Riverview Tower
Encyclopedia
The Riverview Tower is an office high-rise located at 900 Gay Street
Gay Street (Knoxville)
Gay Street is a street in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, that traverses the heart of the city's downtown area. Since its development in the 1790s, Gay Street has served as the city's principal financial and commercial thoroughfare, and has played a primary role in the city's historical and cultural...

 in Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...

, USA. Completed in 1985, the 24-story structure is Knoxville's second-tallest building, and along with its sister building, the First Tennessee Plaza
First Tennessee Plaza
The First Tennessee Plaza, or Plaza Tower, is an office high-rise located at 800 Gay Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. Completed in 1978, the 27-story structure is Knoxville's tallest building and an iconic part of the city's skyline...

, anchors Knoxville's downtown office market. Since 2003, BB&T
BB&T
BB&T Corporation is an American bank with assets of $157 billion , offering full-service commercial and retail banking services along with other financial services like insurance, investments, retail brokerage, mortgage, corporate finance, consumer finance, payment services, international...

 has been the building's primary tenant.

The Riverview Tower occupies the northern half of Gay Street's 900-block, which is bounded by Gay Street, Hill Avenue, State Street, and Main Street. The Andrew Johnson Building
Andrew Johnson Building
The Andrew Johnson Building is a high-rise office building in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. Completed in 1930, the structure was Knoxville's tallest building for nearly a half-century. The building was originally home to the Andrew Johnson Hotel, and is now used for office space by Knox...

 occupies the southwestern section of the block, and the two buildings share a central courtyard. The building contains 367000 square feet (34,095.4 m²) of office space, and includes a 420-space parking garage. Along with BB&T, tenants include IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

, Alcoa
Alcoa
Alcoa Inc. is the world's third largest producer of aluminum, behind Rio Tinto Alcan and Rusal. From its operational headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Alcoa conducts operations in 31 countries...

, Union Planters
Union Planters
Union Planters Bank was a United States financial institution and multi-state bank holding corporation headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee prior to being acquired by Regions Financial Corporation. With over $34 billion in assets, Union Planters Bank was the largest bank in Tennessee and among the...

, Lawler-Wood, and various financial groups and law firms.

The building was originally planned in the early 1980s as office space for the City & County Bank, headed by C. H. Butcher. Butcher's brother, Jake Butcher
Jake Butcher
Jacob Franklin "Jake" Butcher was a U.S. banker and politician who built a financial empire in East Tennessee, was the Democratic Party nominee for governor of Tennessee in 1978 and the primary promoter of the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee, and who lost his business and his personal...

, was head of the United American Bank, which had built the First Tennessee Plaza in the late-1970s. Before the Riverview Tower was completed, however, the FDIC
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is a United States government corporation created by the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933. It provides deposit insurance, which guarantees the safety of deposits in member banks, currently up to $250,000 per depositor per bank. , the FDIC insures deposits at...

 raided the Butcher brothers' banks, leading to the banks' collapse and the Butcher brothers' subsequent convictions on charges of bank fraud. The FDIC purchased the Riverview from the building's developer, Lawler-Wood, in 1985. The first tenants moved into the Riverview in 1987.

In 1990, Florida real estate developer Martin O'Boyle bought the Riverview from the FDIC for $18.5 million, using money he had borrowed from Providence
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

-based Textron Collective Investment Trust. As a result of a lawsuit with O'Boyle in 1995, however, Textron became the building's owner. In 2001, Textron sold the building to its original developer, Lawler-Wood, for $22.2 million. Lawler-Wood then sold the Riverview to Texas real estate investment firm Behringer Harvard for $41 million in 2005.

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