It seems like the newest downtown renovation is coming close to completion. The Daylight building on Union Avenue has much of the residential units occupied, and I believe all retail space on the ground floor is booked and almost ready to open their doors.
The first tenant, a photographer's studio is already up and running in the beautiful (light-filled) space at the east end. There are many more to come as the final work is done on each of the units, and I think that having the Daylight Building will do much for Union as well as downtown.
Unless you already know and love Pete's at the west end of Union, the trek westward can seem a little out of the way, and having Daylight as an anchor will further expand the close-knit fabric of our downtown community. Giving people more of a reason to venture west of Market Square - to visit, perhaps, the new organic grocery going in to Daylight, will only serve to encourage people and development to fill out the downtown footprint.
Three more cheers for David Dewhirst and the lucky tenants who get to live and work in one of the best buildings on one of the best streets in Knoxville.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Union Avenue Coming into Light
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5 comments:
I can't believe that it almost got torn down to be a parking lot. Oh wait... I can believe it.
We need more mixed-use anchors in downtown... I can't wait to see what they do with the Arnstein.
I've loved this building for as long as I've been coming downtown, and these developments are so exciting! Also, I'd love to see inside one of the condos if anyone's having a First Friday party.... :)
Oh, I've had such a crush on that building. I'm so glad it got the care it needed.
Such a beautiful new space....while I'm kind of glad to see local business in the new space, I'm secretly disappointed that no one tried to court a big corporate presence where the photography company is.
If you've ever been to SoHo in NYC, you'll have to agree that the space in the Daylight building has so much potential to be a retail/grocery space. Probably more so than any other block downtown.
All local business is great, but it does nothing to help bring the mainstream people out of there boxes.
I could see a Dean & Deluca, Gap, or hell, even an Old Navy in that space. If they can put Old Navy in East Towne Mall, then they obviously don't mind taking chances.
I live in the Daylight Building and it is awesome!
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