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Residents and visitors to Jasper Highlands will be able to get a brew with a view by this fall in a new microbrewery being built as part of the new commercial development at the entrance to the mountaintop residential development.

Construction is underway for the 5,000-square-foot-plus restaurant, microbrewery and general store, which is being built next to a 4,300-square-foot wellness center that Forte Fitness opened last week as part of the new Village at Jasper Highlands.

"It will be really be a state-of-the-art microbrewery and should be a great addition for our residents here and for others that come to Jasper Highlands," said John "Thunder" Thornton, the developer of the 8,893-acre development atop Jasper Mountain along the Cumberland Plateau near Kimball, Tennessee. "This will be the best restaurant within 25 miles."

Plans for the brewery and restaurant are still taking shape, but Thornton said the new restaurant will feature three meals a day, with seating for about 120 persons in a variety of settings overlooking the Tennessee River from the 2,000-foot-high bluff at the entrance to Jasper Highlands.

The new microbrewery will be one of nearly a dozen brewery restaurants now open or planned in the Chattanooga region, but most of the others are clustered in downtown Chattanooga and none of the others offer the views and natural attractions offered atop Jasper Mountain, restaurant developer Allen Corey said.

"The restaurant at The Village will offer an experience unlike anything in the area and will significantly enhance dining options in Jasper and the surrounding community," said Corey, the CEO of SquareOne Holdings, earlier this year when he signed the agreement to develop the new restaurant on Jasper Mountain. "We're taking advantage of the spectacular view and we will design the store and restaurant to be part of the Village and to be a place with different options for breakfast, lunch and dinner along with special events."

The new commercial development being added at the mountaintop community is just outside the gated entrance and is designed to serve both the residents of Jasper Highlands when they don't want to drive off the mountain and visitors who want a unique dining or workout experience.

The wellness center at the Village is the third for Forte Fitness, which owner Julian Kaufman started 15 years ago. Forte operates fitness centers at Two North Shore and in the downtown Volunteer Building and on Jasper Mountain he will offer a variety of membership and personal training options for both local residents and the entire surrounding community.

"We work to help people build a functional body, develop cardiovascular fitness and eat well to promote their health and fitness," Kaufman said. "So much of the fitness industry is about vanity and sex appeal, but we're all about health. We want people to live their best life inside their own body and be able to continue to do those things that give them the most life."

Thornton, who said he has personally been a client of Forte Fitness for the past six years, said wellness and fitness centers are now the top preference for those looking at moving into a master-planned community. A generation ago, many home buyers wanted to be on or near a golf course. But Thornton, who has developed planned communities in Utah, Wyoming, Hawaii and Tennessee over more than two decades, said fitness centers, hiking trails and other recreational amenities are now more in demand.

Jasper Highlands also features more than 21 mile of hiking trails, a recreational center with a swimming pool and ballfields, playgrounds, dog parks, waterfalls, the Pat Summitt pavilion, and high-speed internet connections and other utilities.

The development doesn't have its own golf course but it overlooks the award-winning 9-hole Sweetens Cove course in South Pittsburg.

"It's great having golf course-view lots without me having to pay for the golf course," Thornton quipped, noting that the home owners association dues are only $720 a year at Jasper Highlands.

The opening of the wellness center at Jasper Highlands last week was welcomed by Katrina Tedford, who moved to Jasper Highlands last month from suburban Washington D.C.

"I feel like I really have to work out and this is an awesome facility, especially with this view," she said.

The wellness center opening comes at the same time that the developers of the community, Thunder Enterprises, obtained approval for another 190 lots in the Jasper Farms portion of the mountaintop development.

Dane Bradshaw, president of Thunder Enterprises, said the newest lots will bring the total number of properties sold or plated for sale to 970. So far, about 700 lots have been sold. The community has 94 completed homes with about 200 residents, and 46 homes are now under construction.

Ultimately, Jasper Highlands will include about 1,500 lots, which typically range from one to five acres and sell anywhere from $59,000 for interior lots up to $1 million for some of the prime bluff-view lots near waterfalls.

"Our residents love being near to Chattanooga, but it's a community up here and folks really enjoy the fact that they can now stay on top of the mountain and go to the fitness center, share a great meal and pick up some basic supplies at our general store," Bradshaw said.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.