The price of ‘T’ is cheap at closing Knoxville mall

The 15-by-10 ft. “Power T” from the Knoxville Center Mall is up for sale.

The highest bid placed for the piece that commemorates the University of Tennessee was only $12, according to JD’s Realty & Auction.

Knoxville Partners, which bought the former East Towne Mall in 2016, has more than 600 items on its auction list, ranging from vending machines to the entire Regal Cinema. Occupancy at the 961,000-sq.-ft. mall that had been a fixture in the town for 35 years began to decline when Dillard’s left in 2008.

Knoxville had figured on a long redevelopment cycle, company representative Patrick King told Knox News in 2018. “We knew that five or 10 years was probably more of a realistic kind of timeline,” he said.

But more tenants departed the property after Belk closed last November and the decision was made to close it.