Editor’s note: This article was written by Bret McCormick and first appeared in Sports Business Journal, the industry’s leading source of sports business news, events and data.
Developers have until March 4 to respond to the University of Tennessee’s request for proposals seeking a master developer partner for a proposed mixed-use development adjacent to 102-year-old Neyland Stadium, which is undergoing a $337 million renovation to be completed by fall of 2026, and UT’s basketball arena, Food City Center.
The RFP, first posted in mid-December, is one of only a handful issued from the college athletics world. Higher education is slowly, but surely, catching onto the mixed-use development trend that has already enveloped the pro sports ranks to harness the deep connections that college fans have with their schools, especially if they’re graduates.
At many colleges and universities, especially state flagships with large alumni bases like Tennessee’s Knoxville campus, the college version of sports venue adjacent mixed-use development could potentially draw year-round visitors to stadiums like Neyland that are otherwise active only seven or eight days annually. Tennessee Athletic Director Danny White, who has made facility development and renovation a priority during his three years in Knoxville, told Sports Business Journal last fall that the goal of the proposed Neyland mixed-use district is to “make our big-ticket venues, our keystone venues something our fan base can interact with all year long.”
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In brief, UT’s RFP — issued by the university, not the athletic department — says it seeks to develop a “transformative new campus district anchored by a full-service hotel, with condotel, conference/event space, and an entertainment district through a public-private partnership.”
The project aims to create a stronger sense of arrival on the south side of Neyland Stadium; improve the exterior aesthetic of that side of the venue; enhance vertical circulation within the stadium; and create a stronger connectivity between Food City Center and Neyland Stadium and with the rest of the campus, plus thoughtfully engage the Tennessee River waterfront. Neyland Road runs between the river and the mixed-use development (and stadium) site.
Some of the development proposal’s basic goals (some of which the RFP indicates are negotiable or subject to change):
The initial phase would include a 250-key hotel specifically branded with the university and its history and traditions in mind, as well as open spaces immediately adjacent to the hotel and stadium. The RFP suggested the hotel could reach a height of 12 stories.
The winning developer will create an entry plaza at Neyland Stadium’s Gate 10 with ample gathering and queuing space for roughly 15,000 fans, and the new entertainment district will need to somehow connect to two of the stadium’s concourses on the eastern side of the stadium.
Supporting retail and entertainment amenities (need to be destination concepts) should be no less than 15,000 square feet, and must preserve stadium ingress and egress, and other related stadium assets.
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The condos, potentially several dozen, are expected to elicit significant demand and the university expects to closely coordinate with the developer on gating criteria for the leasing of units, including potentially requirements to donate to the university or its athletics department at a certain threshold. Because the condos would exist on state property, the developer would not be able to sell them outright.
Future development would move the wider district — encompassing the stadium, Food City Center and potentially the river — from a vehicle-oriented to pedestrian-centric design.
The university will announce its intent to award on May 6, which would move one of the proposals to the university/state level for final approval. The selected developer will sign a ground lease with the university to develop the land and will be responsible for the operating costs of all property management services, including general administration, revenue collection, facility maintenance and repair, security, service contracts, and property insurance.
The school’s athletic department couldn’t comment while the RFP was open, beyond saying that UT has received “a lot of high-level interest from local, regional, and national developers.” Brailsford & Dunlavey — which has a long history of assisting sports teams and universities on real estate and sports facilities-related projects, including recently Wake Forest and Cleveland State — is serving as UT’s development adviser.
SBJ passed the public RFP to three sports real estate experts to get their feedback on UT’s initial plans. One sports real estate developer who studied the RFP six weeks ago while considering a potential bid noted that the district size is small (only one building pad; other potential retail space could be developed above an existing parking deck), there might not be enough parking, and that the sheer scale and adjacency of Neyland Stadium could be tough to design and develop around, especially if the stadium was only active seven or eight days each year. “Felt like the kind of thing an alum who has some [financial] juice would pick up,” the developer added.
Tim Katt, who helped Overtime Elite develop its facility in Atlanta and now helms the nascent sports real estate practice at Transwestern, also felt that most private developers unaffiliated with the school would likely pass on the opportunity: “The TBD land lease structure, program, and design requirements, required layers of approval, developer responsibility for all costs, and the university’s desire to play a role in any and all economics will make it a real challenge for any developer to move forward under the current process.”
Katt said most colleges and universities trying to develop mixed-use real estate around their venues are plagued by a need for control that pro sports teams often are more willing to delegate, provided financial and design assurances are in place. Public universities also usually bring miles of proverbial red tape to these kinds of projects, which can be unappealing for the private development sector. It’s likely these types of development opportunities draw significant interest from university boosters, as SBJ’s other development source noted, which makes them, Katt said, more like capital improvement projects than conventional real estate development opportunities. White mentioned to SBJ last fall that putting a hotel in the south corner of Neyland Stadium would eliminate the need for an otherwise potentially eight-figure façade project.
But, to Malaika Rivers — who is founder and president of Pontem Resources and who helped Cobb County attract the Atlanta Braves and The Battery to move there from downtown Atlanta — the fact the project partner is a government entity provides stability that may outweigh the potential red tape and slower speed of development. She also thought that, between the basketball and football venues, there would be ample demand for a hotel so connected to the Tennessee Vols brand.
“Even if there are already a number of hotel rooms in the local market,” she wrote in an email, “an adjacent, connected hotel seems a likely winner. And, if their long-term strategic plan has them moving into a direction of more active, programmable space, that’s even better.”
Sports Business Journal