3.1 Million visitors help drive Farragut revenue
As the Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen prepares to begin work on its 2026-27 budget, starting with a workshop Thursday, Feb. 12, the board gathered Friday, Jan. 23, for its annual retreat.
“My goal is for us to have this budget adopted by the end of May,” Town Administrator David Smoak said. “The departments have already turned in their base budgets.”
Smoak presented information for the board to consider related to growth trends and potential revenue.
“I want to give you a good sense of where we’re at and what’s going on in our community,” he said. “Obviously, our population is continuing to increase because people continue to move into the Town of Farragut.”
Smoak said the town’s population is currently about 25,579, with an estimated 1,000 additional residents expected.
“The University of Tennessee is going to be giving us census counts going forward,” he said. “The state legislature changed the law last year, allowing us not to have to do a special census.”
He also reported the town’s median household income has increased over the past several years.
“The median household incomes also are a factor for our community housing occupancy,” Smoak said. He noted the town’s median age has increased by eight years.
“That could have an impact on apartment residency rates,” he said. “We have almost 9,000 residential units in the town, and only 1 percent is vacant. That’s great.”
Smoak said maintaining a community where residents of all ages can live has been a long-standing goal.
“That’s been a goal of this board for at least 10 or 15 years — having all generations be able to live in the community,” he said.
Turning to economic drivers, Smoak said the presence of Costco continues to play a major role in the town’s economy, although he noted the Brentwood location saw slightly higher activity last year.
Smoak also reviewed visitation data related to Topgolf and the Turkey Creek shopping area.
“You can see visitation is up over the last year,” he said. “It looks like we have a pretty healthy environment.”
Turkey Creek drew about 3.1 million visitors last year, according to Smoak.
“That’s tons of traffic coming into our community,” he said. “Hopefully they’ll come and do the town.”
Grocery stores also remain an important economic component, Smoak said, noting a new store is expected to open in the coming months at the Dixie Lee Junction.
“It’s interesting that of the business last year, about 60,000 shoppers were people who lived 30-plus miles outside of Farragut,” he said. “There are people who travel here to do some shopping, maybe while visiting family or for other reasons.”
Those visitors also factor into hotel activity. While hotel stays were down slightly in 2025, Smoak said construction at two hotels affected available room inventory.
“They had limited ability to rent rooms for an extended period of time,” he said. “That certainly could have an impact on occupancy.”
Despite that, Smoak said the town recorded about 162,000 overnight stays in 2025.
“Because of where we’re located on I-40 and I-75, people are coming through all the time and need a place to stop and shop,” he said. “We’re certainly encouraged by that.”
