David Barto, director of the Collegedale Tomorrow Foundation, unveiled plans Monday for a project that the non-profit foundation has been working on for the past two years. Collegedale Commons received unanimous approval to move forward.
A large site adjacent to City Hall on Swinyar Drive is being purchased entirely with money given by an anonymous donor, specifically for this purpose.
The eight acres will be bought for around $1.2 million. The project, when finished, will include an outdoor stage that opens to a two-acre green space. On both sides of the green space, covered open-air structures will be built. Each will be 30,000 square feet and will house a farmers market and craft vendors. It will be modeled after the pavilion by Finley Stadium and operated by Chattanooga Market.
A 10,000-square-foot “party barn” to accommodate events such as weddings or large meetings will be able to seat 550 people. Another building, a 6,000-square-foot meeting hall, will have a large conference room and other meeting rooms with storage closets for use by various organizations. This building will allow the present-day meeting rooms at city hall to be converted to office space.
The building of the development is planned in stages. The farmers market, dirt work, parking lots and landscaping will be the first to be completed. The opening of this portion is spring of 2016. Fundraising will be done before starting each phase. The party barn will come next in 2017 followed by the sound stage in 2018 and town hall in 2019.
The project is still in the early stages with only a preliminary drawing to illustrate the concept of how it is heading. Approval was given so the next steps could be taken, which will be to work with engineers and architects in order to create drawings in order to get cost estimates. The city of Collegedale included $100,000 in the 2015 budget for this venture, and will be working in partnership with Collegedale Tomorrow. An understanding between the two entities will be needed along with an agreement of how it will be managed.