Chattanooga, Tennessee: Multifamily Prototypes for Infill Development to Address Missing Middle Housing

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Chattanooga, Tennessee: Multifamily Prototypes for Infill Development to Address Missing Middle Housing

 

From 2014 to 2015, Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE) began acquiring properties in the Ridgedale and Highland Park neighborhoods in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as part of their nearly 40-year effort to revitalize historically disinvested urban areas in the city. In partnership with the Lyndhurst Foundation and Benwood Foundation, which helped finance the acquisition of the scattered infill parcels, CNE set out to create missing middle housing. At the time, large single-family homes and apartment complexes dominated the housing market, leaving a gap in small-scale multifamily options suitable for moderate-income households.

After a collaborative process brought designers and policy advocates together to overcome zoning and regulatory challenges, CNE developed 222 units across 59 buildings between 2016 and May 2025, with an additional 27 units expected to be completed by the end of June 2025. The development consists of a range of missing middle housing typologies that include duplexes, quadplexes, sixplexes, small-scale apartments, and single-family cottages. In 2024, the project received the Urban Land Institute’s Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award, recognizing it as a context-sensitive housing solution that provides long-term affordability in walkable, amenity-rich neighborhoods.

Missing Middle Housing Typologies

The project began when CNE acquired 32 lots from Tennessee Temple University. Although the university cleared the lots to construct campus dormitories, tennis courts, and parking, many of them sat vacant for years. The narrow, fragmented, and irregularly shaped lots, which were originally platted during the early and mid-20th century, were ideal for small-scale multifamily housing as infill development.

These lots represented a development opportunity but also posed a challenge for designers, who needed to ensure that the housing would conform to local regulations and neighborhood character. In response, the Lyndhurst Foundation helped assemble a design team led by the Incremental Development Alliance (IncDev). In 2016, IncDev facilitated a design charette that yielded a set of pre-vetted, small-scale development plans that became the foundation for CNE’s iterative design strategy. From these plans, CNE developed a tactical toolkit of prototypes ranging from duplexes to 12-unit buildings that could be replicated across the scattered lots in Highland Park and Ridgedale.

The toolkit provided a design framework for building affordable housing within zoning and other regulatory constraints. Justin Tirsun, director of real estate development at Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, explained that the city’s zoning code was written in the 1950s and designed for suburban neighborhoods rather than the older neighborhoods CNE was revitalizing. As a result, CNE had to apply for nonresidential zoning classifications that triggered intensive permitting requirements, including commercial fire codes and stormwater standards typically applied to larger multifamily developers. Despite these hurdles, CNE worked with designers and city officials to adapt prototypes to meet code without compromising neighborhood compatibility or affordability. Tirsun explained that navigating the regulatory landscape is what made the project replicable.

Construction and Financing

CNE constructed the missing middle housing in two major phases. The first phase, from 2017 to 2019, introduced 6 sixplexes and the 49-unit Mai Bell building. The second phase, from 2020 to 2025, added five more sixplexes and brought in new prototypes, including the first duplexes and quadplexes.

The phased construction model aligned with the project’s flexible financing strategy, which leveraged local funding sources and philanthropic capital. The city of Chattanooga contributed nearly $1 million in HUD HOME Investment Partnerships funds that ensured that 20 percent of the rental units continue to serve households earning 50 to 60 percent of the area median income (table 1). The Lyndhurst and Benwood Foundations supported early land purchases and design development. The source for construction financing included conventional loans primarily backed by the Tennessee Community Investment Tax Credit. Macon Toledano, associate director of the Lyndhurst Foundation, explained that the financial model was not daunting because they could raise $1.5 million for a phase rather than $30 million for one massive building or the entire project.

An Iterative Design Process for Greater Impact

Building in phases also allowed the team to incorporate resident feedback and refine design features in successive buildings, including adding windows, raising ceilings, and refining the balance between density and livability. Tirsun explained how this iterative design process led to more flexible development of the sixplexes. He explained that CNE began with a sixplex design that maximized lot space and fit neighborhood aesthetics, but after navigating rezoning and variances, the team realized that the design had room for improvement. In the second iteration of the design, CNE sited four sixplexes in a serpentine arrangement instead of a row. However, the community and tenants preferred the original design, so the design team returned to the initial concept for the third iteration. Tirsun stated that the third design has become the “prototype that tenants like, that the community likes, and that fits into what we're building. We know all the critical points of where we have to make changes to fit a lot and what we have to get done, whether it's rezoning, going to the variances or meeting whatever requirements we have to. So that took three iterations to get to that point."

The development team focused on quality of life for residents and honoring the existing neighborhood context rather than maximizing the number of units. Highlighting the design, Toledano expressed that because the team members prioritized architectural quality that integrated well into the existing neighborhood fabric, they were able to avoid community resistance to affordable housing. This approach is part of a holistic pathway to creating long-term value, opportunities for generational wealth building, and a deeper investment in community identity. CNE plans to complete the remaining Ridgedale properties by the end of 2025 and continue exploring new ways to increase missing middle development in Chattanooga.