Mixed-use residential project planned at Pellissippi Place in Alcoa
Ramston Capital, a Nashville-based developer, is investing between $70-$80 million to build a mixed-use residential project at Pellissippi Place, a research and development park in Alcoa.
The apartments will add a critical quality of life element to the planned live-work technology park, intended to be a self-contained community within Blount County and home to tech companies driving innovation.
"It's all just trying to build an area where people can congregate work together, live together, eat (at) different restaurants and things like that," Muir told Knox News. "So it's going to be an all-inclusive area."
The four-story residential project will be constructed on about 13 acres of the 450-acre park, located off Old Knoxville Highway and Pellissippi Parkway. It'll include apartments, retail and restaurants and is scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2024, according to Jeff Muir, communications director for Blount Partnership.
Muir told Knox News the development could include about 450 units, but the design of the project isn't final.
The property is owned by Knox County, Blount County, and the cities of Maryville and Alcoa, according to Muir. Each invested $5 million to get the project started.
The park, which investors hope also will include a hotel, conference center, greenspace and research and development facilities, is a "generational investment," Muir said.
Proton therapy manufacturer ProNova Solutions already has a location inside the park, but the partners are seeking more innovation companies with ties to Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The development of the entire 450-acre Pellissippi Place is being overseen by the Industrial Development Board of Alcoa and Maryville.
Blount Partnership is the umbrella organization that houses the Industrial Development Board, as well as the Smoky Mountain Tourism Development Authority and Blount County Chamber of Commerce.
The idea to create the park, Muir said, came about in 2010 while studying the ways people wanted to live and work in the future.
"(Residences, shops and businesses will) make it its own little community unto itself," he said. "But definitely with a lot of the amenities that the young people today are looking for."
Muir said the residential units will give young professionals and families an area that's in walking distance to work and amenities.
"The way people are living now is they like to have areas that are walkable places that are close by," Muir said. "They can go to a brew pub and get a beer or a sandwich and then walk down to some other entertainment options."
The hope, Muir said, is residents don't feel like they're living in an industrial park next to tech companies, rather that they're in a neighborhood.
"It'll all mesh together very well with the design structures and everything else," he said.
The adjacent greenways running from Alcoa to Maryville help with that feeling of connectivity. Muir said there's a bigger goal: connecting the greenways from Knoxville to Townsend.
"(The park) would be a stop along the greenway where you could rest, you could go visit different shops and things like that," he said. "It's all about trying to make things easier for people to get around, and have a place for people to live and work together."
Source: Knoxville News Sentinel, by Silas Sloan
The East Tennessee Economic Development Agency markets and recruits business for the 15 counties in the greater Knoxville-Oak Ridge region of East Tennessee. Visit www.eteda.org
Published August 19, 2022