Knoxville Construction and Updates

[Dale]

This is my go-to source on Knoxville ...

http://insideofknoxville.com/

 

 

Turns out that there is quite a lot going on.

[xtianpoop]

On 11/14/2017 at 6:27 AM, Nathan_in_DC said:

Damn, that's rather unfortunate. Hard to believe Knoxville is seeing hardly any major projects while just a couple of hours away Nashville is booming.

What's the deal? Stagnant economy? Just a low level of population growth? Seemed like there was lots of change happening when I was living there from 2002-2007.

There is definite construction and growth, but not many active UPers. I think the lack of enthusiasm compared to places in Nash & Chatt is that because Knox - from my experience living there for 4 years recently - is mostly suburban/metro with downtown seen more as student & novelty (though this is changing). Nash is growing from reinvestment, but also from a strong economy coupled with great infrastructure on all levels (minus transportation, of course). Chatt is growing a lot because of the economy (downtown in particular) & the years of reinvestment efforts, but the demand for housing has been strong in part to a debit of housing stock.  Knox has a wonderful stock already, especially rental.  They are economically growing, but as far as downtown - with exception to Regal - the university is their only center. I've said for years: remove UT from Knox, and the city would be unrecognizable. The same couldn't be said for Vanderbilt, U of Memphis, UTC. 

Being said, here are some recent developments.

Beautiful addition to Fort Sanders Children's Hospital: the Scripps Network Tower

Knoxville had large & successful growth with breweries, and they are quite tasty. 

http://knoxvillealetrail.com/

In the same vain, Knoxville is growing in the food scene as well. 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/knoxville-better-than-nashville_us_56e19658e4b0b25c9180edd2

New housing project downtown: Regas Square

http://www.knoxnews.com/story/money/business/2017/02/06/regas-square-developers-break-ground-40m-downtown-project/97550526/

With Cumberland Ave work wrapped up, I imagine we will see more development along it ("The Strip") and surrounding downtown areas.

http://wate.com/2017/08/17/28-month-construction-project-wraps-up-on-cumberland-avenue/

These are just a few examples of growth. I have a feeling that with the renewed energy and sense of place Knoxville is experiencing, we will begin to see much more growth like seen in Nashville & Chattanooga. Offices relocating downtown, more firms coming online, etc. TVA is vacating their towers downtown, which leaves plenty of spaces for recruitment, relocation, or many new types of office use, such as a co-working space.

Edited November 21, 2017 by xtianpoop
Inclusion of res proj + TVA office article

[Nathan_in_DC]

7 hours ago, xtianpoop said:

There is definite construction and growth, but not many active UPers. I think the lack of enthusiasm compared to places in Nash & Chatt is that because Knox - from my experience living there for 4 years recently - is mostly suburban/metro with downtown seen more as student & novelty (though this is changing). Nash is growing from reinvestment, but also from a strong economy coupled with great infrastructure on all levels (minus transportation, of course). Chatt is growing a lot because of the economy (downtown in particular) & the years of reinvestment efforts, but the demand for housing has been strong in part to a debit of housing stock.  Knox has a wonderful stock already, especially rental.  They are economically growing, but as far as downtown - with exception to Regal - the university is their only center. I've said for years: remove UT from Knox, and the city would be unrecognizable. The same couldn't be said for Vanderbilt, U of Memphis, UTC. 

Being said, here are some recent developments.

Beautiful addition to Fort Sanders Children's Hospital: the Scripps Network Tower

 

Knoxville had large & successful growth with breweries, and they are quite tasty. 

http://knoxvillealetrail.com/

In the same vain, Knoxville is growing in the food scene as well. 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/knoxville-better-than-nashville_us_56e19658e4b0b25c9180edd2

New housing project downtown: Regas Square

http://www.knoxnews.com/story/money/business/2017/02/06/regas-square-developers-break-ground-40m-downtown-project/97550526/

 

With Cumberland Ave work wrapped up, I imagine we will see more development along it ("The Strip") and surrounding downtown areas.

http://wate.com/2017/08/17/28-month-construction-project-wraps-up-on-cumberland-avenue/

These are just a few examples of growth. I have a feeling that with the renewed energy and sense of place Knoxville is experiencing, we will begin to see much more growth like seen in Nashville & Chattanooga. Offices relocating downtown, more firms coming online, etc. TVA is vacating their towers downtown, which leaves plenty of spaces for recruitment, relocation, or many new types of office use, such as a co-working space.

