Chenal Valley
A sizable and more recently developed section of the city, Chenal Valley is in the west-central section of Little Rock, Arkansas. Its name is derived from the area's Shinall Mountain, but Deltic Timber Corporation (now PotlatchDeltic), a major early developer of the area, opted to alter the name to mimic French language as part of a strategy (known as foreign branding) to orient the residential and commercial development toward upper-class population segments.
The main thoroughfare is Chenal Parkway, mostly a divided four-lane path chiefly connecting Highway 10 to west Little Rock's Financial Centre business district. Chenal Parkway's northwestern terminus is just north of Arkansas 10 at Highway 300, near the Pinnacle Valley neighborhood. The southeastern terminus lies at Autumn Road at a transition to Financial Centre Parkway, with continuation to a conversion into Interstate 630 at Shackleford Road.
Chenal Valley is known for its rapid development since 1990, when Chenal Country Club was established and some of the earliest of the area's current crop of homes were built. Those and other residences, including a limited number of apartment and condominium complexes, can be found scattered throughout a part of Little Rock that has for now retained much of its pre-development wooded areas.
Several mass-market retailers populate Chenal's eastern commercial corridor near the Financial Centre area, including industry leaders Wal-Mart, Kroger, Target, Home Depot and even automobile manufacturers, such as Chevrolet. Its western commercial corridor consists of various acclaimed restaurants, and a shopping center known as the Promenade, which includes an IMAX theater, and major clothing retailers and stores such as Apple and Nike among others.[1]
Chenal Valley, now colloquially "Chenal", steadily serves as a major economic and residential hub in West Little Rock.