Knoxville's Western Heights neighborhood has a new building that combines homes, health care and the arts under one roof.
Knoxville's Community Development Corp. opened The Gallery at Beaumont this week, the agency's first mixed-use development, WBIR reported. The building includes 52 apartments ranging from one to four bedrooms, with a mix of income levels.
What's inside
The ground floor will house a medical clinic operated by UT Medical Center and space for the city's arts center, which is relocating from Broadway to Western Heights, according to WBIR.
KCDC said in a news release that the main floor of one building has 15,000 square feet of mixed-use space for the health center and the Knoxville Arts Center. The health center will offer primary care, prenatal services and other preventive care, and the arts center will offer visual arts, crafts and dance classes for everyone from preschoolers to seniors.
KCDC CEO Ben Bentley said the clinic will make health care easier to reach for residents without a car.
"There are a lot of people that don't have access to automobiles, so to be able to walk, receive that care is a huge deal," Bentley told WBIR.
The arts space came out of community conversations in 2022 and 2023, when residents said they wanted more access to arts and entrepreneurship, Bentley said.
The team
Shapiro & Company Architects designed the second phase, and J.A. Fielden is the general contractor, according to KCDC. U.S. Bank is the equity partner, J.P. Morgan is the lender, and Brinshore Development and KCDC are the developers.
Part of a bigger plan
The Gallery at Beaumont is the second completed housing phase of Transforming Western, a broader effort to redevelop the Western Heights area, WBIR reported.
The first, The Overlook at Beaumont, opened Jan. 14 with 76 rental units of one to five bedrooms, including 31 subsidized replacement units, 30 affordable units and 15 market-rate units, according to KCDC.
The redevelopment will continue through several more phases, with full completion expected in 2029 and an anticipated 479 housing units in total, the agency said. Western Heights, established in 1939, is KCDC's largest affordable housing development.
The primary funding for Transforming Western comes from a competitive $40 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Choice Neighborhoods grant announced in 2022. The city of Knoxville is investing $26.5 million, committed over multiple budgets, that includes major infrastructure upgrades in the Western Heights and Beaumont neighborhoods, KCDC said.
Future pieces of the plan include two large parks, with a hillside climbing park, playground and splash pad, and a neighborhood economic center with food service and an entrepreneurial kitchen. KCDC broke ground on that phase July 8.
The city's housing push
Mayor Indya Kincannon has emphasized the need for housing at different price points. She told WBIR the city has helped build and permit 10,000 new homes since she took office, including 4,000 affordable homes.
"It's exciting to see these mixed-use buildings – housing and community space — come to fruition," Kincannon said in KCDC's release.
Why it matters for contractors
Transforming Western is a multi-year pipeline of public-private construction in Knoxville. With two housing phases done, the agency is planning 479 housing units in all, along with parks, an economic center with a commercial kitchen and $26.5 million in city infrastructure work. That's steady work for general contractors, site and utility firms, and the trades through 2029.
The Gallery at Beaumont is also a more complicated kind of affordable housing job. Combining apartments with a medical clinic and an arts center means more complex buildings, with commercial-grade spaces, specialized MEP and tenant fit-out work alongside the residential units.
Projects funded by HUD Choice Neighborhoods grants and layered financing come with their own paperwork, from federal requirements to lender and investor reporting. Firms that want a piece of the remaining phases should study how this team was put together and get to know KCDC, Brinshore Development and the general contractors already working on the site.