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Seven Days

Thursday, March 15
In the department of What Goes Around Comes Around, former state Supreme Court Justice Penny White is part of a legal team arguing in a Knox County murder case against allowing full media coverage of the trial. Turns out she voted with the Court majority five years ago for the rule allowing photo coverage inside state courtrooms.
It's announced that efforts are underway to determine Knoxville's role in the Underground Railroad. Must be some mistake. It was trolleys Knoxville used to have, not a subway. Ask you-know-who.

Friday, March 16
Mayor Victor Ashe announces a broad program of alternative building codes, financial aid and parking assistance to people wishing to rehabilitate old, historic downtown buildings. The question is, will there be any such buildings left standing by the time the program is finally in place?
City and County sales tax projections turn out to have been more than a million dollars too high. Officials immediately huddle with adviser Bobby Drinnon.

Monday, March 19
The Legislature passes a bill to deregulate long-distance telephone rates in Tennessee, claiming rates will surely go down. Hey, if it worked for electricity in California, it should work for phone rates in Tennessee.

Tuesday, March 20
In unrelated items, Jerry Green, the UT men's basketball coach, accepted a contract buyout to leave his job, and City Council voted to limit a proposed ban on new billboards. Knoxvillians all over town were heard muttering, "One out of two ain't that good, really."

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
Nobody. Nothin'. Nada. We didn't even get a single entry on this mystery facade with the doors stuck two stories up in mid-air. Qu'est-ce que c'est? It's McKee Hall, the administrative building at Knoxville College (more readily identifiable, perhaps, by its distinctive bell tower). It dates to the end of 19th century, when it was built to replace a similar edifice that burned down. So sorry for stumping y'all. The prize, a week's vacation in Del Rio, Tenn., goes to our invisible intern Fuzzles. C'mon people—don't let him have all the fun.

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

KNOX COUNTY COMMISSION

MONDAY, MARCH 26
2 P.M.
CITY COUNTY BUILDING
400 MAIN STREET

On this week's agenda: a resolution to make the county's hours for sales of beer uniform with the city's (5 a.m. to 3 a.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 3 a.m. on Sunday), and a report from the county parks and recreation department on possible alternate uses of the Farmer's Market.

Walking the Talk

Can John Elkington deliver on his Market Square promises?

When John Elkington starts talking about his plans for Market Square, it's like music to the ear. The square ought to be Knoxville's crown jewel, he says, and its revitalization can be accomplished without resort to city acquisition of the property via condemnation or the threat of same. An eclectic mix of commercial activity and special events will celebrate East Tennessee's heritage and draw visitors from near and far. But loft dwellings and offices will also be encouraged in a mixed-use setting that preserves the square's urban character and historic building stock.

What more could be asked of this gregarious developer from Memphis who has gotten national acclaim for his renovation of Beale Street into Tennessee's leading tourist attraction? Well, there is one not-so-little thing: his ability to deliver on his promises. Recent reports of his failure to do so in Winston-Salem cast doubt upon his bona fides.

"After months of delays and unfulfilled promises, developer John Elkington has told local officials what skeptics contended would happen all along: He is scaling back his commitment to create an entertainment and retail district downtown," the Winston-Salem Journal reported on March 17.

According to the Journal, only two prospective tenants remain: a sports bar bearing the name of former Wake Forest basketball great Tim Duncan and a NASCAR Café. But the sports bar is contingent on the residential renovation of an antiquated office building by another developer and the NASCAR seems like a no-brainer in the Winston Cup's home base.

Of course, most developers have their share of setbacks, and Elkington is quick to ascribe his difficulties in Winston to lack of support from the city. "We thought we could buy 100,000 square feet of property for about $2 million, but the owners ended up asking for $5.7 million, which was beyond the realm, and the city wasn't willing to go in and say we'll help you out," he says.

Rence Callahan, an architect who long headed Winston-Salem's Downtown Development Corp., shares this view. Asked whether Elkington can deliver on his promises, Callahan responds, "The question isn't always whether he can deliver. It's also whether the city can deliver. You can't expect the Pied Piper to do it all for you. There's got to be a public/private partnership, and that's been lacking here."

Still, there's a seeming inconsistency between Elkington's blaming Winston officials for lack of a "helping hand" with property acquisition and his insistence that the threat or use of condemnation—except in isolated instances—would "be a huge mistake" on Market Square. How does he account for it? Elkington cites the example of Shreveport, where his firm, Performa, is due to open a 120,000-square-foot shopping, dining and entertainment complex this fall. "We got to a situation where there was a critical piece of property we needed, and the mayor brought the owner in and said we've got to do this for the good of the city, and he negotiated the sale for us."

In the case of Market Square, Elkington claims to already have letters of intent to acquire over 80,000 square feet of the square's 140,000 square feet of building space, along with expressions of interest that would bring the total to 100,000. "We've got to have over 100,000 square feet to operate on the scale that's needed to be successful, but we don't have to own everything." Use of eminent domain should only figure in, he says, "where property is blighted, and the owner has no intent to develop it."

Elkington also claims to have letters of intent from prospective tenants for over 50,000 square feet of commercial space. Their names have just been submitted to the city and are due to be made public in early April. The ground-floor tenant mix, he says, will be about 40 percent retail, 40 percent restaurants and 20 percent entertainment. He envisions that at least 20 residential units and 30,000 square feet of office space would comprise most of the upper floors.

"A festival market would be the centerpiece," he says. It would be a multi-level, multi-tenant food market housed in the former Watson's building and offering fresh meat, fresh fish, produce and pizzazz. "There'd be something happening all day long."

