Comment on this story Wednesday, July 14 • According to a little-known state law, voters in upcoming local elections will have less than 10 minutes to make a decision on the 14 city and county Charter amendments included on the ballot. That’s cutting it close: Scientific studies have determined that a properly executed round of “eenie-meenie-minie-moe” takes at least 30 seconds to complete. Thursday, July 15 • A survey of national event planners shows that 82 percent of respondents would require Knoxville to build an anchor hotel before they would consider booking its convention center. The other 18 percent say they would require evenings with high-priced call girls, mounds of blow, and cash under the table before they would consider the same. Friday, July 16 • The News Sentinel reports that the state’s Air Pollution Control Board has nixed car emissions testing in smoggy Knox County, but has “left the door open” to reconsider it in the future. That hacking and wheezing you hear now is the sound of the APCB members, reconsidering. Saturday, July 17 • The Sentinel discloses that a key University of Tennessee football player has been cited for underage consumption. Head coach Phillip Fulmer is distraught, until an assistant assures him that modern medicine has a cure for tuberculosis. Sunday, July 18 • The Associated Press offers a feature on a Gallatin man who collects political and presidential memorabilia, items such as a George Washington inaugural button, a Lincoln campaign banner, and a ticket to Andrew Johnson’s impeachment. Still looking for: a “W” coke straw, and a Clinton condom. Monday, July 19 • More good news/bad news on the environmental front: The bad news is that water quality assessments show that area streams are heavily polluted with fertilizers, silt, bacteria, PCBs, heavy metals and other industrial wastes. The good news is that no one can say that East Tennesseans don’t embrace diversity. Tuesday, July 20 • Local officials plan to test an explosives detector from Oak Ridge National Laboratory by using it to analyze chemical vapors at McGhee Tyson Airport. But the tests may have to be scrapped because the detectors register a false alarm every time the airport’s fun-loving baggage handlers light their personal gas in the restrooms. Knoxville Found 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: The “V” pictured is the official logo of Volunteer Landing and was photographed in front of the Blount Mansion Visitor’s Center at the intersection of Hill Avenue and Gay Street downtown. Congrats to Alan Cheatham of Seymour for the correct response. We have an official T-shirt from the annual Shakespeare and Friends Renaissance Faire located in the heart of Hawkins County patiently awaiting your arrival. Meet Your City A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend POLICE ADVISORY & REVIEW COMMITTEE Thursday, July 22 6 p.m. The Literacy Imperative, Inc. 201 Harriet Tubman St. Quarterly meeting. KNOX COUNTY COMMISSION Monday, July 26 2 p.m. City County Building Main Assembly Room 400 Main St. Regular meeting.

A Four-Cornered Cypher
Market Square is still reaching toward its fulfillment

With the unveiling of a newly-refurbished Market Square in April, Knoxville’s annual Sundown in the City spring/summer concert series obliterated attendance marks from years past. Local businesses reported huge spikes in traffic and sales. And a downtown fixture that had for years resembled nothing so much as an Old West ghost town outside the weekday workday suddenly seemed a locus of activity, even when the banks and law offices were closed.

Some observers noted, however, that even after a protracted and painful construction period, many of the square’s promised renovations were still incomplete; that the new square with its glaring white expanses of concrete little resembled the vision promulgated by the original architectural renderings; and that the $8 million that went into its renovation seemingly purchased a final result little altered from the previous incarnation.

Depending on whom you ask, the Market Square/Krutch Park refurbishing rates as a swimming success, or an over-priced boondoggle. With a second phase of downtown redevelopment set to begin—this one involving a parking garage and accompanying retail/residential space on Union Avenue—and a downtown movie theater looming somewhere on the horizon, still others say they’ll wait a little longer before passing judgment.

“Looking at the big picture, we’re ecstatic about the momentum on downtown development,” says Scott West, a Market Square landlord and business owner. “There are some final touches, some minor issues I’d like to see addressed. But for the most part, what’s going on is profoundly beneficial to downtown.”

A bit of history: The Market Square renovation began in earnest in late 2002, under the auspices of coordinating developer Kinsey Probasco and its principle contractor, Cardinal Construction (of which Metro Pulse publisher Brian Conley is president). Initial plans called for the project to wrap up by the springtime Dogwood Arts Festival in 2003, until the first round of Market Square excavations revealed a woefully ill-suited utilities infrastructure.

Renovation halted so the utility problems could be addressed, the first in a domino chain of setbacks and delays—ranging from weather problems to bureaucratic hold-ups—that would push the project about a year past its targeted completion.

And, though the square reopened in April, a handful of details remain unfinished, most notably a series of six “interpretive spaces” in the concrete that will be filled by marble insets engraved with famous Knoxville-centric quotes. Another crucial finishing touch, the restoration of the stream that runs through neighboring Krutch Park, was accomplished only last week.

