Between The Lines: Trio Of Projects Offer Promise For The Future

A couple of immediate changes and the promise of another are good news for Fayetteville and Springdale.

The immediate changes relate to long-awaited road improvements, the opening of new highway projects.

Gone will be the orange barrels that have long irritated travelers as a "flyover" bridge near the Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayetteville and an interchange for Don Tyson Parkway in Springdale are opened.

Fayetteville's new bridge opened Wednesday and Springdale's new interchange will follow within the week.

Both are obviously about moving traffic more easily.

Folks in Fayetteville have been talking about some sort of bridge over U.S. 71 for so many years no one can quite pinpoint when the talk started.

This particular project has been years in the making, funded by a federal earmark secured in 2006 and by Fayetteville voters through a bond program.

However it got done, it is done. Vehicles are zipping over the elevated bridge to get onto the bypass and northbound on Interstate 49 or into a shopping area that had been a bit of a challenge to navigate.

The bridge is so much of an enhancement to shopping that a Whole Foods Market, planned at the intersection of College Avenue and Masonic Drive, purportedly picked the location in large part due to the addition of the flyover.

Existing restaurants and other shopping sites will also get a boost from the easier access the bridge allows, which is why local leaders were touting the bridge's economic impact as they officially opened the flyover.

That interchange for the Don Tyson Parkway a few miles north on Interstate 49 is also more than a highway improvement. It, too, is an economic generator that has long been awaited by Springdale leaders who similarly made its construction a priority.

It will provide more convenient access to Arvest Ballpark but will also open up development around the ball field. The area, where the city has been investing in infrastructure, has been long considered to have appeal to major companies looking for a location to serve Northwest Arkansas.

Initial development will come from investors closer to home, however.

Among the expected new neighbors will be NorthWest Arkansas Community College. The college has been looking for a permanent site to expand offerings in Washington County and has been in long-running negotiations for 20 acres next to the ballpark.

The college site is itself expected to attract development for the students and staff who will use the facility every day.

Count this news as evidence. Walmart announced plans just last week to open a Neighborhood Market on Don Tyson Parkway near the interstate. The store is expected to create 95 jobs and open in the fall of 2015.

But city leaders expect many more such announcements on the west side of town. Interstate access, soon to be reality, is the key.

That more distant promise of change is in the heart of Fayetteville and is not a highway improvement.

It involves the recent news that the former Mountain Inn property on College Avenue between Mountain and Center streets has a new owner.

The new owner is NWAP LLC, which closed on the property last week. The Mountain Home-based company plans a mixed-use hotel, condominium and retail project with a parking deck.

Word from the developers is that it may be two years before construction starts. What little remains of a building on the site could be incorporated into the project, but the gaping hole-turned-parking lot would definitely be used.

Long-time residents of Fayetteville remember the old Mountain Inn and a couple of bars (the Town Club and the Brass Monkey) as hot spots in their day.

But that was decades ago and the property became an eyesore, then a stalled development as other folks tried and failed to make a new hotel-and-condo combination happen.

The economy is different now and maybe these new owners can succeed.

BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST AND LONGTIME JOURNALIST IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS

Commentary on 07/06/2014

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