Revitalizing downtown Knoxville
Downtown Knoxville City ParkDowntown Knoxville is moving closer to becoming a vibrant 24-hour neighborhood as investors pump millions of dollars into new projects in the central business district.
City government and business leaders have talked for years about turning downtown into a place "where people live, work and play."
Residential developments - both new construction and conversions of former office space into luxury condos - have lead the way in transforming downtown, but significant new retail and entertainment establishments have opened or soon will.
Mast General Store, a North Carolina based retailer, opened a store on Gay Street in August. The $2.5 million investment represented the first major retail development downtown since Watson's department store left Market Square in 1998.
Modeled after turn-of-the-20th-century general stores, Mast is considered a retail destination for both tourists and local shoppers, with more than 25,000 different products, including clothing, candy, household items, camping and hiking gear.
This year, downtown tourists and residents can take in a first-run movie after shopping at Mast without having to drive to the suburbs. A long-awaited multi-screen movie theater complex is under construction in the 500 block of Gay Street.
The Regal Riviera Stadium 8 could open as early as June. The 2,000-seat theater complex will be owned by the city and leased to Knoxville-based Regal Entertainment Corp., the nation's largest movie theater operator.
Adjacent to the new cinema complex in the old S&W cafeteria building, investors plan to develop 30,000 square feet of retail, office and condo space.
New retail space also is planned for a mixed-use project on Union Avenue, one block west of Market Square.
The Residences at Market Square is a $9 million, 37,000-square-foot condo and retail project being jointly developed by Kinsey Probasco Hays of Chattanooga and Cardinal Enterprises of Knoxville.
The project should be finished in the fall. Twenty-four residential condos, which will have private balconies, large windows and open ceilings, are planned for the upper floors. Sales prices range from about $290,000 to $475,000.
About 8,000 square feet of retail space will be developed on the street level.
Kinsey, whose firm coordinated the city's Market Square redevelopment project a few years ago, said the current wave of residential, retail and entertainment investment will attract even more private investment in the future.
The movie theater alone will be a magnet for new shopping and restaurant openings, as well as more residential development, he said.
"People cannot appreciate the impact the opening of the movie theater will have on downtown," Kinsey said.
Other new downtown residential developments include:
The Gallery Lofts, 401 S. Gay St., on the upper floors above Mast General Store. Two- and three-bedroom units went on sale last year starting at $299,000.
Commerce Lofts & Condominiums, 124 S. Gay St. One-, two-, and three-bedroom units are available. Prices range from the mid $200,000s to mid $600,000s.
The Holston, a renovation project now under which will turn the former Charter Federal Building into 47 luxury condos.
