Downtown Knoxville redevelopment - the next frontier

This is my stompin’ ground; I love this area of town, and am glad folks are starting to give it the attention it deserves. I predict it will be in full (re)bloom within 10 years:

“When I close my eyes sometimes, I envision it almost Austin-like,” says Kim Webber, who books music acts for North Central’s Time Warp Tea Room. “It’s a great room. It’s a real jewel box of a place to put people,” says Webber of the Time Warp’s kitschy combination of Victorian fixtures and vintage motorcycle collectables. “It’s not the stereotype biker bar,” says Dan Moriarty, the Time Warp’s owner and chief motorcycle enthusiast. In fact, it’s not even a bar at all. Other than the throbbing hum of a V-twin engine out in the parking lot, caffeine is the only buzz the Time Warp offers. “We’ll have the occasional grumper who says we ought to have beer,” says Webber. “But there’s beer in the neighborhood. If you want to have it, you can find it.”

Beer, and beer joints, has a long history in “Happy Holler,” as the blocks of North Central surrounding The Time Warp are commonly known. Convenient to the Coster Shops and the textile mills to the west along Baxter, this stretch of Central was once home to taverns that often got rowdy come quittin’ time. “All the action was down here – stabbings, shootings, whatever you wanted,” says Moriarty, who grew up a few blocks away in 4th and Gill. “Paul Harvey even mentioned it once on the radio,” he says, mimicking Harvey’s deadpan delivery: “another murder at the Friendly Tavern in Happy Holler.”

The mills are all closed now, many demolished. So are most of the taverns. But, thanks to Central’s proximity to several agencies providing services to the homeless and indigent, the rough reputation remains. “This part of town, there’s so much negativity about it,” says Sara Griscom, the owner of Gypsy Hands Healing Arts Center. But, when Griscom opened her business in 2001, she felt the old flatiron shaped building at the corner of Central and Broadway was a perfect match for the center’s eclectic mix of offerings: everything from Shiatsu massage to belly dancing classes. “I was attracted by the neighborhoods surrounding it: 4th and Gill, Old North Knoxville, The Old City,” says Griscom. “I love this corner and I love its potential and you can see, if there is investment in this area, what it could be.”

Getting past those negative perceptions and encouraging investment are the goals of the city’s recently adopted Downtown North/I-275 Corridor Redevelopment Plan. An outgrowth of the Fifth and Broadway Task Force, formed to address concerns stemming from the nearby homeless shelters, the homeless issue provided the catalyst for the task force, but it doesn’t dominate the redevelopment plan. “We started with the notion of, look, we all know it’s there, but let’s not cede the ground to just that one use,” says Bill Lyons, the city’s Director of Policy Development. Instead, the redevelopment plan looks to strengthen the uses pioneered by people like Farabow, McGilvray and Griscom. “With the proximity to downtown, and the fact that the building stock often lends itself to arts-related space,” says Lyons, “we thought the area was a perfect fit for those sorts of uses.” Lyons also feels that, with businesses like Ironwood and Gypsy Hands already in place, the plan’s chance of success is that much stronger. “If the combustion isn’t close to taking off, it isn’t going to work,” says Lyons. “But I think that the city can give things a nudge.”

Another nudge comes from the rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods to the north. “The marketability of North Central is huge now because of the status of the neighborhoods: 4th and Gill and Old North Knoxville,” says Corts. “We’ve got all the rooftops to support retail over here, and the demographics have been increasing for awhile,” says architect/developer Daniel Schuh whose company, Knoxville Preservation and Development, has bought, restored and resold numerous houses in Old North Knoxville. He’s recently crossed over into commercial redevelopment and is currently renovating several buildings in Happy Holler, just across from The Time Warp. “As a resident of the area, I’d love to see the artist community develop,” says Schuh, who lives a few blocks north on Oklahoma. Amy Broyles, who lives on Scott Avenue and has recently organized a regular “Teen Night” on Mondays at The Time Warp,” is likewise hopeful. “I hope we can pull some neat businesses in,” says Broyles, “and also encourage some of the people already in the neighborhood to maybe start a business down there.”

Old North Knoxville residents Scott Carpenter and Peg Hambright have already risen to the challenge and are currently renovating a building next to The Corner Lounge. Touring the gutted shell of the 1940’s structure, Carpenter spreads his arms wide as he crosses the building’s terrazzo-floored foyer. “This area is hopefully going to be Magpies someday in 2008,” he says, referring to the bakery Hambright currently operates in The Old City. More space upstairs will be leased as offices, while Carpenter hopes to convert the large workshop space in the rear into artist studios. Like Lyons, he feels Central lends itself to creative uses. “The affordability is a factor,” says Carpenter, “along with the fact that most of the space is sort of raw industrial, warehouse space that’s really wide open.”

Creativity, particularly with regards to zoning, is also a key component of the redevelopment plan. While façade grants are available through the Empowerment Zone, and Tax Increment Financing is also an option, “the redevelopment is really largely going to be a function of the land use change,” says Lyons. A form-based zoning code, similar to that created for the South Waterfront, is already in the works. “The form based-zoning,” according to Schuh, “is going to open up properties for development that weren’t developable before.” The code will also encourage mixed use, allowing residential on upper floors similar to what’s been done downtown. “Mixed use will bring a lot of vitality to the area. I can see people living on Central someday,” says Broyles.

(ASIDE: I just ate a Magpies cupcake. It was a lemony one, with poppyseeds and meringue. It was the best cupcake I’ve ever had.)