Knoxville Construction and Updates

[UrbanWes03]

The AC Hotel By Marriott has an updated rendering and information. It will be 8 stories including the rooftop, 104' tall, and will have one retail space along Walnut Street. 

Various other floor plans and information can be found in the Board of Zoning Appeals File: https://archive.knoxplanning.org/zoning/design/agendas/2023/august/8-C-23-DT.pdf

[UrbanWes03]

The 9 story Union Knoxville Apartments at 2120 Cumberland Ave have nearly topped out! The 250 unit, 712 bed complex is nearly fully leased according to their Instagram. When completed, the Subway, Jason's Deli, and Dominos previously located on the site will be placed back in the ground level commercial spaces. 

Board of Zoning Appeals File: https://cdnsm5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_109478/File/Boards/zoningappeals/packets/2020/9E20VA.pdf

Read more at: https://www.unionknoxville.com

Read more at: https://www.greystar.com/properties/knoxville-tn/union-knoxville

Union Knoxville Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unionknoxville/?hl=en

Images courtesy of the Union Knoxville Instagram:

Looking from 22nd St

Looking from Cumberland Ave

 

[UrbanWes03]

Announced a few years ago is Capitol Lofts, a 7- story, 123 unit apartment building at 305 W Vine Ave. A pool and various other amenities will be a part of this development. 2 of the 7 stories will be podium parking, and various affordable workforce housing units are proposed. This project was paused due to COVID and the confusion that came with it, but a new construction permit was applied for in August for this project, with unit numbers now being labeled on KGIS, so this project will likely begin relatively soon.

Board of Zoning Appeals File: https://cdnsm5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_109478/File/Boards/zoningappeals/packets/2022/4A22VA.pdf

Read more on Inside of Knoxville: https://insideofknoxville.com/2021/06/capitol-lofts-announced-for-vine-avenue/

Read more behind the paywall on Knox News: https://www.knoxnews.com/picture-gallery/news/2021/05/10/capitol-lofts-bringing-123-apartments-downtown-knoxville/4961049001/

Edited November 24, 2023 by UrbanWes03

[UrbanWes03]

The Haywood Duplex Project will bring 4 duplexes at 427, 433 HAYWOOD AVE; 3601 EAKERS ST in South Knoxville near the completed Urban Wilderness project. Announced in March, no other movement has occurred as of yet.

Knoxville Planning Case File: https://agenda.knoxplanning.org/packages/3-C-23-SU_pkg.pdf

 

[UrbanWes03]

Heyoh Design and Development is planning an adaptive reuse project for the historic Galbraith School, transforming it into 75 units through renovation and the addition of a new building. This is yet another residential project that has popped up next to the Urban Wilderness park and trail system recently opened. 

Read more and see various interior shots on Inside of Knoxville: https://insideofknoxville.com/2023/02/new-housing-planned-for-galbraith-school-near-baker-creek-bottoms/

Knoxville Planning Case File: https://agenda.knoxplanning.org/packages/2-A-23-PD_pkg.pdf

Map showing proximity to Urban Wilderness system (Baker Creek Preserve)

Edited November 24, 2023 by UrbanWes03

[smeagolsfree]

These 10 things will completely transform how downtown Knoxville looks in 2024 (msn.com)

Lot of photos in the article as well from the News Sentinel.

[KJHburg]

Knoxville and Chattanooga both named as top 10 emerging multifamily markets in the US.  Knoxville had 517 apartment completions last year but an astounding 5613 units under construction.

Top 10 Emerging Multifamily Markets in 2024 2024 - Multi-Housing News (multihousingnews.com)

Knoxville has one of the highest apartment occupancy in the country at 97%.  

[UrbanWes03]

Oh I can believe it. Driving down the strip down feels like a whole new world!

[rancenc]

New downtown high-rise could be in the works for Knoxville.

https://www.aol.com/skyline-shoreline-downtown-knoxville-considers-092812053.html

[jjbradleyBrooklyn]

5 hours ago, rancenc said:

New downtown high-rise could be in the works for Knoxville.

https://www.aol.com/skyline-shoreline-downtown-knoxville-considers-092812053.html

This is so great, and long overdue for Knoxville downtown.