Thank you for that rundown! I wasn't tracking on the hospital addition, that will make a big impact to the look of the Strip for sure. 

Also, looking at the article regarding the potential move by TVA, it sounds like they're reversing on the decision to move and are instead consolidating operations downtown. That's a win in my book, more employees downtown, without a sudden huge dump of available office space that would kill the market for a while unless they had a high profile relocation downtown.

[Dale]

I know that Chattanooga is the "It" city. But I like Knoxville better.

[xtianpoop]

On 11/22/2017 at 6:04 PM, Dale said:

I know that Chattanooga is the "It" city. But I like Knoxville better.

I think the coliseum/auditorium project will go a long way for the city,  especially if the grid is returned. Add to it the new downtown hotels in works, the old Baptist hospital site, and Cumberland's completion, and Knoxville is getting its shine back.

[Tennessine]

Knoxville is booming at the ground level. I have been at UT since 2015 and I am impressed by the amount of construction on the Strip and downtown. The most impressive part of the city might even be North Broadway. Once left for dead, it is now a vibrant place for shopping and socializing for people of all ages. I'll snag some pics for this thread when I get back to Knox in January.

[BnaBreaker]

7 hours ago, nativetenn said:

Knoxville is booming at the ground level. I have been at UT since 2015 and I am impressed by the amount of construction on the Strip and downtown. The most impressive part of the city might even be North Broadway. Once left for dead, it is now a vibrant place for shopping and socializing for people of all ages. I'll snag some pics for this thread when I get back to Knox in January.

I look forward to it!  I've always thought that  that neighborhood had the potential to be one of the best urban neighborhoods in Tennessee, if not all of the Southeast, if it were just embraced to the point to where it filled in a bit more.  Such great bones and potential!

[MLBrumby]

TopGolf to Knoxville... http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/business/2017/12/20/topgolf-seeking-knoxville-location-hopes-open-2020/969655001/

[Dale]

Having spent a lot of time in Knoxville growing up, I have a warm attachment to the city. For a mall town Florida boy, it had the feeling of a gritty, rust belt city. Nowadays, good bones, lots of character.

[Nathan_in_DC]

On 12/19/2017 at 4:44 PM, nativetenn said:

Knoxville is booming at the ground level. I have been at UT since 2015 and I am impressed by the amount of construction on the Strip and downtown. The most impressive part of the city might even be North Broadway. Once left for dead, it is now a vibrant place for shopping and socializing for people of all ages. I'll snag some pics for this thread when I get back to Knox in January.

Would love to see some pics of campus too! So much has changed since I finished 12 years ago.

[Tennessine]

I got y'all. I'll be back next week. They will be crappy phone quality pics though

[Guest]

A couple of weeks ago I spent a fantastic weekend in downtown Knoxville. I stayed at the Hilton on Church (updated since I worked there during college) with my Labrador and son.  Friday I had dinner at a friend's house but made it back to walk downtown. In the 90s, I owned a business located on Gay Street (Holston Bank building before conversion to condos) Market Street (Crystal building, now occupied by restaurant) and West Jackson Avenue in the Old City. Downtown was starting to recover during our time, but it has really blossomed into quite a gem. Gay street was humming with people in town for the Big Ears Festival. Walking through downtown at 11PM and Midnight felt safe an lively. Saturday night I met friends at Oliver Royale (at the Oliver Hotel...developer is working on The Bobby in Nashville) for food and drinks . It was a welcoming vibe (somewhere between Nashville and Asheville - apropos). Dinner and drinks until 11 and then we retired to the Peter Kern Library (think Patterson House in Knoxville, but more accessible) also in the hotel.
Anyway, it was a memorable and gratifying weekend to see the old lady stretching her legs again.

