Two businesses to open soon on Bentonville's J Street

Tony Baker (from left) Christina Baker and Gregg Price, Arkansas Music Works owners, walk through the main room of their new store Sept. 23 as workers prepare it for the grand opening in early October. The new location will include more warehouse space for their online sales services as well more classroom space for music lessons. For more photos, go to www.nwadg.com/photos.
Tony Baker (from left) Christina Baker and Gregg Price, Arkansas Music Works owners, walk through the main room of their new store Sept. 23 as workers prepare it for the grand opening in early October. The new location will include more warehouse space for their online sales services as well more classroom space for music lessons. For more photos, go to www.nwadg.com/photos.

BENTONVILLE -- A mile and a half stretch of Southeast J Street has seen much development during the past year, and the trend is expected to continue, said Troy Galloway, community and economic development director.

About nine new businesses have opened on Southeast J Street from Southeast 14th Street to Southeast Walton Boulevard, he said.

Southeast J Street businesses

Arkansas Musicworks and Rush Running will be the newest businesses along the booming Southeast J Street in Bentonville. The music store opens soon and the outdoor athletic apparel store plans to open within a month.

Source: Staff report

Arkansas Musicworks will be the newest business in that corridor when it opens soon at 2400 S.E. J St. The business, which includes music lessons, retail sales and an online store, moved from its original location at 1380 S.W. Westpark Drive.

"We're not just moving," said Greg Price, co-owner. "It's an expansion."

Price and Tony Baker own the company, and Christina Baker is the business manager. Tony Baker is Christina's husband, and Price is her brother.

Arkansas Musicworks occupies about 6,400 square feet in three spaces in a strip mall. The new location is about 9,700 square feet.

The warehouse space for its online business will triple from less than 1,000 square feet to more than 3,000 square feet, and the number of classrooms will increase from 10 to 19.

"The custom build was something we looked forward to because of our unique operation," Tony Baker said.

The larger store will allow the number of weekly lessons to increase from 770 to 1,250, the owners said. That will ease the waiting list of about 200.

Several times over the past seven years, the owners have thought about moving to a new location, but they knew last year it was the right time, Christina Baker said.

"The land was probably the biggest part," Tony Baker added. "We've always been kind of looking, but when we found this, all of us felt that this was going to be the spot."

The location is near Haas Hall Academy that opened for classes Aug. 6. Bentonville High School is less than a half-mile north, and Ruth Barker Middle School is about three quarters of a mile northwest on Southeast 18th Street.

That makes it convenient for students to walk from school to music lessons, where parents can pick them up, the owners said.

"We also saw J Street as the next big thoroughfare," Price said.

Rush Running is not far behind the music store. Its 8,000-square-foot building is under construction at 1600 S.E. J St. The apparel and shoe retail store is scheduled to open in three to four weeks, owner Mike Rush said Friday.

"I'm pumped," he said. "It's my dream store."

Southeast J Street was the best location because of its affordability and high traffic, Rush said, adding he searched all over town, including Walton Boulevard, for the right spot.

Rush Running will occupy 5,000 square feet of the building, and Premiere Physical Therapy will lease the other 3,000 square feet.

It will be the first building Rush owns. His company leases stores in Bentonville, Fayetteville and Rogers.

The move will create needed expansion of retail floor space and backroom stock space, said Drew Conner, general manager, in an interview earlier this year.

There's a good chance the development activity on Southeast J Street will continue because it has a good transportation network as well as available land and utilities, Galloway said.

The conversion of a warehouse behind Haas Hall into office space should be done within the coming year, he said. There's also other opportunities for other light industrial and warehouse uses in that area.

The city doesn't have a formal plan for Southeast J Street like it does for North Walton Boulevard. It does have the land use plan, which shows the street with some industrial, office, mixed-use and medium density housing, Galloway said.

"Anytime you have diversity, you really shield yourself against the decay of a corridor like that," he said. "You create a collection of mutually beneficial uses that tend to thrive on one another."

NW News on 10/05/2015

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