What's Actually New In East Ridge This Summer

Ask someone in Chattanooga what East Ridge is and you'll get an answer about Exit 1, the Bass Pro, and the shortcut to Ringgold. Ask someone who lives here and the answer has shifted. The city's Border Region designation, now fifteen years old, has generated close to $800 million in sales tax growth since 2011, and the receipts are finally showing up in things residents actually do on a Saturday: a resurfaced creek launch, a three-day taco festival, a Ringgold Road strip that reads more like a dining corridor than a drive-through row.

This is a snapshot of what's opened, what's coming, and what's worth putting on the calendar between now and October.

Camp Jordan Just Got Its Waterfront Back

The most under-discussed change this summer sits at the back of Camp Jordan Park. On July 7, the City of East Ridge, Tennessee American Water, and WaterWays cut the ribbon on the newly renovated Camp Jordan canoe launches, funded by the American Water Charitable Foundation and spearheaded by Parks and Recreation director Shawnna Skiles. The reconfigured launches open up South and West Chickamauga Creeks to paddlers who, until recently, had been putting in over rutted banks.

If you have not been down there in a year or two, the practical picture:

The turf project matters if you have a kid in East Ridge Parks & Rec baseball or soccer. Games are consolidated at Camp Jordan alongside partner parks like Lookout Valley, Rock Spring, Hixson, and East Brainerd, and turf means fewer weather cancellations across a schedule that already runs Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights.

The Arena Calendar Between Now And Halloween

Camp Jordan Arena is 34,000 square feet of exhibition space built in 1993, and the fall booking sheet is denser than most residents realize.

• Chattanooga Taco Festival, September 25–27. Newly expanded to three days at Camp Jordan Arena, indoors and outdoors. More than 35 food vendors and food trucks, Ensamble De Mexico dancers, stilt walkers, and Lucha Libre wrestling included with admission. Free petting zoo, free pirate ship, free parking. Admission is $10, kids five and under free.
• Candy Corn Cauldron Fall Market, October 17–18. Indoors at the arena with more than 140 vendors, inflatables, a free petting zoo, and photos with the Sanderson Sisters.
• Apple Festival, October 17–18. Outdoor craft and commercial vendors, pony rides, a trackless train, stage entertainment, and inflatables.

The Chattanooga Pulse listing also shows a recurring 9 to 10 a.m. slot every Saturday at Camp Jordan running from early July through late November, which is worth checking against the park calendar if you are looking for a weekly outdoor routine that isn't the same loop of the walking track.

Ringgold Road Is Doing Something Different Now

The Whataburger that opened January 26 next to Champy's, on the former Wally's Restaurant site, made the news because it was the first location in the Tennessee Valley. Wally's had been an East Ridge fixture since 1989, so the changeover was not small. But the more interesting shift on Ringgold Road is the density of independently owned places that have quietly held on and grown.

"If it wasn't for the Border Region, we couldn't afford to buy such an expensive corner," developer Ross Timoshchuk told the East Ridge Industrial Development Board this spring, about the Scooter's Coffee project approved for the corner of North Mack Smith and Ringgold.

That quote, from Times Free Press coverage in April 2026, explains the mechanism behind almost every storefront turnover on the road. The Border Region program lets qualifying businesses recoup a portion of state sales tax over 20 years, which is why the corner economics work here in a way they do not two miles north.

A working shortlist of who is actually feeding the neighborhood right now:

• Portofino's Greek and Italian, 6511 Ringgold Rd. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Regulars come every other Wednesday for the music.
• Home Plate Bar & Grill, 5611 Ringgold Rd. Karaoke, darts, pool, cornhole, giant Jenga, and a room count that ballooned during a recent remodel. Family-oriented, kid- and pet-friendly, no smoking.
• Haiku Hibachi, 5318 Ringgold Rd. Sit-down hibachi and teriyaki, open 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
• Whataburger, drive-thru only for now, 24 hours, next door to Champy's.
• Bojangles, 4152 Ringgold Rd, and Jack's, 4209 Ringgold Rd, for the biscuit-and-breakfast crowd.

If you have out-of-town family staying at one of the hotels off Exit 1, this is the loop. You do not need to cross Missionary Ridge for dinner.

Exit 1 Keeps Filling In

The eastern edge of the city, the section City Manager Scott Miller calls the Exit One development, is where the Border Region math is most visible. Developers there recently acquired an additional four and a half acres from the state and are working to bring in two more large tenants. Mountain Power Sports occupies at least 20,000 square feet. An old bank building on the same corridor was converted into a Smoothie King and a Jersey Mike's.

The Scooter's Coffee at 1491 N. Mack Smith Road, approved in April, is projected to open by June with an adjacent 2,400-square-foot retail unit under negotiation with national tenants including a food retailer not currently in the market. Over 20 years, that single site is projected to generate $4.3 million in sales tax revenue, with East Ridge receiving about $650,000 back.

You do not need to memorize any of that. The reason it matters for daily life is simpler: every new anchor at Exit 1 is one less trip north to Hamilton Place for a coffee, a sandwich, or a birthday gift. The city is quietly building the errand loop it used to leak across the state line.

A Practical Weekend Blueprint

If you have friends visiting in September and you want to prove East Ridge is more than a hotel cluster, here is a template that uses only the places above:

Saturday morning: Coffee at the new Scooter's on Mack Smith, then the two-mile paved loop at Camp Jordan or a paddle from the renovated canoe launch on West Chickamauga Creek.

Saturday afternoon: Lunch at Portofino's or Home Plate depending on whether the group wants pasta or a pool table.

Saturday night: If it's the last weekend of September, walk into the Taco Festival at Camp Jordan Arena for $10 and stay for Lucha Libre. If it isn't, check the arena calendar. Something is almost always booked in that 34,000-square-foot box.

Sunday morning: Bojangles biscuits, then the 19-hole disc golf course at Camp Jordan.

That loop covers roughly three miles end to end. Ten years ago, most of it did not exist in a form worth showing off.

Why This Matters If You've Lived Here A While

The knock on East Ridge for a long time was that the city was a pass-through: I-75 to Ringgold, Bachman Tubes to downtown, and not much reason to linger. The Border Region program was designed to fix a very specific version of that problem, sales tax leakage across the Georgia line, but the second-order effect is the interesting one. A city that spent decades exporting its Saturdays is now hosting them.

The canoe launch is a good tell. American Water and WaterWays did not fund a launch for tourists. They funded it for people who live within a few miles of the creek and never had a decent way to get in the water. When the city's biggest civic partners are investing in resident-scale amenities rather than another chain restaurant pad, the trajectory has changed.

If you own a home here, you already know the streets. What is worth noticing is that the amenities finally match the address.

Thinking about what your East Ridge home is worth in a market this active? Putnam Property Group is a family-run team based in Chattanooga with deep roots on both sides of the state line. Get Your Free Home Valuation and we'll walk you through what buyers are actually paying for on your block right now.