The NV Nightclub building and the parking lot adjacent to it will see some new life.
Two Knoxville development companies have purchased the properties: Hatcher-Hill Properties bought the NV Nightclub building, at 125 East Jackson Avenue, and Dewhirst Properties acquired the lot.
"Those two are fine developers," developer David Dewhirst said of Hatcher-Hill's Mike Hatcher and Tim Hill. "They are real doers, not just talkers. I’m sure that Tim and I will find a way to work together on our developments to make the Old City area even better than it is today. "
Mary Katherine Wormsley, Hatcher-Hill's principal broker, showed WBIR 10News around the property her company purchased earlier this month. It includes the NV Nightclub building, as well as The Bowery space and courtyard.
"It's about 19,000 square feet, when you combine the two buildings and about a 5,000 square-foot courtyard, which is incredibly unique to downtown," she said.
Hatcher-Hill has begun renovations on the space and plans on revealing the incoming tenant, if all goes well, in coming weeks. The two entities are currently in the midst of negotiations.
"It's a restaurant with an event space," Wormsley said. "It will be a great use of this property."
She said the restaurant will be one for everybody.
"You know, the Old City has a lot of nightclubs that really cater to college students, so our view is, we want a venue here that caters to everybody, so that no matter what age you are," she said. "It'll be very affordable for many different types of people."
While the property has a bright future, its past is less clear.
"The Old City wasn't known to be the best place back then, so I think everybody was a little secretive and quiet about what was really happening here, so it's actually fairly difficult to find historic information," Wormsley said.
Greg Stooksberry and his wife live in a condo in the Old City.
Stooksberry said he's excited about the development going on in his neighborhood.
"Being an owner down here now, I guess it's like we have an investment in this area, so seeing growth is good, seeing things that would potentially make our property value go up is good," he told WBIR 10News.
He hopes Hatcher-Hill will take the NV Nightclub building and turn it into something other than a "run down club of the moment, which it seems to have been for the last several years."
One of his concerns amid all this good development, however, is the availability of parking.
"They keep removing the parking from the heart of the Old City," he said.
While the city has public transportation, Stooksberry said he doesn't see that as realistic to ask all people moving downtown to rely on that or biking and walking as their methods of getting around.
"Knoxville's a very spread-out town and most of us just prefer to drive our cars," he said. "I see no plan for accessible parking (in the Old City)."
Rick Emmett is downtown coordinator for the City of Knoxville. He said while his office hears concerns from time to time about the availability of parking, plenty is available in the area.
"I hear folks say that occasionally, but we have a free parking lot, a 500-car parking, which is free to the public, just mere feet away from these two developments, so we have quite a lot of parking already in the area," Emmett said.
That 500-car lot under the I-40 bridge is free and will remain that way, Emmett said. It's public property, and the Tennessee Department of Transportation doesn't allow the city or any entity to charge for the parking there. The same rule applies to the parking lot under the bridge along West Magnolia Avenue, near North Gay Street.