Anchor tenant Ole Crow Tavern has invested approximately $500,000 in a fully upgraded commercial kitchen and bar — hood system, line equipment, finishes, and front-of-house infrastructure all in place — giving the next operator a turnkey, move-in-ready restaurant platform at a fraction of replication cost.
The 223 Commerce gym bay features industrial-size overhead doors — a rare downtown feature that supports drive-in, load-in/load-out, and higher-clearance uses: supply company, contractor showroom, plumbing/HVAC/electrical distributor, flooring or window/door showroom, or light fabrication. Few Downtown Kingsport spaces can roll trucks or material directly into the building.
The property sits inside Kingsport's Central Business District — a TIF District, PILOT District, federally designated Qualified Opportunity Zone, and Tennessee Main Street area — making it eligible for the City's Façade Grant, Redevelopment Grant, and Downtown Kingsport Loan programs.
In-Place Tenant Roster — 100% Occupied with Owner-Operator Flexibility
The building is fully leased today, with two tenancies on temporary terms — delivering in-place cash flow from day one and a clear path for an owner-operator to step into either space as those leases roll, or for an investor to re-lease at market and ride Downtown Kingsport's rising rents.
King City Distillery — Craft Distillery & Tasting Room
A working craft distillery operating under B-2 zoning, which expressly permits distilleries with tasting rooms. The space drives destination foot traffic, pairs naturally with the building's restaurant infrastructure, and can be continued as-is, folded into a larger F&B concept, or repurposed for a brewpub, winery, or other licensed beverage producer.
Website: www.kingcitydistillery.net
Ole Crow Tavern — Anchor F&B Tenant with ~$500,000 Commercial Kitchen Build-Out
Ole Crow Tavern occupies the primary restaurant space and has invested approximately $500,000 in a fully upgraded commercial kitchen and bar — hood system, line equipment, finishes, and full front-of-house, all staying with the building. For an owner-operator running a restaurant, brewpub, tasting room, gastropub, supper club, or ghost kitchen, it's one of the most cost-advantaged F&B platforms in the market — and for an investor, durable, replication-cost-protected restaurant space.
Website: www.olecrowtavern.com
G1 Elite — Fitness Tenant in the Industrial-Door Bay
G1 Elite operates a fitness facility on the 223 Commerce side, built out with industrial-size overhead doors that expand the future use set well beyond gym product — naturally suited to a supply company, plumbing/HVAC/electrical distributor, contractor showroom, flooring or kitchen-and-bath showroom, or light fabrication operator. That kind of drive-in, high-clearance footprint is exceptionally rare in Downtown Kingsport.
Website: www.g1elite.com
Found Objects — Destination Retail
Found Objects is an active Downtown destination retail concept operating inside the building. The space contributes pedestrian traffic and street-level activation to the Commerce Street frontage and would suit any boutique, gallery, antique/consignment, home goods, gift, or specialty-retail concept an owner-user wants to operate or replace at lease roll.
Industrial-Size Overhead Doors — The Rare Downtown Drive-In Bay
The 223 Commerce gym bay features industrial-size overhead doors — supporting drive-in load-in / load-out for supply companies, contractor showrooms, plumbing/HVAC/electrical distributors, flooring or window/door showrooms, or light indoor fabrication.
Van is AI-generated to illustrate potential uses.
Downtown Improvement Grant (DIG) — Facade Renovation Potential
The purpose of the Facade Grant Program is to encourage the revitalization of building facades and to improve the aesthetics of the city's Central Business District with grant assistance through the Kingsport Economic Development Board (KEDB).
The Redevelopment Grant Program is designed to encourage revitalization of building sites with special emphasis on improvement of the aesthetics in the city's Central Business District. Special emphasis is given to projects pertaining to the Central Business District, however, the grant is applicable to all parts of the city.
