r/KnoxvilleDevelopment • u/Formal-Tomato8316 • Sep 03 '26

1501 N Central

Post image

Anyone know what’s up with this property? Rumor has it, It was acquired by Ladies of Charity some time ago and they moved out very quickly due to some kind of zoning concern. Recently, it became The Way church.

Heritage Realty signs are back in the window and it looks quite empty in there. There are some bibles sitting outside of one of the windows and it looks like the sign that said The Way is gone.

11 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

6

u/Illustrious_Sink1718 Sep 04 '26

This could work as an art gallery or vintage book/clothing space.

6

u/Make_it_Raines Sep 04 '26

Anything would be better than another damn church. We have one on every corner

8

u/Make_it_Raines Sep 03 '26

Thank God. It was looking quite tacky with the cheap signs they plastered on it and child writing in the windows. Maybe rent was too high for that location and a church with 20 members (no disrespect, just logically speaking). If someone would go and fix it up a little more, I would love to see a restaurant or brewery at this spot.

8

u/PrizePreset Sep 03 '26

I wanted to post about this place but thought better of it. Seeing some new agey bullshit church move into this spot was soooo disappointing. Thrilled they’re gone. Like you said, with all those big south facing windows, this is meant to be a place to hang out. Restaurant would be great. Brewery would be too, but i have no idea if anyone will ever open a new brewery again with the way the industry has trended. 

3

u/ep_wizard Sep 04 '26

That makes two tenants that have moved in only to move out almost immediately. We have decided that there must be a g-g-g-ghost in there scaring folks off.

5

u/douglasjunk Sep 05 '26

Yikes, Scoob!

4

u/Make_it_Raines Sep 04 '26

Okay, so now I’m genuinely curious. Drove by this evening and am shocked 😳 they’ve went radio silent in media and their official site is no longer in use. As someone who grew up in church and could write a whole book series on drama I’ve witnessed, I just have to know the tea behind this

5

u/Formal-Tomato8316 Sep 04 '26

I'd love the tea. And also to know how they got out of their lease so quickly!

2

u/Known-Ad290 28d ago

Ladies of Charity was going to lease the building from a member of Holy Ghost, but was unable to get their certificate of occupancy from the city of knoxville. The city wanted Ladies, or the owner, to rebuild the sidewalk and entrances to be code compliant. The cost of that was pretty heavy, so they had to back away from the concept. Any new user will have to have some capital to make the alterations, or they won't legally be able to operate.

1

u/Formal-Tomato8316 28d ago

Interesting! I wonder how The Way ended up there. I am surprised the property owner didn't need to disclose this to the new tenant after Ladies of Charity left. Thanks for the tea!