Pinnacle Area Still Growing

New Construction Draws More People

Construction continues Friday on Bliss Cupcake Cafe on Promenade Boulevard in Rogers. More than half of new commercial construction in Rogers last year occurred in the Pinnacle area.

Construction continues Friday on Bliss Cupcake Cafe on Promenade Boulevard in Rogers. More than half of new commercial construction in Rogers last year occurred in the Pinnacle area.

Monday, February 11, 2013

— New stores and amenities are helping the Pinnacle Hills area become a self-sustaining community.

You can go to work in one of the office buildings lining Pinnacle Hills Parkway. Later you can cross the intestate and buy groceries, a new outfit and a fishing boat before catching a movie and grabbing a bite to eat.

Not feeling well? There is a hospital and clinic close by.

The area stretching between exits 82 and 85 is growing rapidly. Almost 62 percent of all new commercial building permits issued in Rogers last year were for Pinnacle Hills Promenade, Village on the Creeks, The Shoppes at Pinnacle Hills, Pinnacle Point and along 52nd Street.

Rogers issued $26.68 million in new commercial building permits in 2012; $16.44 million was in the Pinnacle area.

Derrel Smith, senior planner for the city of Rogers, said all the new construction and businesses are drawing more and more people to the area.

At A Glance

Available Space

There is nearly 2 million square feet of office space in Rogers, said Tom Reed, a partner in Streetsmart Data Services. That includes Class A and B space and does not include strip malls or owner-occupied space.

Class A retail sites are the newest, in the best locations and demand the highest prices.

Reed said the city’s office vacancy rate for Class A properties is almost 13.5 percent; Class B is over 25 percent.

Rogers has 2.25 million square feet of Class A and B retail space.

Reed said the vacancy rate of Class A is just over 6 percent. Much of the city’s Class A retail space is in Pinnacle Hills.

Class B retail vacancy rate is between 16 and 17 percent.

He said there is 475,000 square feet of strip center space in Rogers.

Source: Staff Report

“It definitely helps with the tax base,” he said. “Sales tax pretty much drives the city.”

Smith — 20 years ago a developer — proposed putting in a single-family subdivision in the Pinnacle area.

“Think how that would have changed the whole way the city could have developed,” he said. “About 10 years ago, we started talking to developers about some potential out there. I knew something big was going to happen.”

Tom Reed, a partner with Streetsmart Data Services, said bare land provides even more opportunities.

“There is a lot of land that is still available,” he said. “You are going to see that area continue to grow.”

The Fresh Market opened in the Promenade in July; Cabela’s opened in August.

New restaurants and shops opened on the outer perimeter of the main shopping area including Panda Express, Jimmy John’s and Starbucks.

And the growth is going full steam ahead, said John George, Hunt Ventures spokesman. Hunt Ventures owns much of the land in Pinnacle Hills. General Growth Properties manages the Promenade.

“We are building absolutely as fast as we would like to be,” George said. “We don’t build any speculative buildings.”

He said the building may not be completely leased before construction begins, but a majority will be filled.

He said existing office buildings are more than 90 percent leased, prompting the need for a new, two-story building.

Under construction is a $5.6 million, 60,000-square-foot office building in the Shoppes at Pinnacle Hills, just south of Regions Bank.

“We’ve gotten a lot of good calls on office space in the past six months,” George said. “Most of the tenants will be vendors or vendor-related.”

Construction is also under way on Bliss Cupcakes, across the street from Taco Bell.

Flint Harris, Bliss Cupcake owner, said the shop will open in early March.

Harris and his business partner, Max Moore, own two Bliss Cupcakes in Fayetteville.

“We’ve been in Fayetteville since 2009 and kept hearing requests from Benton County folks about opening a shop up north,” he said. “We are finally in a position where we can expand.”

The Promenade location was an easy location choice, Harris said.

“There is so much action with shopping, eating, people spending time with family and friends,” he said.

Work is also about to begin on another building just to the east of Bliss Cupcakes. George said the 10,000-square-foot Party Place should be completed mid-summer.

Brenda Majors, Pinnacle Hills Promenade marketing manager, said retail space is more than 90 percent full.

Space for Hancock Fabrics is under renovation near Famous Footwear in what Majors calls the Promenade’s power center. She said work should be done in the next 60 to 90 days.

Chicos, a women’s fashion chain, opened Feb. 6. The store moved from Scottsdale Center to the Promenade.

“We are getting the best retailers and right fit for our property,” Majors said. “The empty spots we have won’t last long.”

Mercy of Northwest Arkansas continues growing its campus on Rife Medical Lane near the Promenade.

Work is under way on the hospital’s vacant seventh floor to create a Senior Behavioral Health Program.

Northwest Medical Health System is building a clinic north of Mercy’s campus.

The about 16,000-square-foot clinic is on the northwest corner of the 42nd Street and New Hope Road intersection.

Pat Driscoll, Northwest spokeswoman, said the primary care clinic should open in late summer or early fall.

“It’s a growing area and our research shows we get a lot of patients from that area,” she said. “It’s all about access to care.”

Pinnacle Hills is not the only area growing and near capacity in Rogers.

Tom Hopper, owner of the Scottsdale Center, said the center is between 87 percent and 90 percent full.

He said four stores are set to open in early March: Shoe Carnival, Marshalls, HomeGoods and Akin’s Natural Foods Market.

The former site of Cheesy’s, 401 N. 46th St., is empty.

“We’ve had several people look at it, but so far, we have not found the right fit for the center,” Hopper said.

Kerry Jensen, executive director of Main Street Rogers, said downtown Rogers is about 95 percent occupied.

“I think we are just on the crest of the wave and are really going to get going,” he said.

The ability for restaurants to sell alcohol will help downtown become even more of a destination, he said.

“Our nightlife will increase as restaurants come in,” Jensen said. “We have new businesses coming in all the time. Shop, buy and explore is really working for us.”