University Commons — Local services in Knoxville

I only rank this as a 3 star because WalMart (who was not the intentional second anchor of UC, that was supposed to be Target) will not give up the space and is actually hurting the other small business in UC. If it wasnt for Publix this shopping center would be stunted worse than it is. Which is actually a shame as this shopping center serves not just UT Campus but also those of us who live in the downtown area.

WalMart closed the store because it did not generate the business that the supercenters does, according to corporate. However their numbers were flawed and if you look at it apples to apples instead of apples to oranges the numbers of the University Commons Walmart was equal to if exceeding their much larger counterparts in Knoxville. The original plan was for Target to be the anchor and WalMart made a shrewd last second business decision to outbid Target for the lease and it was not by much as my understanding of the deal was. The developer took basically a few pennies more and after short amount of time the developer is now sitting with a money loser due to the smaller stores not being able to keep up with the reduction in traffic and that was before Covid. However, WalMart is missing a great opportunity to try any sort of concept that would make them viable to much larger markets like NYC which to my knowledge does not have a WalMart location inside the 5 burroughs.

I feel the great promise of this location is missing the mark. Over promising and under delivering what could be a great asset to the residents of Knoxville and students of the University of Tennessee. That is why this place is worth 3 stars instead of 5 and that is me being generous. If the developers terminated WalMart's contract for failure to occupy the space and opened up the bidding to another occupant who would utilize the space then I would change my rating to 5 stars. Until then it will stay a 2-3 star location.

Also if WalMart wanted my opinion I could give them a store concept that would make sense and would work inside major cities where retail space is limited. The concept would give them a new way to go at Amazon and would potentially be a stellar way to expand Walmart's reach not just to major markets but to smaller under utilized communities. I mean if you are going to pay for the space until 2025 might as well make it functional and a revenue positive instead of a total...

I don't really like this area nor the location the GPS Google Maps does not give an accurate description of where the office is actually located in this Plaza. When it tells you that your reach your destination it's in the back of all these buildings number one I had to drive around the whole entire facility just to find the place the turn is right before what the GPS tells you instead of where it tells you to turn into this Plaza that's the wrong turn to turn into. Besides that they have many doctors offices great state-of-the-art neurologist office is Pain Management Center there is also Sports Medicine facility with physical therapist also there's a bunch more it's a huge area and the dentist office oral surgeon is...

I went to the Publix here and I loved it! I'm from Florida where there's a Publix on every corner so I had to go out of my way to find this one. I'm glad I did because I found everything I needed, including a good wine. Everything was organized well and very clean. The cashier and bagger were kind and friendly, struck up a conversation with me and insisted on helping me out with groceries since I was shopping with a little one. 5 stars for sure. I...