by Joe Sullivan
Optimizing Opportunities on Market Square
The most notable thing about last week's approval of a Market Square redevelopment agreement by Knoxville's Community Development Corp. is that nary a word was said edgewise.
After all the controversy surrounding predecessor plans for revitalizing the Square over the past four years, the unanimity at the KCDC board meeting was a testament to the consensus-building skills of its chairman, Bill Lyons, and of the developer with whom he negotiated the deal terms, Kinsey Probasco Associates. So content are once contentious Market Square property owners and other former dissidents that not one of them even bothered to show up for the meeting.
Under the terms of the agreement, for which City Council is expected to provide funding on June 19, Kinsey Probasco will get up to $1.1 million to cover its out-of-pocket expenses and up to $700,000 in additional fees for:
 Design and engineering work, including environmental studies, for a cinema and garage complex on the Gay Street site where an aborted Knox County Justice Center had been due to go; negotiation, in consultation with the city, of "a lease or management contract...with a national theater chain selected by Developer"; and assistance in negotiating with Knox County for acquisition of the site. The projected cost of the complex, for which 80 percent federal funding is anticipated, is $6 million, exclusive of land cost.
Formulation of plans for improvements to Market Square's public space and to the façades of the historic buildings that adjoin it. The formulation process is due to start with a public workshop/charrette in late June, to be conducted by renowned urban designer Stroud Watson. A redevelopment plan that City Council has already approved in concept provides $2.6 million for public space improvement and $3 million for façade work. The plan also includes $1.2 million for extending Krutch Park through to Gay Street to create a pedestrian-friendly link between the cinema and Market Square.
Turn-key development of a $5 million city garage just to the west of Market Square to support commercial activity on the square. The 348-space garage would be built to support 64 residential units on top of it.
In sum, the Kinsey Probasco plan calls for $19 million in public outlays, all in the name of restoring commercial vitality to Market Square. Thus, the 10-screen cinema on Gay Street is intended to serve more nearly as a means to this end than as an attraction in its own right.
Small wonder that the property owners on the Square would have rallied around this plan considering that it: 1.) Provides $3 million in public funds to improve their private properties and thus make them more attractive to prospective commercial tenants; and 2.) Doesn't impose the sort of monolithic control over their properties that had been embodied in previous Market Square redevelopment proposals and became, in turn, the source of intense resistance.
So has unanimity in support of the Kinsey Probasco plan been gained at the expense of unwarranted subsidies to the owners and/or the sacrifice of uniform standards needed to enhance the commercial viability of the Square as a whole? We think not.
The façade money might take the form of payments by the city for acquisition of what are known as "façade easements" from the property owners. The terms and conditions of such easements, such as maintenance commitments on the part of the owners, are only beginning to be addressed and would be the subject of discussion with the owners.
Public officials make the case that façade improvements are part and parcel of making the Square's public space more attractive. "They are almost analogous to landscaping, streetscaping and other public improvements and are definitely part of the public realm," says the executive director of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, Norman Whitaker. Moreover, there is ample precedent for the use of such façade payments to improve the appearance of historic buildings elsewhere. "Easements for façade improvements are commonly used all over the country," reports Tom Mayes, deputy general counsel of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington.
Where standards governing commercial activity are concerned, many of the Square's property owners have themselves become proponents of a stringent set of zoning requirements. Ironically, it's almost as if the owners are prodding Kinsey Probasco to join with them in stipulating ways to make the Square more uniformly inviting to shoppers and diners.
Jon Kinsey, for his part, says, "I think less is better than more. We're not looking for a homogenous strip center." But the leaders of the Historic Market Square Association have become persuaded by a retailing consultant they retained last year that commerce on the Square ought to be managed more nearly like a mall in order to maximize its potential.
That consultant, Will Malone of Michigan-based McKenna Associates, is due to participate in a three-month planning process for public space improvements on the Square that will be kicked off by the Stroud Watson-led charrette. Malone's input, derived from a report prepared last fall when he worked for Gibbs Planning Group, is expected to emphasize the need for making the Square more accessible and its shops more visible. "Although the lush landscape design at the south entry [to the Square] establishes a 'park like' feel, it doesn't capitalize on the special urban design qualities of this space or support a vibrant retail environment," the report states. In other words, many if not all of the trees should go.
Beyond that, the Square's activist owners are looking to the city's new Town Center (TC-1) zoning ordinance as a base on which to build standards governing the appearance and conduct of business on the Square. "Through TC-1 zoning such issues as signage, hours of operation, maintenance, window display and treatments, etc. are addressed," states an HMSA submission to city officials and Kinsey Probasco.
While Kinsey Probasco deserves a lot of commendation for coming forward (when no local developer was prepared to do so), with a Market Square redevelopment plan that thinks outside the box, the firm needs to become more forthcoming on the standards front. "TC-1 could very well be workable, but we're not down that road yet," says Kinsey. We say it's time to start.
June 6, 2002 * Vol. 12, No. 23
© 2002 Metro Pulse
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