouts will pay at least $1 million annually in rent at the new stadium, officials said.
Andy Stone, also a member of the parcel’s ownership group, said he moved his family from Nashville to Chattanooga for the chance to help redevelop foundry property.
The site will become “a shining testament to our past and future,” he said to bystanders at the event.
Jim Irwin, hired as master developer of the site and president of the firm New City Properties of Atlanta, called the development plan for the land and foundry buildings “really a unicorn.”
“This can truly be a world-class … experience,” he said at the groundbreaking.
Ann Weeks, a member of the city-county sports authority overseeing the facility’s construction, said the event is a pivotal point for the South Broad District.
“It’s a gift to the whole city,” she said in an interview. “It’s a gift to everyone in the whole county.”
Hamilton County Commission Chair Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, said in an interview that the ballpark will spur new housing in its surrounding area, and he believes there’s enough room for development there as well as at the former Alstom plant site nearby and the old Eureka Foundry property close by.
He said he’s hopeful the developments can serve as a reliever for the fast-growing Ooltewah area.
“It will give them more options,” Eversole said.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / Lookouts helmets sit on construction equipment. Officials broke ground at the new Chattanooga Lookouts stadium site on Monday.
Casey Hammontree, a Lookouts owner, said the club has been part of his life for 40 years.
“The Lookouts are Chattanooga’s team,” he said.
According to plans for the ballpark, $80 million in bonds will be issued by the Sports Authority and paid back mostly by new city and county tax revenue generated by the stadium development.
There also will be a $26 million private loan obtained by the team and landowner, paid back with new city property tax revenue in a 470-acre tax district around the stadium, but not with county revenue.
In addition, there will be $5 million in additional sports authority debt, also repaid from the city’s property tax revenue and potentially hotel-motel taxes or local option sales taxes.
Also, there’s a $3 million up-front contribution from the Lookouts along with $1 million interest earnings on the $80 million bond.
