CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- “Quite frankly, I don’t appreciate these allegations.”
It’s been over two years since The Bend on the Chattanooga Westside broke ground.
However, the first buildings have yet to go up at the property owned by Urban Story Ventures, which has led to a series of back and forth negotiations with the city’s Industrial Development Board, which at times have turned tense.
This is because the project is a part of a tax increment financing district, which means the project is planned to be funded through portions of sales tax revenue generated on site, which will not occur until businesses start operating on site.
Wednesday’s meeting of the board featured more back and forth, as the main point of contention between Urban Story Ventures President Jimmy White and the board was the presence of a subsidiary in a letter sent to board members that Chattanooga city attorney Phil Noblett said he’d never seen before.
White said that this existed for quote, “tax purposes” and had existed for some time.
He explained to the board, “We’ve been working with the city’s counsel and this council’s counsel and our counsel to make sure the documents are correct. That’s what this meeting is about. That’s what we’ve done for the last two months. Am I missing something?”
Noblett replied, “That’s why I’m bringing up that we have a new name today that was not involved in any of the documents that were signed off on.”
This frustrated board members like Melody Shekari.
She said, “I don’t know who we’re in agreement with at this point like the names keep changing, the members keep changing the management keeps changing… There are documents about The Bend that have never been shown to this body, but that have been publicly released. There’s the news articles that just continue to come out after we have meetings and at what point am I gonna build trust? At least I don’t feel like there is a good trust relationship and that’s a problem.”
White in response said that the constant back and forth is very frustrating.
He said, “We have done everything you have asked. With this piece of property we are trying to develop a community benefit for affordable housing for Hamilton County and it’s this board job that supports development like this. Yet everytime we come here you question all of our partners who want to invest in this community. Why?”
Questions were raised about the involvement of the company who is building the amphitheater, The Venu Group, in these conversations.
Shekari asked, “The Venu Group has other projects and a lot of them included public incentives. Is that something that is being considered for the project here?”
White responded, “All I can say is they’ve engaged with the state, and they’re supposed to have meetings with the city and the county today.”
Bond attorney Mark Mamantov added that due to the tax increment financing agreement already in place, any further tax incentives would likely have to come through the state and not locally.
White previously said that the $300 million amphitheater is likely to break ground sometime next year.
