Kingsport Economic Development Board talks dental clinic funding, construction

KINGSPORT — Several agenda items related to the Kingsport Dental Clinic of the Appalachian Highlands were approved at Tuesday's Kingsport Economic Development Board meeting. City Manager Chris McCartt said now that the city owns the Sevier Center, the lease for the building with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center needs to be transferred over. He said the lease for the building at 117 W. Sevier Ave. would be similar to the other academic village buildings in town. The Kingsport Board of Mayor and Aldermen is expected to vote on the lease at a later meeting. "One of the things that we will ask this board to do for the city of Kingsport is that as we move forward with the various different construction projects, we'll need to turn around and do a lease of those sections of the building, if you will, back to KEDB," McCartt said. "KEDB will function very much in the way that they did on the initial build out for future phases." McCartt said there has been a collaborative effort to develop a master plan for the facility and determine how to effectively and efficiently complete renovations. Katie Hill, one of the architects with CainRashWest working on the project, attended the meeting Tuesday. KEDB approved an $21,500 agreement with CainRashWest in July 2025 to conduct a master plan for the vacant space within the property, as well as surrounding properties. "So if you ask me, which phase are we getting ready to pull the trigger on — probably at this point in time, I couldn't tell you," he said. "But I can tell you where the operatories are going to be, and from that, where the necessary demolition needs to take place in order to prepare for that." The board approved a demolition contract for GRC, which covers up to $400,000. Emails provided in the agenda packet show the estimate for demolition work on this phase of the project to cost $350,772. This demolition cost is minus the elevator portion of the project, which McCartt said there is no time for in the period of six to eight weeks where students will not be there. He said the elevator could be part of phase two or three of the construction package. "We'll need to take that elevator down for a period of time," he said. "In that process, we'll want to make sure we coordinate that very carefully with UT, so that they can get patients easily up to the second floor while they wait on future development." McCartt said there is "no real timetable" on when another phase of construction would begin post-demolition, but was optimistic it would be within an eight to 12 month window. "We have got a lot of conversations with UT over the course of the summer, to kind of begin nailing down what the [construction] package will look like," he added. "So we'll keep you updated as we go through, but exciting from the standpoint they were able to start demo to set the stage for the second phase." Ongoing partnerships KEDB board member Dennis Phillips asked if the dental clinic still had East Tennessee State University involvement. McCartt said the ETSU dental hygienist program continues to be "actively involved" with the project and it has been a great partnership between the Health Science Center and ETSU from the hygienist standpoint. "I think what makes this site so unique and makes it very challenging to be replicated, is that we have a partnership, obviously, with UT," he said. "We have a partnership with ETSU for dental hygienists. We have a partnership with Northeast State for dental assistants, and we have an opportunity multiple times a week for the Dobyns-Bennett CTE, those that have a health science focus, to be in the building." According to McCartt, the 12-month Advanced Education in General Dentistry program is expected to begin this summer. Crunching numbers Phillips asked McCartt how much the city asked from Gov. Bill Lee for continued funding on the project. McCartt said they did not have final numbers yet but knew the project did not receive the full funding requested this year. In 2024, the state allocated $6.5 million in its budget for the dental clinic. "We're probably looking, as we move forward with this anywhere from, you know, five to $10 million is what's still needed to get this built out," he said. "When you add up all the numbers at the end of the day with the purchase of the building and phase one, you're coming in just shy of $20 [million]." McCartt said he and the mayor are having continued conversations about opportunities for further funding of the clinic through the private sector and other means. "We have requests in, both through the governor's office and through our legislators, for appropriations that we feel positive about getting some dollars this year for that," he said. Background In an October 2025 update to the Kingsport BMA, University of Tennessee College of Dentistry Dean Ken Tilashalski outlined the clinic's progress. The clinic opened in July 2024 and began seeing patients in September 2024. It was announced in October 2022 as a partnership between Ballad Health, the city of Kingsport and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Delta Dental, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Eastman also partnered with Kingsport on the project. Tilashalski said ETSU hygiene students assist at the clinic two mornings a week, and Northeast State dental assisting students were expected to start rotations in January 2026. The eventual goal is to have 40 to 50 students completing their entire fourth year in Kingsport, according to Tilashalski.