A 100-unit affordable apartment complex is planned for Lovell Road near Turkey Creek in Knoxville, with a quarter of the units reserved for the city's lowest-income renters. Indiana-based Annex Group is behind Union at Smoky Mountains, and Knoxville City Council is set to vote this week on whether to hand the project $750,000 in city funding.
The complex would sit at 360 Lovell Road, just south of Interstate 40 near the Turkey Creek shopping center, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. Of the planned 100 units, 25 would be reserved for extremely low-income households making 30% of the area median income, 15 would carry a 60% area median income restriction, and 60 would be set aside for households earning 70% of the area median income. A one-person household could earn up to $21,900, and a family of four up to $31,100, to qualify for one of the extremely low-income apartments, the paper reports.
The project would use Knoxville's Community Development Corporation project-based vouchers. The project also draws on Tennessee's Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, a federal incentive that generally requires developments to reserve a substantial share of units for lower-income households in exchange for a decade of tax credits, per the Tennessee Housing Development Agency.
City Funding Request Heads to a Vote
Annex Group has asked Knoxville for $750,000 from the city's Affordable Rental Development Fund to help get Union at Smoky Mountains built. The request is one piece of a financing stack that also includes the state tax credits and the KCDC voucher arrangement, the Knoxville News Sentinel's report notes. Planning documents cited by the paper indicate the project is slated for completion in March, though the exact year was not specified in those records.
Separately, Knox County planning records show the development would rise on two parcels totaling 2.32 acres on Lovell Road.
A City Still Playing Catch-Up on Housing
The Turkey Creek project lands amid a housing shortfall that's been building in Knoxville for years. The city needs 6,000 to 8,000 more housing units by 2029 to meet demand, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel's earlier reporting on the city's housing fund. That same reporting found that among 343 surveyed clients of Knoxville housing services, 34% said they were homeless because they couldn't find affordable housing.
Market data paints a similar picture. Knoxville's housing market was roughly 1.8% undersupplied in 2026, and home prices were estimated to be nearly 19% above income-supported levels, according to Builder Magazine. The outlet also noted that continued population and household growth is still fueling baseline demand for housing in the area, adding pressure to a market that hasn't kept pace with it.
Part of a Broader Pipeline of Projects
Knoxville established a 10-year, $50 million Affordable Housing Fund by ordinance in 2021, and at least six affordable housing projects have been under construction citywide with support from that fund and federal HUD dollars, according to WATE. Comparable projects give a sense of scale: the 96-unit Riverside at Holston development also received $750,000 from the city's housing fund, while the 184-unit Grosvenor Square complex on Merchants Drive received $1.75 million.
Other recent additions include Inskip Flats, a 66-unit complex that opened in September 2023 after receiving nearly $2 million from the fund, and the final phase of First Creek at Austin, which received $1.5 million to add 161 units, including 50 units of permanent supportive housing for seniors.
