by Matt Edens

It’s been a hectic month for downtown redevelopment. Announcement has followed announcement in a steady stream. First came word of more condos proposed for Jackson Avenue—new construction, even—and extra parking for the booming residential development of the 100 block. Then came word that Sam Furrow was angling to buy the nearly empty East Tower from TVA. And then, just as I was sitting down to write this came word that Phoenix Building developer Wayne Blasius is on the verge of bringing Mast General Stores, an eclectic retailer with a half-dozen downtown locations across the Carolinas, to the old White Stores building on Gay Street.

Questions, of course, remain. Considerable time will pass before the condos break ground. The Mast deal has yet to be sealed (along with the deal for the new downtown theater whose potential draw no doubt played a role in Mast’s move). And, even if Furrow does put a TVA Tower back on the tax rolls, there’s still the matter of tenants.

The subject came up the other day while I was looking at a Gay Street loft whose roof deck is, unfortunately, overshadowed by the bland grey bulk of the TVA building. “That’s an awful lot of space to fill,” I remarked, gazing up at the box-like structure, its design so minimalist that even Gropius would grope for words to describe it. My host, who’s done a bit of downtown development in his own right, just shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said, “it’d probably be good for law firms.”

Law firms, of course, are the standard fallback for filling downtown office space, seeing as how it seems every other sort of desk jockey has skedaddled to suburban office parks. Regardless, speculation is that Furrow’s fishing for something bigger—a major corporate tenant, either an out-of-towner or some local currently in the sticks who’s taken a shine to the idea of his company logo lighting up the skyline. Either would be a major score, whereas sucking up a few law firms that are already downtown would merely be reshuffling the deck, much like—as admirable as that project was—Furrow’s recent renovation of the old post office.

Of course, reshuffling the deck and freeing up real estate for another project was a major driver in the drive to transform the old post office’s old federal courthouse into a new home for the state Supreme Court. Granted, the project in question, a new headquarters hotel for the flailing convention center, has failed to materialize. But I, for one, am not complaining, seeing that we got a first rate renovation of the old post office out of the deal.

But as we stood there on the roof deck pondering the possibilities of Knoxville’s skyline, something dawned on both of us. It’s not the reshuffling that matters. It’s how you cut the cards. From where we stood above Gay the view was studded with turn-of-the-century skyscrapers: Charter Federal, the Farragut, the Burwell, Arnstein, Medical Arts and the old Bank of Knoxville Building—tens of thousands of square feet of half-filled office space—much of it occupied by...you guessed it...law firms.

But is class B office space the best use of these buildings? Particularly since the only thing really moving in the market is residential? As vacant loft buildings become a rare commodity, it seems to me that downtown’s aging office towers offer more square footage that could be filled with residents who will, in the long run, provide more support for a vibrant 24-hour downtown than office workers ever will. Oh, and a larger base of downtown residents will eventually lead to more start-ups filling retail and office space. Or do you think it’s a coincidence that many of downtown’s recent retail and restaurant openings—the Preservation Pub, Vagabondia and Nama to name a few—are owned by downtown residents?

The catch, of course, is making those buildings available for conversion. Which leads me to believe that some shuffling of the deck might just be in order, and new openings in the TVA Tower could play a part in that. So by all means, aim high and angle for an anchor corporate tenant downtown. But consider a back up strategy as well. After all, there are only so many big empty white elephants downtown can afford. And it’s unlikely that the TVA towers would look good as lofts.

December 9, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 50 © 2004 Metro Pulse