Oak Ridge Today

Oak Ridge UU church has July 14 groundbreaking at new site

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Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church Site

The Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church will have a July 14 groundbreaking ceremony at its new 4.6-acre home in front of the Joe L. Evins Federal Building, at right in background, on Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Moving across town to make way for a new shopping center, members of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church will have a July 14 groundbreaking ceremony at their new home in front of the Federal Building on Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Church members announced in late February that they had purchased a 4.6-acre parcel at Oak Ridge Turnpike and Laboratory Road in front of the Joe L. Evins Federal Building, which is used by the U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office. They plan to be in a new building there by Thanksgiving 2014. [Read more…]

Guest column: Chamber believes Oak Ridge retail scene about to improve

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Working the retail scene

As you read this, a team of representatives from Oak Ridge is returning home from Las Vegas, Nev., where we attended the International Council of Shopping Centers annual ReCon convention. The convention is the largest gathering of representatives of national retailers and restaurants in the world.

Our team walked an average of about nine miles per day making sure we visited as many representatives as possible during our time here. We also exhibited in a pavilion that is set up specifically for cities around the nation. Several Tennessee communities were represented there. While there, we had 20 face-to-face meetings with representatives of national retailers and restaurants as well as representatives of Kroger Real Estate and Crosland Southeast, the company contracted to purchase the Oak Ridge City Center. [Read more…]

Guest column: New growth could leave some behind

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There is a revitalized excitement in Oak Ridge these days. The news of new restaurants and retail stores coming to town seems to have produced a bounce in our collective step. The infamous Oak Ridge Mall appears to have a new future, and work at the marina will undoubtedly enhance community life. But, in our excitement, let us not forget to consider the ramifications of our decisions.

Take the new Kroger Marketplace set to open sometime in 2014. There is a definite desire for a nicer, larger grocery store in town, and it will bring greater access to areas north of Oak Ridge Turnpike. Additionally, the development will attract other shopping and dining options to the city. [Read more…]

Unitarian Universalists buy land near Federal Building for new church

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Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church Site

Members of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church have purchased this 4.6-acre site in front of the Joe L. Evins Federal Building on Oak Ridge Turnpike. (Photo courtesy of Jake B. Morrill)

The members of a heavily used church on busy Oak Ridge Turnpike have found a new home, part of a neighborhood exodus to make way for a new Kroger Marketplace shopping center in the heart of the city.

Members of the Oak Unitarian Universalist Church had agreed in September to sell their current building and 3.6 acres at Oak Ridge Turnpike and Robertsville Road in a deal arranged by commercial developers Blanchard and Calhoun Commercial.

On Wednesday, roughly five months later, congregation members announced they had purchased a 4.6-acre parcel at Oak Ridge Turnpike and Laboratory Road, in front of the Joe L. Evins Federal Building.

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First home moved for Kroger Marketplace shopping center

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Kroger Marketplace House Moving

The first home was moved Thursday morning from Iris Circle and Robin Lane in central Oak Ridge to make way for a new Kroger Marketplace shopping center near Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue.

The first home was moved Thursday morning to make way for a new Kroger Marketplace shopping center near Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue.

Ten more houses on Robin Lane and Iris Circle are ready to move, and a total of 25 have to be relocated, said Micheal Mills of M&M House Movers in Harrogate. Mills hopes to move them all by March 1.

The small, brown home moved Thursday was taken to a 13-acre farm on Blair Road in Roane County, Mills said. The man who owns the farm has purchased two of the Oak Ridge homes for his family to use on the farm.

The 11-mile drive was expected to take about three hours. The man driving the moving truck Thursday, Sonny Asher of New Way House Moving in Harrogate, which is working with M&M, said each home weighs about 20 to 30 tons.

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Unitarian Universalists consider new site in east Oak Ridge

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Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church Site

Members of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church voted 131-2 to try to buy this 4.6-acre site in front of the Joe L. Evins Federal Building for a new church. (Photo courtesy of Jake B. Morrill)

They’ve agreed to sell their current church to make way for a new shopping center, and on Sunday, members of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church voted overwhelmingly to try to move to the east end of town.

The congregation voted 131-2 to buy a 4.6-acre site in front of the Joe L. Evins Federal Building, home of the U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office. The plot is beside Summit Medical on Laboratory Road.

But they haven’t closed on the deal yet, the church’s minister, Rev. Jake B. Morrill, said Monday morning. In a press release Monday afternoon, members of the Church’s Relocation Steering Committee said the due diligence process is not complete, and a closing date hasn’t been set.

