Pleasant Crossing Shops To Open This Summer In Rogers

New Retail Center To Open This Summer...

STAFF PHOTO FLIP PUTTHOFF Burke Larkin with Whisinvest Realty, front left, and guests gather to break ground Friday for Pleasant Crossing Shops, a retail center at 2600 W. Pleasant Crossing Drive near Interstate 540 in Rogers.
STAFF PHOTO FLIP PUTTHOFF Burke Larkin with Whisinvest Realty, front left, and guests gather to break ground Friday for Pleasant Crossing Shops, a retail center at 2600 W. Pleasant Crossing Drive near Interstate 540 in Rogers.

ROGERS -- A new retail center could spur commercial growth in south Rogers.

Whisinvest Realty is building Pleasant Crossing Shops at 2600 W. Pleasant Crossing Drive, in front of the Walmart Supercenter.

By The Numbers

Retail Space

There’s just less than 15 million square feet of retail space in Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers and Springdale with a 6 percent vacancy rate. Xceligent’s Market Trends report breaks each city into geographical locations. Fayetteville’s CBD is the central business district and is the area around the town square. Inventory and total vacant numbers are in square feet.

*Area Inventory*Total Vacant*Vacancy Rate

Bentonville*1.61 million*97,189*6 percent

North Fayetteville*3.27 million*217,669*6.6 percent

West Fayetteville*1.81 million*116,945*6.5 percent

East Fayetteville*276,057*20,728*7.5 percent

Fayetteville CBD*204,848*—*0 percent

South Fayetteville*58,472*—*0 percent

West Rogers*3.01 million*134,037*4.5 percent

East Rogers*1.61 million*120,672*7.5 percent

East Springdale*1.9 million*109,034*5.7 percent

West Springdale*893,781*66,972*7.5 percent

Source: Xceligent

"Now is the time for Pleasant Crossing to grow," said Mayor Greg Hines. "This is our next wave of prosperity."

Whisinvest and city leaders broke ground on the project Friday. Construction is slated to be complete by late July, said Burke Larkin, Whisinvest senior vice president.

The 22,0oo-square-foot retail center will feature a gym, two restaurants, a nail salon and spa and a furniture store. Larkin said about 3,300 square feet remains to be leased.

He wouldn't name the restaurants moving into the center, but said one will be new to the area. Talks are also in the works for a retail phone store.

"This is the first of several upcoming projects for the Pleasant Crossing area and we are thrilled to get this ball rolling on the next stage of development for this area," he said.

Whisinvest bought 368 acres along Interstate 540 in the Pleasant Crossing and Pinnacle Hills areas for $19 million in 2012. The real estate development firm is based in Little Rock and opened a Rogers office last year.

Larkin said the firm sold just a few parcels and plans on building more retail and restaurant projects. The company sold some land in the north end of The Grove, at South Dixieland and Pleasant Grove roads, for 38 single-family homes. Whisinvest is also selling the land next to Pleasant Crossing Shops to a retailer he wouldn't name.

"Everything we do we hope will be the catalyst for the next big thing," he said.

Steve Cox, vice president of economic development for the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, said the Pleasant Crossing area is seeing development pick up.

Case Lawrence announced in January plans to build a 30,000-square-foot trampoline park at 4305 S. Dixieland Road in the Pleasant Crossing development. Construction is scheduled to start later this month and the park will open in the summer.

Cox said construction in the area has been slow since Hank's Fine Furniture & More opened south of Walmart in November 2010. The Walmart Supercenter opened in 2005.

"We've had some new businesses come in, but no new buildings," he said. "This is not the last development we will see going in out there."

Retail space in West Rogers has the area's highest lease rates and lowest vacancy rates, according to data from Xceligent, a commercial real estate data firm. The average lease rate in West Rogers was $17 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2013 compared to $13 for all areas of Rogers, Bentonville, Fayetteville and Springdale.

The West Rogers retail vacancy rate was 4.4 percent. The combined rate in all four cities was 6 percent, according to Xceligent.

The four cities have just under 15 million square feet of retail space.

The low vacancy rates helped prompt construction projects, said Jordan Ligon, Xceligent's regional director for Northwest Arkansas.

City reports show Rogers issued 30 commercial building permits last year, up from 20 in 2012. Project values increased to $28.93 million in 2013 from $26.68 a year earlier.

Derrel Smith, a senior planner for Rogers, said 2014 is starting strong with permit requests.

"We're seeing more projects through to planning. Some are projects that stopped and are starting again," he said.

Smith said the entire Interstate 540 corridor is part of the area's comprehensive growth area.

Alan Cole, a leasing agent with Colliers International, said he's working on a retail center and office development on Pauline Whitaker Parkway in Rogers and a retail center on Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard near I Street in Bentonville. Both projects are near a Walmart Neighborhood Market.

"We are seeing growth in areas near convenience retail spots, such as grocery stores, where people are making daily trips that are close to neighborhoods and close to traffic," Cole said. "You see a lot of these new projects being built by Walmart stores. Tenants want to be near established businesses."

Lance Eads, vice president of economic development director for the Springdale Chamber of Commerce, anticipates retail growth west of the Elm Springs exit of I-540. Walmart is building a Supercenter that will open this fall.

"I think activity begets more activity," he said.

Plans filed with Springdale's Planning Department call the area Hall Crossing and show the 70-acre development divided into 12 parcels to house additional businesses.

A new multitenant retail project in Bentonville isn't next to a Walmart, but developers advertise it as only being 2 miles from the retailer's home office.

The 15,173-square-foot office and retail space is named The Centre at Fountain Plaza at 500 S.E. Walton Blvd. It's a project of Commercial Realty and is scheduled to open this summer.

"Retail space in Northwest Arkansas has been tight," Ligon said. "Everything that gets built gets grabbed."

NW News on 03/01/2014

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