There’s a lot to unpack, here. As I reported last September, River and Rail agreed to sell the building that had housed the Old City Performing Arts Center. That happened, but with a twist: the group making the purchase changed at the last hour. River and Rail then purchased a building on Magnolia to be their new home. But there is also a coffee shop and bar and another downtown group that will be impacted by the building purchase. A third-party music production company is involved and a campaign to finance it all has been launched.
This is another development on Magnolia Avenue (2651, at the corner of Cherry and Magnolia), outside the geographic boundaries I’ve covered before. Obviously, it impacts downtown Knoxville in a number of ways and, as with Park City Village which I covered yesterday, I’m acknowledging some of the major development movement to the east of what has been considered downtown proper. The two developments are two blocks apart. To unravel the details, I met with Joshua Peterson, Founding Artistic Director of River and Rail and took a walk-around tour of the new building.
The building includes a front portion that is the older, more historic portion and a 1950s annex built onto the rear, totaling around 13,000 square feet (roughly double the size of the OPAC). Also included in the property is an empty corner space as well as space to the rear of the building. Peterson said that the initial plans call for parking in these areas, though they have other thoughts about some of the parcels included behind the building. For now, they only plan to pave the corner of Cherry and Magnolia, which will provide around 100 parking spots for their productions and events. Long-term plans may include artist housing, and a scene shop constructed on the property to the rear of the structure.
The current entrance is on the eastern side of the original building, and that will be retained. The space that opens from the front will be the lobby of the theatre and will include a bar. One of the components of funding the entire project is to involve other groups leasing portions of the building for use when the theatre is not mounting a production. One of the hopes is to have a coffee shop/bar in this front space that would be open for regular hours and would have built-in customers for productions, concerts, and other events in the building. If you think you might be a good partner for that, contact Joshua (joshua@riverandrailtheatre.com).
The eastern side of the building also contains a small courtyard space they intend to use for outside seating for the coffee shop/bar. An accessible ramp will be added to the outside and an elevator will be added to the interior. Some interior walls will be removed to make the front space smaller. It also includes a functional fireplace that they hope to refurbish for a gas fire.
The center of the old portion building features a beautiful brick-enclosed spiral staircase. The upstairs of the historic portion of the building will be used as shared office space. Joshua and Kenneth Herring, Executive Director. It will also include a conference room. The shared portion? That leads to one of the additional facets of the project and another group that will soon be leaving downtown . . .
Crossings, a faith community, which has utilized the Square Room at 4 Market Square as their worship center since it opened in 2009, will now move their offices to this front portion of the building in the shared office space. They will also move their worship services to the rear of the building in the theatre space, providing another source of financial support to River and Rail. The move includes their Sunday night group which meets in Christenberry Elementary School.
Their lease continues at 4 Market Square until the end of 2025. I spoke to pastor Molly Conaway and asked why the group would want to move. She said, “We have a lot of artists in our congregation who also want to support artists, and this seems like a good opportunity to do that.” As to where the group will meet after their current lease runs out — that’s up in the air. They may remain where they are until the new space is ready or they may have an interim spot.
The rear portion of the building includes two large levels. The lower level will include rehearsal studios, green rooms, and dressing rooms. Also included will be a catering kitchen. The rehearsal space is large enough for any River and Rail productions and the green room space/restrooms for actors is a first for the group, as none were available in the previous facility. The space will include new flooring and exposed ceilings (with the removal of the current drop-ceilings). “That’s the biggest way in which we’ve outgrown the Performing Arts Center: We are limited on the shows we can do because I don’t have anywhere to put people. Actors have to use the restrooms the audiences are using.”
The upper floor in the rear will be the performance (and worship) center. Seven-to-ten feet will be added to the roofline to provide unobstructed views of the stage. Seating will be added, with some stationary seating which allows for storage beneath, and some flexible seating which allows for a range of configurations and productions. Seating will be available for 225 to 240 people. A current balcony will serve as a lighting and sound booth, also a vast improvement over the current space. Audiences will also enjoy modern restroom facilities. The seating capacity represents a “50 to 60%” increase over the OPAC and the staging area is roughly 30% larger.
The performance space will not only accommodate the theatre and the church, in another announcement, Born and Raised Productions plans to enter a long-term lease to produce musical performances in the room seventeen weeks of the year, giving them their first permanent space. With the conventional seating arrangement, they would be able to seat a bit over 200, but for their performances, the flexible seating will allow for a standing room concert, causing capacity to swell over 300 people.
The renovation of the new building, including the purchase price, still equates to about half the cost to add what was needed to the OPAC, which would have included increasing the height of the building. The original purchase did not go through, but a new buyer, GBX, emerged. GBX, based in Cleveland, Ohio, is an investment company focusing on purchasing and preserving historic buildings. Their website currently lists properties in 23 different states and lists their motto as “Building Value, Preserving History,” implying their intention to preserve the building.
River and Rail will lease their current building for another year, carrying them through the end of this year. Locations for 2026 productions will be determined later as construction on the new building will not be complete in time for those performances. The sale of the OPAC brought $2.13 million and the purchase price of the new building was $1.65 million.
Later this year the group will begin a “multi-million-dollar fundraising campaign to coincide with River and Rail’s tenth anniversary.” Expect celebrations of the ten-year mark and, this spring expect a launch to the campaign. “We have to raise money to make this dream happen. Best case scenario, winter 2026, more likely the first half of 2027 to open.” The building itself is expected to be completed in just under a year.
The sale of the OPAC and the purchase of the new building was brokered by Will Sims of Oliver Smith Realty and Jeffrey Dealjeandro operated as broker from the Courtland Group, which owned the building. Amy Sherrill and Benefield Richters are providing the architectural support. Juliana Terra with the Urbano Group is providing design support and “development and vision consultant.” Urbano provided the renderings seen here. Wendy Holmes will help with strategy and implementation of the upcoming capital campaign. She is a former Senior VP of Artspace Projects in Minneapolis who now works as the lead consultant.