Of all the projects taking place in the City of Knoxville, the VA Campus redevelopment project will likely go down as the most significant of 2020. The land on the west side of town, which had been unused for several years, will soon see progress toward a long-term goal. Mayor Brian Hatch says that the early steps are complete, and that it’s an exciting time for the city.

“It’s a huge step forward for Marion County and the City of Knoxville. We’ve talked about it so many times, and that’s something we’d talked about for the last two or three years to acquire. We’re now in ownership of it. We had a few obligations that we had to meet in order to get that. The state Historical Office, we had to work with them throughout that process. Things are moving, I know we say it over and over again, that’s a long, slow process. We’ve got to be patient, but things are moving, and hopefully this coming year, we’ll start to see some progress out there.”

After several meetings with community leaders, the initial steps in development were allowed to take place, and the city is now accepting demolition bids to be completed this spring. Hear a 2020 year in review with Knoxville Mayor Brian Hatch on the New Year’s Day edition of Let’s Talk Knoxville.