NASHVILLE (AP) — The State Building Commission has approved a $15 million project of renovations and upgrades for the University of Tennessee's Thompson-Boling Arena.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/1NkP0pU) the commission on Thursday also approved a new $21.3 million UT garage.

The commission approved UT's request to use an alternative approach to bidding both the arena and garage projects, other than the state's standard "design-bid-build" method of procurement, due to special timing and coordination needs for each project.

The garage will have spaces for up to 1,000 cars and will be built on the green space east of an existing garage.

The commission also approved a more than $168 million grant to the industrial development board of Chattanooga to pay for an expansion of the Volkswagen auto plant, including the building, its equipment, the site development and infrastructure.