By ERICA ESTEP
6 News Reporter
New grocery and department stores seem to be flocking to Knoxville and Knox County, especially in the western area.
But the influx of new buildings means many old ones are being abandoned.
"It's a big difference. Major," Brian Haul, manager of Edible Arrangements, said. "With Kroger leaving, and then there also used to be Marshall's, and all the stores around here, like Hobby Lobby, that left for Turkey Creek. I mean it's like a ghost town."
When Edible Arrangements opened in its West Knoxville location seven years ago, business was booming all around. Today, however, Kroger is celebrating a brand new, larger location down the street, and the stores that fed off its foot traffic are feeling the loss.
"It doesn't affect too much, because most of our business comes from the Internet and phone orders," Haul said. "We don't get a big walk-in traffic."
But an empty strip mall isn't good for business, and owners are feeling the results. Developers have a special term for these types of abandoned structures.
"The planners and economic developer specialists call those gray fields, because of the gray field of asphalt," Michael Carberry of the Metropolitan Planning Commission said.
City planners blame urban sprawl for the mess. They try to control this problem with zoning walls, but as people choose to move further away from the heart of the city, they must recognize that businesses follow the money.
"At some point and time, if you get housing developments, the retail market is going to say 'we have so many households in this area," Carberry said. "We have so much buying power, and they're going to start the grocery stores and the retail shops."
Planners hope to build more mixed-use development, which is commercial areas where people live and shop in one location. An example of this is the new Northshore Town Center development.
There are also plans in the works to redevelop empty store fronts, but officials say this will require collaborative efforts and outside-the-box thinking.
"It doesn't have to be just commercial," Carberry said. "It can be office space. It could even be apartment developments as well."
Collaborative efforts have been made by both city and county officials around two years ago, but seeing significant change will take a couple years.
