"We're a little city doing big city things." That's how City Manager Bruce Applegate put it during a November work session last year, and if you've driven Alcoa Highway past Tesla Boulevard lately, you already know what he meant. A Costco is rising out of the ground. The Chop House is finishing out an 8,000-square-foot space. DosBros just opened. Jim 'N Nicks has been serving brisket for a while now. None of this reads like a town of 15,000 people.
Its daily reach extends well beyond its resident population. Alcoa Vice Mayor Tracey Cooper laid out the number that makes the whole build-out make sense: the city has about 15,000 sleeping residents, but roughly 80,000 people move up and down Alcoa Highway every single day. That gap helps explain Springbrook Farm's scale and the pace of new openings: the development is positioned to serve residents as well as people traveling along Alcoa Highway.
The Math That Explains the Costco
Alcoa is, by Cooper's account, the smallest city to ever land a Costco. City Manager Applegate confirmed the city, Costco, and developer RealtyLink spent three years working out the deal before construction finally started this spring. The three-year effort reflects the coordination required to bring the retailer to Alcoa.
The financing tells the same story. Rather than raising property taxes to cover site prep, traffic signals, utility upgrades, and a new stretch of Werner Avenue, the city structured bond financing around future sales tax revenue the development is expected to generate. The city's own announcement on the Costco partnership spells it out plainly: property taxes stay flat for Alcoa citizens and business owners while the buildout pays for itself through the same drive-through traffic that made the site attractive in the first place. In a WBIR report, Applegate framed it as keeping money local: "It's allowing Alcoans to stay in Alcoa, and Blount Countians to stay in Blount County." That arrangement draws on spending by people traveling through Alcoa as well as local customers.
The businesses filling in around Tesla and Marconi Boulevards are positioned to attract commuter and airport traffic, while residents can also access the new retail and dining nearby.
What's Actually Open Right Now
If you've been meaning to see what's new without driving in circles looking for a parking spot, here's where things stand as of this summer:
- Texas Roadhouse, remodeled as one of the anchor tenants of Phase I
- Jim 'N Nicks Bar-B-Q, approved by city leaders back in 2024 and now open, part of the same wave that brought DosBros in January
- DosBros Fresh Mexican Grill, which held its grand opening and ribbon cutting on January 19, joining existing locations in Oak Ridge and Knoxville
- Just Love Coffee, purchased a few months ago by new owner Lydia Donahue, who's watched the crowd shift as more people discover Springbrook Farm on their way to or from McGhee Tyson
- Swig, the soda shop that Cooper points to as an early employer of Alcoa High School students
Longtime residents are noticing the shift too. Carolyn Christman, who moved to Blount County three years ago before Springbrook Farm had any of this retail, told a local news crew she's watched the area transform, though she's admitted some ambivalence about how fast it's happening in a place she still finds beautiful.
What's Still Under Construction
The next wave is already visible if you know where to look.
- The Chop House, the upscale steakhouse from the group behind Connors Steak & Seafood, confirmed plans for an 8,000-square-foot Alcoa location targeting a spring 2026 opening, with hiring to begin in early 2026
- Costco, with site work now underway on Werner Avenue after three years of negotiation between the city, the retailer, and RealtyLink
- A Covenant Health medical complex, part of the same master plan documents that list it alongside the Costco and Mills Street projects
- Townhomes and single-family homes on Mills Street, part of a residential phase the city has floated at somewhere between 129 and 155 units as the district shifts from commercial to mixed-use
According to master planning documents reported by the Daily Times last fall, Phase I, the retail-heavy phase that includes the Chop House and the remodeled Texas Roadhouse, was slated to wrap by early 2026. Phases II and III shift the focus to residential and mixed-use commercial space, which is where Mills Street and the Covenant Health parcel come in.
The city's master vision plan for the site is explicit about what it's replacing: a 363-acre former Alcoa Inc. West Plant, decommissioned in 1989 and demolished in the early '90s, that sat as a brownfield for three decades before anyone figured out what to do with it. What's rising there now is the closest thing the city has ever had to a downtown, built on a site that housed heavy industry, not homes.
Where the Growth Runs Out of Room
None of this touches the Alcoa Duck Pond, and that's the point. The 7.7-acre pond sits between Alcoa Elementary and Alcoa Intermediate School, with a lit 1.4-mile walking trail that stays open in the evenings and a boardwalk section on the eastern edge where you're more likely to spot a heron than a construction crew. It connects into the Maryville-Alcoa Greenway, a paved path that follows Pistol Creek for roughly nine miles with enough spurs and loops to stretch past 18, linking the Duck Pond to Springbrook Park, Bicentennial Park in downtown Maryville, and Sandy Springs Park along the way.
The Duck Pond is also where FreedomFest lands every year, and its recent history reflects the challenges of sustaining an annual festival. Rising costs and thinning private sponsorship forced Alcoa to cancel the festival in 2024. It came back in 2025 and drew more than 15,000 people, a crowd roughly the size of the entire resident population showing up in one place on one night. The Daily Times' year-end recap noted that a good share of that crowd likely came from beyond driving distance, funneling into nearby hotels and through McGhee Tyson, feeding the same tax base that's now bankrolling Springbrook Farm's second phase.
Alcoa's restaurants and development draw on a range of activity: its 15,000 residents, people traveling along the highway, and visitors who come for events such as FreedomFest. Springbrook Farm is part of the city's growth for both residents and visitors.
What Comes Next
Phase I was supposed to close out this year with the Chop House and the remodeled Texas Roadhouse fully open. Phase II adds residential uses alongside places to shop and dine. Mills Street is an early part of that residential phase, with plans for townhomes and single-family homes.
If you're watching how Springbrook Farm or any other corner of Alcoa is reshaping the neighborhoods around it, The Swaggerty Holt Group keeps an eye on these projects as they move from announcement to ribbon cutting. Let's Connect if you want a read on what a specific development means for the block you're on.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
