Ingles Chief Financial Officer Ron Freeman said the project remains on schedule and hopes are to have it completed by summer.

“There can always be some last minute things that can cause delays such as equipment installation, final inspections, etc.,” Freeman said in an email correspondence.
 

Once the building is completed, Ingles representatives were considering “a few possibilities” on the current building but a decision has not been made, Freeman said.
 

“We’ve had some discussions back and forth of doing remodeling on the building for a tenant or doing a tear down and a rebuild for a tenant,” Collins said. “I’ve not heard if they have a prospective tenant or not.”
 

A new Ingles is “very exciting,” Collins said.
 

“This project started years and years ago with Ingles discussing ... building a new store, and, of course, when the recession hit they kind of put things on hold and re-looked at their business model and kind of tweaked their design some,” Collins said. “So for us to finally be near completion of this years-long process, it’s very exciting, I think, and it’s going to be a beautiful store. With the gas station there, people that shop at Ingles can get their gas points and save a little more on gas. I think it’ll really be a good asset for the city.”
 

Lenoir City Regional Planning Commission approved Tuesday a site plan for SouthEast Bank, which is projected to be beside Tennessee Farm Bureau Insurance on Town Creek Parkway.
 

Collins said the next step will be to submit building plans.
 

“Sometimes if the developer is anticipating this is going to go through fairly quickly, sometimes they already have these plans ready to go or fairly ready to go,” Collins said. “The engineer may be finishing something up and can turn those in.”
 

Construction is underway on a 48,000-square-foot, two-story University of Tennessee Medical Center regional health center off Creekwood Boulevard beside Pediatric Choice Clinic.
 

Steven Ross, senior vice president for strategic development at UT Medical Center, said the plan is to have the building open in December. Included in the facility will be eight primary care physicians, rotating specialist clinics, an oncology service area and diagnostic services.
 

“There will also be a medical education room there to have community education programs that are health-related,” Ross said. “We’re working on some other services that are not quite worked out yet. One of the things we’re going to have (is) rehab services, physical therapy, that type of thing.”
 

Ross said the decision to bring a regional center to Loudon County came after UT Medical Center officials laid out a five-year strategic plan and identified four locations for development that were about a 20-minute drive from all patients served in the region.
 

“We prioritize those four centers based on the greatest demand, and so the first was built in Sevierville serving that area of the region, and that opened 18 months ago,” Ross said. “Now Loudon County was the next one for us to develop this for on priority list, so we began that work and are executing that part of the plan with this building.”
 

On Monday, city officials gave the OK for discount grocer Aldi to pull a building permit for the a 18,000-square-foot facility to be located at the former United Community Bank building at the corner of U.S. Highway 321 and Highland Park Drive.
 

Collins said Aldi officials had not given a timeframe for demolition of the old building.
 

“I mean they’re good to go on demolition — any day they want to demo, they’re good,” Collins said. “I think they were just waiting to get the OK for the building permit so that they can mobilize. Kind of once they get going they don’t have to stop.”
 

A site plan for the grocery store was approved in February.

Moe’s coming soon

Moe’s Southwest Grill is expected to be located at the former We’re Cooking All American Grill at The Center at Kelsey Lane five-unit strip mall across from Walmart.
 

Collins said a building permit has been issued and a turnaround should be “fairly quick.” The restaurant could be open in about two months.

“They’ll have to tear out what’s existing in there that Moe’s does not need and then go back in and retrofit what Moe’s does need as far as electrical, lights, hood systems for the restaurants for that sort of thing,” Collins said. “But those types of spaces, buildouts of that nature, the turnaround is very quick so I don’t anticipate that taking very long.”