Pigeon Falls Village and Main Street Marketplace Development Unveiled

The exciting plans for the new Pigeon Falls Village were unveiled Monday, May 9th, on a former 114 acre farm located on the northern side of Teaster Lane, just east of the Belz Outlet Shopping Center. The $600 million development rivals plans that have already been announced for the Belle Island project just across the street, on land bordering the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River. Adjacent to that development, Riverwalk Park is also going forward with a lifestyle center and a $10 million , 12-screen movie theater.

Pigeon Falls Village LLC, an Orlando, Fl. based investors group, and Michael McCall, President of Strategic Leisure, Inc, the Maryland-based designer/developer hosted a presentation on site Monday to describe their efforts to create a “totally immersed Smoky Mountains experience” unlike any other in the area. It will include restaurants, luxury hotels, condos, retail, a water park with a 70 foot manmade waterfall, a miniature golf course and an interactive entertainment facility called the “Reality Play”, which will use digital production equipment to create the illusion that the audience is on stage......An actor comes out and as he or she starts telling a story, the room becomes a reflection of that story and the audience gets the feeling of really being on stage in the set. It’s a very powerful experience. The room changes as the story evolves,” McCall said.

The Reality Play will be part of an entertainment facility for families that will include bowling, billiards and other adult and children’s participatory games. The project is unique to Pigeon Forge in that it is based on a pedestrian scale in a “contained thematic environment”. Visitors can walk to everything within the Village and the parking will be abundant.

The first timetable we’ve seen shows the Lifestyle Center and the Theater Complex scheduled for 2006, followed by the first hotel, the water park and related facilities in the Pigeon Forge Village for 2007. The balance of the extensive project’s retail, restaurant and related facilities should be open in 2008, followed by more hotels and condominiums in 2009 and 2010.

Many articles have appeared in journals and magazines excoriating this tourist mecca of Pigeon Forge as the “tackiest” city in the United States, but we are encouraged that three developments of the scope and vision of the Pigeon Falls Village, Belle Island and the Riverwalk complex will put that adjective to rest forever more!