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| City People in blue shirts helping all the tour takers. |
One of my favorite things to do is take the City People Tour of Homes. I think this is the fourth time I’ve made it. The first two were filled with comments like, “Wouldn’t it be cool if one day . . .” The third time was a year ago and I was within a couple of weeks of moving, so it was more like, “Hello, I’ll be your neighbor, soon.” That was great fun. This year the theme was more in the direction of saying hello to people I’ve met in the last year and introducing myself to new people. It was fun to say, “I’ve lived downtown for the last year.”
This year ten condos were slated to be featured, but one had to be cancelled due to a family illness. Of the remaining nine, one was in the Southeastern Glass Building and I’d attended their open house, so I skipped that one, leaving eight. I had a very hard time getting pictures that did the condos justice, so I’ll hit some highlights.
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| Second Floor at 304 S. Gay, Knoxville |
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| Third Floor at 304 S. Gay |
The first stop was the Phoenix building and it featured a great view of the Kress Building. Next up was the Everitts’ residence at 304 S. Gay Street. I took a couple of photographs, but they don’t really do it justice. The home is two floors, each of which are long corridors with side-rooms. It’s a great place for the kids and features a great patio view of Gay Street directly across from WDVX.
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| Interior shot of one of the units in the 300 Building |
Next door, and not part of the tour, but cleverly enjoying open-house on the same day, the 300 building was on display. The units inside are beautiful and have excellent views. They are also very expensive – $350 to $450 per square foot. That seems like a stretch for downtown Knoxville in 2010. Much better pictures than mine and a more complete description ran recently on Property Scope. You can find it here.
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| View of Mast General from Interior of Lerner Lofts |
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| View north on Gay Street from Lerner Lofts Patio |
125 Jackson Avenue (above Remedy Coffee) was a cool space that featured a great view of the
trainyards out the back (which comes with authentic train sounds all day and night) and, of course, excellent coffee downstairs. The unit at Lerner Lofts featured my favorite views (of Gay Street) from inside and the patio, but the space was small and the climbing was not for the faint of heart.
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| View from 29 Market Square |
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| The Climb of the Day – 29 Market Square |
The climb-of-the-day has to go to 29 Market Square. No need for gym membership if you live here. They had my second favorite view – a perfect view of Market Square.
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| Condo in the Daylight Building |
The Daylight Building had a unit open and they are small, but well designed to optimize the space.
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| 127 S. Gay, Knoxville |
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| Shawn in 127 S. Gay, Knoxville |
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| Interior Wall in 127 S. Gay, Knoxville |
Another unit I really enjoyed was 125 S. Gay. It featured a great view of the 100 block and, while small, featured a good shape and design. I liked the fact that a logo from long ago on the outside of the adjacent building was visible on the interior wall of this condo.
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| The Carson, Central Avenue, Knoxville |
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| Interior of the Carson, Central Street, Knoxville |
My favorite condo and the biggest surprise of the day goes to The Carson at Cumberland and Central. It is nearly under the James White Parkway and the front looks like a warehouse. Sounds terrible, right? It’s great. Each of the units has just below or above 2,000 square feet of living space, a personal garage (only ones downtown) and a private back yard! They were also very nicely designed.
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| Eco-friendly Green Shuttle Bus |
This year’s tour featured a shuttle bus that continually made the circuit and, of course, the friendly people from City People.
