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Key Property in Play
In the chess game that is downtown development, a major piece went into play last week. Adam Cohen is back in town, and he says he has locked up the Norfolk Southern property at the corner of Gay Street and Jackson Avenue for a condo development. Cohen is from Birmingham (where Norfolk Southern has offices) and is a personable salesman of the first order. He was instrumental in putting together the Emporium deal, though he later dropped out and partner David Dewhirst carried it forward.
This particular piece of property is important because it is one of the few large vacant lots off Gay Street. It has often been viewed as a parking solution to rent the TVA tower, for development of the McClung Warehouses, and to relieve the pressure of residential on-street parking.
If Cohen indeed uses the entire lot for a low-density development, it removes parking options for several projects. But, between the announcement and completion of a major development, several permutations are possible. Such is the value of parking spaces in further downtown residential development.
A longtime downtown developer notes that you can rent a $600 apartment to a young person, and he can find a place to park. When people start paying $150,000 for a condominium, they expect to also have a parking place. Nearby.
Hell to Serve as Ice Rink
Once upon a time, city and county law enforcement had metro task forces to investigate major crimes, particularly drugs and homicides. They withered away due to the constant feuding between Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe and his Police Chief Phil Keith with Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison.
Even before his swearing in this week, new Police Chief Sterling Owen IV had lunch with Hutchison—they’ve known each other for a long time—to discuss a new era of cooperation in local law enforcement. Though no details have been worked out, the concept of returning to metro crime fighting was discussed, and Owen said he expects a good relationship to develop over time.
Shortly after the city-county lunch, at a ceremony dedicating the Billy Tindell pavilion at Three Ridges Golf Course, the sheriff was seen lunching with Democratic District Attorney General Randy Nichols, a frequent critic of the sheriff and foe of his jail construction projects. Also sitting in was Jay Witt, a former sheriff’s department employee who quit and went to work with Todd Cook and Tyler Harber over at the Office of Probation and Pretrial Release, otherwise known as the Ragsdale political machine headquarters.
Observers are wondering if perhaps hell has indeed frozen over.
Opa!
That this past weekend’s Greek Festival was the most popular, ever, is undisputed. Estimates of how much bigger it was vary; some organizers estimate the total crowd may have been double that of the usually well-attended events. In any case, the festival this past Friday and Saturday brought several thousands to the World’s Fair site. None of the hundreds of seats in the food tent ever stayed empty for long. At suppertime the lines for spanakopita, the Greek spinach pastry, souvlaki, and Greek wines, sometimes appeared to be a couple of hundred people deep.
It was the first time in its quarter-century history that GreekFest has been downtown; it has always been held at St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church on Kingston Pike. Visitors parked at nearby shopping centers and walked or rode free buses to the site.
The fact that the festival grew much more popular when it moved downtown pointed out an interesting irony. For some events, especially giant events held after work hours, parking is easier downtown than it is anywhere on Kingston Pike’s fabled parking paradise. It offers more options, in any case. On Main Street Saturday night, an easy five-minute walk from the festival, legally free parallel spaces went begging.
September 2, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 36
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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