SPRUCE PINE, N.C. -- On a crisp fall afternoon in 2002, a crowd gathered under a big tent near the Penland School of Crafts, an artists' colony tucked in the Blue Ridge Mountains. While a harpist played, real-estate developer Tony Porter talked up a plan he promised could bring big financial payoffs to the isolated community and anyone who
invested in it.

At the party and in subsequent sessions, Mr. Porter and others at his company, Peerless Real Estate Services Inc., described his vision for a 2,000-lot residential and retail development called the Village of Penland.

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Original article in the Wall Street Journal ($) ...