Ballfields and More for Burlington
Emerald Youth Foundation hopes to buy an underutilized section of Chilhowee Park for a youth education, activities and sports center.
By Scott Barker | August 14, 2025
Originally Published by Compass, Reposted with Permission
AERIAL VIEW OF CHILHOWEE PARK PROPERTY WHERE EMERALD YOUTH FOUNDATION HAS PROPOSED A YOUTH EDUCATION, ACTIVITIES AND SPORTS CENTER. (EMERALD YOUTH FOUNDATION PHOTO.)
Emerald Youth Foundation plans to build a youth sports and activities complex in Burlington if Knoxville City Council approves a land-purchase contract at next Tuesday’s meeting.
The complex, which would be similar to Emerald Youth’s Haslam-Sansom Ministry Complex in Lonsdale, would be built at the former Tennessee Valley Fair midway, across Magnolia Avenue from the main portion of Chilhowee Park.
Under terms of the contract, the faith-based foundation would pay the city $913,518 for the approximately 12-acre tract, which is part of Chilhowee Park but now is used only for about two weeks a year each September as a staging area for the fair.
The proposal is one of two projects in Chilhowee Park that City Council will consider next week. On Monday, the city announced that Muse Knoxville would move its children’s science museum into the Jacob Building, pending Council approval.
David Brace, Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon’s chief of staff, said on Wednesday that the projects are part of the mayor’s commitment to attracting investment to East Knoxville. Emerald Youth anticipates investing $20 million to $30 million in the project.
“We want Chilhowee Park, Burlington and the Magnolia corridor — especially Chilhowee Park — to be the family gathering place year-round for the community,” he said. “There are several pieces of that. One is the Emerald site, with kids’ activities, youth education and health care for people in East Knoxville.”
The contract requires that Emerald Youth Foundation build outdoor recreation facilities and an indoor youth-services component, as well as a healthcare clinic. The latter requirement can be waived if a licensed healthcare clinic opens in Burlington.
Steve Diggs, president and CEO of Emerald Youth Foundation, said the Haslam-Sansom facility provides a blueprint for success in Burlington.
The Lonsdale facility served nearly 1,000 young people last year through Emerald Youth events, plus hundreds more through community events not affiliated with the foundation such as football camps and the Lonsdale Homecoming. To date in 2025, the facility has hosted 300 foundation and community events.
“We’ve seen the benefit of the multiuse facility we’ve had in Lonsdale, and East Knoxville will be a great place to scale that kind of program, that kind of work, to reach more young people,” he said.
Diggs said the 12-acre Burlington site would enable the foundation to build a larger facility than the 7-acre site in Lonsdale. He said there is space for three to four playing fields, with the indoor facility housing two gymnasiums, a learning center, a community room and a wellness center to be operated by River Valley Health (formerly Cherokee Health Systems).
Proceeds from the sale would be committed to related infrastructure improvements and housing in the area. The contract calls for the city to reimburse Emerald up to $430,550 for environmental assessments and the relocation of flood-control infrastructure. The balance of the purchase price — $482,968 — would go toward funding infill housing within a mile and a half of the site.
Emerald Youth planted the seeds for the project in 2022 when it formed the East Area Community Engagement Committee, made up of East Knoxville leaders and residents, to explore the possibilities. Members of the committee include civil-rights icon and pastor Rev. Harold Middlebrook; former Mayor Daniel Brown; Cynthia Finch, executive director of New Direction Health Care Solutions; Alvin Nance, CEO of development for LHP Capital; and others.Emerald Youth and the committee held numerous meetings and spoke with more than 500 people in the community.
“We’ve had some people tell us that they’ve been in the city for years in leadership (positions) and they’ve never seen a community-engagement process at this level,” Diggs said.
In May 2024, the city issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the site. Though any developer could have submitted a proposal, Emerald Youth Foundation was the only entity that responded to the RFP.
Finch, who is president of the Burlington Business District Association as well as being a member of the Community Engagement Committee, welcomed the investment.
“We are tickled pink about projects that bring value to our community, and we have all agreed that this brings value for families, for children and for the economic development of the community,” she said on Wednesday.
Finch said she has passed by the site nearly every day for the better part of three decades. “There’s hardly been any activity there, except for the days the fair has been operational,” she said, emphasizing that the property hasn’t had an economic impact on the community.
Diggs and Brace agreed that City Councilwoman Gwen McKenzie, who represents East Knoxville, has been instrumental in moving the project forward. McKenzie said the Community Engagement Committee talked to East Knoxville youth, who told members they want more options for activities.
“Emerald will be an asset to the community,” she said. “We’ve seen the benefits of their facility in Lonsdale.”
Brace said that Kincannon has made East Knoxville a priority for her second term and that the administration’s support involves Covenant Health Park, a redevelopment area along Magnolia Avenue, a new fire hall and streetscapes in Burlington, and now the Muse Knoxville and Emerald Youth Foundation projects.
“The (Magnolia) corridor is one piece, Burlington is a piece, and then we have Chilhowee Park, which is the largest park space in East Knoxville, that has been declining for a long time,” Brace said. “Those three pieces are areas where we want to see new investment, and we’re starting to see that.”