BENTONVILLE — Bentonville’s now-closed Clarion Hotel is slated to open later this year as a Four Points by Sheraton.
Kunal Mody, president and chief executive officer of hotel owner Sree Akshar, said his contract with Starwood Hotels and Resorts requires the hotel at 211 S.W. Walton Blvd., to open by January 2014.
Renovation work will begin in the next week or so and Mody anticipates opening in early summer.
The Clarion closed in September 2011. Little Rock-based Sree Akshar purchased the property from Hobbs and Curry Family Limited Partnership in Fort Smith in March 2012. Sree Akshar also purchased the adjacent Sleep Inn — now a Motel 6 — from the partnership. The Motel 6 is at 215 S.W. Walton Blvd. The properties, which both opened in 1998, sold together for $3.3 million.
At A Glance
About Four Points
Four Points by Sheraton is a Starwood Hotels and Resorts hotel. The brand focuses on style and service.The hotel opening later this year at 211 S.E. Walton Blvd. in Bentonville will be the first Four Points in Arkansas. The are more than 170 Four Points by Sheraton in nearly 30 countries.
Source: Staff Report
Mody said it took his company a little longer than planned to open the former Clarion, but he wanted to find the right brand for Bentonville.
“We can only open once and only pick a brand once and we wanted to make sure we got the right fit,” he said.
He said seeing the success of Rogers Aloft Hotel, also a Starwood Hotels and Resorts brand, helped tip the scales.
“We will bring a new experience that consumers are looking for. Many customers don’t want to have a cookie-cutter room,” he said.
The 105-room hotel will also have a restaurant and bar.
Joe’s Italian Restaurant in Springdale will open a location in Four Points, Moby said.
Joe’s is owned by brothers Max and Benny Dedusaj. Max Dedusaj said the new restaurant will serve dishes very similar to those served in Springdale.
Dedusaj said Joe’s has been a family business for 25 years. The Springdale site opened four years ago and the brothers own more restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Mody said between 15 and 20 people will be hired to work in the hotel and expects the restaurant will employ close to the same number.
Opening the hotel will also add convention space for the region. When the Clarion closed in 2011, Bentonville lost its largest commercial meeting space. Kalene Griffith, president and chief executive officer of the Bentonville Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the convention space could hold between 700 and 900 people.
Mody said he is still trying to determine how big to make the convention space in the new hotel.
He said they are evaluating use at Northwest Arkansas’ two other large convention spaces, John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers and the Northwest Arkansas Convention Center in Springdale.
“We are trying to gauge the market. We don’t want to overbuild, and we definitely don’t want to underbuild,” he said.
Griffith said she is excited to see more meeting space open in town.
“The Clarion’s closing really hindered us,” she said.
The largest meeting space now available in Bentonville is at the DoubleTree by Hilton. It can seat 250 people.
When groups need larger spaces, Griffith said they refer them to Rogers.
“We have a great partnership with Rogers and we always want to keep the business in Northwest Arkansas,” she said. “But whenever we can keep it in the community it benefits us, and it benefits the whole community.”
Sree Akshar also owns a handful of hotels in Little Rock and Mody said they like to be part of the community.
“We want to be part of the local culture and help keep the local economy growing,” he said.