Assuming the deal is completed, the next step would be to design a building. The church said it is working with an architect “to begin a congregation-wide process to design a new church using a sustainable, green design for the new facility and preservation of as much of the existing park-like setting of the parcel as possible.”

Church members expect to be in their new home by Thanksgiving 2014.

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New council member asks mayor to consider resigning, mayor says ‘no’

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Trina Baughn

Trina Baughn

Tom Beehan

Tom Beehan

New Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn has asked Mayor Tom Beehan to drop his bid for a third term as mayor and consider resigning.

In a column posted on her website and submitted to local media, Baughn lobs accusations at the mayor that range from his alleged public encouragement of “backroom meetings” on the high school debt to the alleged benefits he received from the $30 million Kroger Marketplace shopping center.

“An overwhelming percentage of Oak Ridgers have lost all confidence in Tom Beehan’s leadership abilities,” Baughn said. “They elected me to be their voice, and with this letter, I am keeping the only campaign promise that I specifically made: I will not cast my vote for Tom Beehan as mayor.”

The seven-member council is expected to appoint a mayor to serve a two-year term during a Monday, Dec. 10, meeting.

It’s Baughn’s first major move as a new City Council member, and Beehan dismissed it with dismay this week.

“If you had to fact-check that whole column and label it, it would be ‘pants on fire,’” Beehan said. “It’s mostly fiction.”

[Read more…]

Work begins to move Oak Ridge homes for Kroger Marketplace

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Iris Circle Home Relocation

An Iris Circle home is held up by steel beams and wooden piers Monday, one of several homes that could be moved to make way for a 25-acre Kroger Marketplace shopping center.

Work has started to move homes on Iris Circle and Robin Lane to make way for a 25-acre Kroger Marketplace shopping center at Oak Ridge Turnpike and North Illinois Avenue.

Five homes were off their foundations in the small neighborhood in central Oak Ridge on Monday, raised on steel beams and stacked wooden piers. Work had started on a few others.

Among those relocating their homes is George Royster, a five-year neighborhood resident who helped lead the crusade against the $30 million development.

[Read more…]

Council approves stoplight, rezonings for Kroger

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Kroger Marketplace Site

The northeast corner of the intersection of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue, where a 25-acre Kroger Marketplace shopping center has been proposed. The Oak Ridge City Council approved rezonings for the $30 million project on Monday.

In three 6-0 votes Monday, the Oak Ridge City Council approved a new stoplight on North Illinois Avenue for a new Kroger shopping center, approved rezonings for the project, and agreed to give up two neighborhood roads—Iris Circle and Robin Lane—to make way for the development.

The stoplight for the $30 million Kroger Marketplace shopping center would be at North Illinois Avenue and Ivanhoe Road. The 25-acre project will also need new entrances on Oak Ridge Turnpike and North Illinois Avenue. Those roads are state routes, so the stoplight and entrances will have to be approved by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

The shopping center will replace a neighborhood of about 55 homes, two hotels, a restaurant, day care center, and church northeast of the intersection of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue.

Kroger Marketplace Site Plan

Kroger Marketplace Site Plan

In response to a question from a neighborhood resident, Paul Xhajanka, Kroger real estate manager in Atlanta, Ga., and Parker Hardy, Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce president, said the developers had looked at other possible commercial locations in Oak Ridge, but weren’t able to make a deal work for several reasons, including property owners who didn’t want to sell and existing leases that hindered potential developments.

Xhajanka has said home demolition at the shopping center site could begin in February. The center would include 12,000 square feet of shop space and five outparcels, and it could open early in 2014.

Xhajanka has said it will be like Kroger stores in Farragut and at Cedar Bluff Road and Kingston Pike in Knoxville. The Oak Ridge store will include such stores as a bank, Fred Meyer jeweler, and Starbucks.

The new shopping center is expected to add about 250 jobs.

He said Kroger is leasing its current space and is trying to find a tenant to sublease it.

Council first approved project rezonings for the Kroger Marketplace during an Oct. 8 meeting.

City Council considers new Kroger stoplight, Alexander Inn tax break

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Kroger Marketplace Site Plan

Kroger Marketplace Site Plan

The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday will consider recommending a new stoplight on North Illinois Avenue for a new Kroger shopping center.

