South Banks at Suttree Landing Hosts Grand Opening

Knoxville Urban Guy·
Development
·29 Comments
South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville, August 2023
South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville, August 2023

South Banks apartments opened recently overlooking Suttee Landing Park and the Tennessee River and also featuring a view of the Knoxville Skyline. The development, when completed, will include 230 one and two bedroom homes. Sixty-six units are currently available and are completely leased. Pre-leasing of the remaining homes is currently underway, with an anticipated completion date for the entire project of February 2024. Merit Construction is completing the work.

Knoxville-based Dominion (through different divisions) owns this and a wide range of properties, including City South and River’s Edge, also in South Knoxville. They own Lakemoor Apartments off Alcoa Highway, though it is operated by UT. They operate two senior housing sites and they are building a seventy-four unit affordable housing project on Westland. Additional projects are under construction or planned.

South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville, August 2023
South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville, August 2023
South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville, August 2023
South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville, August 2023

Kaylie Thacker, Community Manager for the development, said the response has been very good, with a range of first renters. She said many are from out of state and a healthy number of graduate students and young professionals have signed leases. The views, the numerous outdoor activity options, and the proximity to UT (and I’d add to downtown) have driven demand.

South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville, August 2023
Floor Plans, South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville

All the units are one or two bedrooms. The one-bedroom plans run about 750 square feet (there are two versions) and, according to the pricing sheet, start at $1995 (Prices differ slightly on the website.) The two-bedroom plans run about 1,100 square feet and start at $2,445. Resident choices can add to the cost when adding amenities such as a river view ($100), covered parking ($100), pets ($30 per), and more. Storage units and Kayak/Paddle Board/Bike storage is also available.

One of the buildings currently not completed will be a podium building with a parking garage below. Additional parking spaces are offered within the development. Two commercial spaces also play a part in the plans: A smaller commercial space in one of the buildings currently under construction, and a larger stand-alone structure with a patio, appearing to be most suitable for a restaurant. In significant news for fans of the restaurant, Simpl will occupy the smaller spot. I’ll have more on that, coming soon.

South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville, August 2023
South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville, August 2023
South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville, August 2023
South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville, August 2023

A wide range of amenities are currently or (mostly) will be available upon completion of construction. Included are a saltwater pool with grilling station, co-working space, clubhouse, weight room and exercise studio, riverfront rooftop lounge, pet grooming service, and more. Activities like tailgate events and more will be planned for the rooftop which will also include a large projection screen.

Commercial Space, South Banks, 906 Waterfront Drive, Knoxville, August 2023

The new homes sit across the street from Suttree Landing Park and are a very short walk to breweries, restaurants, shops, and services along Sevier Avenue. With the current shortage of homes in the city and the attractions of this location, the additional units are sure to be taken quickly. You can learn more about the project at the website and complete an application for a lease here.

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29 Responses

  1. Just wish these were more attractive. CitySouth and River’s Edge look nice so I know Dominion can do attractive. These are just plain ugly.

    Reply

    1. I agree. Without exaggeration, I cannot think of an uglier apartment development in recent years in Knoxville. They have single handedly destroyed the beauty of this part of the riverfront.
      To me, the main two entities with blame here are the City’s form-based code and zoning which allow it, and Dominion’s profit-over-product attitude which led them and their architect to design the least imaginative and most unattractive buildings they could. I’m sure they were going for an “industrial” style to match Holston Gas. If so, they succeeded in building something as unattractive as Holston’s tanks.
      The only nice thing I can say about them is they look like they’d hold up fine if the property floods. Plenty of metal to keep rusting in the floodwaters.

      Reply

  3. These apartments make me very sad, they are a blight on what used to be a lovely park for a short while. Now the park looks like a sad apartment grounds to a rather ugly complex. This could have and should have been a picturesque area with well designed multi use space that highlighted the beauty of the area. Knoxville is loosing it way.

    Reply

  4. I’m glad to see dense housing options added to the South Riverfront but the exterior looks of this apartment complex are a war crime. In a city with some truly ugly modern apartment buildings, these are far and beyond the worst. It’s depressing that we allowed this in such an eye-poppingly visible location, probably the focus point of growth in our downtown over the next decade. This is a failure at every level. We are better than this.

    Reply

  5. In before the “rIveRSiDe LiVInG IsN’T sUppOSeD tO bE aFfORdAbLe” guy ultimately shows up in the comments.
    Theres a bit of source material to take from these apartments, as far as ugliness. To be fair, thats all subjective.