Other than those delays, critics of the renovation point to a handful of issues they see as detrimental to the harmony of the finished square. Chief among those is the abundance of concrete surface, a design change necessitated by the city’s decision not to use the more attractive but higher-maintenance pavers—which would lend a rustic, cobblestone-like appearance—originally called for in the architectural plans.

“If we could do something to address the vast expanses of concrete—with some staining, or stamped asphalt maybe,” says Andie Ray, owner of Vagabondia, a dress shop on the square. “That’s the number one complaint I’ve heard.”

Gay Street resident Michael Haynes echoes that concern; he also maintains that the constant construction delays are probably more indicative of poor planning than unforeseeable contingencies.

“Throughout, there seems to have been a lack of coordination,” Haynes says. “The delays have come about because there seem to be these constant surprises, as if no one was overseeing the process holistically.

“I am pleased the square has gotten something of a makeover,” Haynes says, “but I’m disappointed in many things about how that’s taken place. I’ll wait and see whether I think we got our money’s worth.”

But the new square has at least as many fans as detractors. Scott West reports that retail sales at his family’s Earth to Old City gift shop on the square shot up 50 percent over last year for the month of April, and by 25 percent for the months of May and June. (By contrast, ETOC outlets in Farragut and Sevier County changed very little.)

“What’s happening now is more important than how long it took,” West says. “The good far outweighs any criticism I would have. I’ve entered the world of developers myself now, and I understand that sometimes we tend to be overly optimistic; we sometimes overestimate what we can do and underestimate what it will cost. That’s how public projects work; you just have to deal with it.”

Concert promoter Ashley Capps of AC Entertainment calls the renovated square a key to “a growing momentum of activity.” Promoter of the Sundown in the City music series, Capps says the Market Square improvements were a big hit with this year’s concert-goers. “The feedback we got from the public was extremely positive,” Capps says. “The bands loved it, too. Every artist who played Sundown loved the experience.

“Everyone can look at details and say, ‘I would have done this or that differently.’ But I look at the overall, and overall, things are getting better and better downtown.”

But many criticisms of the ongoing redevelopment efforts have little to do with construction delays, bricks and mortar, or design specifics. Of more concern to many is the mechanism of the entire redevelopment process.

“If you ask someone who’s never seen the square before, ‘Do you think it’s finished?’ they’d probably say, ‘No.’” says Noel Hudson, Ray’s husband. “But I don’t think they’d say that because of the contracting work. They’d say it because many of these buildings are still empty. There was no retail strategy. The square won’t be finished until we employ one, and that’s going to take a long time.”

Former Knoxville City Councilwoman Carlene Malone, who voted against the redevelopment plan during her last term in office, agrees and charges that developer Kinsey Probasco failed to follow through with its responsibilities as a leasing agent for the square, which currently has tenants slated for only eight of its 16 ground-floor business spaces. Instead, she says KP has pointed to the prospect of the downtown movie theater as the key to success.

“As far as being a leasing agent, I don’t know that they’ve done much at all,” she says. “What’s happened is that we’ve let (Kinsey Probasco) write off any non-performance to the lack of a movie theater.”

“I didn’t know the square was non-performing,” John Kinsey responds. “We have more tenants there now than we have in decades. We said from day one that the downtown cinema is the most important component. Even without it, I think the square is seeing improvement.”

And so the questions linger: Why were the square’s subterranean utility issues left unaddressed before demolition began? Why did the city nix the architect’s original paving strategy, replacing pavers with generic concrete? Why did plans for the granite plaques that will fill the so-called “interpretive spaces” go unapproved for the better part of the year during the previous mayoral administration?

What seems clear when the smog of critiques and counter-attacks dissipates is that the Market Square renovation was a difficult, complicated task, one fraught with contingencies.

“We were dealing with so many unknowns regarding the utilities,” says Cardinal Construction vice-president Jason DeBord. “Plans had to constantly be revised and, unfortunately, much of the time we were at a standstill while that process was being completed.”

Conley adds, “I understand a certain level of frustration and accept responsibility for anything Cardinal might have done differently to expedite completion of this project. However, I think it is extremely important for people to remember that Kinsey Probasco, the city, and KCDC have all dedicated a tremendous amount of their time and resources to helping revitalize the square, and they should be commended for that.”

Now the larger downtown redevelopment plan moves into Phase II, which calls for a new parking garage and a two-story business/residential building, including 12 condominiums and 8,900 square feet of ground floor retail space in the adjacent block to the west. Bids for the garage construction contract were opened Tuesday with the Knoxville general contracting firm Johnson & Galyon prevailing as the low bidder. Work on the garage should begin in mid- to late August. Cardinal should commence on the retail/residential space within 60 to 90 days of the garage ground-breaking.

Still on the horizon is the proposed Gay Street movie theater, a project deemed too costly to include in the initial phases of redevelopment, but which could yet be the linchpin of downtown Knoxville’s ongoing revitalization.

“The story now,” says Hudson, “is, ‘what are the critical steps we need to take to get our buildings filled with tenants?’”

—Mike Gibson

July 22, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 30 © 2004 Metro Pulse