The City of Knoxville is looking to continue strong momentum going into 2024 after a busy year in 2023. 

In 2023, Knoxville saw large progress in the new Veteran’s District, an increase in housing opportunities, multiple unique events come to town, and continued emphasis on the downtown revitalization. In August of 2023, Knoxville was designated as a thriving community by the Iowa Finance Authority and Iowa Economic Development Authority. The Iowa Thriving Community designation is a way to elevate best practices from communities that are going above and beyond to leverage innovative methods to attract housing opportunities for their workforce. The city saw multiple lots purchased and homes starting to be built in phase one of the Veteran’s District and continued to progress toward phase two. 

The city brought events such as the Knoxville Airshow and the Knoxville Nationals downtown concert to town. The city is in a continued collaborative effort with the school district to be able to eventually come to an agreement for a new public safety/city hall facility at the site of the old Knoxville Middle School. Over the summer, the community welcomed new housing from Kading Properties and Knoxville City Manager Heather Ussery says that housing will continue to be a focus for 2024.  

“I definitely think housing is still on the forefront for the VA District. We will continue looking into phase two as well as progressing and selling of the lots in phase one. We will also have a large streets project for the upcoming year. It will be continuing with the downtown streetscape design on Main St. between First and Second Street as well as Third to Fifth. We will be completing Robinson from Fourth to Seventh so those are some significant stretches.”

Hear more from Ussery about all that happened in Knoxville over the last year for a 2023 year in review on today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville.