Harps Could Spur Growth North

Doves take flight Wednesday during the opening ceremony for the new Harps Marketplace on North Walton Boulevard in Bentonville.
Doves take flight Wednesday during the opening ceremony for the new Harps Marketplace on North Walton Boulevard in Bentonville.

BENTONVILLE — A Harps Food store that opened Wednesday on North Walton Boulevard will serve as an anchor development efforts along that corridor, city officials said.

A crowd gathered in front of the store at 1209 N. Walton Blvd. on a chilly first day of spring for a ribbon cutting and dove release. The 37,000-square-foot store is a unique design for the company, said store manager Jeff Jones.

The store is about 8,000 square feet larger than other Harps stores and has the company’s largest selection of natural and organic foods, he said.

At A Glance

Merchants’ Group

A meeting for business owners along North Walton Boulevard is set for 7:30 p.m. April 12 at Zary’s Acropolis, 905 N.W. 13th St. The meeting will inform merchants about the city’s North Walton improvement plan and help stimulate growth in the corridor.

Bentonville officials started working on a plan in 2011 to stimulate development along North Walton Boulevard from West Central Avenue to Ridgefield Drive. The Harps store is the first major development since the plan was formulated.

“Harps has an outstanding looking building,” said Brian Bahr, city planning manager. “They’ve set the new standard for commercial development in Bentonville.”

Bahr said Harps will be a major traffic generator for North Walton and serve as a key resource for families in the area. Statistics from the improvement plan show the area from West Central Avenue to Ridgefield Drive has 1,228 single-family homes and 128 multifamily units.

“That area is underserved on the retail side, especially on the food side,” Bahr said. “Harps will be the anchor for the redevelopment of North Walton.”

Mayor Bob McCaslin said he found out about the plans for the new Harps a year ago and has been “smiling ever since.”

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Arthur Lapid, right, and Ray Enomoto, center, offer Cheryl Watkins of Centerton fresh samples Wednesday at the new Harps Marketplace sushi counter in Bentonville. The sushi counter is operated by Sushi with Gusto and will offer items prepared daily by certified sushi chefs.

“This fits really well with our North Walton Boulevard improvement plan,” McCaslin said.

Harps began looking for a new location after company officials were notified in 2011 the lease for its location in the Midtown Shopping Center in downtown Bentonville wouldn’t be renewed. The shopping center will be demolished to make way for a mixed-use development anchored by a Walmart Neighborhood Market.

Roger Collins, Harps chief executive officer, said company officials never considered pulling out of Bentonville once the downtown lease expired.

“If you’re going to be a great company, you have to be in Bentonville,” he said. “We were sorry to lose on the lease, but we’re glad to be here.”

Collins said he immediately liked the North Walton Boulevard location. The company paid $1.86 million for the property in June 2011 and razed the Economy Lodge that had been there since the 1980s.

Harps has a contract pending to purchase a building at 1201 N. Walton Blvd. on the southeast corner of store’s parking lot, Collins said. If the sale goes through, the area could be used for additional parking, he said.

Jones said the demographics of the area make North Walton a natural home for the grocery store chain. About 24 percent of the city’s total population lives along the corridor from Central Avenue to Ridgefield Drive, he said.

Susan Delacruz of Bentonville shopped at the store Wednesday with her mother, Barbara Stevens, who is visiting from Ohio. Delacruz said she lives within walking distance of the store and has anxiously awaited its opening.

“I’m impressed,” Delacrus said. “I’m excited to see development on this side of town.”

The store employs 140 people, Jones said. About 100 of those employees are new hires, chosen from around 500 applicants who came out to a job fair for the store opening, he said.

The Harps store in the Midtown Shopping Center closed its doors Tuesday. Jones said they tried to keep the former store open up until opening day to allow continuity for its pharmacy customers.

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