Apartment Units Moving Forward

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Northwest Arkansas’ multifamily housing market is showing signs of new life.

Lindsey Management is ready to proceed on Phase 2 of Cooperstone Apartments in Bentonville. The city issued Lindsey building permits Dec. 20 for seven 12-unit apartment buildings on Southwest 16th Street. Each building is valued at $873,072, according to city documents.

Lindsey representatives didn’t return calls Thursday and Friday for additional details on the project.

Annette Brightwell, special projects planner with the Bentonville Building Inspection Department, said Lindsey initially applied for permits in 2010 but didn’t pick them up at the time.

Cooperstone Apartments Phase 1 was built in 2007.

Area apartments filled up in recent years, reporting a 94 percent occupancy rate in the first half of 2012, according to the Mid-Year 2012 Northwest Arkansas Apartment Market Survey prepared by commercial real estate brokerage firm C.B. Richard Ellis.

Apartment construction has been limited to Fayetteville, where a handful of student complexes are either under construction or newly built.

Those projects rent bedrooms rather than units, and rent prices typically include utilities, Wi-Fi and cable.

“It appears our prediction of new construction spurred by a near 5 percent vacancy rate in Northwest Arkansas has not yet come to fruition with very few new traditional multifamily developments planned or under construction,” stated the report released in late September.

Brian Donahue, C.B. Richard Ellis senior associate, said at the time developers appeared to be sitting on the sidelines waiting to see which student housing projects were built and how successful they were.

The new construction condo market may also be getting a lift. The Rogers Planning Commission will consider a rezoning request Tuesday that would clear the path for new condos.

Lori Stone, Rogers city planner, said the request by PWX LLC is to rezone 21.18 acres west of Dixieland Road and south of Brooks Place from residential office and highway commercial to residential multifamily, 18 units per acre with individual ownership.

“We see this as a good location for multifamily,” she said. “This area has real good access.”

Stone said other multifamily developments have been proposed in the past few years, but nothing developed.