HO HO HOpe you all had a great Christmas! Our house was chaotic and fun – toys everywhere! We had a nice break and will be having a very short week this week as we are also off this Friday to celebrate 2022’s arrival.

Last week was a vacation week for a lot of people but our office was slammed! I guess folks decided to buy that new house after all. In just four days we recorded a total of 1,700 documents. 327 of these were property transfers that had a combined value of $397.4 million. It’s a rare week that the value of the sales is higher than that of the loans obtained. After reading about the huge sales last week, you’ll see why that happened. We recorded a total of 22 property transfers over a million dollars were and of those, 14 were commercial properties. And once again, apartment complexes top the list of the highest value properties to change hands.

Coming in with the highest dollar sale we have seen in a while, was the transfer of the Forest Ridge Apartment complex on Ball Camp Byington Road from Strata Forest LLC to SREIT Forest Ridge Apts. LLC for $133,086,000.

Two sister apartment complexes on the list are on Joe Hinton Road just off Middlebrook Pike. Both Eagle Pointe Apartments and the Courtyards at Eagle Point were sold by Strata Eagle LLC, to SREIT Eagle Pointe Apartments LLC for $108.39 million.

A much smaller complex is on Conner Road in Fountain City. Conner Rd Apartments are now owned by Conner TN LLC who paid $2.11 million. And the last of the four apartment complex transfers last week was the Stacy Court Apartments on Dutch Valley Road. S.J. Robert sold the small complex to Rand at Sharps Ridge LLC. for $1.62 million. Four apartment complexes sold in one week – Wow.

In North Knoxville there is a large piece of undeveloped commercial property on East Emory Rd that has a new owner. Nidus, LLC sold the 17 acres of now cleared land at 2129 E. Emory Rd to Emory Land LLC for $2.2 million. Another undeveloped piece of commercial property sold in the northern part of our county as well. This lot, the 1.37-acre corner of Mynatt Rd and Maynardville Hwy, was sold from Cross Development CC Knoxville LLC to CMB Properties Company LP for $4.89 million.

A group of three properties, two on North Central and one on North Broadway were also sold last week. Twofold Purchase GP sold 609 & 611 N. Central and 622 N Broadway to Summit Capital Ventures LLC for $ 1.52 million. Just a bit further downtown another sale made the list. The brick condominium building located at 713 Market Street was sold from Market Holding LP to P. Patel for $1.85 million.

As you know, South Knoxville has been experiencing a revival these past few years. There are new apartments, condominiums, restaurants, and parks with appeal for people of all ages. One property on our list is on Sevier Avenue with great visibility. Located just over the Gay St bridge and next to the Holston Gas property, 605 Sevier Avenue was sold by the Glass Trust to Baxter Properties LLC for $1.25 million. Currently this building is home to Computer Systems Plus.

As of last week, the News Sentinel building has a new owner. Scripps NP Operating LLC sold the building and a piece of property with frontage on Western Avenue to Systemic Properties LLC who paid $8.5 million dollars.

Tooles Bend property

A beautiful piece of property along the Tennessee river and Pellissippi Parkway now has a new owner. This large property, 418 acres, along with a 19-acre adjoining lot, both on Toole’s Bend Rd were sold by Riverside Venture to Stairway Knoxville LLC for $9 million dollars. This map outlines the larger property.

On the west side of the county, Brackfield & Associates sold the Volunteer Storage property located at 10510 Kingston Pike in the Lovell Road area, to Volunteer Storage West TN LLC for 1.25 million. Also in deep west Knoxville, 5.5 acres next to Avenir Memory Care Assisted Living on Concord Road has sold. A. Ralston sold the undeveloped property to ME Investments LLC for $1.27 million.

The lenders were working like crazy last week to get loans recorded prior to the holidays. In fact, we recorded 517 loans that were worth a whopping $377.4 million. 20 of the loans were for amounts over a million dollars. The largest amounts of the week, $62.0 million and $76.89 million were both funded by Citi Real Estate Funding. Central Bank and Trust funded a $28.6 million dollar loan, Wilson Bank and Trust funded $13.32 million and BDS IV Mortgage Capital W LLC lent one sum of $13.04 million. The other lenders of the large loans were:The staff of the Register’s office wishes everyone a Happy and Healthy 2022!The office will be closed this Friday for the New Year holiday. Please ring in the New Year safely!

Nick McBride is register of deeds for Knox County.