Big crowd, big celebration this morning at Western Avenue and McKamey Road, as Knoxville's first Walmart Neighborhood Market officially opened!
Customers were lined up before the 7 a.m. ribbon-cutting, as the Karns High School Band performed and local officials - Deputy to the Mayor Christi Branscom, Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and state Sen. Richard Briggs - gathered with scissors behind the ceremonial ribbon and congratulated store manager Bryan Spears and his team.
The Walmart Neighborhood Market, 3120 McKamey Road, will be much smaller than a Super Center and will emphasize fresh foods – meats smoked on site, for example, and unique bakery and deli items, Spears said.
Here is some of the media coverage of today's grand opening:
Knoxville News Sentinel
WBIR
Branscom applauded the store's opening: It's creating jobs, and robust commercial investment helps to increase property values for everyone living in the immediate area. In addition, she said, a healthy Western Avenue corridor with new stores opening provides new retail and consumer options for the residents who live nearby.
Branscom also noted Walmart's sponsorship of the Let's Move! annual event at nearby Victor Ashe Park. The spring gathering encourages children to play more outside and eat healthier, and it reaches an estimated 2,000 children each year.
That's a good fit with what’s happening on a larger scale up and down Western Avenue – the City's focus on creating new recreation amenities and giving residents more healthy lifestyle choices.
A few examples:
- TDOT is widening Western Avenue, and new sidewalks will encourage walkability to parks and shopping destinations.
- The City is collaborating with TDOT on an exciting first-of-its-kind project – a state-funded pedestrian bridge near the new Walmart Neighborhood Market that will create an important greenway connection.
The new bridge will cross over Western Avenue, near Ball Camp Pike.
On the northern side of the bridge, the City will be constructing a new ¾-mile greenway that connects with Victor Ashe Park.
On the other side of the bridge, a future connection will continue the greenway 1.3 miles to the south to Middlebrook Pike and the greenway extensions that are being built there.
For more details about new greenway, click HERE to read a related News Sentinel news story.
And here's more information about the City's plan to build out greenway connections citywide: Greenways Plan
Congratulations again to the managers and employees of the Walmart Neighborhood Market, which will serve residents of Cumberland Estates and other communities.