Hold My Beer: Axle Ribbon-Cutting + Assorted Updates from Downtown North & Happy Holler

In what may have been the highest Patagonia-vest-per-capita event in recent Knoxville history, Axle Logistics cut the ribbon last week on its new 84,000-square-foot headquarters at 849 N. Central St. The $38 million facility sits directly across from the century-old building the company renovated five years ago as its first corporate HQ.

Alan shared a sneak peek back in August and my jaw dropped at the amenities: rooftop putting green, swing suite, basement basketball court, full gym, saunas, cold plunges, stand-up desks for all, and sweeping views of downtown. It’s the kind of office setup that throws back to Silicon Valley’s “Googleplex” era of turning workplaces into adult daycare for coders.

As Drew Johnson, Axle co-founder and CEO, put it in his remarks: “When you work inside the walls of an office building for 8, 10, 12, 14 hours a day, it was important to Jon [Clay, co-founder] and me that we create an office environment that is inspiring and a place that you want to be, a place you want to work, a place that ideally makes you happy. That is not necessarily common in the business world.”

Many of Axle’s employees come from the University of Tennessee’s excellent supply chain program. As UT continues its apparent world-domination tour, Knoxville can at least benefit by reducing the “brain drain” through competitive and attractive opportunities for bright graduates of all stripes. Axle understands that its primary hiring demographic, recent college graduates, do not want beige cubicles in a soulless West Knox office park. They want to be in the urban mix.

The new facility has capacity for up to 1,250 employees. That’s 1,250 humans energizing the neighborhood economy. Yee-haw, sure. Probably Schulz Bräu by proximity. But also businesses like the venerable old Corner Lounge across the street, which is now slinging a full lunch menu of handhelds and “happytizers.”

Food trucks are on the horizon too, a welcome consolation for those of us still mourning the closure of Central Filling Station. City Council recently approved a 15-year renewable lease allowing Axle to close Pruett Street to vehicles and turn it into a pedestrian corridor and public “food truck plaza” between its two buildings. It’s worth noting that Axle has made a valiant attempt to be a good citizen in the way of parking, too.

Meanwhile, the immediate surrounding area—“Downtown North,” as I think we’re calling it now, sort of bridging downtown proper and Happy Holler—is full-speed ahead. Just around the corner on Broadway, one of Knoxville’s oldest and most respected architectural firms, McCarty Holsaple McCarty, will begin operating out of its new office in the painstakingly renovated historic Sanitary Laundry Building on Dec. 1. We first wrote about this project in March.

I peeked through the street-level window on Sunday and the interior is stunning: light-drenched, soaring ceilings, a mossy-forest-floor-meets-modern-industrial-chic vibe, and real trees, indoors! I love real trees indoors. They forgot to put a basketball court in the basement, so instead there are two additional gorgeous office spaces down there that open to the back of the building and are for lease.

Next door you’ve got Big Slate Media, a very cool company employing 28 fine folks and two dogs—we wrote about them in June. And what’s going on with the former Bar Marley building? That’s what everyone with weirdly affectionate memories of the space (hi!) wants to know. Built in 1941, it originally housed the boiler for the Sanitary Laundry Building. MHM is transforming it into a cold shell: restored façade, new windows, new roof, an operable garage door and restrooms.

Realtor Matthew DeBardelaben said interest has been high and no doubt whatever goes in will be a hit. The listing has some neat renderings to whet your imagination. Matthew also noted that another beautiful but down-on-its-luck building, the one below Remedy Coffee and Paysan Bread & Bagels, is also on the market for a bright future.

I also peeked in the window of Sauna House—god, I’m such a creeper!—and its renovation of the former Mighty Mud space is really heating up (har-har). I wrote about that project, which I feel personally emotionally invested in, a couple months ago. Owners Peter and Dianna Osickey, who are also architects, told me the bathhouse is working toward a mid-January opening. Paint, tile and sauna wood installation begins next week. In the meantime, keep an eye on Sauna House’s socials for an announcement soon about the return of its mobile sauna.

A block over, the old Lusk Body Shop building (the former-former home of Mighty Mud) is looking for a new lease tenant and just downhill from a maker-centric stretch housing Ironwood Studios, McGilvray Woodworks, Aespyre Metals, and SpaceCraft (which is moving, but the new location isn’t confirmed yet).

On the other side of Broadway, Emory Place is a whole story in and of itself, but here’s a quick download: the historic buildings at 8, 10, and 12 Emory Place, on the downtown side, were recently listed by SVN Wood. The opposite stretch is changing hands but staying within the same family. We wrote about the expansion of Mother Bar last week here and the vet clinic here. There were high hopes for the renovation of the Dempster Building at the north end of Emory Place (609–617 N. Central St.), but it was bulldozed in August and will now be developed as multi-family housing.

Some artsy photos I took during the demolition:

Speaking of housing… what about people who don’t just want to work in this super-cool, rapidly growing district, but want to live here too? Old North, Oakwood-Lincoln Park, and Fourth & Gill are full of charming old homes you can imagine raising kids or growing old in, but few options exist for young professionals on a young-professional income who have zero desire to mow a lawn.

I’m no urban planner, but in my amateur mind, live-work-play looks like a triangle that should at least aspire to be equilateral. As the “work” side grows, the “live” and “play” sides have to grow too or the proportions get wonky. Nobody likes a squished triangle.

This area does have some “live” incoming: the most corridor-facing is a 12-unit complex called North x Central in the bottom of Happy Holler (the rascally old bar behind it, Y-Not, is slated for retail), by the same folks behind the Happy Holler Townhome Community further north. But there’s clearly appetite for more.

As for “play”? North Knoxville continues to excel at consuming craft beer. But there’s plenty beyond that: yoga at the Glowing Body (going strong since 2008), indie films at Central Cinema, tattoos, tarot readings, thrifting for sport, great coffee shops, public art, and standout food. (Shoutout to our sponsor, The Marlowe.) Central Bottle just celebrated its one-year anniversary. There’s Knoxville’s longest-standing LGBTQ+ club. Festivals and markets seem to pop up constantly. And if you need nature, you’re five minutes from Sharp’s Ridge, where you can enjoy a peaceful hike or court death on a black-diamond mountain-bike jumpline.

It’s wild how many blank slates remain between downtown and Happy Holler. There’s 20,000 SF of industrial space at 1215 Wray Street—an easy convert to a roller skating rink (investor alert! take my brilliant unhinged idea, free!). And an even bigger rink prospect at 202 W Springdale Ave. There’s 825 N Central St., 428 E. Scott Ave. and the former Knoxville Children’s Theatre space at 109 E. Churchwell Ave., all ripe with potential for your personal “skating rink” equivalent.

Knox Central, 1000 N. Central St., Knoxville, August 2025

In August, I wrote about one of the most premium and front-facing buildings on Central: Knox Central, AKA “the old Sears building” (1000 N. Central St.). Its future remains up in the air, but the public weighed in on possibilities through the East Tennessee Community Design Center’s Community Collaborative. Residential with ground-floor retail seemed to be the recurring theme. UT students in studios led by Ted Shelton and Trisha Stuth spent the semester researching that building and another—the Knox County Schools Maintenance & Operations building at 900 E. Fifth Ave. (which they discovered was designed by Albert Kahn!). They’ll present their work at the Collaborative’s First Friday Exhibit on Dec. 5 from 5–8 p.m. at Knox Central.

Anyway, this story is much too long, my brain feels broken, and I’m sure I left several threads dangling in the ether. But my point is this:

This is a really exciting corridor, full of history, momentum and possibilities. And it feels like we’re only at the beginning of what it’s going to become. Stay tuned.