New apartments nearly complete in downtown Greeneville

GREENEVILLE Tenn. (WJHL) – The Niswonger Foundation and the General Morgan Inn are working to bring more apartments to downtown Greeneville, starting with the Morgan Lofts.

The Morgan Lofts will be located at 126 West Depot Street. Scott Niswonger, Chairman of the Niswonger Foundation, said the apartments are just the start of bringing more housing to the area.

“This is the first of a series of buildings that we will be doing to bring both retail, office space, and residential back to the downtown community,” said Niswonger.

Niswonger told News Channel 11 that Greeneville does not have enough housing, and he hopes this project and other future projects will help alleviate that issue.

“On the first floor, we have retail space or perhaps a restaurant in the back,” said Niswonger. “This place is 1,500 square feet in each of these two spaces. Then you’ll see on the second floor that we have three apartments and two of them are almost complete.”

The Morgan Lofts will have both two-bedroom and one-bedroom apartments available for rent. Niswonger said he is also working on a separate project across the street.

“We’re kind of using our experience we’ve gained to build nine condominiums and 10,000 square feet of retail across the street,” said Niswonger. “This is in conjunction with the effort by the city to revitalize the street, and now all the infrastructure is complete. We can go ahead and bring residential back downtown.”

The condominiums are the next project for the Niswonger Foundation. Niswonger said once the foundation finishes the Morgan Lofts, work will begin on the new condominiums, which are projected to be complete by April or May of next year.

Isaac Myers, General Manager at the General Morgan Inn, said the project is all about bringing more people to Greeneville.

“We want people to come downtown, we want people to come to the area, be involved in the community, and I think this bond between the Niswonger Foundation and the General Morgan Inn will get more community involvement.”

Myers told News Channel 11 that using the space for both retail and housing is part of the downtown experience.

“You have residents down here, you also have the businesses. You have to have places for them to go to shop, to eat and we’re trying to incorporate all of that with the whole development,” said Myers. “It’s just important to have both residential and retail.”

Niswonger said he hopes to have the Morgan Lofts complete in the next 3-4 weeks.

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