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Wednesday, July 19, 2006

HUD EZ FUNDS PARTNERS WITH CITY AND COUNTY DOLLARS

The Grand Opening Celebration for the Five Points Village Plaza was held on Friday, May 5, 2006. HUD Field Policy & Management staff member spoke at the gathering, and joined others in encouraging area residents to patronize plaza stores.

LeRoy Thompson, developer and majority owner of the Five Points Village Plaza, takes a piece from the ceremonial ribbon-cutting Friday. Seated at right is community icon Sarah Moore Greene.

Knoxville’s newest shopping center, with the Metro Village Market IGA as its anchor tenant, is located at 2410 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue – less than two miles east of downtown.

The five-acre site was prepared with the use of federal, city and county dollars to turn a blighted piece of property into a place that provided jobs, training opportunities, goods and services. The project is expected to serve as a catalyst for future development that will result in increased property values and spending within heart of Knoxville.

More than $4 million in local and federal funds has been invested in the 32,000 square foot center. Developer LeRoy Thommpson's company, BDT Management & Development LLC, and a partnership formed by Thompson and veteran grocery store operator Norman Cox have put up nearly $2 million. The project has received public funding from the federal Empowerment Zone program (HUD EZ Program), city of Knoxville, Knox County, Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB), and a federal grant awarded to the Partnership for Neighborhood Improvement.

City officials have offered encouraging remarks in regard to the development:

"All this doesn't work unless we shop here," Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam told the crowd of more than 400 area residents, elected officials and businesspeople that turned out for the ribbon cutting and speech-making. "Buy your groceries here and buy your gas here - the folks at Pilot will be all right without it," the Mayor said with a smile, referring to the convenience store and travel center business his family founded and of which he was president before becoming mayor. State rep. Joe Armstrong, whose district includes the Five Points neighborhood in East Knoxville, led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance and then added his "pledge to shop at the village." Congressman Jimmy Duncan (R-2nd Dist) also spoke, calling the shopping center representative of the good things happening in Knoxville. Success of the new shopping center will lead to continued investment and revitalization of Five Points and other inner city communities, several elected officials said.