Council will also decide whether to give developers a 90 percent, 10-year tax break to convert the historic but rundown Alexander Inn into an assisted living center.

The new stoplight for the $30 million Kroger Marketplace shopping center would be at North Illinois Avenue and Ivanhoe Road. The project will also need new entrances on Oak Ridge Turnpike and North Illinois Avenue.

Those roads are state routes, so the stoplight and entrances will have to be approved by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

As part of the project, City Council has been asked to give up two neighborhood roads—Iris Circle and Robin Lane—to make way for the 25-acre shopping center. Sewer, water, and electric easements will also have to abandoned. The shopping center will replace a neighborhood of about 55 homes, two hotels, a restaurant, day care center, and church northeast of the intersection of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue.

Council approved rezonings for the project in the first of two readings, or votes, earlier this month, and endorsed what is known as a planned unit development preliminary master plan.

The tax break for the Alexander Inn, officially known as a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement, or PILOT, was endorsed in a 6-0 vote by the Oak Ridge Industrial Development board on Oct. 11. It would be used to help with public improvements that include a new road for cars that now drive through the three-acre site, relocation of a storm sewer under the two-story building, environmental remediation, building stabilization, and code compliance.

Even with the temporary tax break, Oak Ridge and Anderson County will continue to receive at least as much in property taxes as they do now, said Ray Evans, an economic development consultant for the city.

The project has been proposed by Family Pride Corp. of Loudon and InSite Development Corp. of Knoxville. Family Pride has said the project is not economically feasible without the tax break.

Construction of the $4.5 million, 60-unit assisted living center could take roughly a year.

A Kroger representative said home demolition at the shopping center site could begin in February. The Alexander Inn developers have said they are ready to immediately start remediation and rehabilitation work if Council approves the PILOT.

Monday’s meeting is unusual in that it’s the second regular City Council meeting this month. Council added the meeting to consider the Kroger and Alexander Inn project, as well as new city codes.

Council also changed the date of the regular November meeting. It was moved from Nov. 12 to Nov. 5. That means it will be held before the Nov. 6 election, ensuring there are seven Council members available for the meeting.

City officials weren’t sure if the results of the election would be certified by the Nov. 12 meeting, so it was possible that only four of the seven Council members would have been available for that meeting.

The Oct. 22 and Nov. 5 meetings both start at 7 p.m. in the Oak Ridge Municipal Building Courtroom.

For more information, contact the Oak Ridge City Clerk’s Office at (865) 425-3411.

Council approves rezoning for Kroger Marketplace shopping center

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Kroger Marketplace Site Plan

Kroger Marketplace Site Plan

Note: This story was updated at 9:44 p.m.

A rezoning approved by Oak Ridge City Council on Monday could allow Kroger to move into a new store that would almost double its space.

The company has been interested in expanding in Oak Ridge for about four years, said Paul Xhajanka, Kroger real estate manager in Atlanta, Ga. However, that hasn’t been possible at the current site at South Illinois and Rutgers avenues due to space constraints and other tenants.

So, the company now plans to move a few miles north to a 25-acre development at the busy intersection of Illinois Avenue and Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Council voted 6-0 on Monday to approve a rezoning for that $30 million shopping center, which would be anchored by a 113,000-square-foot Kroger Marketplace.

As proposed, the shopping center would replace a neighborhood of about 55 homes, two hotels, a restaurant, day care center, and church. A handful of the homeowners who have agreed to sell their properties are considering whether to move their homes, Xhajanka said.

[Read more…]

Council considers Kroger, Weigel’s projects on Monday

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Kroger Marketplace Site Plan

Kroger Marketplace Site Plan

Oak Ridge officials on Monday will consider project approvals for two highly anticipated commercial developments on Illinois Avenue, one a Kroger Marketplace shopping center and the other a Weigel’s gas station and convenience store.

The $30 million Kroger shopping center would be built on about 25 acres at the busy intersection of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue, but the land has to be rezoned.

The rezoning has already been endorsed by the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission, which unanimously recommended it in a 10-0 vote during a Sept. 27 meeting.

It now has to be considered by Oak Ridge City Council. Council will consider it on Monday in the first of two monthly votes, or readings.

The proposed site now includes more than 50 homes and duplex units, two hotels, a restaurant, and daycare on Iris Circle, Oak Ridge Turnpike, North Illinois Avenue, Robin Lane, and Ivanhoe, Raleigh, and Robertsville roads.

[Read more…]