Development can be a slow-moving train but lately I feel like I’ve been running just to keep up. Between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, I attended an open house for the South Waterfront Down River Master Plan (see the story here); a groundbreaking for State Street development Vintage Cal; and a hardhat tour of the Tennessee Theatre’s 612 Building. Plus, we learned that Riverview Tower is on the market, the U.S. Bank Building is under contract, and last night the City Council OKed funds for Old City streetscapes.
Any one of these could be a standalone story, but there are only so many slots on the editorial calendar and today is already a double-header. As such, I’m sharing them as a batch. Let’s get into it!
Long-Anticipated Vintage Cal Breaks Ground
Golden shovels were lifted and ceremonial dirt was tossed yesterday at the northeastern corner of Union Avenue and State Street, marking the official groundbreaking of Vintage Cal. The development will include 167 new apartment homes, including 15 workforce units, along with 2,000-sq.-ft. of retail space and 167 structured spaces in a below-ground parking garage.
The site has had a long and winding history and has been the subject of several IOK articles as recently as October of this year and 2024 and as far back as October 2015. Earlier visions for the parcel included a sheriff-led movement by the County Commission in 1999 to build a high-rise prison (“justice center”) that I’d almost forgotten until developer Buzz Goss mentioned it in his remarks yesterday. What a fever dream downtown development has at times seemed!
“This has been a gaping hole right in the heart of our downtown for as long as I can remember,” Mayor Indya Kincannon said. She spoke about the importance of housing at all price points to create vibrancy and help support the downtown economy year-round.
The name honors Cal Johnson, the successful Black businessman and philanthropist whose footprints are all over the area. Marble Alley, Vintage Cal’s sister development completed in 2016, added 248 homes. While Marble Alley included more units, Vintage Cal will come with a significantly higher price tag, reflecting the increased costs of materials and labor in today’s construction environment. It will be supported by a 9-year PILOT.
“We are glad that the City of Knoxville can support this development because we need it,” the Mayor said. “Every single time that we work with investors we carefully examine the proposal and see if it’s consistent and aligned with what the City needs, and this one just checked a lot of boxes.”
Project partners include Marble Alley Development, McCarty Holsaple McCarty Architects, Smee + Busby Architects and TDK Companies. KCDC helped facilitate this public-private partnership.
Tennessee Theatre 612 Building Expansion Updates
From the Vintage Cal site I hiked up the hill to the Tennessee Theatre’s 612 Building to see and hear the latest on this exciting project which IOK has been following closely – we last toured the space in July 2025. This expansion, which will physically connect to the theater’s main- and balcony-level foyers thanks to the building’s unique footprint, will offer additional bar locations, more public restrooms, a new intermission lounge at the balcony level, and much more.
The first of two big announcements shared yesterday by Executive Director Becky Hancock was that a date has been set for the public opening: March 20, 2026. The date coincides with a newly announced Old Crow Medicine Show concert; tickets go on sale for that this Friday, Dec. 12, at 10 a.m.
“We cannot wait to share the beautifully renovated 612 Building and its many amenities and offerings with our attendees, friends and supporters,” she said. “This project has been many years in the making, and as we near the completion of the construction, we see the vision of the expanded amenities and benefits to our attendees coming into clearer focus than ever before.”
Becky also announced that the recently acquired top floor of the 612 Building will house a state-of-the-art recording studio connected to the theater’s auditorium. Designed by Nashville-based Steven Durr Designs, the studio will allow touring artists to record “Live at the Tennessee” content and will also be available for use by local artists, nonprofit partners and others The studio nods to the building’s history: in the 1950s, its top floor was home to WROL-AM, where artists including the Everly Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs and the Osborne Brothers once performed live on the radio.
Becky said, “The addition of a recording studio was a pretty ambitious idea, but we wanted to figure out something that would really help make the theater more versatile, more attractive to both touring artists and then more supportive of local performing artists. And then the tie-in with the building’s history was just too good to be true.”
While the recording studio will be completed at a later date, ticketholders attending shows beginning March 20 will be able to access the 612 Building through the Theatre’s balcony-level connection.
Additional details about other spaces within the building, which will range from event and rehearsal spaces to administrative offices and a donor lounge, are expected to be announced in the coming months. “We already knew from day one that the restrooms and the bar service areas will improve that patron experience, but we are still dreaming about the ways that that education and rehearsal floor will really change the way that theater serves the community,” Becky said.
The renovation of the former Mechanics’ Bank and Trust building began in April 2024 and is being led by Jenkins & Stiles, Partners Development and McCarty Holsaple McCarty. Fundraising for the $24 million expansion continues, with more than $20 million raised to date. The Tennessee Theatre, now in its 97th year, acquired most of the building in 2019 and the final top floor in September 2024, expanding both its physical footprint and its creative reach as it heads into its second century.
Learn more about the project or contribute at tennesseetheatre.com/612-project.
Riverview Tower For Sale; U.S. Bank Building Under Contract
Continuing our development adventure tour down the block we arrive at Riverview Tower at 900 S. Gay St. Yesterday SVN | Wood Properties announced that the 23-story office tower along with its 421-space parking garage have been listed for sale. The 335,000-square-foot tower was built in 1985 and remains an enduring icon of Knoxville’s downtown skyline. I often find myself admiring the reflection of a sunset in its sleek glass façade.
Riverview Tower is the second-tallest building in Knoxville behind its neighboring Plaza Tower which rises to 27 stories. It was built by C.H. Butcher for City & County Bank, six years after the Plaza Building, and you’ll still hear locals refer to them as the “C.H. Butcher building” and the “Jake Butcher building.”
Hertz Investment Group has owned Riverview Tower since 2013 and previously attempted to sell the property in 2018 without success. While the current sale price will be determined by offer, property records list the building’s 2025 appraised value at $25.9 million.
The building is currently 96% leased, with tenants including Truist Bank, CGI Federal, and several prominent law firms.
SVN will begin showing the property to potential buyers on Dec. 17, with two additional showings planned in January. Bids are due by Jan. 23, with a buyer expected to be selected on Feb. 20. Negotiations are scheduled to run from Feb. 23 through March 13.
In July we reported that another downtown office tower, the U.S. Bank Building at 607 Market St., was also listed for sale with SVN | Wood Properties. That building is now under contract to an undisclosed purchaser.
Council OKs Funds for Old City Streetscaping
And finally, a quick detour to the Old City for a project with a fraction of the price tag but feels welcome nonetheless
Walking along East Jackson Avenue beneath Hall of Fame Drive and James White Parkway has always been a generally uninspiring experience. It’s dark, heavy on asphalt and sounds like it’s thundering all the time. But with more people than ever traveling this stretch on foot on their way to and from Covenant Health Park, City Council approved funding for streetscape upgrades along East Jackson Avenue between Morgan Street and Stadium Way.
In 2016, the City made significant investments along the western end of Jackson Avenue. Narrow, broken sidewalks were replaced, overhead utility lines were relocated, new trees were planted, and updated streetlights were installed. More recently, similar improvements were made along Central Street and Willow Avenue, bringing wide, tree-lined sidewalks and new lighting. Now East Jackson is up, with planned upgrades to include new curbs and sidewalks, drainage improvements and street lighting.
City Council authorized Mayor Indya Kincannon to execute a $621,633 contract with Whaley Construction, the lowest and most responsive of the four companies that submitted bids for the work.
That’s all, for today at least. Phew!
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