Historic Urban Community Living
The Milltown Way
An affordable housing nonprofit, a local private foundation, and a for-profit developer—in partnership, to create a diverse, equitable, sustainable community in Chattanooga’s urban core. Once an icon of Chattanooga’s manufacturing might, the Standard Coosa Mill and the Watkins Street community—just three miles from Chattanooga’s celebrated city center—had become a case study in urban blight. With an absence of public and private investment, limited access to community-supporting infrastructure and quality education, the neighborhood was light years behind the “Gig City” technology-focused entrepreneurship just down the street. The neglect casts a long shadow over the 37404 zip code, and the economic impact is evident.
The future of Mill Town is much brighter.
A public/private partnership between CNE, The Benwood Foundation, and Collier—locally owned and operated the Chattanooga Way.
At Collier Construction, we like to think of our work as building a better way of life for homeowners—creating long-lasting and healthy homes and communities. Thoughtful living means clearing the path for change in the construction industry—seeking opportunities to lead (rather than follow) efforts to build thoughtful, sustainable, affordable, diverse, and vibrant communities.
Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE) is a non-profit housing organization dedicated to Building a Better Chattanooga. CNE invests in Chattanooga by making residential loans, providing financial counseling, building homes, and revitalizing neighborhoods in historically
underserved parts of town in order to create economically diverse neighborhoods filled with financially empowered neighbors and housing for all.
The Benwood Foundation is a place-based foundation focused on supporting shared prosperity in Chattanooga through strategic grant-making, collaborative problem-
solving, and adaptive leadership. Benwood partners with a number of entities – including nonprofits, other foundations, local government, community leaders, and businesses to accomplish this work. Benwood leverages collective knowledge, creativity and resources for a greater impact than any of us can make alone.
Thrive at Milltown
Find out why living, playing, and working at Mill Town is a uniquely prosperous experience.
Sustainability meets Profitability
Typically, residential redevelopment of this nature would be viewed as impossible given environmental issues endemic to brownfield development, the inherent complexity of urban infill, and the lack of profitability for private development in distressed low-income neighborhoods. Finally, even if these obstacles are overcome, any ROI on urban infill development comes at the expense of a neighborhood’s long-term residents as gentrification prices the market out of reach for the surrounding demographic.
“It is not certain that we can make the leap to universal empathy, but what is clear is this: as a social project, the city challenges us not just to live together but to thrive together, by understanding that our fate is a shared one.”
Thoughtfully designed to provide opportunities for a variety of income levels.
In the spirit of care embodied by Chattanooga’s visionary leadership, Collier has developed a paradigm-shifting development concept that will effectively address environmental issues, providing an urban infill model already tested in multiple Collier communities. Perhaps most significantly, this development concept has been thoughtfully designed to provide opportunities for a variety of income levels to live in a dynamic community.
The subsequent tax increase generated by the 300 market-rate units and redevelopment of the decaying Standard Coosa Thatcher Mill building will generate over $600,000 annually to the city’s property tax revenue.
Thoughtfully designed to provide opportunities for a variety of income levels to live in a dynamic community.
Contact us
info@collierbuild.com
(423) 265-0110
(423) 265-0115 fax