Mayor Bill Haslam will ask city council to approve two resolutions tonight that would allow Lincoln Memorial University to establish a satellite campus in Old City Hall in downtown Knoxville.
The resolutions are the result of an agreement finalized today between the City and Old City Hall Knoxville Partnership - which leases the building from Knoxville.
Old City Hall Knoxville Partnership plans to sublease the building to LMU.
TVA currently subleases the building from the partnership.
Under the terms of the agreements LMU would sublease the building from the Old City Hall Knoxville Partnership through the life of the partnership's lease - which currently runs until 2032 - while TVA would terminate its sublease with the partnership.
City Council must approve any proposed amendments to the City's lease with Old City Hall Knoxville Partnership.
It must also approve changing the Old City Hall's primary function from commercial office space to being used for educational purposes.
"We're very pleased to announce this agreement," Haslam said. "Old City Hall is a wonderful building that has been underused for many years now. This move is going to transform it into a thriving, busy place filled with Lincoln Memorial students and they are going to be a great addition to downtown.
"We grateful to LMU and the Old City Hall Knoxville Partnership and TVA for working with us, and each other, to make this a reality," he added.
Built in the 1840s as Tennessee School for the Deaf the building is located on the corner of Summit Hill Drive and Broadway. It served as a school until 1924 except for brief periods as a military hospital for United States and Confederate forces, at different times, during the Civil War.
It was city hall from 1924 until Knoxville's government moved into the City County Building in the late 1970s.
In 1982 Knoxville leased the building to the Old City Hall Knoxville Partnership for 50 years.
According to TVA the building is the only surviving example of Greek Revival Architecture in the city and it is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building includes more than 60,000-square-feet of space.