There will be a public meeting on two brownfield cleanup projects (former McClung Warehouses site and former Sanitary Laundry site) at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 19, 2018 at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 544 N. Broadway.

City of Knoxville Office of Redevelopment staff and representatives of S&ME Inc., the contractor chosen through a competitively-bid contract to implement the projects, will be present.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded $350,000 in brownfield cleanup grant funds that are being used to remediate contamination on two important City of Knoxville redevelopment sites – the former McClung Warehouses site on Jackson Avenue and the former Sanitary Laundry site, 625 N. Broadway. The City has contributed a $70,000 match.

The properties are unusual redevelopment sites in that they’re City-owned – at least for now. The City, motivated by blight-abatement and public safety concerns, purchased the McClung Warehouses in 2013 from a bankruptcy trustee. The next year, the City acquired the abandoned dry-cleaning site on Broadway in a tax foreclosure. 

Both properties would be considered prime candidates for strategic private reinvestment – except for the contaminants on the sites. So once the federally- and locally-funded rehabilitation of both properties is complete, the City will seek requests for proposals (RFPs) from private redevelopers for both the Sanitary Laundry and McClung Warehouses properties. A mix of uses is envisioned for both properties, which would revert to private ownership and generate tax revenues.

Anyone needing a disability accommodation to attend the March 19 meeting should contact the City’s ADA Coordinator, Stephanie Cook, at [email protected] or 865-215-2034. For an English interpreter, contact the City Law Department at 865-215-2050.