Edited April 5, 2018 by Guest

[Tennessine]

South Waterfront: looking west toward downtown on Island Home Avenue. The apartments on the left, named River's Edge Apartments, were completed in 2016. The path along the river is new and an extension of Island Home Park.

[Dale]

Lo and behold ...

http://insideofknoxville.com/2018/04/nineteen-story-apartment-building-planned-for-north-waterfront/

 

 

[Tennessine]

So glad developers are recognizing the quaint charm that is Knoxville. This type of development is great for the new generation, and it's fitting for the way Knoxville is growing. Heck, Memphis would be elated to get something like this.

Edited April 24, 2018 by nativetenn

[BnaBreaker]

It was only a matter of time before Knoxville started to see new highrise residential construction again.  It seems as though developers in the city have been focusing for the past couple decades on converting all of those old warehouses to fulfill Knoxville's urban residential needs, but now that those are just about filled up, it seems the only option left is to build new!

[Dale]

SKYSCRAPER ALERT!

The Proposed “T at Riverfront” Grows from Nineteen Stories to Twenty-Six

https://insideofknoxville.com/2018/07/the-proposed-t-at-riverfront-grows-from-nineteen-stories-to-twenty-six/

[dragonfly]

So I'm not in TN any more but I lived in Nashville 3 times between the ages of 5 and 25. The only family over that way is a brother who moved to Chatt from GA with his wife 5 years ago. So here is the Nashville metro population schedule back when it as about the size of Knoxville: 1970: 550,000 1980: 850,000 1990: 1,050,000

So Nashville grew pretty quickly all the way back to the '60's, but visiting and looking from afar I can tell you the pace of development picked up in the mid '80's as the coveted 1M point was approached, it was really noticeable when I visited there in '87 what had already been completed along West End, including the first real high rise outside of downtown at 19 stories.

And then after 1990 the McMansions started proliferation all over the SW part of town.  I had a friend in Austin who visited there ca. 1990 and he came back blown away by those huge new houses built in the hilly neighborhoods. Soon after there was a moderate housing bust, but when I visited in '94 there was an unemployment rate of 3% in Nashville and restaurants were having a hard time finding workers as they are now.

So bottom line is Knoxville I think is on the cusp of major growth. Isn't the metro pop. about 850,000 now? Within 5 years Knox will be like Nashville with its mid '80's boom. It is already the largest Appalachian metro and close to other nice geographically similar cities, Asheville with its retirement boom and the influx of wealth that brings, and Chattanooga with its tourist and industry boom. And of course the tourist boom of East TN mountains and Knoxville, Maryville and Gatlinburg right there plus a huge university. The combination of attributes is unbeatable. That whole region will benefit more and more from tourists from the 3 boom towns of Nashville, Charlotte and Atlanta a half  days drive away.  There is no way Knoxville will not boom big time. I'll be watching from Houston.

Edited July 21, 2018 by dragonfly

[jmtunafish]

On 7/20/2018 at 8:24 PM, dragonfly said:

So I'm not in TN any more but I lived in Nashville 3 times between the ages of 5 and 25. The only family over that way is a brother who moved to Chatt from GA with his wife 5 years ago. So here is the Nashville metro population schedule back when it as about the size of Knoxville: 1970: 550,000 1980: 850,000 1990: 1,050,000

So Nashville grew pretty quickly all the way back to the '60's, but visiting and looking from afar I can tell you the pace of development picked up in the mid '80's as the coveted 1M point was approached, it was really noticeable when I visited there in '87 what had already been completed along West End, including the first real high rise outside of downtown at 19 stories.

