Sale of TVA office tower falls through

Sam Furrow, Bob Talbott and Fred Langley, Knoxville investors and real estate developers said they were unable to find enough prospective tenants for the 12-story tower. Furrow, Talbott and Langley put up $200,000 to have the rights to the option to buy the tower for a minimum of $12 million.

TVA auctioned the option to buy the East Tower to the Furrow team in late November. TVA is reducing its unused office space with hopes of saving up to $1 million a year in operating costs.

“We just can’t speculate on 250,000 square feet,” Furrow said. “It’s a great building. We just couldn’t put it together.”

Currently, there are about 400 people working in the building. Those employees would have been moved to TVA’s other downtown building, which is located next door, if Furrow and his partners successfully leased the space.

TVA spokesman Gil Francis said that with expiration of the option, “TVA will come up with a marketing plan and a marketing strategy.”

TVA is the nation’s largest public utility, serving 8.5 million people in seven Southern states, including Tennessee.