Knox County leaders gave media a tour inside the current Knox County Schools headquarters – the Andrew Johnson Building – after the county commission and school board voted to move the school system's central office into the vacant TVA East Tower in downtown Knoxville.
RELATED: Knox Co. commission and school board approve move from Andrew Johnson building to TVA Tower
Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs said the AJ Building was constructed in the 1920s as a hotel, not an office space.
Jacobs said the building has some issues, and its last partial renovation was in the 1990s. He said the bottom line is that it's not properly laid out to be a modern office space.
"There's some issues. I've been here when the elevator didn't work or the HVAC is on the fritz. All these things... frankly, they lead to an ineffective work environment for school administration," he said.
The mayor said the move to the TVA tower will save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Now that the school board and county commission has signed off, Jacobs said the next step is finalizing that agreement between the county and TVA.
The future of the Andrew Johnson building is uncertain. Some developers have proposed turning it back into a hotel.