The Twin Arch Apartments, a boutique project located on the site of a old motor lodge on North College Avenue in Fayetteville first approved in 2016, is now complete.
The property in the 500 block of North College Avenue changed hands during its construction but its target demographic of young professionals looking for a unique apartment near downtown Fayetteville, Dickson Street and the University of Arkansas remains the same, according to its owner Preston Wright, president of DCC Management.
“We went with a lot of Mark’s [Zweig] vision for the project,” Wright said.
The property has 17 units, the majority are one-bedroom but it also includes two studio apartments and a lone two-bedroom apartment. The smaller one-bedroom apartments run from between 435 and 445 square feet with others at 540 square feet. The two-bedroom, two-bath unit is 813 square feet.
The apartments are fully-furnished with large televisions, Italian leather couches, queen-sized beds, complete kitchens and washers and dryers. The rent includes all utilities and Internet access with no data limits and features individual wifi connections. The units include double-pane windows and are heavily insulated.
Monthly rents, which include an opening special, are $1,050 for the smaller one-bedrooms, $1,150 for the larger one-bedroom units and $1,750 for the two-bedroom unit. Three units, including the two studios are already leased.
Wright said it was a little daunting to open the apartments during the coronavirus quarantine but he said the company is being cautious during showings, doing everything it can to maintain social distance and make the process as safe and convenient as possible for potential lessees.
“It is a huge concern,” Wright said about the timing of the apartment building’s opening. “But everything is going to be OK.”
The average vacancy rate in multifamily units stood at 4.9% for the second half of 2019 in Benton and Washington counties, according to the most recent Skyline Report.
The increase for the period was attributed to several large projects going in during the second half of the year. In Fayetteville, the vacancy rate increased to 5.6% from 4.3% for the year ago period, according to the report, which is sponsored by Arvest Bank.
DCC bought the project from Mark Zweig and Sonya Stout in August of 2019. The apartment development was about 75% complete at the time and DCC then finished out the construction. Wright said DCC’s capital investment in the development is in the $2 million range.
The 1950s-era Twin Arch Motel at 525 N. College Ave. was shuttered in 2011 after a fire burned through part of the roof and caused extensive smoke damage, according to earlier reporting by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Zweig bought the property in 2016 and gained city approval for the project later in the year.
At the time, Zweig said old motel buildings weren’t worth restoring, so the plan called for apartments arranged in a U-shape looking over a central courtyard following the footprint the former motel’s foundation. The addition of a front wall would turn the U shape into a rectangle. In 2017, the city of Fayetteville began plans to revitalize the area around the old motel in an effort to make that section of College Avenue more attractive and pedestrian friendly.
Danco Construction Company was founded in 1953, moving over the years from a utility contractor with investments in cattle operations to investments in commercial and residential properties in central Arkansas. In 2019, the company sold its commercial and residential divisions to focus on residential property in Northwest Arkansas. DCC’s corporate headquarters is in Fayetteville and owns and operates the Berry Flats on Berry Street in the city.