Learn more: kingsporttn.gov/ecd/incentives
Owner-Operator Path — Cash Flow Now, Vacancy on Demand
Most Downtown buildings force a buyer to choose between income and occupancy. This one doesn't. The four in-place tenancies produce contractual rent today, and because two of those leases (G1 Elite and Found Objects) are intentionally temporary, the building is structured to deliver either or both of those bays back to the owner without a tenant displacement fight. That gives a buyer three clean paths:
- Income first. Hold the rent roll as-is, collect on the in-place tenancies, and step into individual spaces selectively as leases roll.
- Operator first. Take the industrial-door bay for an owner-occupied concept on day one, and continue to collect rent from the remaining tenancies.
- Reposition. Use the temporary lease structure to recapture the building over time and reposition it as a single-tenant, mixed-use, or hospitality redevelopment under B-2 zoning.
Downtown Parking — 1,800+ Public Spaces
Nearby 364-space parking garage, 3-minute walk (~250 yards away). 1,800+ public parking spaces in Downtown Kingsport.
Kingsport Market — Tight Fundamentals, Construction-Cost Advantage
Kingsport's steady, measured growth is its quiet advantage. Fast-growing markets like Nashville often overbuild during boom cycles and pay for it in vacancy spikes. Kingsport doesn't carry that risk. Commercial fundamentals here are unusually tight across every sector — Office at 4.0% vacancy, Retail at 1.5%, and Multifamily at 5.6%, all outperforming national averages.
Kingsport buying power per dollar of retail rent is 10% to 24% higher than Knoxville, Nashville, and Asheville, NC.
This metric is critical: rent is ultimately funded by tenant revenue, which is directly tied to the purchasing power of the surrounding population. In Kingsport, that relationship is more favorable.
What makes this property a rare opportunity is the location: the historic core of downtown, where the inventory is finite and effectively irreplaceable. You can't build more historic buildings, and the city isn't adding new ones to the downtown center anytime soon.
The same construction-cost advantage shown for multifamily holds true for retail and remodel work. Kingsport hard costs run meaningfully below peer markets across the board, and when paired with incentives — Opportunity Zone tax advantages, façade improvement grants, and the City's Redevelopment Grant and Downtown Loan programs — projects achieve a superior basis and stronger risk-adjusted returns.
| Multifamily Construction Cost Comparison | ||
|---|---|---|
| City | Cost to Build ($/sq ft, hard cost) | Cost to Build per Unit (1,000 sq ft) |
| Kingsport | $175 | $175,000 |
| Chattanooga | $200 | $200,000 |
| Knoxville | $210 | $210,000 |
| Nashville | $245 | $245,000 |
| Asheville, NC | $235 | $235,000 |
Qualified Opportunity Zone & Downtown Tax Advantages
The property sits inside a federally designated Qualified Opportunity Zone, plus Kingsport's TIF District, PILOT District, and Tennessee Main Street boundary — stacking some of the most powerful tax incentives currently available to real estate investors.
- Deferral of federal tax on capital gains rolled into a Qualified Opportunity Fund that acquires and substantially improves property in the zone
- Reduction of the deferred gain depending on holding period
- Elimination of federal tax on new gains generated by the Opportunity Zone investment if held for 10+ years — with no depreciation recapture on the OZ basis
Buyer should consult their CPA or tax advisor regarding eligibility and current IRS rules.
Downtown Kingsport Incentives
Beyond the Opportunity Zone, the property's location inside the Central Business District makes it eligible for additional local incentive programs, which may include the Façade Grant Program, Redevelopment Grant Program, and Downtown Kingsport Loan Program — designed to help offset the cost of purchase, renovation, and façade improvements.