I'd like to see this go up, and add a couple more in the 15-25 story range downtown, by 2030.

[KJHburg]

My self-guided walking tour of downtown Knoxville this morning.  Love all the historical renovations and I attended the Worlds Fair in 1982 first trip to Knoxville.  @smeagolsfree I started here this morning.  

 

 

 

[KJHburg]

On 4/11/2024 at 5:37 PM, jjbradleyBrooklyn said:

This is so great, and long overdue for Knoxville downtown.

I'd like to see this go up, and add a couple more in the 15-25 story range downtown, by 2030.

Keep Knoxville Charming | knoxville city preservation   I saw this on my phone when I was in Knoxville yesterday.  I think this 17 story apartment tower would be great for downtown.  That is a surface parking lot now.  I am not sure why are so opposed to this.  

[jjbradleyBrooklyn]

29 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Keep Knoxville Charming | knoxville city preservation   I saw this on my phone when I was in Knoxville yesterday.  I think this 17 story apartment tower would be great for downtown.  That is a surface parking lot now.  I am not sure why are so opposed to this.  

Yeah, I feel like that ship has mostly sailed--Knoxville already has a couple of modern highrises downtown, and the city is growing, and more will most likely eventually follow.

By the way, your pictures of downtown Knoxville are a great reminder what an under-rated, nice city Knoxville is.

Edited April 23 by jjbradleyBrooklyn

[BnaBreaker]

On 4/22/2024 at 8:41 PM, jjbradleyBrooklyn said:

Yeah, I feel like that ship has mostly sailed--Knoxville already has a couple of modern highrises downtown, and the city is growing, and more will most likely eventually follow.

By the way, your pictures of downtown Knoxville are a great reminder what an under-rated, nice city Knoxville is.

Those folks that think the way to "preserve" a neighborhood is to keep exactly the same have it backwards.  Unless the neighborhood in question is The French Quarter or something equally iconic and established, the way to preserve what remains of a neighborhood is to replace the blight with newness to keep it vibrant and fresh.  The surefire way to ensure a neighborhood slowly dies and withers away is to do exactly what they're doing... chase off any new development in exchange for the empty lots.  

[UrbanWes03]

Yeah the sentiment I have heard with the new tower is that it will happen just after some needed redesign because it is not anything nice to look at right now. I have no doubt something will finally be built there because the momentum is definitely there now. Most of the new things that have opened recently have made me feel like I'm in a different city and that we are being taken to a new level. The Kern's food hall has finally opened and only has around a 1/4 of what it will have open for now, and has been a roaring success. It is truly a fantastic project and was so worth the wait. There are urban projects just popping up in every part of the city now and it's been so awesome to see! I will try and get caught up with a lot of them after the semester is over.

Edited April 30 by UrbanWes03

[MLBrumby]

Anyone in Knoxville have up-to-date pics of Core Spaces developments along Cumberland? 

[UrbanWes03]

Yep! Only a few though as there aren't many updated photos from the news. This is an updated rendering and the construction pics are from 2 weeks ago. Really all that has changed are the facades have progressed. Hub 1, the biggest, has topped out I believe, Hub 2 is on the 5 or 6th floor of 10, and Hub 3 has broke ground! The site has been cleared and excavation has been happening for a few weeks. I would say the base construction will begin within a few weeks.

Hub 1 Rendering

 

Hub 3 Rendering

 

Hub 1 Construction

 

Hub 1 Construction with Hub 2 next to it.

 

Urban Canyon forming down Cumberland Ave. The building to the left u/c is Hub 2 and to the right is the new Union Knoxville apts that will open this Fall, with rents going as high as $1510 a person.

Edited May 2 by UrbanWes03

[UrbanWes03]

Also, Hub 4 hasn't broken ground but is up for rezoning this week and a few renderings were posted. The brick portion of Hub 4 is in the Fort Sanders Historic District and has to conform to those standards, thus the nice, more historical brick design. The white portion of Hub 4 is not and that's why it looks different. While I assume that is a preliminary design, they have yet to release renderings for this one so time will tell.

Historic Preservation Rezone Packet: https://archive.knoxplanning.org/historic/comm/agendas/2024/april/4-G-24-HZ.pdf

[MLBrumby]

Thanks! Someone posted a link to a webcam aimed at the construction zones on Cumberland (I think 2 cams) a couple years back, but I can't seem to find them anymore. They've likely been taken offline. 

