Downtown Hotel Updates: The Facts (Not the Myths, Rumors & Gossip)

There’s lots of hotel talk around downtown. Some of it is true. Some? Meh. One company, Vector Hospitality, Inc, previously announced the construction of three hotels: an AC by Marriott on Walnut, a Tempo by Hilton at the corner of Church and Walnut, and a Moxy Hotel (also by Marriott) at the corner of Summit Hill and State Street. Since the announcements a lot has happened, and a lot has been said. Let’s unpack it.

We’ll start with the AC by Marriott because it is the simplest of the three to discuss: It’s being built just as they said it would and on roughly the same timeline they announced in the beginning. You can read that initial announcement here and get lots more details for the hotel, as well as more renderings, etc.

They myth here was that nothing could ever be built in this narrow space. The tiny corridor between the Walnut Street Garage and the Daylight Building did seem small. It had been a tiny parking lot for as long as I remember and that goes back at least to the era of Watsons Department Store, because that was the spill-over lot if you couldn’t park in the little lot directly beside the rear entrance to the store.

Eventually the Daylight Building became homes, and this parking was initially offered to those residents. That was until the property was sold to Vector and the hotel plans began to move toward reality. And move they are, as you can see. The last time I pictured the construction site I, unfortunately, speculated incorrectly, perhaps spreading my own gossip. The massive faux marble concrete pieces were not intended for the hotel proper, but for the rather attractive and very substantial retaining wall. I’d wager that wall is more stable now than it’s ever been.

Otherwise, you can see the footers and rebar starting to take their spots. A square structure seems destined to be the beginning of an elevator shaft (FACT OR RUMOR: YOU DECIDE!). That’s just a guess, of course. The upshot is that this is shooting up and I love watching this kind of thing. Stop off on the top of the Market Square Garage if you want to get a great view of the entire site.

I communicated with Aman Patel of Vector Hospitality who told me the hotel is on its original stated schedule of breaking ground early this year and opening winter of 2026. The plans have also not changed, with seven stories, 162 rooms, and a rooftop lounge with a kitchen all of which will be open to the public.

So, see! Sometimes projects go exactly as planned. But some projects . . . Like, oh, the Tempo Hotel don’t go at all—or so it would seem.

The announcement of a planned Tempo broke at about the same time as the AC by Marriott. Both were planned by Vector Hospitality, and the first and most recent sale of the property was brokered by Sheev Patel with SVN Wood Properties and Will Sims with Oliver Smith Realty. Construction was to begin this summer on what was expected to be a nine-floor hotel with 175 rooms, 275 parking spaces, a restaurant, retail space, and a rooftop bar along Market Street. The best news? A massive parking lot in the center of the city would be replaced with a building!

But no. As you read in Leslie’s coverage, plans were scrapped when St. Johns entered a contract to buy the lot for over $11 million. The declared need was for Sunday morning parking for their parishioners who can’t walk the extra half block from the Locust Street Garage, which is free, of course, on Sunday morning. No valet could solve the problem, apparently. There was no possibility that all the mobility-challenged attendees could park in the lot adjacent to the church which includes dozens of spaces and already guts that block.

I’m going to have to go editorial here for a moment before I continue. I first wrote about St. Johns a dozen years ago when they destroyed two hundred-year-old buildings. We pleaded, begged, I published an open letter on this website, Knox Heritage got involved, David Dewhirst offered to redo the buildings free-of-charge.

They ignored the entire community because they simply “must have a drive-through for elderly parishioners with a covered side entryway.” There were renderings. It was never built. A few bushes were planted where the buildings once stood. Did they lie? Change their minds? I don’t know. I do know that they never fulfilled their declared reason for the destruction. I do know that the good of the growing city or respect for its buildings never entered the conversation.

And now they own a massive parking lot across the street. It will be a heat-producing, wasted space for six days and 22 hours each week. Downtown will be hotter because of their choice. The city will be poorer because even if they pay taxes on the parking lot, we are losing taxes on a 175-room hotel. “But no, be hot Knoxville, be poorer Knoxville. We’ll have suburban parking next to our church!” (Made up quote to reflect the attitude.) Do they have the right? Yes! This is America and money talks. Is it right for the city? No. Not at all. No way you spin it.

OK, back to fact mode. All this would make it appear the Tempo project is dead. It could be, but maybe not. In my exchange with Aman, he acknowledged the sale but indicated there is a “back up plan which I am unable to disclose at the moment.” This doesn’t save the parking lot from being a generational heat-producer, but it does indicate that 1) This sale didn’t happen because hotels are becoming less attractive to build in downtown and 2) It is very possible there will be future news regarding a downtown Tempo. Stay tuned.

And finally, there is the Moxy Hotel planned for the corner of Summit Hill and Central Street on the lot that used to be Merchants of Beer.

Have you heard? “It’s been canceled! The city wouldn’t let them build that high! The testing beneath the surface revealed it would not support the structure! It will be a parking lot forever! Way to go, Knoxville! We lose, again!”

All untrue.

Again, Aman and Vector Hospitality are behind this project, and it is on schedule! I’d originally written that the hotel would be eight stories (which may have been my error) and Aman’s most recent communication said it would be seven, but otherwise, it’s the same as originally announced. It will be “175 keys and will contain three beverage outlets, one of which will be a rooftop indoor/outdoor lounge.”

Just as I reported previously, the group plans to break ground early next year, though the projected opening was moved back a few months to the winter of 2027.

So, there you go. It’s going to be a long, hot summer. Some of the news will be good, some of the news will be bad, and some of the news? Well, it will just be idle gossip at best or lies at worst. Stay chill, Knoxville.