On April 14, 2026, 8,266 ticket holders came through the gates at Erlanger Park for its first home game. The listed seating capacity is 8,032. The Lookouts lost 2–1 to Montgomery, and almost nobody minded, as the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported. By the end of the season, 336,312 people had attended across 69 home games. That is a franchise record and the highest team total in the Southern League since 2019, even though the club finished 59–79, last in the league.
The stadium did its job in its first year. The financing plan behind it, though, was never built mainly on ticket sales. It depends on new apartments, offices and shops rising on the old foundry land around the ballpark. The first of those buildings is scheduled to break ground on Friday, November 13, 2026, with completion targeted for fall 2028. If you are weighing a home on or near South Broad Street, that date matters more than the attendance record.
Who actually pays for the ballpark
Erlanger Park cost $115 million and sits on the former U.S. Pipe and Wheland Foundry land between Broad Street and Interstate 24. Its debt is repaid from three sources: new property tax revenue from the surrounding district, sales taxes collected at the stadium, and the Lookouts' lease payments.
The district behind that first source covers 470 acres, far more than the foundry parcel. It includes the South Broad area and tracts south of Chattanooga Creek, among them the route of the proposed Alton Park Connector. Inside that boundary, as the Times Free Press describes it, new property tax revenue above 2021 levels goes toward the stadium's debt.
The increment so far has been modest. According to a June 12, 2026 Times Free Press report, the city and county set aside $506,000 from 2024 property taxes and $788,000 from 2025, nearly $1.3 million combined. The joint city-county Sports Authority, which owns the stadium, issued $85 million of debt in three bond series to cover most of the construction. A district tax increment grows only when taxable buildings go up, and on the foundry land the large ones have not yet started.
A forecast running one year behind
A 2024 study by Younger Associates, a Jackson, Tennessee research firm, projected $873 million in private development around the stadium. It assumed 10% of that would be complete and taxable in 2026 and 35% in 2027. The developers had not yet received a building permit for the $100 million first phase when the Times Free Press reviewed the forecast in March. Andy Stone, a partner at Perimeter Properties, which owns the foundry site and donated the land for the ballpark, told the paper the study had assumed a 2025 stadium opening. "If you put one year forward on the Younger report, I think the report is actually accurate," he said.
Hamilton County was already watching that calendar. In a March 5 letter reported by NewsChannel 9, County Attorney Janie Parks Varnell said the development agreement sets time-sensitive milestones. She estimated the county could face a shortfall of about $880,000 a year starting the next fiscal year if the surrounding development did not arrive on schedule, and she asked for a detailed timeline within 15 days. In their response to the station, the developers said they had held a standing weekly meeting with city and county officials for nearly two years and were advancing design and permitting.
Lined up together, the milestones show how slowly a district fills in after its anchor opens:
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | Perimeter Properties buys the 4.5-acre Motor Wheel property, completing its control of the former foundry holdings |
| March 5, 2026 | Hamilton County letter cites missed development milestones |
| April 14, 2026 | Erlanger Park hosts its first home game |
| April 17, 2026 | Creature Comforts opens its beer garden in The Shed |
| June 2026 | Two years of district tax, about $1.3 million, reported as set aside |
| September 2026 | Season ends with 336,312 in attendance |
| November 13, 2026 | Scheduled groundbreaking for the first Foundries apartments |
| Fall 2028 | Targeted completion of those apartments |
What phase one became
Earlier this year, the first private phase was described as a 300-unit apartment building and an 80,000-square-foot office building, a combined investment of about $140 million. The October 29 announcement, published by Chattanoogan.com, describes a six-story residential building of about 287 units, sitting just north of the ballpark's left field concourse and next to the Tennessee Riverwalk. A 550-space parking structure nearby will serve residents, future commercial space and game-day parking. New City Properties, the master developer of what is now called the Foundries District, is building it with investment partners EBSCO Real Estate and Sweetwater Holdings.
"Despite macroeconomic headwinds, we and our investment partners, EBSCO Real Estate and Sweetwater Holdings, are proud to be taking this step," Jim Irwin, president of New City Properties, said in that announcement.
Construction is expected to begin after the November 13 ceremony. So for the next two years, the closest neighbor to the left field wall will be a six-story building site, and the first residents of the Foundries District are not expected until fall 2028.
What is standing on publish day
The parts of the district you can visit now are mostly the old foundry put back to use. Erlanger Park reuses former industrial structures. The EPB Powerhouse was the foundry's power station, and the Coca-Cola Pattern Shop was where molds were made. Creature Comforts opened a temporary beer garden on April 17 in The Shed, a repurposed foundry building, with plans to move later to a permanent spot along the Riverwalk, Local 3 News reported. In the spring, the Chattanooga Market announced a weekly Thursday pop-up at the beer garden starting May 7.
The Motor Wheel property has a future but no program yet. When Perimeter Properties bought the 4.5-acre site in November 2025, the company said it planned to rehabilitate the building for community use and would share exact plans later, Fox Chattanooga reported. Motor Wheel, the manufacturer on the site, is moving its operations and jobs to a facility about a mile away near Alton Park Boulevard, according to the Times Free Press.
Some of South Broad's housing is not new. 100 at South Broad, a community of 56 homes built by Collier Construction, was completed about six years before a May 2026 Chattanoogan.com look at the corridor. For a buyer, that is a useful reference point. Homes like these already have a few years of ownership history in the corridor, while the Foundries District's housing is still on a construction schedule.
Reading South Broad by its calendar
The financing gives this district a built-in tension, and a buyer can use it. Public debt depends on private construction, so the county, the city and the developers all have reasons to keep phase one moving, and the March letter shows the county is willing to say so in writing. That pressure helps explain why a groundbreaking date now exists. It also means the district's next few years will be defined by construction, not by finished blocks.
If you are comparing a home near South Broad with one elsewhere in Chattanooga, these questions are tied to that calendar:
- How close is the property to the Foundries site north of left field? Construction on the first building is expected to run from late 2026 to fall 2028.
- Is the property inside the 470-acre district? The boundary reaches south of Chattanooga Creek and includes the Alton Park Connector route, so properties well beyond the ballpark can fall within it.
- What does game day look like from the front door? The 2026 season brought 69 home dates, and the new parking structure is designed partly for game-day use.
- Is the nearby amenity permanent or temporary? The Creature Comforts beer garden in The Shed is intended to move to the Riverwalk at a later date.
Nothing in this post is legal, tax or financial advice. How a tax increment district affects a specific property's assessment is a question to confirm with the Hamilton County Assessor's office or your own tax professional.
A few questions that come up
Which property taxes go toward the stadium debt? The Times Free Press describes it as new property tax revenue from the district above 2021 levels. How that applies to a particular property is a question for the Hamilton County Assessor's office or a tax professional.
When will the first Foundries apartments be finished? Fall 2028 is the target, with construction expected to start after the November 13, 2026 groundbreaking.
What has already reached the Sports Authority from the district? About $1.3 million: $506,000 from 2024 property taxes and $788,000 from 2025, transferred around June 1 each year.
If you are weighing a home near Erlanger Park or elsewhere in Chattanooga, Tracy Kwapis can help you compare it with the rest of the city. Let's Connect.
