Scottie Johnson Buys Knox News Building With XS Power To Co-Locate With The Newspaper Publication

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KNOXVILLE, TN, December 28, 2021 – 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.

Press operations will remain at the 2332 News Sentinel Drive property, which was purchased from Gannett by Scottie Johnson of XS Power Batteries for $8.5 million. Johnson’s employees will move into first-floor office space in 2023, while newsroom and advertising employees at Knox News will work on the building’s second floor.

“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.”