KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A group of Knoxville professionals who hope to see improvements to a North Knoxville shopping center are collecting public input about what the community wants to see there.
The East Tennessee Community Design Center is hosting a collaborative community project that will imagine ideas for the Northgate Plaza Shopping Center on North Broadway.
"We ask them things, like what kind of businesses do you want to see in this area? What aesthetically do you want to see in terms of physical infrastructure, like street lights, benches, public art?" said Dustin Durham, the design studios director for the design center.
Currently, the shopping center is home to just a handful of businesses, including The Concourse — a kind of nightclub that hosts events and shows. It announced it would close in mid-August, leaving the location mostly empty. The shopping center is owned in part by the United Way and an LLC.
"There is a real opportunity to, again, start to imagine this to be something that can really serve the entire community in multiple ways," said Durham.
Some of the business owners remaining in the shopping center said it is in desperate need of improvements.
"It's gone down to just a couple, or just a few businesses here," said Luis Velasco, one of the owners of Tio Conejo, a specialty Latino market.
His business has been there for 12 years, and it recently expanded to open a restaurant.
"Broadway is one of the most trafficked, you know, areas here in Knoxville," said Velasco. "A lot of our community stays around Broadway, and so it's been very opportunistic."
He said there needs to be improvements to the parking lot and landscaping in the plaza.
"I feel like the parking lot is definitely a top priority, because it's not in the best shape at all," said Velasco," he said., "I don't know what the process is, you know, as far as landscaping, but it's also something that they can work on better, you know, to keep it clean."
While he is excited the public's input is being considered in the redevelopment process, he worries about the future of his business.
"It definitely intimidates us, because, you know, we don't want it to be to the point where, you know, eventually they're going to be like, 'Oh, we're just going to sell the plaza, and you're going to have to find somewhere else,'" said Velasco.
The organization is hosting open house meetings at the United Way in Mechanicsville to collect public input about how the shopping center may change. Those meetings are from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. on June 24 and June 25. The United Way location is at 1301 Hannah Avenue.