KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Dover Signature Properties recently turned the Tennessee State Supreme Court building into 63 apartments. This building, called The Tribute, includes seven floors with one bedroom and studio spaces, along with a rooftop lounge.
Dover's president said this is a hospitality-driven project where they wanted to add amenities such as housekeeping. People can stay there from one night to a few months.
The company's specialty is to take older buildings and preserve their stories but modernize them.
"All the stored energy that's here from 1952, we don't want to waste that," Rick Dover, president of Dover Signature Properties said. "We don't want to see a building lost and its story lost. So, we look to repurpose it and do the best job that we can and we look at what that takes. And then we just set a fair price and we hope people can pay it."
In the last couple of years, there has been a huge jump in demand for rental apartments in the CoStar Group's National Director of Multifamily Analytics, Jay Lybik, said rental demand seems to be edging down in the country -- but at the moment Knoxville is not following this trend.
"The vacancy rate in Knoxville is at 2.9%, which is about half the rate in the United States. So there are very, very few apartments available," Lybik said.
One of the solutions is to allow new developments and also ask for more variety. Lybik says it's important for the community to also ask for multifamily units from its leaders.
"We have a housing shortage throughout the United States and in Knoxville right now and so encouraging and not opposing multifamily housing development, to me, is the big key," Lybik said.
For now, The Tribute intends to open more apartments in the space -- with 237 more units planned by the end of this year.
Some of the solutions that Lybik suggested were to renegotiate your lease when it's time to renew and possibly spread a wider net if you're looking to move elsewhere.