Developers say Smokies stadium is first step in building up Knoxville’s Black-owned businesses

Show Caption Hide Caption New water tower goes up at the future site of the Knoxville Smokies The new water tower honors its iconic Old City predecessor at the future home of the Knoxville Smokies, Covenant Health Park. With stadium contracts awarded, the construction project finished 2.5 percentage shy of reaching its goal of 17% of the awarded contract value going to diverse businesses. Project leaders say they plan to keep pushing for opportunities to involve Black Knoxvillians with surrounding development and in hiring for stadium operations. Edward Henley of Pillars Development, tasked with overseeing the recruitment of diverse businesses, sat down with Knox News for a Q&A about his efforts to this point and plans moving forward. Now named Covenant Health Park, the Smokies stadium is set to open just east of the Old City on April 15 with the first of six home games against Chattanooga. When developers pitched a new downtown Knoxville baseball stadium, they said they would prioritize drawing from a pool of diverse contractors for work on the construction site, once part of a thriving Black residential and business community known as The Bottom prior to urban removal. But throughout construction, that pool felt more...