The centerpiece of the South Knoxville waterfront is beginning to take shape.
Since the demolition of most of the old Baptist Hospital building in 2014, workers have been busy transforming the site.
Regal Entertainment Group will move its company headquarters to a 178-thousand square-foot former medical office building that has undergone a $12 million dollar renovation. By September, the city expects Regal's 400 employes will be at work in the building.
Next door, the $60 million dollar Riverwalk at the Bridges luxury apartment complex is also under construction. The city says it should be finished by early 2018. The complex will house up to 600 residents., and will feature a riverwalk and public plaza at the Henley Bridge.
Another apartment complex is expected to be open by early 2019. Riverfront Station will be located to the west of the Henley Bridge in what's now a blighted, vacant tract of land. It will house more than one-thousand residents.
“It's exciting to see the Regal Entertainment Group headquarters getting closer to completion, at the same time that the Riverwalk at the Bridges apartments are going vertical," says Dawn Michelle Foster, the City’s Redevelopment Director. "This area soon will be a really great place to live, work, and visit.”