    I’m just so overjoyed there is a current “developer” who’s running for Knoxville city council, because everyone knows the only way to strongly regulate these developers is by having one of their own on the governing board. /s

    Reply

  6. Beyond the (terrible) aesthetics and high rental costs, there are only two ground floor commercial spaces? That’s disappointing.

    Reply

  7. I understand the need for more apartments, although I’m not sure these are affordable. I’m really sorry that the free parking for Suttree Landing Park will be filled by these apartment dwellers, making the park relatively inaccessible to those who want to come to and enjoy the park itself. Seems like the city is letting this complex turn a city park into the complex’s front yard.

    Reply

  10. Over $2000 a month for a 750 sf one bedroom with covered parking? In Knoxville? I can’t afford to move there from Los Angeles.

    Reply

  11. We’ve been watching these from afar while walking on the greenway on the opposite side of the river. It’s a huge development. I guess the positive is “Knoxville needs housing” really badly and this helps, so that’s the silver lining. The design is just another big blah, but that seems to be the thing these days. What I really can’t get my head wrapped around is the price per unit. $2445 and up for an 1100 sf two bedroom? Affordable housing is a really complicated concept, but this does not seem to fit that description in any way. That’s the price of a mortgage (if you can find something to buy, I realize) at nearly $30K/year. Wow. No wonder no one can afford to live here. I’m older but I was a grad student at one time and I’m just amazed that this kind of rent is affordable unless you’re a trust fund baby, taking out serious loans, or working full time in parallel.

    My spouse and I often have a conversation about Asheville that parallels the old Yogi Berra joke “it’s so popular that no one goes there anymore” since it’s so expensive and crowd-filled in our recent visits. Part of that discussion usually ends in “Knoxville is turning into Asheville” in various regards. That may be a good sign for some folks, but it doesn’t seem that way to us. These apartments seem like another leading indicator of this syndrome. Managed growth is inevitable but so much of this just seems like some sort of urban kudzu.

    Reply

  12. From the time construction began on these apartments, the public street for access to Suttree Landing Park became a parking lot for construction workers and, soon, apartment dwellers. Way to go, City of Knoxville, for giving away the public’s street access to the park, handing it over to this apartment complex built for the rich. Yes, yes, I know the apartment developers will deny this is the case, but drive by there and see for yourself.

    Knoxville sometimes gets into action to save an endangered property or building. In this case, we’ve let a real jewel of city park become more like a nice front yard for the apartment complex.

    By the way, Dominion calls itself a “faith-based” organization. Faith in what? And, if you look at its top management, you will see no women and no persons of color. Were public tax dollars used to support this development?

    Reply

  13. Now if the city can take over Holston Gas. What an opportunity to tie that area into the Henley St bridge area.

    Reply

  14. I’m not an architect – but I am friends with several. No way a human designed these. Awful. This looks like chatGPT renderings. Even if they were restricted on the budget and materials, there were better solutions.
    These look like poop.

    Reply

  16. Who approves these designs for our Urban Wilderness Area ? How Fugly can you get, cheap and tacky.
    These certainly don’t fit what we are all about here.
    Oh well. Like others said here, it was nice there, peaceful and relaxing, not so much now.

    Reply

  17. Sounds like a blog about local rent prices and the state of the downtown housing market is due pretty soon; the “expert” opinions are getting tiresome. However, as a business owner in South Knox, the parking situation is a very real problem for residential and commercial interests alike. It’s like there’s no plan for the area to develop and grow; imagine that.

    Reply

    1. There is parking under James White Bridge. Parking at Regal. We do not need to become another west Knoxville. More parking more cars. The beauty of this area is the outdoor vibe. Provide parking at a reasonable walk or better take a bike.

      Reply

  18. These are plain ugly. What’s worse is that, for all the talk of preserving the urban tree canopy, there is not one mature tree, no flourishing shrubbery, just orderly small plants that do little to relieve the sterile monotony of the buildings. How can Knoxville allow this blatant disregard of something so important to the city?

    Reply

  19. Developers come to places like Knoxville to take advantage of our business friendly environment. Unfortunately business friendly doesn’t always mean good for the community. Unless we have stricter zoning and regulation apartments such as these will continue to pop up from time to time. It’s really a shame to see this prime land be blighted but it could be worse I suppose. If we want a better regulation of development, we then people around here will have to change their voting habits which is unlikely.