B-2 Central Business District — Exceptionally Broad Permitted Uses
The property sits inside Kingsport's B-2 Central Business District, the city's most flexible and use-permissive commercial zone. Permitted principal uses include — but are far from limited to — the following, making the building suitable for a wide range of tenant mixes or owner-user concepts:
Retail & Shopping
Clothing and apparel boutiques, gift and card shops, bookstores, antique and consignment, jewelry, art galleries and artist studios, home goods and furniture showrooms, florists, specialty food retailers (butcher, bakery, cheese, chocolatier), wine and liquor stores, music and record shops, sporting goods and bike shops, toy and hobby stores, pet supply, cigar/tobacco, novelty and souvenir shops. Golf cart sales were explicitly approved by the Kingsport Board of Zoning Appeals in 2025 as a B-2 principal use.
Food & Drink
Sit-down, fast-casual, ethnic, and fine dining restaurants; cafés, coffee shops, tea houses; bakeries and pastry shops; ice cream, gelato, and frozen yogurt; juice and smoothie bars; delis and sandwich shops; bars, taverns, lounges, and wine bars. The code also expressly permits brewpubs and craft breweries (up to 10,000 SF of production area in commercial zones), craft wineries, and distilleries with tasting rooms — a natural fit given the in-place Ole Crow Tavern kitchen and King City Distillery operation. Cat cafés were approved by BZA for the Boops & Beans concept in 2024.
Light Trade, Industrial & Specialty — The Industrial-Door Use Set
Plumbing/HVAC showroom + office, electrical contractor with counter sales, appliance and kitchen/bath showrooms, flooring and window/door companies, printing and sign shops, commercial/ghost kitchens, tech repair, light indoor fabrication, AV/low-voltage, security, and fire protection system companies, small accessory data centers, and secure asset storage. The 223 Commerce industrial-size doors make this category genuinely operable in the building — not just theoretically permitted.
Professional & Office
Law, accounting, and CPA offices; architecture, engineering, and design firms; real estate, insurance, and financial advisory; banks and credit unions; medical, dental, optometry, chiropractic, and physical therapy; mental health and counseling; tax preparation; marketing, advertising, and PR agencies; software and tech startups; co-working spaces; nonprofit and association offices; small accessory data centers.
Personal Services
Hair and nail salons, barbershops, day spas, massage therapy, tanning, tailoring and alterations, dry cleaners and laundromats, shoe repair, tattoo and piercing studios.
Entertainment, Culture & Recreation
Movie and performing-arts theaters, music venues and concert halls, dance/yoga/pilates studios, indoor fitness and gyms (the in-place G1 Elite use), martial arts, art classes and maker studios, escape rooms, arcades, museums, galleries, event venues and banquet halls, private clubs.
Lodging
Hotels, boutique hotels, and bed & breakfasts.
Residential
Residential uses permitted (except single-family detached dwellings) — supporting an upper-level or rear-of-building loft conversion if a buyer wants to reposition any portion of the asset.
Who This Property Suits
- Supply company, distributor, or contractor showroom looking for industrial-door, drive-in capability inside a walkable Downtown footprint
- Brewpub, distillery, or winery operator expanding alongside (or replacing) the existing tasting-room concept
- Mixed-use operator splitting the two addresses across complementary concepts — F&B + retail, gym + showroom, or event + tasting room
- Healthcare, civic, or professional tenant using the multi-address layout for distinct patient or public entrances
- Adaptive-reuse developer recapturing the building over time as temporary leases roll, with Downtown loft comps at $250+/SF
- Investor positioning for the continued upward trajectory of Downtown Kingsport rents and values, with Opportunity Zone tax advantages available to qualifying buyers
Location Highlights
- Downtown Kingsport core — steps from Broad Street, Church Circle, and the Heritage Trail
