By: Unknown
From: News Sentinel
A little more than a year after moving its headquarters to downtown Knoxville and spending $3.65 million to renovate the Crystal Building, BankEast is aggressively going after more prime real estate.
This time it's for an expansion of its fledgling network of branch offices in the Knoxville region.
In addition to an office at 8845 Kingston Pike, which is under construction, BankEast plans to open offices at 6000 Kingston Pike, just east of the heavily used Northshore Drive-Kingston Pike intersection, and 10304 Chapman Highway near Seymour in the fast- growing Sevier County market.
BankEast expects to close on the purchase of the 6000 Kingston Pike property in early May, said Sharon Woods, senior vice president. The bank already has put an ATM in the Chapman Highway facility, which formerly was a SunTrust Bank office.
BankEast has two existing branch offices, one in Maryville at 417 Foothills Mall Drive and the other in Middle Tennessee in Gainesboro.
The Knoxville-based community bank has only a fraction of the market in the Knoxville region's highly competitive banking industry -- 0.11 percent of the metropolitan area's total bank deposits, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s June 2004 market share report.
But BankEast obviously is intent on boosting market share by adding to its branch network.
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Momentum is everything in the real estate business, and no locale in the metro area is hotter than the Pellissippi Parkway corridor.
In the last six months, a half-dozen companies representing more than 2,100 current and future jobs have moved to or announced plans to build new facilities in the Pellissippi Parkway area.
The corridor, which connects Oak Ridge to West Knox County and provides easy access to McGhee Tyson Airport and interstate highways, is proving attractive to a wide range of businesses.
These include existing Knoxville businesses like Jewelry Television, which needs elbow room to grow. The 24-hour shopping network plans to build a $20 million to $25 million headquarters in Pellissippi Corporate Center.
Companies outside the region, like Brink's Home Security Inc. in Irving, Texas, also are investing in the corridor. Brink's plans to build a $10 million facility in the corporate center.
Look for more companies from inside and outside the region to move quickly in the coming months to lease office space or buy land in the corridor as it becomes available.
Speaking of Jewelry Television, the Development Corporation of Knox County earlier this month transferred title to the land for the company headquarters to the Industrial Development Board of Knox County. The IDB is the county agency responsible for selling land for business development.
Under terms of an agreement approved by the Knox County Commission, Jewelry TV is getting 50 acres for free but will make annual payments of $275,000 a year for 20 years.
Business writer Roger Harris' "Property Watch" appears on Wednesday. He may be reached at 865-342-6342 or harrisr@knews.com.
