KNOXVILLE — Today, developers announced that VolShop, the official campus store of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, had been added to University Commons, Knoxville’s first urban, vertical retail center located adjacent to the University of Tennessee (UT) campus.

According to Mike McGuffin, partner with CHM, LLC, the Knoxville-based real estate development firm behind University Commons, UT and University Commons have signed a lease for the VolShop to occupy 6,000 square feet adjacent to Walmart. The store will sell UT apparel, graduation supplies, technology goods, and other university related items.

“We are excited to announce the addition of the VolShop to University Commons,” said McGuffin. “It’s been our goal from the conception of this project to make goods and services available that compliment campus life and the college experience, and the VolShop certainly accomplishes this task. We are proud to have the University as our neighbor and now as a tenant at University Commons.”

According to UT officials, University Common’s location between the university’s main campus and the new sorority village makes for an ideal location for the VolShop. “The area in which the retail center is located will attract a large volume of pedestrian traffic from the university community,” said Jeff Maples, Sr. Associate Vice Chancellor at the University of Tennessee.

University Commons is a retail center encompassing 12+ acres and comprised of 210,000 square feet of retail space and parking. Walmart will open on August 6 and Publix is scheduled to open later in August. The Center is being developed by CHM, LLC, whose principal partners are Budd Cullom, Jim Harrison and Mike McGuffin.