Scottie Johnson, a Knoxville-based leader in after-market battery applications, has purchased the Knox News property from its parent company, Gannett, which has pursued a strategy of selling properties and leasing back office and production space.
All Knox News operations, including printing of the News Sentinel and other regional newspapers such as The Tennessean and the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald Leader, will continue at the facility, one of the nation's busiest newspaper presses. The newsroom, advertising, circulation and human resources offices will remain in the building under the lease-back deal.
In all, Knox News will continue to use more than 115,000 square feet of the approximately 190,000 square feet of the building on News Sentinel Drive near the Mechanicsville neighborhood.
Johnson's business will occupy much of the office space on the ground floor, and he will lease out additional office space on the first and second floors.
"This is a ideal relationship for everyone," said Joel Christopher, Knox News executive editor. "Scottie Johnson gets a great location to expand his rapidly growing, locally based businesses, Knox News locks in a long-term deal for its production and office needs, and other businesses get an opportunity to lease in a location with tremendous access to downtown, the airport and the interstate system."
He plans to construct a manufacturing facility on site before moving his employees in 2023 to the current building that was built less than 20 years ago.
"This opportunity to not only buy a building but buy a building with such a respected and well-known main tenant, the newspaper, was a no-brainer for me," Johnson told Knox News. "I have a very solid understanding that the newspaper is not leaving any time soon. The plan is for that business to still grow here."
Johnson built his holdings on batteries
Johnson, an engineer who competed in national car audio contests,first came to Knoxville from Kentucky in 2006 to help a local company develop a new line of batteries.
He later purchased that portion of the company to start XS Power Batteries on Cherry Street in 2011, which creates batteries used in vehicles for after-market applications.
"Think race cars, show cars and car stereo applications," he said. "You name it. Anything that needs an incredibly high-powered battery, we provide that. Compared to everything else that's in the market, the product that we make is the highest quality and most powerful."
Johnson later founded Showtime Electronics, a distributing company that also will move to the Knox News property.
He also purchasedanother company, TurboStart Batteries, which has licenses from vehicle manufacturers to create replica batteries for classic cars.
Johnson excited about new location
These companies' operations are based out of two separate suiteson Cherry Street, totaling just 15,000 square feet. Johnson currently employsaround 30 people at his Knoxville-based businesses.
"That would be a lot higher, but we're out of space," he said. "We already have people working over top of each other, so it's inefficient. What we really need in our production business is about 12 production lines ... but we only currently have space for two."
Johnson said he has spent three years looking for an updated space. He considered constructing a new facility but called his recent purchase "a major shortcut" in being able to grow his companies.
He plansto construct a roughly 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on the interstate-facing side of the property in 2022. His lease on Cherry Street ends at the end of next year, and Johnson has plans to move employees to the new property in January 2023.
"I could work from home every day if I wanted to, or I could work from a refrigerator box," he said. "I don't need the nicest and most fancy things, but my staff deserves it. They need to have the latest and greatest equipment. They need to have a space that's custom-tailored to what their needs are to be efficient.
"We really want to grow the family."
Adding employees at the property
After moving into the new facility, Johnson hopes to increase his workforce from around 30 to 100 employeewithin 18 months.
"I bought the property to make it flourish," he said. "I want to do whatever I can do on the premises to make people want to work here and make it represent Knoxville well."
Anyone interested in leasing space within the building should contact info@xspowerbatteries.com.
