Time for bricks to fly at former Press Building
KINGSPORT – Bricks are set to fly at the former Quebecor Press Building on Sullivan Street as a major $9 million Sullivan Street redevelopment anchor project gets underway Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 6 p.m., with a public Brick-Breaking; everyone is invited to take a sledge hammer swing at the old brick front wall to initiate the start of the project.
The project entails Press Group LLC tearing off the old facade and gutting the interior of building, then adapting the core of the facility to accommodate modern commercial-medical needs. Mountain Region Family Medicine, a 17-physican practice group, is the major prime tenant, set to occupy 66,000 square feet of the facility on one entire floor of the former book plant.
In all, upon completion late in 2011, Mountain Region, with as many as 100 employees, will generate as much as 70,000 office visits a year to the property.
As the site develops over the next few years, another 132,000 square feet will be available for additional medical service, retail and possibly even a few residential units. The Press Group LLC, including Hiram Rash of Goins Rash Cain, indicates that a half-dozen other potential tenants are interested in the project. At full build-out, the project will represent a $24 million reinvestment in downtown Kingsport. In fact, at build out, the rejuvenated facility will generate nearly as much property tax as the entire Quebecor plant did in its last full year of operation.
For more information, please contact John Paul Linke at 423-224-3346 or by email jlinke@mrfm.net.
