BENTONVILLE -- Climb Bentonville customers will only have to travel across a parking lot to grab a beer after a climbing session as a brewery is planned for the corner of Southwest I and Southwest 14th streets.
Bentonville Brewing Co. is moving to the site and is just west of the future rock climbing gym. Rope Swing Group is also involved in the project, according to Planning Commission meeting documents.
Commission action
Bentonville’s Planning Commission met Tuesday and approved:
• Lot splits at 798 S.E. Plaza Ave., and on Mill Dam Road and on Southeast John Rollow Drive.
• Property line adjustment on Southwest 14th Street and one on Palladium Drive.
• Plats for Harbin Pointe Addition Phase II on Southwest Buckeye Street and Kensington Square Phase IV Subdivision at 3900 E. Central Ave.
• A preliminary plat for Presley Place Subdivision at 806 N.W. A St.
• Plans for Behrents Edodontics Specialists at 798 S.E. Plaza Ave. and Southeast G Street parking.
• A permit for The Station Cafe, 409 S.E. Sixth St.
Source: Staff Report
Plans show a 21,600-square-foot building on 3 acres surrounded by benches, bike racks, a beer garden, green space, a dog run, a patio and an area for food trucks.
Bentonville Brewing opened in 2015 in the Market District downtown before moving to South First Street in Rogers.
The Planning Commission unanimously approved the plans at its meeting Tuesday.
Commissioners asked planning staff if the food trucks would be allowed to serve alcohol.
They would if they obtain a permit from the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, said planner Jon Stanley.
Commissioners also approved a permit for the brewery to operate in a general commercial zoning.
The building will include a microbrewery, restaurant and offices, according to the planner's report.
Food service will be secondary to the production and sale of beer, according to the permit request. Hours of operation, the number of employees proposed and anticipated number of customers aren't known yet.
There will be some parking on the west side of Bentonville Brewing. It will share parking to its east with Climb Bentonville, according to meeting documents.
Plans for the two-story, 14,447-square-foot indoor climbing gym were approved in August.
Bentonville P&R Fund -- which has the same mailing address as Walton Enterprises -- owns the nearly 72 acres from Southwest 14th Street to the top of Lake Bentonville. Those acres include the land that the brewery and climbing gym will be built on.
The Walton Family Foundation is spearheading a conservation project on the remaining land, which will be called Osage Park. The Osage Tributary of the Illinois River runs through the property, which will be developed with boardwalks and trails.
A conceptual plan for the Osage Park project shows Lake Bentonville expanded with a narrow waterway connection to the brewery's site. Plans for the brewery's development include a kayak access from the lake.
Catty-corner from the brewery's location is an office building at the northwest corner of the intersection of Southwest 14th and Southwest I streets. Just west of that is the site of a soon-to-be Aldi market. Commissioners also approved on Tuesday plans for the 22,000-square-foot grocery store.
The developer, Pinnacle Highway 102 LLC, is also the owner of the adjacent office building, according to property records.
The Aldi site will be connected to the office building site, according to meeting documents.
"The parking lot will be constructed such that there is connected field of parking in order to provide cross access between the two lots," wrote Samuel Malinowsky, with Columbia, Mo.-based SM Engineering, to the Planning Department. SM Engineering is the firm working on the project.
There also will be a street built just north of the buildings, which will help with traffic flow, commissioners and planning staff discussed at their April 10 technical review meeting.
NW News on 04/18/2018