Coming Oct. 10 : Ground will be broken on the 100,000-square-foot Northwest Arkansas Armed Forces Reserve Center in southwest Bentonville in two weeks.

— Bentonville and those who travel Arkansas Highway 12 through the southwestern edge of the community will see a significant development coming out of the ground in a couple of weeks - a $23-million, 100,000-square-foot development, to be exact.

At precisely 1400 hours on Oct. 10, a groundbreaking ceremony will be held at the site of the soonto-be Northwest Arkansas Armed Forces Reserve Center, a regional headquarters for nearly 500 Arkansas National Guard soldiers and Army reservists. The project, announced at the beginning of the year, has a projected completion date of late spring 2011 and will bring between 50 to 75 full-time jobs and an annual operating cost of $2.3 million to Bentonville.

The AFRC will be located along the west side of Arkansas 12, on the stretch of open land between the Wingate Inn and the Polo Park business plaza. The AFRC, with the continued presence of the nearby Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, will serve as a prominent bookend along the western stretch of the corridor, while the planned construction of a Bentonville Community Center at the intersection of Arkansas highways 12 and 112 figures tobecome an eastern bookend.

"There's no secret," Bentonville Community Development Director Troy Galloway said. "We're very excited because (the AFRC) will bring some activity to the southwest industrial park and, we believe, serve as a future catalystfor development in the southwest part of the city. Together with the community center, southwest Bentonville is getting a significant boost."

The Arkansas National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve, which currently operate several facilities in communities across northwest Arkansas, will combine many of those units and operations into this single campus. According to Maj. Gen. Bill Wofford during an announcement earlier this year, plans call for an 84,000-square-foot main facility and a 23,000-square-foot storage facility.

The opportunity was prompted by a deal in which the Arkansas National Guard will turn its 55-year-old Bentonville Armory, at the southeast corner of Southwest Eighth and A streets in downtown Bentonville, over to the city in exchange for a 99-year lease on the Arkansas 12 property.

The city plans to demolish the old armory to make way for the planned widening of Eighth Street into a "Wal-Mart Superhighway" leading from Interstate 540 to the Wal-Mart Home Office.

The AFRC will be among the largest such facilities in the state and will generate jobs long before its completion.

"This is a big project that's going to generate some much-needed construction jobs," Galloway said.

News, Pages 1, 8 on 09/30/2009

Upcoming Events