Bentonville Council Approves $5.2 Million Land Purchase

BENTONVILLE -- The city's Maintenance and Utility departments will be moved to 37 acres near the municipal airport as the City Council approved buying the land for $5.2 million Tuesday night.

The departments' location on Southeast Third Street will be sold with other land for $7 million.

The move will give the departments needed space, and it will also free 9.8 acres in the downtown district for development, city officials said.

"The impact is going to be, what's the word I'm looking for, enormous," said Jim Grider, Ward 4 alderman. It will allow business to expand from the square, he said. "It's going to make us a better community."

Council approved the purchase 6-0. Aldermen Roger Thomas and Chris Sooter were absent.

The 37 acres is at 501 Southwest Airport Road. It has 18 acres zoned industrial and 19 zoned commercial.

The city's Street, Water Utilities, Wastewater, Electric departments and the inventory warehouse are at the city's Southeast Third Street maintenance complex.

They will all move to the new location, which will provide "a centrally located, shared complex that allows for growth/expansion of all affected departments," according to Mike Bender, public works director.

The council also approved selling four properties to Affordable Arkansas Homes for $7 million. The properties include the nearly 10-acre maintenance facility on Southeast Third Street, 1.5 acres at 802 N.W. A St. where the Head Start facility is located, 142 acres of the Price Coffee Addition and 9.5 acres on the southern end of Tiger Tank near Northwest 12th Drive.

The sale will provide money for the land and move to Southwest Airport Road, Bender said.

The council also approved a lease with Affordable Arkansas Homes for the maintenance facility campus on Southeast Third Street.

The city will receive $7 million at closing then lease the property back for $1 per year, Bender said. The lease timeline for vacating the land is two years for the Water and Street departments and four and a half years for the rest.

The lease will give city officials time to develop a plan for the new property, Bender said.

The city will have $13.3 million available for the project between the $1.8 million from the sale, $8 million already budgeted for maintenance facility move and expansion and $3.5 million in reserve, according to Bender.

"Once a Master Plan is complete, it will be presented to Council along with anticipated costs," Bender wrote in a memo. "Contracts and budget adjustments, as needed, will also be presented to Council as the project progresses."

The city was fortunate to find a buyer for for the 9.8-acre campus on Southeast Third Street and find a location near town but not by residents for the new campus, said Mayor Bob McCaslin.

The next step is to hire a company to design a campus that will last 40 to 50 years and handle city growth up to 80,000 people, he said. The city is around 41,000 people now.

"It's not something you do and patch up," McCaslin said. "We get one shot at this, and it needs to be right when we do it."

The decision to buy the land comes after city officials backed out of a contract to buy land on Melissa Drive for a Street Department location. The council approved in February buying 9.5 acres for $1.9 million.

Roger Thomas, Ward 2 alderman, and Bill Burckart, Ward 3 alderman, voted against it. Both raised concern about spending $200,000 an acre.

Burckart commended the department heads and mayor Tuesday for reconsidering that contract. The decision made Tuesday night was the best for not only the departments, but also the city. It will allow the private sector to invest and expand the economic vitality of the square, he said.

"I think it's worked out fantastic for everybody involved," he said.