Thornton said he hopes to have a new and wider road up to the top of Aetna mountain completed and utilities available in about a year, although the existing roadway up the mountain can be used to begin to develop some sites. 1 amenity people say they want are places for walking and hiking, so we'll be developing sidewalks along most of the lots." Bradshaw said. Unlike Jasper Highlands, River Gorge Ranch will include sidewalks and bike paths through most of the developed areas. The Top of the Rock restaurant built at the entrance of Jasper Highlands "has been a huge success," Thornton said, and he hopes to have similar amenities atop Aetna Mountain. Outside the mountaintop gate, developers hope to begin construction by this summer of a restaurant for their new development, which will be open to both residents and visitors. "Like at Jasper Highlands, we want to offer seclusion without isolation," Bradshaw said in a phone interview. Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / This view of Nickajack, along a TVA transmission line, is an example of the views that will be crated when Aetna Mountain is developed by Thornton Enterprises. Just off of the Interstate 24 Haletown exit, Exit 161, River Gorge Ranch will be about a 20-minute drive to Chattanooga and will offer a similar appeal to what has drawn retirees and other homebuyers from 48 states and eight different countries to Jasper Highlands, according to Dane Bradshaw, president of Thunder Enterprises. Ultimately, Thornton said he expects the development will grow to include 2,500 lots, or nearly double the 1,300 or so lots planned at Jasper Highlands. The Marion County Planning Commission recently approved rezoning for 390 residential lots in the first phase of the new River Gorge Ranch. We also have more land on top of the mountain for home sites and for green spaces than we did on Jasper Mountain." "There are a lot of springs and creeks and the views are just incredible. "It's really been fun since we bought this property to be walking the land and finding lakes and ponds that we never knew were there that just the hunting club knew about," Thornton said. But Thornton said Aetna Mountain will offer the open spaces of a ranch with views of the Tennessee River gorge and other mountains all around it. The East Tennessee site of Thornton's latest development is nearly 2,000 miles from the Crescent H ranch at the Grand Teton mountains in Wyoming that Thornton developed 25 years ago. The location and expanse of the development helped produce its new name - River Gorge Ranch. We couldn't be more excited to be kicking this project off." "It's a beautiful piece of property with 23 miles on the brow, with three-fourths of the brow lots looking down on the Tennessee River Gorge. "Jasper Highlands has been a tremendous project, but this could easily be double that investment," Thornton said in a recent interview about his latest project. John Thornton, the owner of Thunder Enterprises, said he expects Aetna Mountain to double the amount of the investment in Jasper Highlands, a similar mountaintop gated community that Thornton developed over the past decade just 9 miles further west along Interstate 24. Thunder Enterprises, which acquired nearly 7,400 acres of Aetna Mountain near the former Hales Bar Dam through a series of property purchases last year, is building a 1.6-mile road to the top of Aetna Mountain to open up the ridgetop property for what developers expect will ultimately bring more than $1.5 billion of homes and mountaintop amenities to eastern Marion County. Just west of Chattanooga atop Aetna Mountain, site work is beginning on what could grow into the biggest mountaintop residential development ever built in Tennessee.
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