The City of Knoxville began planning for a convention center in 1997. Three potential sites emerged, and Mayor Victor Ashe favored the site on World’s Fair Park that required acquisition of the UT Conference Center Building’s garage and office/warehouse facility. When UT had acquired the Conference Center Building, tunnel, and garage in 1992, the space previously used as storage space had been upgraded to appropriate standards for maintaining collections of archaeological artifacts (including human remains), art collections, and McClung Museum artifacts and objects. The City valued the property at $3.8 million, but UT insisted that its space and the 330 dedicated parking spaces for the UT Conference Center Building must be replaced.
An agreement was reached through which the City would build a parking garage at the corners of Union, Clinch, and Locust Streets and permanently title 330 spaces to UT, but replacement of the space within the structure that had been renovated and upgraded by UT became a matter of contention. UT offered to relocate to space in a building at the Holston Farm, owned by UT, as a temporary measure and to permanently relocate to a planned Facilities Services Complex, with the City paying for both moves and the cost of the space in the Facilities Services Complex. Mayor Ashe considered UT’s proposal too expensive. He proposed, and city council approved on October 6, 1999, the purchase and renovation of the 111,730-square-foot former Roddy Coca Cola Bottling plant at 5723 Middlebrook Pike for UT purposes. The City paid $3 million for the property and just over $4 million for the renovations. The City also paid for temporary storage of collections in another warehouse, including costs of relocation and security, because renovation of the Roddy building could not be completed prior to March 2000, and the City desired to take possession of the university’s property in December 1999. The Middlebrook Building had executive office space, as well space suitable for collections curation and holding.