The city’s project design team has finally laid down their sketch pens. It’s time for the builders to bring in the backhoes and lower the bulldozer blades to begin grading for the long-awaited Burlington Center Streetscape project and the construction of a new two-bay Burlington Fire Station to replace the existing 1937 firehouse. It is rumored that current era fire trucks must be shoe-horned into the nearly 90-year old building on MLK.

City Chief Operations Officer Grant Rosenberg announced the July/August start of construction on the long-awaited Burlington projects at a meeting of the Burlington business association on Tuesday evening, June 17, 2025.

The project team — design work is being handled by DLZ, a division of the Vaughan and Melton design group, while construction and construction management will be handled by Johnson & Galyon Construction and its subcontractors.

Streetscape. The streetscape project will involve a rework underground utility, and sidewalk improvements like lighting, plantings, benches and new sidewalk surface in the historic business center of Burlington. The estimated cost of the utility upgrade and street facelift work is estimated at $5.1M. This work will help incentivize private investment to rehab and reuse now vacant buildings in the old business center.

Firehall sketch

Firehouse. The second part of the project, a two-bay firehouse for Station 6, will be built nearby on two city-owned vacant lots near the existing firehouse and the old Kroger parking lot that fronts on both Magnolia and MLK. That work is estimated to cost $8.6M. Rosenberg stated that both projects are presently scheduled for completion by the end of 2026.

The first phase begins this summer and includes site grading for both projects. The grading work was combined to reduce overall costs. That work will be performed by Johnson Galyon’s construction team and subcontractors. KUB will likely be involved in the replacement of the underground utilities along MLK. After the grading, the two-bay fire hall will be built by the construction team. A sketch of the new fire hall is shown above. This is the first new fire hall built by the city of Knoxville in 30 years.

Perspective. Looking at the bigger picture, these capital improvements, in conjunction with other improvements along Magnolia Avenue, should help spark private reinvestment in the historic Burlington Center. You can read more about the early Burlington history in previous KnoxTNToday articles Nov. 21  Dec. 3  Jan. 2.

If you haven’t noticed, there is a lot happening out east. In addition to the new Covenant Health Park and apartments on the outer edge of downtown, there are several condo and apartment rehab projects along Magnolia by Jeffery Nash and others; a proposed $8M rehab of the old Swan Bakery building by the Knoxville Leadership Foundation for a job training center; a major youth sports and education complex along Magnolia on the former midway property near Chilhowee Park; and an extension of the Magnolia Avenue Streetscape by the city towards Chestnut and Cherry streets.

All aboard!

Nick Della Volpe is a lawyer, a gardener and a former member of Knoxville City Council.