The City of Alcoa, Resight, Inc., the Aluminum Company of America (now Arconic, Inc.), and the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) will have an open house Thursday, September 28, 2017. The Open House will be held at the City of Alcoa Service Center at 725 Universal Street from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm. The community is invited to come and see the plan that is being developed for the proposed redevelopment of the former Alcoa, Inc., West Plant site.
Resight Principal and owner, Mikk Anderson, said, "I am pleased with the plan. In particular, I am excited to propose a new idea for the project, an urban farm concept. It will really help support the growing farm to fork movement while increasing the sustainability of the development and its neighborhoods. We plan on working in a Farmer's Market adjacent to the farm. The feedback from the local restaurant community has been very positive."
The plan reflects a new urbanist design which incorporates a broad spectrum of land uses that are in close physical proximity and complement each other. One particular goal of the master planning process is to highlight pedestrian access of the site or overall community walkability. Street, sidewalk and greenway connections will allow enhanced multimodal access to the adjacent neighborhoods.
City of Alcoa Mayor, Don Mull said, "We are really pleased with the layout of this redevelopment plan. The overall design is consistent with what we have been envisioning for years. The Mills Street corridor will remain primarily residential with strategic street connections. The site will support over 1,300 new residential units of various types. This will be a strong benefit that supports the mixed businesses integral to the success of the redevelopment."
The plan features land uses that capture a wide assortment of development types. Specific square footages and acreages represented in the proposed plan are conceptual. As the property is built out the demand for certain types of uses may change. In those cases, the plan is flexible and acts more as a development guide.
Plan Land Use Guidelines
- Retail 522,000 sq/ft
- Office 195,000 sq/ft
- Hotel 530 rooms
- Single Family 93 Lots
- Townhomes 110 Units
- Multifamily 980 Units
- Senior Living 200 Units
Maribel Koella, Knoxville NAI principle, said, "We are seeing increased interest in all segments of the market. The residential component of the project has really come on strong. It appears we will end up with several housing types located throughout the project site. Retail, restaurants, office, elderly housing and hotels have all indicated some level of interest in the project. We hope once the backbone of the boulevard is substantially complete we'll see some building pads coming out of the ground."
"There are three separate major road projects associated with the build out," indicated City Manager Mark Johnson. He further explained, "The initial road project is the LIC or Local Interstate Connector piece named Tesla Boulevard. It will be the boulevard section that runs from the Hunt Road interchange to Hall road at Associates Boulevard. Another transportation component of the project will be the total reconstruction of the Hunt Road interchange. It will include a new set of bridges on Alcoa Highway connecting the airport to the West Plant redevelopment site. It is also a part of the overall Alcoa Highway reconstruction project. The third leg of the internal major road plan is the extension of Associates Boulevard through the site in front of the new high school, connecting it to Springbrook Road with a new roundabout."
The Local Interstate Connector, or Tesla Boulevard, portion of the road system will be completed by July of 2018. The remaining Hunt Road interchange improvements by the Tennessee Department of Transportation are scheduled to be bid in June of 2018. The extension of Associates Boulevard from Tesla Boulevard to Edison Street is currently under design and should go to bid in spring of 2018. Buildings and building pads can be built concurrently during this same timeframe.
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