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Downtown Vibes: Construction brings more than just a new look

All the construction in downtown Knoxville and the Old City is bringing tons of new residential areas, something that was hard to find 10 years ago.

Katie Inman

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Published: 8:51 AM EDT November 1, 2018
Updated: 5:49 AM EDT November 2, 2018

If you were to walk the streets of downtown Knoxville and the Old City 10 years ago, you would have seen multiple buildings in need of some TLC. There weren't very many places to eat, shop or live.

But in recent years, the City of Knoxville has worked to change that, and there's been a boom of construction all over the area.

Updates on Current Projects

There are multiple construction sites and revitalization efforts going on right now in downtown and the Old City, and plenty of projects have not broken ground yet, but are in the works. Overall, the majority of what's being added are residential living areas, hotels and restaurants.

Rick Emmett, downtown coordinator for the City of Knoxville, said the reason they are focusing so much on residential development is because more and more people are becoming drawn to the downtown area.

"Well, we already have around 2,500 residential spaces [downtwon]," Emmet said. "We’re probably going to be having another additional 500 to 1,000 spaces in the next year, I would say."

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