Also, I just saw the updated USCB estimates for TN counties, and it looks like Knox County passed 500k in 2023, and growing at a very healthy clip. 

[MLBrumby]

On 4/22/2024 at 7:19 PM, KJHburg said:

My self-guided walking tour of downtown Knoxville this morning.  Love all the historical renovations and I attended the Worlds Fair in 1982 first trip to Knoxville.  @smeagolsfree I started here this morning.  

 

 

 

 

 

I have a fondness for Knoxville (despite being a Vandy graduate). One of our children graduated from there and we've enjoyed over a decade (a losing one mostly) of going to games at Neyland.  And my wife spent much of her formative years there.  We have seen the place grow like crazy. 

So a couple of points nobody here asked, but here goes using Kevin's excellent pics.

First photo. I think this is a former bank building that has a bar in the basement. Wes can disabuse me if I'm wrong. We went there after our child's graduation a few years back.

Second photo. Anyone here know w/o looking up where the name "Scruffy City" comes from? Hint: Related to the 1982 World's Fair

Third photo: I think this is a converted office building into a hotel. If it's the one I'm thinking of it has a rooftop bar. Once again, Wes may be able to correct me.

Fourth photo: Hyatt House is the site where the Southeastern Conference was founded in December 1932. https://www.wbir.com/article/news/history/on-this-day-in-history-the-sec-was-created-in-knoxville/51-7186f1c8-5771-4421-8b06-03b40cb99662 

 

[BnaBreaker]

I'm so glad to see Cumberland Avenue finally starting to transform into the urban 'college' district that UT deserves.

Also, this is slightly random, but I don't have a ton of experience with Knoxville outside of the downtown and it's immediate environs, so I was just randomly poking around on street view the other day in some other neighborhoods I'd never seen and came across one which was called, according to Google anyway, Emory Place around Broadway & Central.  Wow was I ever impressed with the character and charm and historic grit in that neighborhood!  Such good bones... Nashville doesn't have a neighborhood that can compete with it by that measure.  It appeared as though there had been some recent infrastructure investment into the neighborhood by the city, which was nice to see.  However, it didn't look as though the area had really fully taken off and caught the wave just yet, as it were.  It wasn't run down by any means, and there did seem to be a fair share of thriving businesses (especially microbreweries... what an impressive cluster) but I wouldn't exactly call it a bustling urban district just yet either.  Granted I am just viewing it through Google's lens from a single moment on a single afternoon in October of 2022.  So anyway, I was just wondering if any locals had any insight into that neighborhood... is it an up and coming urban community?  Is there any buzz about it?  I never really seem to hear about it, but then again, I'm not a regular participant in the Knoxville urban development discussions.  

Edited May 3 by BnaBreaker

[IWS1402]

On 5/2/2024 at 12:35 PM, MLBrumby said:

Thanks! Someone posted a link to a webcam aimed at the construction zones on Cumberland (I think 2 cams) a couple years back, but I can't seem to find them anymore. They've likely been taken offline. 

Also, I just saw the updated USCB estimates for TN counties, and it looks like Knox County passed 500k in 2023, and growing at a very healthy clip. 

I was the one who posted the link. It was from Children’s Hospital looking directly at the construction site. The feed went dead after a bad storm a while back and hasn’t come back on line since. The other link was for the baseball stadium. That one still works on the Denark website. 

[UrbanWes03]

On 5/2/2024 at 1:35 PM, MLBrumby said:

Thanks! Someone posted a link to a webcam aimed at the construction zones on Cumberland (I think 2 cams) a couple years back, but I can't seem to find them anymore. They've likely been taken offline. 

Also, I just saw the updated USCB estimates for TN counties, and it looks like Knox County passed 500k in 2023, and growing at a very healthy clip. 

