Neyland Entertainment District Project Approved, Awarded to 865 Neyland Project Team

Neyland Entertainment District Project Approved, Awarded to 865 Neyland Project Team

The Tennessee State Building Commission on Thursday approved a major University of Tennessee endeavor around Neyland Stadium that includes a development of an entertainment district along with a condo-hotel and rebuilt G-10 parking garage.

The Neyland Entertainment District is a public-private partnership between UT and 865 Neyland, a development team of real estate and sports entertainment experts that has also been a part of such districts for the Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves.

“With the entertainment district and hotel, it’s not our money,” explained Tennessee Athletic Director Danny White during his stop with the Vol Caravan in Kingsport.

“It’s a public-private partnership with a developer that’s investing $280 million in infrastructure that will be an awesome improvement not only for our fans on gameday but also for our students, entire student body, over 40,000 of them, 365 days a year, overlooking the Tennessee River.”

The agreement places the entertainment district and hotel’s daily operations in a 99-year lease agreement with the developers that is expected to bring in $1.5 million annually along with a portion of sales.

The entertainment district will be situated atop a refurbished G-10 garage between Neyland Stadium and the Food City Center and nearly 175,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, including a 4,000-capacity concert stage, restaurants, and shops.

The mixed-use “Condotel” features a full-service hotel with approximately 240 rooms and 60 luxury condos, rooftop restaurant and bar, pool and terrace, conference center, lounges, fitness center and spa. Hartland Hotel Group will help guide this aspect of the project. The group developed the Hotel Figueroa, located next to LA Live, among others.

The project is scheduled to begin in summer of 2026 with the removal of the G-10 Parking Garage which will impact gameday activities during the 2026 Volunteer football season.

“Just like our teams when we are renovating their facilities, we’ll have to deal with a little bit of dust for this upcoming season,” noted White. “We are asking fans to pardon our dust, we are going to find parking, we are going to figure it out for one season and I think people will be really pleased with the finished product. It’s going to be really cool.

The new garage is expected to be operational by the fall of 2027 with the entertainment district finished by fall of 2028 and the hotel and condos one year later.

White hopes the development spurs additional projects along the river.

“We really want to see more development of our waterfront and we think this project can be the impudence of that,” added White. “Looking forward to it.”