Knoxville Center Mall e-commerce proposal scaled down
The developer seeking to build an ecommerce fulfillment warehouse at Knoxville Center Mall has scaled back its proposal and capital investment.
Hillwood Enterprises presented a new site plan to the Knoxville City Council in an attempt to reduce noise, light and traffic impacts on the neighborhood.
The concessions will help smooth the rezoning approval process in an effort to meet an ambitious timeline that would result in an operational facility by March 2022.
The project, once billed as a $70 million capital investment, now looks more like $30 million-$40 million, Knoxville Chamber vice president Doug Lawyer said.
In its first reading, the council voted to approve the project. It will be read a final time at the Nov. 17 meeting.
Here’s what we learned about this newest iteration of the proposed development for an unnamed occupant.
About half of jobs would be contract
Lawyer, speaking on behalf of the Chamber, estimated the development could result in net new wages of $22 million per year.
He estimated the occupant would hire for about 730 jobs, half of which would be contract-based. Jobs start at $15 an hour and full-time employees earn benefits on day one of employment.
The development would require 15-20 senior management roles that would pay $60,000-$80,000 annually.
Though we don’t know the planned occupant, we know Amazon often touts “indirect” jobs created by its presence in a community.
Lawyer estimated 0.864 indirect jobs would be created for every direct job, resulting in an additional 630 jobs in the community.
Those indirect jobs might be with contract companies providing landscaping or new businesses established as a result of the occupant’s presence there.
Combining the direct and indirect jobs, Lawyer estimated1300 jobs would be created.
Smaller building footprint
Benjamin Mullins, an attorney for Hillwood, presented a new design to council with a “less intensive impact” to the neighborhood.
The new site plan, still subject to change, is a single 219,000-square-foot warehouse. The previous plan involved two buildings of 110,000 and 280,000 square feet.
In addition, truck traffic might be reduced. There are now just 18 truck docking spots on the site plan, down from 95 in previous designs, according to Hillwood. The developer maintained overall traffic would be less than when the mall was still busy.
Traffic will enter off North Mall Road and docks are located on the south side of the project, farthest away from the 250 residences at East Towne Village Apartments.
Hillwood also committed to deed-restrict the property to limited uses, create a buffer zone near the apartments where trucks could not park and comply with most of the residential standards for light and noise.
The concessions appealed to East Towne Village Apartments owner David Brown, who declined to speak against the development during his allotted time at council.
Codename: Project Malibu
The timeline of when Hillwood, a real estate developer known for building warehouses for internet retailers like Amazon and Wayfair, honed in on Knoxville is more clear.
Lawyer said discussions between the Chamber and Hillwood began in May 2020 on a fulfillment center, code name “Project Malibu.”
The Knoxville Chamber board supports the project unanimously, Lawyer said.
Hillwood is communicating with Knoxville Area Transportation to maintain a permanent bus line to the property. It’s a critical way to provide reliable transportation for employees who might not have access to a car.
Chief policy officer and deputy to the mayor Erin Gill said the carbon emissions of the project would be at worst equal the impact of the mall in its heyday.
Source: Knoxville News Sentinel, by Brenna McDermott
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 November 6, 2020