Everything would be themed to the heritage of the region, which he defines as Appalachia. "That's not just the tenants but also events and festivals that celebrate the region's music, history and culture. We've got to be a gathering place, attracting people from throughout the region as well as conventioneers, business travelers and tour buses."

To make it all come off, Elkington has budgeted $24 million for property acquisition, building improvements, tenant improvements and associated professional fees. There's no provision for developer fees because, he says, "I don't believe in them."

The $24 million is in addition to the $4 million in city outlays that the Public Building Authority has recommended for utilities and other infrastructure improvements on the square, along with $16 million for an adjacent parking garage. Elkington exudes confidence that revenues to the city will more than cover the cost of its investment.

Where his tendency to tell people what they want to hear becomes most pronounced is when he tries to allay concerns of Market Square property owners over monolithic intrusion—whether governmental or his own. Elkington remains convinced that restrictions are needed on "undesirable" types of activity on the square—restrictions that are typically imposed by covenants among property owners and their tenants. But in a multi-owner environment, he professes to believe that his purposes can be accomplished through zoning, building on the special features of a new Town Center (TC) zone that the Metropolitan Planning Commission recently adopted, in no small part at the behest of a Market Square property owners' association.

One of Elkington's declared intentions on his trip to Knoxville this week was to meet with the president of the Market Square Association, Bill Ambrose, to present his zoning ideas. But that brings out another tendency for which Elkington has drawn criticism, at least in Winston-Salem: failures to follow through or to return phone calls. As of Metro Pulse's deadline, Ambrose had not heard from Elkington.

The Association has presented an alternative development plan to Mayor Victor Ashe that relies on each of the square's multiple property owners to develop their own buildings for "compatible mixed uses that include residential, commercial, professional and office." But in a meeting with several of them it becomes apparent that they have no grip on how much needs to be invested for commercial viability nor any other semblance of a collective business plan. Nor are there any projections of revenue generation toward covering the cost of the city's investment in supporting infrastructure.

The MSA plan does provide for the selection of a joint marketing/leasing agent. But the MSAers spurn the PBA report's assertion that, "it is extremely unlikely that all individual property owners can afford renovation of the quality that the city should require" and that "the narrow size of several lots will not provide sufficient size for meaningful redevelopment use."

"If you try to drastically change uses of buildings from what they were intended for, it doesn't work well," says the MSA's most vocal spokesperson, Susan Key.

Elkington, for his part, contends that "people can try to do it one building at a time, but it will never work. They are living in never-never land." Whatever his successes elsewhere, Elkington still has a way to go to convince Knoxvillians that he's for real.

—Joe Sullivan

Audit Circle Closed

There'll be no talk of a county government audit yet

As the report of the auditors examining the organization of the Knox County schools system approaches, little information emerges about its anticipated recommendations. There is a move afoot to extend the auditing company's efforts to all of county government, but no decision will be made on that possibility until the schools audit is complete.

Due March 29, the report is based on the findings of the Houston, Texas, firm McConnell, Jones, Lanier & Murphy, a company with some experience auditing schools. Those findings were reviewed twice by county school officials, most recently on March 8 and 9. The second review was requested by Superintendent Charles Lindsey, in part because the auditors didn't leave any copies behind after the first review.

"That's telling, isn't it," says one school system insider who would speak only without attribution. The implication, according to the insider, is that the school administration isn't going to like the outcome. Another administration-connected source, also requesting anonymity, says there appears to be "no question [the auditors] will say we're heavy on school-level administrators [assistant principals]." That source says the large number of assistant principals in the system is deliberate. It grew out of an administrative decision that added leadership is needed within the schools to maintain discipline and offer direct communication to the largest number of students. The actual administrative offices downtown will likely not be described as bloated or top-heavy, that source concludes. The latter point, if borne out in the audit report, might disappoint many of the county commissioners who sought the audit with the hope of influencing a reduction in central office staff for budget efficiency.

Whether the MJLM auditing team, or perhaps some other auditing group, will move on into other county offices is an open question. County Executive Tommy Schumpert says he's asked for a proposal from MJLM because they've already worked with county finance and purchasing offices as part of the school system audit. "But I didn't want to get in the way of the school audit, so when their school report was delayed a month, I told them to defer my request until after their report is final," Schumpert says.

Mike Hammond, chair of the Commission-created efficiency panel that screened auditing proposals and gave the nod to MJLM for the school audit, says the audit extension to all county departments would create "an opportunity to find out a lot, if the constitutional offices will cooperate." Schumpert says most of those offices have shown a willingness to come under an efficiency audit.

Hammond seems almost surprised to hear that. "I've been in the news business a long time," says Hammond, a radio executive in Knoxville for almost 30 years, "and I thought I knew quite a bit about county government, but the turf protection, I just didn't realize how far it went."

Hammond, who is also on the panel's audit committee, along with Commission Chairman Leo Cooper and school board member Jim McClain, says he'll advocate a county government-wide audit, and he recognizes MJLM's "leg up" on any such contract because of its work with county offices that serve the schools. "But I'll have to wait and see what their expertise is in dealing with such offices as the sheriff and the register of deeds and the clerks of the courts. I want to see what they'll bring to the table."

That sort of experience, like the subject of the school audit itself, is not being discussed at all by MJLM. Sharon Murphy, one of the MJLM partners who is working on the Knox County project, says her contract specifically prohibits her from talking with the media while the audit is pending.

"I don't want to say anything that might get the company in trouble," says Murphy when asked about the firm's background, apart from school system audits. She says there is no one else in the company, either, who could discuss its experience or lack of experience in the handling of audits of governmental units other than school systems until after the school audit is finalized and made public.

—Barry Henderson