Johnson & Galyon and the City of Knoxville are hosting a networking breakfast on Thursday, July 31 for companies interested in helping build the new Knoxville Station Transit Center.

The informational event will be at 7:30 a.m. in the Associated General Contractors Building at 3309 Ragsdale Avenue and Johnson& Galyon is urging any interested parties to attend.

Both the City of Knoxville and Johnson & Galyon are encouraging owners of representatives of minority and women-owned companies to attend.

The new 108,000-square-foot, $29 million transit center will be at the corner of Church Avenue and Hall of Fame Boulevard and features a bus platform extending over the James White Parkway.

Ellen Fowler, Johnson & Galyon's chief administrative officer, said many of the bid packages for the station's construction will be out in October. 
 
"The main thing is just to give these companies a chance to know what is coming up so they will be prepared to bid," Fowler said.

She anticipates there will be about 20-30 bid packages for the project involving all the construction trades.

Joshalyn Hundley, the City of Knoxville's Title VI Coordinator, said a number of firms have contacted her about the project and the breakfast meeting including local contractors and others outside the Knoxville area. 
 
"We've got people from Nashville and Chattanooga, from the Johnson City area, who have expressed interest in being here," Hundley said.

The Knoxville Area Transit system carries passengers on roughly 3.6 million trips annually and the number is expected to grow. 
 
"We hope that a lot of companies will make plans to attend this meeting," Hundley said, "because there are going to be a lot of good opportunities."

Interested parties may RSVP for the breakfast by emailing Hundley at [email protected] or at 865-215-3867.