‘Hundreds of jobs’ coming to old East Towne Mall, developer says

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – Hillwood Enterprises held a zoom meeting Wednesday to share their plans for the old East Towne Mall.

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Proposed building to replace East Town Mall

Hillwood Senior Vice President, Kurt Nelson didn’t say exactly what he planned to bring to the area, but he described it as an “eCommerce distribution and fulfillment center.” He also said there were similar businesses in Memphis and Nashville.

During the meeting, Nelson talked about some of the plans that are in place for the facility. The building, which currently sits vacant, will require a lot of work such as rezoning the property to be an industrial site, working with engineers to fix the current stormwater draining issue and restructuring the parking lot to alleviate traffic issues.

“I’m grateful that the managers are taking good care of it, but it needs a little love,” Nelson said.

Questions were raised during the meeting surrounding the issue of preexisting traffic in the area and how much more traffic this project would bring.

Nelson said the company is aware of the traffic issues in the area and they are working closely with a traffic engineer and a sound engineer to address these problems. He also said the parking lot would be re-worked so that there wouldn’t be as many entrances to the lot.

The project, once approved, is expected to take around 13 months to complete. It is expected to bring “hundreds” of jobs to the area.

“We want to get this [building] back to contributing to the city and community,” said Nelson.

You can watch the full meeting here.

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