If two new homes sit on the same street and the smaller one costs more per square foot, what exactly are you paying for?

That's the question at Brickyard Village, the new neighborhood on the old brick plant site next to Brickyard Park. It held its grand opening on October 10. The Kingsport Times-News reported that the rain didn't keep buyers and realtors away from the first four finished homes. The price range is easy to find. What it takes some math to see is how that range is built, and the math points to one part of the value that hasn't been built yet.

The Smallest Plan Costs the Most per Foot

Phase 1 has four modern farmhouse plans, all with four bedrooms. Here are the starting prices from the Brickyard Village floor plans page, divided out per square foot:

Going from the Birch to the Dogwood adds 760 square feet for $110,000 more. That works out to roughly $145 for each added foot, about half the Birch's overall rate. Pricing like this usually means a big chunk of every home's cost is fixed before the first square foot of house gets counted. That chunk covers the lot, the infrastructure, and the address. Buyers of the smallest plan pay all of it and spread it over the fewest feet.

Compare that with the wider market. In its report on July 2026 sales, the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors found that new homes across the Tri-Cities averaged 1,989 square feet and $207.38 per square foot, with a median sale price of $365,588. Kingsport had seven of those 56 new-home closings, though NETAR didn't break out a Kingsport-only price. Every Brickyard plan is priced above that regional average per foot, and the Birch is about 30% above it.

What the Premium Buys on Day One

Part of what that fixed premium buys is already there. The neighborhood sits beside Brickyard Park, a 43-acre park with sports fields, trails, a skatepark and a pump track. The master plan covers 53 acres and adds a community pond, pocket parks and walking paths. The developer has also listed a clubhouse, pool, dog park and walking trail among planned amenities, according to WJHL.

The site's history explains why the land itself costs so much to get ready. The Times-News laid out the timeline from the project's release. Kingsport Brick Company opened there in 1910, General Shale ran the plant from 1928 until it closed in 2008, the Kingsport Economic Development Board acquired the property in 2017, and ground was broken in October 2023. In 2022, WJHL reported that the project required significant concrete and asphalt demolition from the old industrial foundations. Clearing a 100-year-old industrial site is part of what that fixed cost per lot is paying back.

What the Premium Is Waiting On

The rest of the answer is the selling point the developer keeps coming back to, which is downtown. Humabuilt Development principal Michael Foley called it "a walkable neighborhood connected to downtown" in the project's release, as quoted by the Times-News. What connects the two is an ADA-accessible pedestrian bridge over the CSX tracks, and it hasn't been built.

At the grand opening, Foley told the Times-News, "There's a pedestrian bridge that's going to connect the downtown area to the project, which I think the city said should start construction next year." In the same conversation he described the walk to downtown as "eventual."

The bridge has been in the works for five years, and its funding has grown along the way:

1. October 2021: Kingsport announced $1.85 million in state grants for the Brickyard Park bridge.
2. April 2024: Plans called for a bridge of about 180 feet with two elevators, the Times-News reported.
3. February 2025: A city transportation improvement program revision put the total cost at $4.07 million and scheduled construction for fiscal year 2026.
4. July 2025: The state added $500,000, bringing TDOT grants to $3.5 million with a 25% city match of $875,000, per the Johnson City Press.
5. October 2026: The developer says the city expects construction to start next year, in line with the 2027 start the Johnson City Press reported in 2025.

The money looks solid, and the bridge has state grants behind it. The calendar is less certain. Construction scheduled for fiscal 2026 is now expected to start in 2027, and there's no public completion date. So a Phase 1 buyer is paying today's per-foot premium for a downtown connection that may arrive a year or more after they move in. Until then, the park next door is the amenity you can actually use.

Why This Fall Gives Buyers Room to Price the Wait

Buying here in fall 2026 means negotiating in a market that has slowed down. NETAR's September 2026 report covers Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia together. It counted 2,880 homes on the market in September, up 7% from a year earlier, and median days on market rose to 74 from 70. The regional median sale price fell 1.69% to $290,000, and the average dropped 2.33% to $329,732. NETAR President Amy Mitchell wrote that sellers "are having to be more realistic about their asking prices." These are regional figures, not Kingsport alone, but they set the backdrop for every offer written this fall.

Brickyard's own numbers point the same way. Before the opening, Foley told WJHL, "Right now, for the first phase, we're offering $20,000 in incentives for buyers." At the October 10 event, he said one home had sold to local residents and was under construction, and four finished homes were ready to sell. He also told WJHL the team hopes to finish Phase 1 in 2027.

Put $20,000 against the Birch and its effective rate drops from about $269 to about $257 per square foot. That's still well above July's regional new-home average of $207.38. The incentive narrows the location premium without erasing it. If the downtown walk is the draw, the thing to weigh is how many years of that premium you'll pay before the bridge opens. If what you mainly want is new construction beside a big park, you're paying for something that's already there.

Appraisals work the same way. An appraiser compares a home against recent sales, and Brickyard's per-foot pricing has few close matches nearby yet. Our guide to how appraisals work for Kingsport homes covers that process.

Why the City Has Its Own Stake in the Bridge

There's one reason to expect the bridge to keep moving. The city has been building toward it for nearly a decade. In 2017, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted 5–2 to buy 14 acres from General Shale for $1 million, paid from One Kingsport funds, WJHL reported. In 2022, WJHL reported that the city had presented a tax increment financing plan for the project with its developer at the time, Edens Investments. Under that plan, new property taxes from the development would help repay $9.5 million over 25 years. Then-Mayor Pat Shull told WJHL the project would be "a real catalyst for growth in the downtown area."

The neighborhood is meant to grow well beyond 32 homes. Foley told WJHL he expects 450 units on the 50-acre site by the end of Phase 2, including townhomes and multifamily homes, with full buildout taking six to seven years. The planned unit count has changed over the years. It was 350 when the city picked a developer in 2021 and 464 at the 2023 groundbreaking, so treat today's figure as the current plan. A neighborhood that size, built to feed downtown, gives the city plenty of reason to finish the link. That makes the bridge likely to happen. It doesn't tell you when.

For more on how this side of town is changing, read about the Riverwalk Park stop on the Greenbelt or browse our Kingsport neighborhood guide.

Quick Answers

When will the pedestrian bridge to downtown open? There's no public completion date. As of October 2026, the developer said the city expects construction to start in 2027.

Are the listed prices final? They're "starting at" prices. The floor plans page tells buyers to contact the sales team for current availability, lot pricing and incentive details.

What's coming after Phase 1? Foley has described single-family homes, townhomes, likely some multifamily housing and retail spread over six or seven phases.

If you're deciding whether Brickyard's location premium is worth paying now or would rather compare it with resale homes near downtown Kingsport, Kim Leonard can go through the per-foot numbers, the incentive and the bridge timeline with you before you make an offer. Already own a home and wondering how it stacks up against new construction? Start with an instant home valuation.