City of Knoxville hosts open house to determine future of McClung warehouses
City of Knoxville is hosting an open house to figure out what to do with the McClung warehouses, which were the site of fires in 2007 and 2014
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - The City of Knoxville is considering ideas to renovate the area around the McClung warehouses, which burned down many years ago.
The area is easy to miss if you are just driving by. The foundation is all that remains of the old McClung warehouses after the fires, but the buildings do have a storied history in the city.
“It is part of the early industrial era of Knoxville. So, in the late 1800s, there was a lot of activity here,” said R.J. Justice, Chief of Urban Design and Development for the City of Knoxville.
Three of those warehouses were destroyed by fire in 2007, and then another fire burned the remaining two in 2014. Today, what’s left of the warehouses is buried underneath West Jackson Avenue.
The city has since bought the properties.
“And now we have an opportunity to redevelop this site,” Justice said.
The question now is: What should be done with the site? Justice said the area is three acres worth of space, spanning the length of the railyard from the bridges on North Broadway to North Gay Street.
“With the opportunity and challenges of a growing city, this space, about three acres in the middle of downtown, it’s just a great opportunity,” she said.
Justice said they’re hosting an open house on Thursday this week. The event will be open to the public, and the city plans on sharing ideas it has for the space with the public.
“Additional public spaces or integrated parking and residential and mixed-use. Extended greenways, maybe a connection to the new stadium or World’s Fair Park,” Justice suggested as a few options that the city is considering.
The open house is from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at The Standard on West Jackson Avenue this Thursday. All are welcome to attend to share ideas with city leaders.
If you can’t attend, the city will have a form on its website for people to fill out to allow people another way to share their ideas for the space. That form will be posted after the open house.
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