A data center could be built in an existing building on Pine Ridge, also known as The Summit, off South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.
The project has been proposed by GIGA Data Centers of Atlanta.
The data center would be in the building on The Summit that was once used by the Y-12 National Security Complex to store documents. The building, which is about 30,000 square feet, would be retrofitted.
[Read more…]
The former American Museum of Science and Energy is pictured above on South Tulane Avenue on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Oak Ridge Mayor Pro Tem Rick Chinn and his brother Ryan are minority partners in the project to build apartments at the former American Museum of Science and Energy site.
Rick Chinn, a developer, said this month that the project will bring much-needed apartments to the city, allowing more people who work in Oak Ridge to live here. The apartments are being built as RealtyLink, a South Carolina developer, plans to build more new stores across South Tulane Avenue at Main Street Oak Ridge, the redevelopment of the former Oak Ridge Mall.
Now called Main Street Lofts, the apartment project has included an agreement to reduce property taxes and the transfer of what had been federal property from the U.S. Department of Energy to the city and then to a developer. It will include the demolition of the former AMSE building. It is expected to include seven three-story buildings with 226 apartment units on 10 acres.
Rick Chinn and his father, Richard Chinn, a member of the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board, have been abstaining from votes related to the apartment project for at least a year.
They have not been required to explain their abstentions, but Oak Ridge Today has asked Rick and Richard Chinn why they have been abstaining.
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Most of Main Street Oak Ridge is pictured above in this proposed plan from Nov. 29, 2018.
Protomet Corporation is pictured above in the Bethel Valley Industrial Park in south Oak Ridge on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Jeff Bohanan
Protomet Corporation has purchased about 20 acres of former federal land on Bethel Valley Road in south Oak Ridge, and the company is evaluating that property as one option as it plans for a $30 million expansion that could add 200 jobs over a five-year period.
On Tuesday, Protomet founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bohanan said the company prefers to stay in Oak Ridge, but there is no guarantee. The 19.47-acre parcel on Bethel Valley Road will have to be cut and filled, and drainage will have to be redirected, Bohanan said. It’s not clear yet how much that work might cost.
Protomet needs about 100,000 square feet for its expansion, which was announced in February. Protomet now has 70 workers in a 40,000-square-foot building on eight acres, so the company could more than triple in size.
“The new facility will dramatically increase Protomet’s capacity and capabilities for the customers it serves,” Bohanan said. “We have already started purchasing equipment for the new facility, and some of it is already in use at our current facility.”
Protomet bought the Bethel Valley Road land from the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board for $103,000 on October 20. The property, which was previously owned by the U.S. Department of Energy, is west of Protomet and east of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
“This is a big step in our ability to evaluate this site as an option,” Bohanan said. [Read more…]
Protomet Corporation on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016, announced a $30 million, 200-job expansion, but the landlocked company could move to another county —or even another state. Pictured above is Protomet production associate Walt Weaver. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 11:35 a.m. Feb. 3.
Protomet Corporation on Tuesday announced a $30 million, 200-job expansion, but the landlocked company could move to another county —or even another state.
Protomet is now located in the Bethel Valley Industrial Park in south Oak Ridge.
The company hopes to break ground on the 100,000-square-foot expansion in June and plans to add 200 new jobs during the next five years. Protomet now has 70 workers in a 40,000-square-foot building on eight acres, so the company would more than triple in size.
Besides staying put, Protomet is also looking at sites in Roane County (the Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge), Loudon and Monroe counties, and South Carolina. The company is looking at some tracts of land outside Anderson County that are more than 25 acres. Protomet needs about 25-30 acres for the expansion, and right now, it doesn’t have it. [Read more…]
Local, state, and federal officials join volunteers and nonprofit and business executives for a groundbreaking ceremony at the historic Alexander Inn on Thursday.
Top military leaders and scientists once stayed at this historic two-story hotel in the heart of Oak Ridge, and now it’s being converted into an assisted living center.
The $5.5 million renovation of the Alexander Inn at Jackson Square started in July, the culmination of a years-long preservation effort. It could be complete by mid-2014, said Rick Dover, manager of Family Pride Corp., the company converting the hotel.
The Guest House Senior Living at the Alexander Inn will have 62 rooms, including a 17-room memory care wing.
The hotel was built during the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic bombs during World War II. Guests who once stayed there included Gen. Leslie Groves, Secretary of War Henry Stimson, and physicists J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge officials have asked Anderson County to consider donating up to 2.05 acres on Emory Valley Road for a sewer system holding tank.
Oak Ridge officials have asked Anderson County to consider donating up to 2.05 acres on Emory Valley Road for a sewer system holding tank east of the former Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation Center.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Oak Ridge to stop all sewer system overflows by 2015, and studies have shown that several holding tanks are required at critical locations “to equalize and detain excess flow during heavy rain events,” Public Works Director Gary Cinder said in a July 26 memo. One equalization tank would be required near the county-owned Daniel Arthur Center, which is used by satellite county offices, the Oak Ridge Senior Center, and the Emory Valley Center.
The Anderson County Operations Committee will consider the request during a Monday evening meeting. [Read more…]
Protomet breaks ground Friday on a $6.25 million expansion in the Bethel Valley Industrial Park. Pictured above from left are Operations Director Andrew Jenkins and Engineering Director Matt Reid of Protomet; LeRoy Thompson, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development regional director; Protomet President Jeff Bohanan; Sherry Browder, Oak Ridge Economic Partnership chair; Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan; and David Wilson, Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board chair.
Protomet Corp. broke ground on Friday on a $6.25 million expansion of its manufacturing facility in Bethel Valley Industrial Park, allowing the company to more than double its space, consolidate operations with a Blount County facility, and expand production.
The expanded facility, which could be complete by the end of the year, will have more  than 40,000 square feet, and it will bring more than 30 jobs to Oak Ridge, a press release said. It is the second multi-million dollar investment at the company’s Oak Ridge site. [Read more…]
A five-year, 100 percent tax break for parts manufacturer Protomet was approved in a 4-1 vote by the Oak Ridge City Council on Monday.
The tax break could be used to help Protomet more than double the size of its 15,000-square-foot plant in the Bethel Valley Industrial Park, consolidate operations with a Blount County facility, and add 20-30 workers.
Also Monday, the City Council agreed in a voice vote, with no objections, to end the RecycleBank Reward Program and determine later what to do with the savings of $0.84 per household per month. The savings are expected to add up to about $124,000 each year. [Read more…]
In a cost-cutting move, the Oak Ridge City Council tonight will consider ending the rewards part of the city’s recycling program.
Ending those rewards, which can be redeemed for discounts at local businesses, could save about $124,000, city officials said.
Also tonight, the City Council will consider approving a five-year, 100 percent tax break for Protomet. The incentive could help the parts manufacturer more than double the size of its plant on Larson Drive in the Bethel Valley Industrial Park and add 20-30 workers. [Read more…]
AÂ tax break recommended by an Oak Ridge board on Monday could help a parts manufacturer more than double the size of its plant and add 20-30 workers, an executive said.
The Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board endorsed the five-year, 100 percent property tax break for Protomet—which makes marine, automotive, and homeland security equipment—in a special meeting Monday.
But Oak Ridge City Council member Anne Garcia Garland suggested there could be some opposition later. She said residents want to know why Protomet, which has become successful with the help of one tax abatement, should receive another. [Read more…]
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.
