Drive down Emory Road this month and you will pass two national chains that were not there a year ago. Turn off that same road into Belltown and you will find something Powell has never actually had: a place to walk to.
Both are true. Both count as growth. But they are not the same story, and if you live in Powell, the difference is worth knowing, because only one of them changes what your Tuesday actually looks like.
The New You Can See From The Road
Culver's opened its Powell location at 112 W. Emory Road on Monday, March 23, 2026, expanding a franchise that already had locations in Cedar Bluff, Alcoa, and two spots in Murfreesboro. Franchise owner Ron Dresen told Farragut Press he had been trying to get into Powell since he opened his first Knoxville restaurant back in 2017. Eight years is a long wait for a ButterBurger.
A few months earlier, in late December 2025, Whataburger opened its third Knox County location at 500 E. Emory Road, according to WVLT. Both sit on a corridor that already had Weigel's roots, Aubrey's, and the big-box retail Powell has known for years. New signs, same pattern: you still get in the car, still pull into a lot, still leave the way you came.
This is the growth everyone notices because it is built to be noticed. It is also the least interesting change happening in Powell right now.
The New You Have To Walk To Find
Belltown broke ground in 2023 under Smithbilt Homes and is now home to more than 150 families, with 175 homes closed at prices ranging from $350,000 to $800,000, according to development associate Josh Sanderson in comments to WATE. For its first two years, Belltown was a residential subdivision like any other in Powell: rooftops first, everything else later.
The commercial spine arrived after the houses did. Soccer Taco, Abridged Beer Company, and K-Brew Coffee moved into the development's retail row, and a second location of Sugar Queen Creamery, the South Knoxville ice cream shop known for scratch-made flavors and waffle cones, took a 1,000-square-foot space at 4523 Market Bell Way. Covenant Health opened a primary care clinic in the development last September.
None of that is drive-thru. It is meant to be reached on foot, from inside the neighborhood, which is precisely why one new homeowner told WATE it shaped her decision to buy there:
"we would be able to just take our family, walk across the street eventually and grab a burger from Abridged"
That sentence describes something Powell residents have not had before: a subdivision where the errand and the walk are the same trip.
The timeline slipped some, which is worth knowing if you have checked a storefront window and found it still dark. WATE's December reporting had the row opening "around March." By May, Inside of Knoxville was still describing the second Sugar Queen Creamery as opening "soon," not open. Retail build-outs run behind schedule more often than press releases admit. If a Belltown storefront looks unfinished right now, it probably just means the contractor is running on builder time, not developer time.
| Where | What arrived | Status as reported |
|---|---|---|
| 112 W. Emory Rd | Culver's | Open since March 23, 2026 |
| 500 E. Emory Rd | Whataburger | Open since late December 2025 |
| Belltown retail row | Soccer Taco, Abridged Beer Company, K-Brew Coffee | Opened in phases through spring 2026 |
| 4523 Market Bell Way | Sugar Queen Creamery (2nd location) | Still listed as "opening soon" as of May 2026 |
| Belltown | Covenant Health primary care clinic | Open since last September |
The Growing Pains Part
None of this arrived without friction. Knox County has been widening West Emory Road near Belltown, with the work originally targeted for completion around March. Residents quoted by WATE described the trade-offs in plain terms: one Powell resident said the construction made it harder to get out of their own neighborhood off West Emory, while another told the station her heart sank watching the rolling hills near the development disappear under new construction. Melissa Osborne, who lives down the street, put it more evenly, noting more traffic on a two-lane road but also a shorter drive to more of what she needs.
That tension is not a verdict on Belltown. It is what happens any time a subdivision goes from all-residential to mixed-use in under three years. Powell has absorbed this kind of growth before. It is just absorbing it faster this time.
The Powell That Isn't Changing
While Belltown works out its retail lineup, the older parts of Powell's daily rhythm have not moved. Powell Station Park, a 3-acre park at 2318 W. Emory Road next to Powell High School, still runs its 9-hole disc golf course through what Knox County Parks describes as tightly wooded hallways, along with a skatepark, playground, and splash pad. The splash pad season runs through mid-September, so there is still time this year. A 0.1-mile paved loop circles the play area and connects to the Powell Greenway, and a 0.3-mile nature trail winds down to the creek.
That creek is Beaver Creek, and it carries more weight in Powell's identity than its size suggests. Knox County's Water Trail initiative maintains an ADA-accessible drop-in launch called Aubrey's Launch at Powell High Landing, 2136 W. Emory Road, part of a 44-mile stretch of navigable water the county is working to clear and maintain from Clayton Park in Halls to Melton Hill in Hardin Valley. The Powell Business and Professional Association's Enhance Powell Committee, working with the Beaver Creek Kayak Club, has organized an annual community flotilla down this same stretch, launching near the ball diamond on Brickyard Road and ending close to the Weigel's flagship store.
The historic Airplane Service Station, a former filling station now on the National Register of Historic Places, still marks the corridor for people who know to look for it. Powell was settled two years before Knoxville became a town, and that kind of detail does not show up on a chain restaurant's opening-day banner. It shows up in the fact that people still organize a creek float every year around a landmark most newcomers drive past without noticing.
A Saturday That Uses Both Sides Of Powell
If you want to see the full range of what is actually here right now, a single Saturday covers it:
- Morning: disc golf or the splash pad at Powell Station Park while it is still cool
- Midday: drop a kayak at Aubrey's Launch and float a stretch of Beaver Creek
- Afternoon: check whether the second Sugar Queen Creamery in Belltown has opened yet, or grab a scoop at the original South Knoxville location if not
- Evening: walk to Abridged Beer Company or Soccer Taco if you live close enough, or drive to Culver's on Emory Road if you don't
That loop, old creek and new creamery in the same afternoon, is a fair summary of where Powell stands in August 2026.
Why This Matters If You Already Live Here
The chain openings on Emory Road are the kind of growth every fast-growing Knox County suburb gets eventually. It says Powell has enough rooftops and enough traffic counts to interest a regional franchise map. That is a milestone, but it is not a change in how anyone here actually spends a Tuesday.
Belltown is different because it changes the unit of measurement. For the first time, a meaningful number of Powell households can reach a coffee shop, a creamery, and a beer hall without starting a car. That is not a bigger version of what Powell already had. It is a version of daily life Powell has not offered before, and it is happening a half mile from a corridor everyone assumed was where all the news was.
Shannon Foster-Boline Group has spent a long time watching how growth actually lands in neighborhoods like Powell, corridor by corridor rather than headline by headline. If you are curious what a stretch like this does to home values on your specific street, or you just want a straight answer about how Belltown's retail build-out is likely to affect the rest of the community, the Shannon Foster-Boline Group team is happy to walk through it with you, no pressure, just a neighbor's read on the map.
