Christmas Greetings! I hope you will all get to enjoy this holiday with someone you love and that your weekend is filled with peace and joy.

From the looks of it, a lot of folks will have a new home for the holidays — we recorded 291 property sales last week. The total of all sales came to just over $176 million. And of the 291, 30 were sales valued at over a million dollars. Some of those were private homes, but the majority were commercial properties.

Nick McBride

Surprise! Another apartment complex sale tops the list this week: Knox Student Apartments LLC sold the University Park Apartments on Lippencott Street in South Knoxville to University Park Partners I LLC for $32.5 million.

Another South Knoxville retail center has also changed hands. Chapman Ford Crossing, currently home to Pathways Church, Gold’s Gym and other businesses was owned by Frayer Properties LLC until last week’s sale to Garciga Investments LLC for $7.4 million.

The Pilot Corporation was responsible for 16 of the sales over $1 million dollars last week, selling 16 of the local convenience stores to CGS Stores LLC for approximately $26 million.

In East Knoxville, the Greater First Church of God in Christ sold its currently unused church building and adjoining lots to Obsidian Development LLC for $1.1 million. This property is located on Donald Lee Derrickson Avenue. Look for some new development in that area very soon.

In the Powell community, two properties made it to the “over a million” list. First, 629 Powell Properties LLC sold the Emory Road Medical Plaza to 629 Powell Stolley LLC for $7.94 million.

And another well-known retail center facing E. Emory Road has also been sold. Emory Station LLC sold the Emory Station center to CapRock Emory Station LLC for $5.15 million.

Out in the western part of the county, PureMagic Carwash of Knoxville LLC sold the carwash on Lovell Road to MD Roesbery Inc. for $4.02 million. PureMagic retains a lease on the property so no worries if you signed up for the monthly carwash packages.

And, on Hardin Valley Road, Hardin Valley Land Partners divided their holdings in the retail center at 10720 Hardin Valley Rd (on the corner of Hardin Valley Road and Valley Vista Road) selling part to O & M Holdings LLC for $5.5 million and another portion to AJ Property Holdings LLC for $1.5 million.

Lenders were busy last week, too. There were 489 loans recorded in 5 days. These loans carried a total value of $261.1 million.

Of those, 21 were for amounts over $1 million dollars, with the largest loan being funded by Bellco Credit Union in the amount of $48 million. Our second highest loan was $28 million funded by Bank of Tennessee. Capital One NA’s loan for $9.1 million came in third, and Consumer Credit Union made a loan of $7.8 million to round out the highest four. The other loans were all under five million:

Here is the three-year comparison of year-to-date data:

Please note that the office will be closed on Friday, Dec. 24, and Monday, Dec. 27. We will be here at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 28, to serve you.

My office staff, my family and I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas!

Nick McBride is register of deeds for Knox County.