We did indeed and I was very pleased to see that. If I recall correctly, we were the second fastest growing county and had the second biggest increase in population in the state right under Rutherford! It was nice to see that our metro counties also saw some of the most growth, in addition to some of the sharpest increases in growth rate. It is crazy to think about, but I read that with our current growth rate, Knoxville's metro area will surpass that of Memphis and New Orleans in just the next few years! Mind boggling to think about. I mean technically if you were to include Sevier county in our metro, which touches Knox County, we already have over 1 million people. I always bring up that point when people try to say Knoxville is small…

[UrbanWes03]

On 5/3/2024 at 1:58 PM, MLBrumby said:

I have a fondness for Knoxville (despite being a Vandy graduate). One of our children graduated from there and we've enjoyed over a decade (a losing one mostly) of going to games at Neyland.  And my wife spent much of her formative years there.  We have seen the place grow like crazy. 

So a couple of points nobody here asked, but here goes using Kevin's excellent pics.

First photo. I think this is a former bank building that has a bar in the basement. Wes can disabuse me if I'm wrong. We went there after our child's graduation a few years back.

Second photo. Anyone here know w/o looking up where the name "Scruffy City" comes from? Hint: Related to the 1982 World's Fair

Third photo: I think this is a converted office building into a hotel. If it's the one I'm thinking of it has a rooftop bar. Once again, Wes may be able to correct me.

Fourth photo: Hyatt House is the site where the Southeastern Conference was founded in December 1932. https://www.wbir.com/article/news/history/on-this-day-in-history-the-sec-was-created-in-knoxville/51-7186f1c8-5771-4421-8b06-03b40cb99662 

 

The first photo is the building with the Urban Outfitters from the basement to the 2 floor. I believe you are thinking of the Houston Bank Building which is on Gay Street with Vida on the ground level and The Vault cocktail bar in the basement.

Regarding Scruffy City, I believe we got that name because a visitor from another country that came to the World's Fair called Knoxville a "Scruffy City" because it was rough around the edges or something like that.

Third Photo: Yes you are right. It is now an Embassy Suites with the Radius Rooftop Bar!

[UrbanWes03]

On 5/3/2024 at 7:24 PM, BnaBreaker said:

I'm so glad to see Cumberland Avenue finally starting to transform into the urban 'college' district that UT deserves.

Also, this is slightly random, but I don't have a ton of experience with Knoxville outside of the downtown and it's immediate environs, so I was just randomly poking around on street view the other day in some other neighborhoods I'd never seen and came across one which was called, according to Google anyway, Emory Place around Broadway & Central.  Wow was I ever impressed with the character and charm and historic grit in that neighborhood!  Such good bones... Nashville doesn't have a neighborhood that can compete with it by that measure.  It appeared as though there had been some recent infrastructure investment into the neighborhood by the city, which was nice to see.  However, it didn't look as though the area had really fully taken off and caught the wave just yet, as it were.  It wasn't run down by any means, and there did seem to be a fair share of thriving businesses (especially microbreweries... what an impressive cluster) but I wouldn't exactly call it a bustling urban district just yet either.  Granted I am just viewing it through Google's lens from a single moment on a single afternoon in October of 2022.  So anyway, I was just wondering if any locals had any insight into that neighborhood... is it an up and coming urban community?  Is there any buzz about it?  I never really seem to hear about it, but then again, I'm not a regular participant in the Knoxville urban development discussions.  

Yes Emory Place is great! They recently repainted a section of it and now there is an art gallery, vintage shop, and an interior design center "Design AF" and she does extremely high quality work! It has definitely gotten a lot better since 2022. Now Yee-Haw Brewing Knoxville is at the Central/Broadway intersection and has been insanely successful. There is a new 5 story HQ for Axle Logistics going up across the street from it, and there are a few townhome projects starting to pop up all around the area. There is also a Topgolf like place going in to the left of Emory Place on a brownfield site called ShotClub Social, which is gonna be really impressive. I must say now in any direction you go from downtown and UTK, there is just an explosion of activity. Just for context, the new old city multi use stadium is going up in the east, multiple apartment buildings and townhomes have opened or are u/c in SoKno and North Knox, and apartments and townhomes are starting to pop up west of campus around Sutherland Ave. These are some of the things I will update on here now that I am out for the summer, and trust me there is a lot. But long story short, yes it is an up and coming neighborhood with plenty of buzz. Really Emory place is one block among the greater Old North Knoxville/North Downtown area, so you will likely here it referred to like that more.

Here are the renderings for ShotClub: