Standing on the sidewalk, architect L. Duane Grieve points out places where workers have been removing the grout between the wine-red bricks of his office building at 10 Emory Place.

Scaffolding obscures a portion of the building's intricate facade. Visible, though, are the carved lion's heads that adorn the keystones of the brick arches framing vintage windows.

Many other details, however, have been removed during the building's 119-year history. Grieve wants to make the building whole again.

"We're repointing the original brick and putting in windows and restoring the details," Grieve said.

Grieve is one of a handful of property owners near the Broadway-Central Street intersection using facade grants available now because the area is part of a revitalization area. Grieve received two grants totaling $55,981 for his building.

Earlier this month, the Knoxville City Council approved a plan aimed at reviving the commercial area north of downtown and adjacent to two of the city's most successfully gentrified older residential areas - Old North Knoxville and the Fourth and Gill neighborhoods.

"It's exciting to see all that's happening downtown is moving out Broadway and Central," Grieve said.

Highlights of the plan, which was drafted by the Metropolitan Planning Commission, include narrowing Central Street, adopting form-based building codes, repairing sidewalks and improving safety.

"We've seen so much reinvestment in that area," said Mike Carberry, MPC's executive director. "Why not take that wedge between the neighborhoods and make something more out of it?"

'A good first step' The plan sees Emory Place - a small square just south of the Broadway-Central Street intersection - as the heart of a mixed-use extension of downtown. It's a heart that has been barely beating over the past few decades.

"The area covered by the plan certainly has seen better days, and improvements are something that should be considered," said City Councilman Rob Frost, who represents the area and lives in Fourth and Gill.

Once a bustling home to car dealerships and department stores, the area now supports contractors, machine shops, second-hand furniture stores and other small businesses.

"There are a number of unutilized buildings, and I would consider the area not to be thriving," said Frost, who added that the plan is "a good first step" toward reviving the area.

The plan recommends zoning changes that would allow the upper floors of commercial buildings to be converted into apartments and condominiums. Officials predict that mingling residents and workers in the same area during all times of the day would reduce crime.

Bill Lyons, the city's senior policy director, said the redevelopment also would reduce problems associated with the homeless. The cluster of homeless shelters and services between Fifth and Jackson avenues has long meant there are homeless people on the surrounding streets.

However, Lyons predicts the Broadway-Central area will follow the precedent set by the revitalizing 100 block of South Gay Street.

"Once enough people are there," Lyons said, "crime and homelessness will go down."

Another recommendation is to adopt form-based building codes similar to the ones approved for the South Knoxville waterfront project. Form-based codes regulate the size and appearance of buildings rather than their use.

Altering Central Street to slow down traffic, allow on-street parking and encourage pedestrian use is a key, according to Ellen Zavisca, a transportation planner for MPC. It's also important to attract a mix of businesses, she said.

"The key to getting more pedestrian activity in a place is having a destination for them to walk to," Zavisca said.

Kim Trent, executive director of Knox Heritage, said the area would complement the adjacent historic neighborhoods and downtown.

"When you stitch it all together, it's really going to strengthen the whole," Trent said.

Tax breaks and criticism The district is part of the I-275 Corridor Redevelopment Area, which aims to revive a stretch along Interstate 275 from Fort Sanders to the I-275 Business Park, formerly known as the Coster Shop site.

As part of a redevelopment area, businesses in the district could qualify for tax-increment financing and other programs to upgrade their properties.

Tax-increment financing diverts increased tax revenues generated by property improvements to finance the upgrades.

But those with run-down buildings also could risk losing their property. Knoxville's Community Development Corp. has the power to use eminent domain to seize blighted property in the I-275 Corridor if the owners refuse to redevelop them.

Michael Kaplan, a retired University of Tennessee architecture professor who lives in Old North Knoxville, has been a vocal critic of the I-275 Corridor plan.

Among other objections, Kaplan is worried that houses and businesses would be condemned and turned over to developers, who could then get subsidies like tax-increment financing.

"Even if there's one little pocket of blight, that's enough for them to go in and take anything they want," Kaplan said. "A lot of these properties are pretty shabby, but they function."

He also said he's concerned that some developers would receive preferential treatment and believes the borders of the area were arbitrarily drawn. But Kaplan allows that some aspects of the plan make sense.

"It would be nice to have some infill on Central," he said. "I live here. There are lots of opportunities to develop Central Street."

New life at Emory Place New development is on its way. At 18 Emory Place, North-South Productions is preparing to move into its new home. The television production company's Mark Hickman said the firm is moving 25 employees from Bearden to Emory Place.

Hickman said the company wanted to move into a historic building downtown, but there's little available or affordable space. Instead, North-South moved to an old hosiery mill on Emory Place and hopes to use a pending $100,000 facade grant for new doors, windows and other exterior work.

Hickman predicted that downtown's redevelopment would grow naturally northward to the area.

"I think," Hickman said, "we're still in the early stages of the upswing in this area."

Scott Barker may be reached at 865-342-6309.