Holiday Inn Express Planned for Walnut Building

Knoxville Urban Guy·
Development
·30 Comments
Walnut Building, 706 Walunt Street, Knoxville, May 2022
Walnut Building, 706 Walnut Street, Knoxville, May 2022

The nine-story Walnut Building at 706 Walnut Street has become the most recent downtown building to be planned for conversion to a hotel. The building, owned by Nadeem Saddiqi, will be transformed by Hitesh Patel and Atlanta-based Elevate Architecture Studio. The same group is linked to the Springhill Suites coming to the Old City, although in that case, in conjunction with Nick Patel, who is local.

The plans submitted to the Knox County Design Review Board (which you can see in full here) indicate plans to convert the commercial and office building into commercial and hotel space. The lobby would face Walnut Street via an altered (and straightened) façade, while the existing business, Yassin’s Falafel House, would remain in its current space.

Walnut Building, 706 Walnut Street, Knoxville, May 2022
Yassin’s Falafel House, Walnut Building, 706 Walnut Street, Knoxville, May 2022

To that end, Yassin released a statement via Facebook:

We are a aware of the planning of building a new hotel in the building . . . they promised we going to keep our lease in the building and we are happy with idea as long we can stay safe and operate safely during the construction. We are still waiting to have more details since the plan has been submitted officially. We still have a lot of years left in our lease and as always we going to be YOUR place where you enjoy a meal and fell the love. Our Falafel house is not only a business . . . (it) is a home for all of our community and is going to stay in same way.

Changes to the 1955 building would start with the exterior, which will include staining the brick an “opaque white color.” The curved, recessed store front facing Walnut would be replaced with a horizontal front facing the street. An accessible entrance and a second-floor stair egress would be added to the east side of the building. Signage would also be added to the exterior of the building.

Rendering of the New Holiday Inn Express, Walnut Building, 706 Walnut Street, Knoxville
First Floor Plans for the Walnut Building

Upon completion, the hotel is slated to include 91 rooms on the top eight floors of the building. This comes on the heels of two new-construction hotels and three building conversion hotels announced for Gay Street, as well as the hotel planned for the Old City. Of the six announced hotel projects, only one has begun construction.

No timeline for the project was given.

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30 Responses

  1. I was surprised that they’re adding yet another hotel downtown, but less surprised when I remembered the impending implosion of AirBNB due to their now almost standard practice of offering a $75 place to stay with a $350 cleaning fee. Mostly, I am always a fan of buildings getting updated, but I’m strangely attached to the unpainted brick on this building. The architecture is tastefully retro, and I feel like painting it white is one step away from slapping a big “live, laugh, love” sign on it.

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    1. Agreed! Some brick just needs to be left red. I always liked the contrast between the red brick of the Walnut Bldg and the tan/gray Brute architecture of the library.

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  2. The “Patel-ization” of downtown Knoxville does make one wonder, as does the wholly unnecessary need in this case to paint the whole thing white. But given the seeming ineffectiveness of the Design Review Board, one assumes the developers will get their wish.

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    1. I’m not sure what “patel-ization” is intended to convey. There are a number of people with that surname who are doing projects, but they are not related and are not working together.

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    2. Ken, your comment appears to be a bit derogatory towards a group of non-related developers that have invested millions of dollars in Downtown Knoxville. It’s unfortunate to have to see these types of comments in 2022 signaling out a group of individuals, and more less investors of the local economy.

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      1. The Indian last name Patel is the equivalent of the last name Smith in the US. The commenter could have glazed over the article and assumed it was the other Patel, since he’s been in the news a lot lately with the “lets make it another hotel” craze.

        Can we just take a deep breathe and back away from the “sinister intent” ledge and maybe just give the commenter the benefit of the doubt.

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  3. I am generally opposed to painting brick buildings, but in this case, I think it will help make the hotel stand out and look more modern. My question is do we really need another hotel downtown? Are the current hotels consistently at 100% occupancy? We all know that with so many companies now allowing their employees to work from home that office space may not be needed anymore to run a successful business, so I can see more of these conversions happening in the future if needed.

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    1. I think this will likely be a little more affordable than some of the options downtown and I think that’s likely why it’ll be ok. I know during some events and football weekends in particular, hotel rooms downtown can get pretty expensive and hard to come by.

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  4. I have to agree the ‘painting it white’ thing is a bit odd, given the lovely appearance of the brick. But as a recent transplant to Knoxville, I have to say I’m absolutely in LOVE with the way the city has kept its old buildings and simply renovated and repurposed them.

    Coming from south Florida, where the rule is ”demolish all the old, rebuild new and tasteless” Knoxville’s beautiful old period look remains even while getting updated and modernized.

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    1. Honestly, most of the old buildings in downtown Knoxville have been torn down over the years. There are only a handful that remain and they should be repurposed, when possible, rather than torn down. I’m also from South Florida and I appreciate what remains of the architecture here in Knoxville.

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      1. Hey Gregg just curious, if you find out that the owner of this new hotel is of the opposing political party, will they be added to the boycott list as well? 🤔

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        1. Of course. As will everyone I hang out with. But really, that was a dumb question that you already knew the answer to. Come up with something a little more challenging next time. Bless your heart.

