County tax, clerk offices move to new Norris location

Early voting also will be at this site, beginning Feb. 14

January 31, 2024 by G. Chambers Williams III

The satellite offices of Anderson County Trustee Regina Copeland and County Clerk Jeff Cole have moved to the Anderson Crossing Shopping Center in Norris from their former longtime location in the center next door.

Copeland and Cole were on hand Monday morning at the new location, in the former TechYeah (Shafer Tech) location in the same strip business center as Dollar General and Anderson Crossing Pharmacy, to oversee the opening.

“We moved because we have a larger facility here and a cheaper lease,” Copeland said. Her office there handles property tax collections.

Likewise, Cole said he made the move because of lower rent and more space – but particularly because of the rent.

“The biggest reason is that the landlord in the previous location doubled the rent on us,” Cole said Monday morning. “There’s also more visibility here.”

Cole’s office handles vehicle titles, registrations and renewals at the remote location. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, except for county holidays.

There also is an automated kiosk in the office for driver’s license renewals, but that will not be up and running until later this week, Cole said.

“They’re still trying to get everything hooked up,” he said.

The new trustee and clerk’s location, 3324 Andersonville Highway, also will be the site for early voting in the county’s primary election, Cole said. Early voting begins Feb. 14, he added.

As for the unnamed strip business center the county offices moved out of, its only remaining tenant is the Cuttin’ Corner beauty shop. The site once was the location of Hensley’s IGA supermarket, but that has been closed for about 10 years.

Cole said the county offices had been at that location since 2007.

The Cuttin’ Corner plans to remain in the space for now, owner Jackie Lucas said on Monday.

“We haven’t heard anything from the new owners yet,” she said.

The new owners of the center, at the southeast corner of Andersonville Highway (Tenn. 61) and Norris Freeway (U.S. 441), said after they purchased it in January 2023 that they were looking for businesses that might want to occupy the property, which they say has enough space for a supermarket or a variety of other businesses.

Business partners Ken Seaman and Dave Moore bought the 3.99-acre property for $1.2 million on Jan. 12, 2023, under their business name 3310 Real Estate Partnership.

Seaman could not be reached Monday for comment on current plans for the center.

The part of the center that was Hensley’s IGA most recently served as a location for the Tennessee College of Applied Technology, which had been allowed to use the former grocery’s space free of charge.

Seaman had told the Norris City Council early last year that he and Moore planned to put a secure, climate-controlled indoor storage facility in the approximately 20,000 square feet of space formerly used by the grocery store. The city changed its zoning ordinance in March to accommodate such indoor storage in the C-2 commercial zone in which the building lies.

But Seaman told The Courier News later that he and his partner had dropped the plans for the storage facility, and would begin advertising for a tenant or tenants to fill out the unoccupied spaces in the building.

He said there is about 20,500 square feet of space where the grocery store was, and an additional 4,000 square feet that had recently been used by the Anderson County High School wrestling team as a training facility.

“Our intention is to find some tenants without going down the storage [facility] path,” Seaman said. “That’s not our preference. We decided we didn’t want to go into business for ourselves.”

Some renovations were made last year, but Seaman said no interior build-out would take place until there are tenants lined up.

Seaman said in June that he hoped to keep the county offices and the hair salon in the center, and would be “in discussions” with both about renewing their leases.

“The clerk and the hair salon get first right of refusal,” he said then. “We’re not pushing anyone out.”

Seaman had earlier released an artist’s conception of a convenience store that he was proposing for the front of the parking lot on the west end, but he said last year that no one had expressed interest.

In 2022, Seaman had posted several ideas on Facebook for the site.

The post said that “some possible retail options include grocery, auto parts, hardware, cellular service, banking/lending, fitness, coffee shop, pastry/donut/bakery, pet store, entertainment, or outdoorsman store (hunting, fishing, camping and or marine).

“Medical options include chiropractic, health and wellness, walk-in clinic or dentist office. The open corner (site of the hair salon) has the potential for a nice sit-down restaurant, a drive-through or possibly a combination thereof. Other options could be a [convenience store] with combo gas and restaurant with drive-through or hospitality.”

Seaman said earlier that the site could be perfect for businesses that could tap into the pool of people driving by on their way to and from Norris Lake, especially those pulling boats.

“It’s a numbers thing,” he said of the financial viability of the revamped center, saying at the time that the project depended on whether “we can get the tenants to justify the numbers. We have to have a grocery store, restaurant, or gas station to make it work.”

One key to success, he said earlier, would be to gain approval of Norris, Anderson County and the Tennessee Department of Transportation to open an entrance for vehicles to the property off Norris Freeway.

Seaman, of Powell, is a longtime executive with REA, Inc., in Knoxville, a heating and air-conditioning company. Moore is a real-estate agent with Realty Executives in Knoxville.