Alcoa redevelops former aluminum plant site as downtown center

Alcoa generates its own centripetal force: creating a center where none existed. Road construction is underway and the first housing lots have been sold on the former Alcoa West Plant site.

“Right now, Alcoa’s pretty much just strip development on a linear basis,” said Assistant City Manager Bill Hammon. “There’s really no definitive downtown place.”

But there is room for one on the former location of a namesake factory that drove Alcoa’s growth. 

From 1920 to 1989, Alcoa Inc. operated an aluminum rolling mill on 363 acres. Springbrook and other neighborhoods grew up around it in Alcoa. But the plant closed in 1989 and was torn down a few years later. Since at least 2004, the city has sought to redevelop it. Permission from Alcoa Inc. came in 2009, but a formal groundbreaking didn’t come until April 2017, between the city; Alcoa Inc. spinoff Arconic Inc.; and current landowner RESIGHT, a Colorado redevelopment firm.

Residential, retail and office space

The new Alcoa High School opened in fall 2015 on one end of the site. Now workers are grading the one-mile course of a boulevard through the site, expected to be lined with retail and office space; and the first 17 lots have been sold for residential development.
“Roughly 220 acres are being planned for eventual redevelopment,” Mikk Anderson, senior vice president of master developer RESIGHT, said via email.

The boulevard from the Hunt Road interchange to Springbrook Corporate Center will likely cost $12 million to $14 million, including all infrastructure necessary for commercial development such as utilities and street lights, Hammon said. The city is paying part of the cost, the state is working on a grant for more, and developers are covering the rest, he said.

In July 2016 City Manager Mark Johnson said the city would likely pay $7.8 million, but be reimbursed from land sales, which could total $35 million, according to published reports. 

Roadwork

Weather will dictate the next move, but the boulevard should be substantially complete by the start of 2018, Hammon said. Then developers will be ready to sell commercial sites along it. In spring or summer of 2018, building pads could be laid down, he said.

Across Mills Street from the bulk of the site, Springbrook Properties bought 17 lots that were not previously developed. A sign on that land advertises “Craftsman-style” houses and town houses coming soon.

There are no current estimates of how many people could live or work in the development. A concept plan was done before the 2008 recession, and a Franklin firm is updating it, Hammon said. That plan should be ready by mid-November, and will guide future space allocation, he said.

Gov. Bill Haslam announced the state will redo the Hunt Road interchange, bidding the job in 2018, Hammon said. It will be followed by a road to the new Alcoa High School that ties into the boulevard. Together those roads will provide internal access to the site, and the city will provide the corresponding public infrastructure, Hammon said.

While commercial development is sought along the main boulevard, future phases should have more variety, Anderson said.

“Particularly, several restaurants have expressed interest in locating there as soon as next year,” he said. “Several lodging developers have also expressed strong interest, and we would expect those efforts to create construction activity in another year or two.”

Maribel Koella, principal broker of realty firm NAI Koella RM Moore, said she has gotten “very strong” interest from developers of senior living, apartments, single-family houses and at least one hotel. Some have submitted letters of intent but none has firm commitments yet, she said.

Cleanup on some of the site

Not all of the site can be developed. Some ground contamination remains from Alcoa Inc.’s seven decades of production.

“Plant operations during that time involved disposing waste materials in several onsite landfills and treating waste water effluent,” Eric Ward, Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation communications director, said in an email.

The city and RESIGHT are working with TDEC to mitigate that under a 2014 voluntary agreement, he said.

“The vast majority of the property can be used for any purpose,” Anderson said. He and Hammon said the few remaining spots will be paved over for streets or parking lots, with TDEC’s approval.

According to a news release, Alcoa wants the site to eventually host a conference center and new city administrative complex. But building a showpiece town center is a secondary benefit, Hammon said.

The city relies on sales tax receipts to keep property taxes low, so commercial development of a large vacant site is a priority, he said.

“It’ll be very meaningful for us as far as stabilizing our local economy,” Hammon said.