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          1. No question is a dumb question. And bless your heart. Knoxville is so lucky to have a transplant like you, whose goal is to turn Knox County Blue 🤣

        2. The remnants of a formerly great party that’s turned into nothing but theocratic fascists are always trying to start political arguments for no reason. I mean for f*ck’s sake. It’s a post about a hotel. And not even a nice one.

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  5. Great to see an older building re-purposed. But please, don’t paint it white. This building is our only intact, downtown, Mid-Century Modern commercial structure. Painting it white undermines the original intent of the architect and makes it far less interesting. Look at what happened to the U.S. Bank building on Market Street, the other Mid-Century downtown building. Reskinning most if it has given us an anonymous, can-of-Spam building instead of the far-more intricate façade of the original. Redoing that building in its original style would have been very expensive, but allowing the Walnut Building to remain unpainted brick costs nothing. Let’s not be careless with these buildings just because they are “modern.”

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  6. Re: Painting the brick.

    If you need to do brick work on a building, painting it when you are finished is the easiest and least expensive way I know of to blend the new brick into the old.

    Signed, Person with a Brick Foundation

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  7. Back when Whittle Communications was a major employer downtown, growing and not yet in its signature headquarters designed by Peter Marino (the federal courthouse building now), the 500+ employee company operated in 5 downtown buildings: The Daylight Building (formerly occupied by TVA), The Arnstein Building, The Walnut Building, The Andrew Johnson Building, and (I think) a small presence in what was the Third National Bank building (now housing First Century Bank and Trotter Inc.). I had an office in each one but the last.

    That all but one of these buildings are now hotels or condos (or planned) is really peculiar to me, as I have never been able to “un-see” the way they were as offices. 😉 I’m not even sure I could have predicted how much residential we now have downtown.

    We have a diverse collection of architecture, both old and new. Long-time downtown fans lament some of beautiful architectural gems that were lost (even before our time), but overall, I’m very proud of the downtown we have become, and I’m proud to be a downtown resident.

    New investment points to an even brighter future.

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  8. Seems silly to continue to add more hotels downtown. Rich downtowns (or neighborhoods) – IMO, has residents, shops, and RESIDENTS. If most of the stock continues to be flipped toward hotels, the sense of community erodes and maybe even dissolves into another new iteration of a highway hotel exit (think a cluster of hotels off of highway exits). I guess I have a list of questions for anyone willing to answer?

    Do we know the official count of residents downtown?
    Do we have a vacancy rate downtown for hotels during non-UT football game weekends?
    Is there an urban design plan / vision for downtown ?
    If so – is there a similar city of size Knoxville uses for reference?

    Albeit – the use of a building is better than having buildings sitting empty.

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    1. Regarding an urban design or vision plan, several attempts at this have been made over the decades, but what the powers that be are content to depend on nowadays is “organic development:” depending on developers and speculators to craft the form of downtown as they see fit.

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  10. I really dont like the exterior color change. The image just looks like a cheap new build. The red brick gives the building a true mid century vibe. To be fair I know the structure was rehabbed in the 90’s. Not sure of the original color.

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  11. I always love reading after a development is announced, how half the people commenting complain about the purpose or design. We should just be thankful these guys want to invest in the community. Just hoping at some point, the investment will spread further into east Knoxville.

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    1. I agree with you that we should be grateful for those who wish to invest in our city. But Knoxville is no longer a place that is desperate for investment in the downtown area. The community should be mindful of the qualities that make it a desirable place to invest and commit to responsibly preserving those characteristics. Downtown Knoxville was nearly destroyed by development that did not take anything into account other than what seemed expedient at the time. It is taking decades to reclaim a real downtown. Being concerned and thoughtful about how a project fits aesthetically and from a purpose perspective is part of what will make our growth sustainable.

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  12. Part of me wonders if the opaque sealer coat is just a case of “if we have to do it, we might as well do this other thing at the same time” kind of situation. I worked on a renovation of an older apartment tower in Oak Ridge a couple of years ago and we had a lot of staining and water issues with the old fluted CMU block facade. While we were evaluating sealing the entire building to protect it from future water infiltration issues we also took a look at using opaque sealant colors as a way to hide all the discolored areas on the existing building. I also agree with someone else’s comment when they said that painting/covering brick is the best way to mask necessary brick patchwork afterward.

    We don’t know the full picture. The opaque stain may be a design solution for something we just aren’t aware of because we aren’t the design team or the owner.

    I am just happy this design solution allows Yassin’s to remain at his current location in the Walnut Building. That was my biggest fear after hearing of this redevelopment project.

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  13. I’m kinda puzzled that the old Marriot/Hotel Knoxville is standing empty while all these hotel conversions are planned/taking place. It’s already a hotel. It was designed as a hotel. It has its own parking garage. So why all these office building conversions (or new construction) when there’s a grand hotel building sitting there empty?

    Reply

      1. The last time I drove by there, there were work crews working on it. Maybe is will reopen as a hotel or something else. I always thought it was a cool building.

        Reply

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