- Purpose-planned urban fabric — wide streets and sidewalks, alleys, a true grid system, and 44 city blocks of walkable downtown
- Walkable, tree-lined streetscape with 1,800+ free public parking spaces Downtown
- Walk Score area rating: "Very Walkable"
- Active revitalization district — new water, sewer, power, and streetscape investment underway
- Growing residential base — loft conversions (Bridwell on Broad), townhomes, and the Brickyard Village bringing 400+ new residences nearby; Downtown lofts currently appraising and selling at $250+/SF
- Event-driven foot traffic — Fun Fest, Santa Train, First Thursday Sip & Stroll, Kingsport Farmers Market, Sculpture Walk, and year-round Downtown programming
- Abundant outdoor recreation nearby — South Fork of the Holston River, 10-mile Greenbelt, Bays Mountain Park, skate park, bike pump track, mountain biking and hiking trails
- Access: ~1 mile to I-26, connecting to I-81; within a day's drive of roughly 70% of the U.S. population; ~14 miles / 21 minutes to Tri-Cities Airport with direct flights to CLT, ATL, DFW, ORD, MCO/SFB, IAD, PIE, and AZA
- Anchored by employment — minutes from Eastman Chemical (one of the largest employers in the region), Holston Valley Medical Center, and the Kingsport Academic Village (Northeast State and ETSU Downtown)
Regional Reach
- Dollywood (Pigeon Forge) — roughly 1 hour 34 minutes by car
- Smoky Mountains National Park (North Entrance) — 90 miles
- 5 Minutes to Trout Fishing
Property Snapshot
- Address
- 215 - 223 Commerce St., Kingsport, TN 37660
- Offered As
- Single sale, combined parcels
- Total Building Size
- ±17,750 SF (223 Commerce ±11,250 SF + 215 Commerce ±6,500 SF per Sullivan County records)
- Lot Size
- ±0.40 acres combined (±17,424 SF) — 0.16 acres (±6,970 SF) + 0.24 acres (±10,454 SF)
- Configuration
- Two street addresses inside one building — 215 + 223 Commerce
- Location
- Heart of Downtown Kingsport — the city's revitalized commercial core
- Zoning
- B-2 Central Business District (City of Kingsport)
- Parcel (215 Commerce)
- 046P-C-012.00
- Special Districts
- Opportunity Zone, TIF District, PILOT District, Tennessee Main Street
- Flood Zone
- B/X — outside the 100-year floodplain (buyer to confirm with current FEMA maps)
- Occupancy
- 100% leased — Ole Crow Tavern, King City Distillery, G1 Elite, Found Objects + supplemental storefront/storage
- Submarket
- Downtown Kingsport / Kingsport-Bristol CBSA
- Sale Type
- Investment or Owner-User
- Sale Price
- $2,295,000
Location & Demographics
| Population | 0.25 mi | 0.5 mi | 1 mi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Population | 436 | 1,383 | 5,126 |
| Average Age | 43.3 | 40.1 | 36.7 |
| Total Households | 224 | 665 | 2,306 |
| Average HH Income | $71,829 | $66,446 | $57,213 |
| Average House Value | $177,056 | $173,915 | $186,176 |
Source: 2023 American Community Survey (ACS)
Other Possible Uses
Beyond the uses outlined above, Kingsport's B-2 Central Business District is one of the most permissive commercial classifications in the city. Each category below is offered as an idea-generation list; specific operations should be confirmed with the City of Kingsport.
Government & Civic Offices
Federal, state, county, and municipal office space — including U.S. Post Office and USPS retail, SSA field offices, VA clinics, IRS taxpayer assistance, USDA service centers, Census Bureau, Labor / workforce development centers, military recruiting, congressional and Senate district offices; Tennessee state agency satellite offices; Sullivan County offices; City of Kingsport administrative annex; courthouse annex, public defender, district attorney satellite; chamber of commerce, visitor center, Main Street program offices.
Healthcare, Wellness & Medical Services
Urgent care, primary care, pediatric and women's health clinics, dental and orthodontic, optometry, dermatology, ENT, allergy, audiology, physical and occupational therapy, sports medicine, dialysis, imaging and diagnostic labs, blood donation centers, behavioral health and counseling, substance use treatment, telehealth, med spa and aesthetics.
