On Monday, city and development officials finally put shovels in the ground at the long-vacant Giffin Elementary campus, with neighbors gathering for a ceremonial groundbreaking. The Historic Giffin Square project will repair the nearly 100-year-old school and add 77 affordable apartments across the restored building and two new structures, with officials aiming to finish construction by summer 2027.
According to the City of Knoxville, the council approved $1,059,400 from the Affordable Rental Development Fund and $300,000 from the Historic Preservation Program to help close a financing gap for the project. Project-based vouchers from Knoxville’s Community Development Corporation will support long-term affordability. City officials say those public pieces, combined with tax credits and private investment, make the rehab and new construction feasible for households earning under the area median income. The city lists summer 2027 as the target completion window for the mixed-use site.
Case Enterprises, the project’s developer, says the plan will convert the roughly 30,000-square-foot school into 35 apartments, mostly efficiencies and one-bedrooms, and add two new buildings that together will contain 42 family-sized units, for a total of 77 apartments. The developer’s project page also notes the team won a 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit allocation and intends to build the new structures to high-efficiency standards with Energy Star appliances. The case lists the restored school as the development’s communal core, with leasing offices and shared amenity space on site.
Design, Shared Rooms and On-Site Amenities
Planners say the rehabilitated school will host shared amenities including a gym, a community kitchen, laundry facilities, offices, mail and computer rooms, and two large gathering spaces, while outdoor plans call for a playground and additional trees. The City of Knoxville outlines many of these features as part of the adaptive-reuse plan. Architects on the project say the two new residential buildings were designed to echo the school’s later mid-century modern additions; as the project page from George Armour Ewart Architect puts it, the approach aims to “respect and enhance the historic value” of the site.
A Building With Deep Roots
The former Giffin Grammar School is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Park Service notes the building’s periods of significance run roughly from 1928 to 1950. Local preservation group Knox Heritage records an earlier history, with original sections dating to the early 1920s and additions in 1928 and 1950, and says it holds a preservation easement that helped shape how the site could be reused. Remote Area Medical operated from portions of the campus through the 2010s, and the property has been the focus of preservation and redevelopment discussions for several years.
Why The Financing Matters
Developers say the mix of local subsidy, federal historic tax credits, and a 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit award is what made the preservation-first project financially viable, according to Case Enterprises. That combination, along with project-based vouchers and city gap financing, is the template Case has used on other historic rehabs, pairing affordability with conservation of neighborhood character. Supporters argue the result will be restored civic space plus permanently affordable homes in South Knoxville.
For now, the immediate task is straightforward: stabilize and restore the old school, complete the new construction, and open the building’s shared spaces to residents. City leaders and the development team say leasing and move-in timelines will follow major construction milestones over the next year and a half.
