MARYVILLE, Tenn. — Revamped facades on historic buildings, a revolving loan fund to help pay for those upgrades, a central gathering place and more art are all things that could be coming to downtown Maryville.
Public Services Director Angie Luckie told WBIR that there's a large amount of information that will be presented at next week's Maryville Downtown Master Plan Open House.
Luckie said the goal isn't necessarily to grow Maryville's population and instead is to increase the amount of people who shop, eat, and spend time downtown.
"We've had some good progress downtown and we feel like downtown is on a real upward trajectory," she said. "We were getting recommendations, mostly from citizens and people in general, in all the things we could do. We thought it'd make sense to have a professional come in and look at everything, in total, and make recommendations for enhancements that would make downtown grow and thrive."
That's where TSW Design Consultants come in.
Luckie said they went with this group because of its strong transportation partners and knowledge of the economy, and at the meeting they'll share recommendations for downtown.
"This will just be a recommendation report," Luckie said. "The city will go and decide what we move on and what makes sense. Not everything they recommend will be driven by the city."
The group held a feedback session about the project in March 2023 and shared some insights about Maryville at that time.
In that presentation, consultants shared a Preliminary Market Study Snapshot. Data from that showed downtown residents skew younger and around 30% of people who live in the area are members of Generation Z.
The presentation also noted the area has more than 280 businesses and that 7,400 people either work in or adjacent to downtown Maryville.
The largest employers downtown are Blount Memorial Hospital, Maryville College and the Maryville city government, according to the presentation.
The public is welcome to attend the event on Feb. 6 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Maryville Municipal Center. It will be located in the Gary Hensley Meeting Room, 400 W. Broadway Ave. in Maryville.
For more information on the project, visit www.maryvilledowntownplan.com.