Ofland Hotels Breaks Ground on Its Second Property
Ofland Hotels broke ground this week on Ofland Smoky Mountains in Townsend, Tennessee. The company describes the project as its second property.
The ceremony took place on Tuesday 15 September 2026. Founder Charles Tate, Chief Executive Noah Ellis, Head of Development Luke Searcy and Chief Financial Officer Ryan Terracino led a dig at the site.
Ofland Hotels describes itself as a Las Vegas outdoor hospitality company. Its flagship, Ofland Escalante, opened in 2021. The publisher's own archive carries the Townsend scheme under the earlier name Ofland Great Smoky Mountains, in an item dated 13 August 2025, so the groundbreak follows that announcement by thirteen months.
Seventy-Five Cabins on 27.6 Acres
The plan holds 75 cabins, 71 standard and four accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Each cabin covers 345 square feet in a studio layout with a queen bed, a queen sofa bed, a kitchenette, an en-suite bathroom and a private open-air shower.
Each cabin exterior carries a wrap-around deck with rocking chairs, a wood-burning campfire ring with a grill and a picnic table. The lodge holds the front desk, a general store, fire pits and a food counter serving a Southern-inspired breakfast and dinner menu. The company also lists a heated pool, an oversized hot tub, campfire chef kits and an outdoor drive-in theatre with seating for up to 150 guests.
The site covers 27.6 acres and sits five minutes from the Cades Cove entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The company states bookings will run year-round and that the property will take buyouts, parties and conferences. The National Park Service reports more than 12 million recreational visits to that park in 2024.
More Than USD 25 Million and Around 30 Jobs
Ofland Hotels puts the development at more than USD 25 million and describes it as the largest investment in the company's history. The company expects around 30 new permanent jobs in Townsend and the surrounding area.
The announcement carries no nightly rate, no lender and no land price.
The Team on the Site
Four firms are named. KDW takes construction management and describes itself as a Texas design-builder with 130 years of experience. Boundary Works provides architecture and describes itself as a design studio founded in 2022. Tyson & Associates leads the build of the 27-acre site. Wind River Built, a Tennessee-based manufacturer of modular buildings, builds the cabins off site.
Travis Pyke, chief executive of Wind River Built, states that his firm has worked with Ofland Hotels over several years as the vision took shape.
What a Revenue Reader Takes From It
The cabin count and the unit size set the inventory. Seventy-five studio units of 345 square feet, with the lodge and the drive-in theatre as shared space, give the property a group and buyout product alongside nightly stays.
No booking channel is named yet. The company directs updates to the property page and states that reservation details, including where to book, will be announced in January 2027 ahead of a summer 2027 opening.
Ofland Zion Moves Up the Pipeline
Ofland Escalante holds 52 rooms inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah and rebranded from Yonder Escalante in January 2024. With Smoky Mountains under construction, Ofland Zion moves through the active development pipeline as the company's third property and its second in Utah.
An SFGate column carried on the same publisher's page reports that the company ended its Ofland Twentynine Palms plan near Joshua Tree National Park in California.