From the Chattanooga Times Free Press: City and county officials now expect the cost of constructing a new multi-use stadium for the Chattanooga L
From the Chattanooga Times Free Press: City and county officials now expect the cost of constructing a new multi-use stadium for the Chattanooga Lookouts will be approximately $120 million, an $40 million increase over the $80 million estimate from the summer of 2022.
Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in an interview that the “stadium project is now a fundamentally different deal.” Wamp has been a consistent and vocal skeptic of the project and was sworn into office about a month after the city and county formally approved it.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly’s chief of staff, Jermaine Freeman, said the stadium does not yet have a guaranteed maximum price, but $120 million is the best estimate developed by the city’s Department of Public Works and project managers.
Lookouts owner Hardball Capital and the land owner, Perimeter Properties, have offered to cover the $40 million difference with a loan that would be paid back using new property tax revenue generated in the special tax district around the South Broad stadium site.
That change would require another vote from the Chattanooga City Council and the Hamilton County Commission, which has seen significant turnover since the original vote.
WCLE will keep you up to date on this story.
