Emerald Youth Foundation Responds to City's Request for Proposal

 

Emerald Youth Foundation has responded to the City of Knoxville’s Request For Proposal (RFP) for the Redevelopment of Underutilized City-Owned Property, specifically a portion of underutilized vacant land located adjacent to and within the Chilhowee Park & Exposition Center.

In the fall of 2022, Emerald Youth formed a group of stakeholders called the East Area Community Engagement Committee to begin engaging the East Knoxville neighborhood to listen and obtain feedback about the potential of a facility similar to Emerald Youth’s Haslam-Sansom Ministry Complex at Lonsdale for East Knoxville and whether such a vision was desired by the community and a fit.

The members of this committee are:

  • Mayor Daniel Brown – Former Mayor, City of Knoxville

  • Elvyn Davidson – Emerald Youth East Knoxville Parent and Volunteer

  • Cynthia Finch – Executive Director, New Direction Health Care Solutions

  • Cicely Henderson – Emerald Youth East Knoxville Parent

  • Andrew J. Jackson – Retired, ORNL

  • Rev. Dr. Harold Middlebrook – Pastor & Civil Rights Leader

  • Alvin Nance – CEO of Development, LHP Capital

  • Dennis Upton – Retired, Vice President of KUB

  • Eric Washington – Past President, Panhellenic Council; Documents Control Engineer, CNS Y12 Plant

  • John Wright – President, 100 Black Men of Greater Knoxville; Customer Development Director for CR, Coca-Cola Consolidated 

(Note: Through December of 2023, Matthew Best, former Executive Director of the Change Center and Lisa New, former CEO of Zoo Knoxville, served as part of this committee before both moved away from Knoxville to accept new professional positions.)

To date, members of the committee and Emerald Youth staff have met with over 500 members of the East Knoxville community regarding this proposed project. Feedback received was overwhelmingly supportive, and there was no major pushback. Several key entities such as the African American Equity Restoration Task Force, the Knoxville Area Urban League, the Burlington Business District Association and others also endorsed the project.

“For nearly 50 years, I have personally been blessed to serve in ministry and reside in East Knoxville,” said Rev. Dr. Harold Middlebrook, chair of the East Area Community Engagement Committee. “I’ve had great respect for Emerald Youth since it began more than three decades ago, and as I shared at Emerald’s prayer breakfast in May, we are praying and believing that God is able, God is willing and that this project is going to happen.”

As stated in the RFP, “Any successful redevelopment proposal of the site must be focused on serving Knoxville and specifically east Knoxville families through educational enrichment, sports, housing and healthcare and must be complimentary to the history and culture of the community.” The property is located on the south side of Magnolia Avenue and is generally bound by Magnolia, Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Alice Street and North Beaman Street.

Along with a team of qualified housing developers and healthcare professionals, which include every major medical provider in the region, Emerald Youth proposes to build a complex at an anticipated investment of more than $20M that will contribute to whole child youth development in the heart of Knoxville. Emerald Youth is currently seeking funding for the project but has not secured donors so as not to get out ahead of the community engagement and RFP process.

“Our prayer is obviously to be selected as the successful proposer,” said Steve Diggs, president and CEO of Emerald Youth Foundation. “The Haslam-Sansom Ministry Complex in Lonsdale has been ‘transformative’ as reported by the CEO of KCDC, and we believe this is a model that can truly not only transform city neighborhoods but the lives of young people and their families.”

The proposed complex will include both indoor and outdoor facilities. While design schematics are still in draft form, Emerald Youth anticipates it could include the following:

  • Synthetic turf sports fields that can be utilized for multiple sports offerings

  • Outdoor basketball courts

  • Outdoor pitching and hitting lanes

  • An outdoor pavilion

  • A 37,000 square foot indoor facility to include:

    • Community room or meeting room and offices

    • Basketball courts which can also be utilized for volleyball

    • College style academic learning center

    • Fitness center and performance training facility

    • Health center

Emerald Youth Foundation submitted its proposal to the City of Knoxville Purchasing Division on July 1, 2024. If selected as the successful proposer, Emerald and its team of respondents would immediately move to formal design work to develop a full scope of work and would continue to engage the community in this process.

 
John Crooks