Maker, Creative & Media Production
Maker spaces and shared shop bays, woodworking and metal-fabrication studios, podcast and recording studios, photography and videography studios, film and content production, graphic design and creative agencies.
Financial Services
Bank branches and credit union locations, ATM lobbies, mortgage and lending offices, tax preparation, wealth management, family offices, fintech storefronts.
Lodging & Residential-Style Uses (Expanded)
Boutique hotels, bed & breakfasts, short-term and extended-stay rentals, urban lofts, corporate housing, furnished executive suites, hostel-style or themed lodging concepts.
Education & Instruction (Expanded)
Tutoring centers, test-prep, language schools, music/art/dance instruction, coding bootcamps, indoor trade and vocational schools, culinary schools, continuing education and professional certification, charter or micro-school satellite locations.
Light Trade, Industrial & Specialty Uses (Industrial-Door Bay)
Plumbing/HVAC, electrical, flooring, kitchen & bath, appliance, window & door showrooms; printing and sign shops; tech repair; AV/low-voltage, security and fire-protection contractors; light indoor fabrication; small accessory data centers; secure asset storage (exotic/vintage vehicles, precious metals, financial assets, art, and other high-value assets); commercial supply distributors and contractor counter-sales operators — all naturally supported by the 223 Commerce industrial-size overhead doors.
Kingsport — America's First "Model City"
Kingsport was purpose-designed as a planned city in the early 20th century, and Downtown's pedestrian grid, Church Circle roundabout, and civic architecture reflect that intentionality. After a period of 20th-century decline, the Downtown district has been on a steady upswing, driven by a city-led master plan, private redevelopment, and public infrastructure investment. The result is an emerging, revitalized Downtown with real momentum: active storefronts, growing residential density, a 1.8-mile Heritage Trail, public art, breweries, restaurants, and a dense calendar of festivals and markets.
Investment Summary
- ±17,750 SF total building — multi-address configuration (215 & 223 Commerce) inside a single structure
- B-2 Central Business zoning — maximum use flexibility
- Downtown core location — walkable, event-driven, with active ongoing reinvestment
- 100% occupied with five active tenants on temporary leases — buyer underwrites in-place income and chooses when to take occupancy
- Turnkey food-and-beverage infrastructure in place — Ole Crow Tavern's ~$500,000 commercial kitchen and bar build-out stays with the building
- In-place craft distillery operation (King City Distillery) under a B-2 use category that expressly permits distilleries with tasting rooms
- Industrial-size overhead doors in the gym bay — supply-company / contractor-showroom / light-industrial capable inside a Downtown footprint
- Located inside a TIF District, PILOT District, Tennessee Main Street district, and federally designated Opportunity Zone
- Flood Zone B/X — outside the 100-year floodplain (buyer to verify current FEMA designation)
- Eligible for City incentives — Façade Grant, Redevelopment Grant, and Downtown Kingsport Loan Program
- Sold together as one building under a single transaction
Contact the Listing Agent
Carson Lee Jones
eXp Commercial
carson.jones@expcommercial.com
Serious inquiries only — tours available upon request.
All information contained herein has been obtained from sources deemed reliable; however, no representation or warranty is made as to its accuracy. Prospective purchasers should verify all square footage, zoning compliance, lease structure and remaining lease terms, Opportunity Zone boundaries, incentive program eligibility, flood zone designation, and permitted uses with the appropriate authorities and their own professional advisors. Public records reflect the two addresses as separate parcels; consult the listing agent for current tax, title, and survey details. eXp Commercial, LLC, its direct and indirect parents and their subsidiaries (together, "We") obtained the information above from sources believed to be reliable, however, We have not verified its accuracy and make no guarantee, warranty or representation, expressed or implied, about such information.
Selling, buying, or raising capital? Let's talk.
Brokerage, equity participation, and capital partnerships for commercial real estate owners, investors, and family offices — nationwide, through the eXp Commercial platform.
