If you're walking around downtown, pick up a copy of the current edition of the Knoxville Ledger - or read it digitally
HERE. The cover story details a dozen major redevelopment projects currently underway throughout downtown, on the South Waterfront and elsewhere.
The package of stories - entitled "Makeoverville: Messy, yes, but a new Knoxville is emerging" and reported by Mike Blackerby - updates the status of the Cumberland Avenue reconstruction, the construction of apartments and Regal Entertainment Group's new headquarters building on the South Waterfront, the Magnolia Avenue streetscapes project, the restoration of the former KUB and Farragut Hotel buildings, and more.
Plus, read the sidebar story based on Blackerby's interview with Deputy to the Mayor Bill Lyons, the City's innovator and point man on downtown redevelopment strategy. (Blackerby simply refers to Lyons as "municipal guru.")
The Ledger report cites the City's willingness to use Tax Increment Financing and Payments in Lieu of Taxes as tools to help close the financing gap for property owners who want to redevelop their buildings but can't make the projects financially viable without the assistance. In the last 15 years, the City has helped jumpstart almost 50 redevelopment projects through TIFs and PILOTs.
Lyons tells the Ledger that the secret to success in redeveloping any downtown is to showcase what's unique and local.
“To me, the big realization is that authenticity is what people want,” Lyons says in the Ledger story. “When I go to a town, I want it to be what it is, and we’re no exception. We play on our music, arts and beauty of the area – and that’s the answer.”