
From computing to urban wilderness, this city is reimagining its future
Knoxville is already economically grounded by a handful of job-creating behemoths. The University of Tennessee, Tennessee Valley Authority and Oak Ridge National Laboratory funnel huge amounts of money into the city’s economy every year. Nevertheless, officials say they see the writing on the wall—either diversify or get left behind.
Knoxville currently benefits from a cost of living that’s 10% lower than the national average while also enjoying healthy population and job growth rates. But officials are positioning the city for a much different future.
Mike Odom, president and CEO of the Knoxville Chamber, says the city wants to fashion itself as the “go-to” destination for both employers and workers in the digital and computing space.

“We understand that what got us here today is not going to get us there tomorrow, so we’re committed to moving our economic foundation more toward computing and digital than the longtime government, manufacturing and logistics pieces,” Odom says.
The chamber launched what it calls “The 2030 Protocol” in mid-2024, with the goal of building a computing-focused economic environment by fostering the talent, infrastructure and business climate needed to attract investment.
“To quote former Gov. Phil Bredesen when he was mayor of Nashville, ‘We have a great house, but we don’t have the right civic furniture,’” Odom says. “We really need to increase our civic furniture.”

In that vein, the chamber is asking The University of Tennessee, Pellissippi State Community College and Knox County Schools to focus their efforts on increasing enrollment in key programs and integrating more computing- and entrepreneurship-related programming into their curricula.
While it will be a tough pill to swallow, Odom feels Baton Rouge should follow a similar path of diversification if it wants to stay relevant.
He has a unique perspective—the Crowley native served as senior vice president of marketing and operations for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber from 2006 to 2012.
“Baton Rouge needs to evolve its economic foundation,” he says. “Don’t put everything in one pot and live and die by what’s happening in a particular market. Admittedly, that’s a hard thing to do given the number of jobs and amounts of investment coming out of the petrochemical industry.

“That’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re looking toward the future and finding out what jobs are going to be in demand so that we’re not dependent upon one thing.”
Similar to Baton Rouge, Knoxville deals with a perception problem as it must compete with a much larger and culturally diverse city for workers—Nashville, like New Orleans, is only a short drive away.
“In most communities, the 25- to 54-year-old demographic is the most critical to economic vitality,” says Rob Stivers III, market executive at Regions Bank and chair-elect of the Knoxville Chamber. “They fill jobs, buy homes, have kids, start companies … UT is growing significantly, but we need to keep those kids here when they graduate.”
There are some hurdles to clear first. Unlike other cities its size, Knoxville doesn’t have a central business district. Instead, its downtown area is equal parts residential and commercial. “We have a land issue,” Stivers says. “Knoxville’s office space is at 95 percent occupancy, and we basically have no housing … there’s just not a lot of land available to develop. This is eastern Tennessee, so we have hills, sinkholes, caves and rivers … we can only develop what’s available.”

Like Baton Rouge, the city does struggle with crime, but it saw declines in most categories in 2024. Knoxville had 23 homicides in 2024, down from the previous year. By comparison, Baton Rouge had 83, marking an increase from 2023.
Civic leaders say improving Knoxville’s quality of life will be critical if the city is going to attract and retain a younger, more educated workforce. They feel that the necessary jobs and affordable housing will follow.

They’re making some headway in that regard—the minor league affiliate of the Chicago Cubs is on pace to complete a new baseball stadium in Knoxville’s Old City neighborhood in April, and the city is making progress on its South Waterfront Redevelopment and Vision Plan, drafted in 2006, and Urban Wilderness Master Plan, drafted in 2016.
To date, the city has invested more than $70 million in South Waterfront public amenities and leveraged more than $500 million in private investment. And in January, the city was awarded a $25 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE, grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to construct a new pedestrian bridge linking the north side of the Tennessee River at the UT campus with the South Waterfront.
It’s Knoxville’s self-branded “Urban Wilderness” that might have the most success in attracting the workforce of the future. The multifaceted network of parks comprises 1,500 acres of green space interconnected by more than 50 miles of natural surface multiuse trails, 10 miles of greenway and on-grade road connections.
Odom says it’s a prime example of turning lemons into lemonade. “The area consists of a more rugged topography that couldn’t be easily developed for any other purpose, leaving this unique asset. Over 20 years, various nonprofit, city and county partners have been involved in developing those spaces.”
Wes Soward, Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness director, is currently working through connectivity issues in the wilderness area, which is situated only a couple of miles from downtown Knoxville. The Urban Wilderness Gateway Park, currently under construction, will act as a key entrance to the area.
“We’ve landed several large federal grants over the last year to help with our connectivity visions for these spaces and for adjacent spaces downtown,” he adds. “The pedestrian bridge is one of those, but we’ve also been awarded a Reconnected Communities Grant that helps connect the Urban Wilderness to downtown.”
Soward feels it will give prospective business owners confidence that there’s an engaged community near them and that they’ll “find better energy in their employees than they would in other places.”
Read about the other four peer and aspirational cities on the verge of transformation.