    Reply

  20. Mr Sims, you don’t need to publish this, but I do want to reply to the (gentle)man who disparaged you in the comments. (It looks like the comment was taken down?) He is wrong, absolutely wrong. Your reporting was objective, you cover all new developments, and you do a good job….for free, as the Joni Mitchell song goes. I’m so sorry he felt he needed to be so critical, and I want you to know that many of us feel you do a great job covering Kville.
    Thanks.

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Stephanie. I think the comment you are referencing was on FB. I haven’t taken down any comments here. That comment actually led to a good exchange, so it’s all good. I do appreciate your encouraging words.

      For those who didn’t see it and have no idea what this is about, it was suggested that I should have included critique in the article about the grand opening, and that by not doing so I was not living up to journalistic standards. What I wrote is worth posting here, as it gets to the heart of what we do on this webpage.

      “I don’t think we disagree on the scope of journalism and I don’t take this personally. I think about these things every single day. The question is when is an article an appropriate place for critique.
      It’s a tricky balance to strike when one person fills all the roles (reporter, editor, marketing department, etc). Some articles are reporting: A business has opened. Some articles are for editorial: Too many of this business is bad for the city.

      To critique an industry, business model, architectural style, in an article reporting on a grand opening would blur those to everyone’s detriment. As we announce new businesses, we simply give the information and trust people to reach the right conclusions. When an issue like housing, homelessness, policing, architectural blandness, etc needs to be taken on, that is when the editorial “voice” is appropriate.

      I probably miss the mark at times, but it isn’t for a lack of effort or thought. I appreciate this conversation.”

      Reply

  21. Dominion Website Approach Statement: “We deliver superior value and return to our partners and investors by building robust operating platforms driven by dynamic, faith-based cultures that serve to engage people, improve lives, and enhance our real estate investments.” I can only conclude that the design is cheaper to build providing that “return to our partners and investors”.
    And how does Jordana Nelson (VP of Developement and Affordable Housing) think that this is affordable? This isn’t Nashville? So much for “improving lives”
    Sorry Dominion – I’m not a fan.

    Thank you Mr. Sims for reporting and showing us.

    Reply

  22. The city of Knoxville paid millions for the land Suttree Park and the Waterfront road w/ public parking is on to the Conley’s. There is a connection between Dominion and the Conley’s who are also 531 Corp, Pryor Brown Garage, City South and other developments. Including across the river by the JWP. The parking at the park and on Langford is public parking paid for by the taxpayer. The right thing to have done was to keep the wooded area as a natural walking path to negate the heat-sink and allowed wildlife to survive. This intensity of this development was fought. But backroom deals abound in Knoxville. SW-2 where South Banks is, is not suppose to have commercial. So how is a restaurant going to be moving in?

    The SW1 Vision Plan states clearly any new development is to blend with the character of the existing neighborhood…Henson’s development does not. This development was built so rain runoff goes directly to South Coast Pizza and the Vet Clinic. We have had a lot of heavy rain. So some people think they know how to build but really suck at it. When you totally cover land where do you think water goes. They also don’t know how to build to blend with a neighborhood or what a tree is. The kayak launch is for non-motorized boats. One person already drown there parking a motorized boat there.

    The Form Based Code could have worked if it had not been undermined and revisited years ago to CORRECT the errors as people had requested. People in Island Home were the only people that had any say in anything built near them.

    Some of us are trying to get SW-1 fixed to what it was to reflect originally. Single family homes, cottages and duplexes. However, at this point duplexes should be denied and only allow single family homes. We have enough over development. Maybe a mobile home would blend in?

    Patti

    Reply

  23. I have to agree, even if it means piling on. My wife and I walk that area frequently, and the ugliness of the apartment design has been a frequent topic of discussion. These apartments are a bad fit for the area and an urban eyesore. Add a lack of affordable pricing on top of that, and you have a real indictment of the planning and approval process in the city. So disappointing.

    Reply

  24. I certainly hope that Knoxville City and County Councils read all these comments. Everyone is on the same page except the builder and the county. THIS IS THE UGLIEST BUILDING IN KNOXVILLE. I am sick of plain, square, cardboard construction that looks like crap. I am not an architect but I just have a hard time believing it costs that much more to have doorway arches, some columns, window accents. And I agree with the parking problem. Knoxville …you blew it! Suttree Landing will cease to be useful except for people living in the ugly building,

    I remain…..

    Embarrassed. Ashamed. Worried. Bored. Disappointed.

    Kathy Mahan

    Reply

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