And then after 1990 the McMansions started proliferation all over the SW part of town.  I had a friend in Austin who visited there ca. 1990 and he came back blown away by those huge new houses built in the hilly neighborhoods. Soon after there was a moderate housing bust, but when I visited in '94 there was an unemployment rate of 3% in Nashville and restaurants were having a hard time finding workers as they are now.

So bottom line is Knoxville I think is on the cusp of major growth. Isn't the metro pop. about 850,000 now? Within 5 years Knox will be like Nashville with its mid '80's boom. It is already the largest Appalachian metro and close to other nice geographically similar cities, Asheville with its retirement boom and the influx of wealth that brings, and Chattanooga with its tourist and industry boom. And of course the tourist boom of East TN mountains and Knoxville, Maryville and Gatlinburg right there plus a huge university. The combination of attributes is unbeatable. That whole region will benefit more and more from tourists from the 3 boom towns of Nashville, Charlotte and Atlanta a half  days drive away.  There is no way Knoxville will not boom big time. I'll be watching from Houston.

I hope you're right, because I have a house in North Knoxville I bought in 2007 but can't sell because it's still not worth now what I paid for it then.

Knoxville today is nothing 1980 Nashville.  Nashville in 1980 had a larger corporate base, a much more extensive freeway network, a much larger inventory of land ready for industrial development (flat vs. hilly), more colleges and universities including one of the nation's top-tier research institutions and medical schools, a larger airport with better connections, and a more efficient local government.  There's nowhere in the Knoxville area that could accommodate a Nissan or Saturn assembly plant, two things that propelled Nashville's population growth into the next level.

Having Oak Ridge in the Knoxville MSA is also a two-edged sword.  On one hand it has blessed Knoxville with thousands of high-paying jobs.  But it also covers thousands of acres of land that can't be touched for development.  Oak Ridge's fortress presence is one reason I-75 had to be routed onto I-40 to go through the area.  Had I-75 been able to shoot straight up through Oak Ridge to connect with 275 around Norris, that would've opened up so much more land to development.  In addition, until, what, 15 or so years ago it was impossible to drive from Knoxville to Oak Ridge without getting on a two-lane road at some point.  All of that partially explains why Oak Ridge's population has remained pretty much stagnant since 1960.  In 1960, Oak Ridge had a population of 27,169.  Murfreesboro had a population of 18,991.  Today Oak Ridge has a population of 29,350, and Murfreesboro, which is not encumbered by a lack of highways or developable land, has a population of 136,372.  

[MLBrumby]

Knoxville gets no love. Was just up there yesterday, and (not for the first time) noticed how very attractive of a place it is. 

Currently, there are six new large apartment blocks u/c downtown. As many others are being planned.

Here's the most recently announced one at the edge of Old City (Willow & James White).

- Stockyard Lofts; 152 apartments

- Humphries & Partners (Dallas) Architects

- Unique trapezoidal shaped lot

- Developed by Daniel Smith (Legacy Capital) and Lee Burch (Terminus Realty), also developers of The Crozier on an adjacent property.

Courtesy of Inside Of Knoxville... https://insideofknoxville.com/2017/07/stockyard-lofts-major-new-construction-announced-for-the-old-city/

 

[MLBrumby]

Another recent proposal for the Supreme Court block at Locust & Cumberland from Bristol Development...  

 

https://goo.gl/maps/ennRGaugtCv

[MLBrumby]

And another big one u/c in Old City. Regas Square by Conversion Properties at Gay & Depot. 

More from Inside of Knoxville... https://insideofknoxville.com/2015/10/amazing-new-condo-and-retail-project-announced-regas-square/

Addendum, I see where news on the one above was posted months ago. It is well underway at this time... up to the 4th floor. 

[Tennessine]

Thank you for the updates, @MLBrumby!

[Tennessine]

Riverfront developments are looking good. (Click for best resolution)

Edited August 29, 2018 by nativetenn

[Nathan_in_DC]

Thanks for the updates!