Congratulations, Bentonvillle. You just hit the jackpot.
The location of the Walton Arts Center expansion was announced Wednesday. The most coveted part - the 2,200-seat performing arts venue - will go somewhere within a half-mile of the Bentonville square. Fayetteville, home of the original Walton Arts Center, gets a consolation prize in the form of a 600-seat performance hall on Dickson Street.
Peter Lane, president and CEO of the Walton ArtsCenter, declared the decision a “win” for the center and for Northwest Arkansas.
That’s true, but the biggest winner here is the city of Bentonville. Long known as a destination for Walmart vendors, Bentonville is about to become a destination for artand theater lovers as well - not only because of the arts center, but because of the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, expected to open next November. Momentous change is coming to Bentonville, and it’s going to come quickly.
But as we pop the champagne for Bentonville, we can’t help but express our disappointment with the way that arts center officials handled the much-anticipated site selection process. Somewhere along the line, this “process” fell off the hinges.
It began early this year, when the arts center’s board of directors released an extensive list of selection criteria that included funding mechanism, site size, parking and accessibility. The board then invited the public to suggest potential sites.
At the time, Lane stressed that any and all locations would be considered.
Twenty-five site proposals were submitted by the August deadline. They included locations from Bentonville to Fayetteville and everywhere in between.
Some proposals were more detailed than others.
Particularly impressive was the city of Fayetteville’s proposal, which was put together by a 21-member committee consisting of city and University of Arkansas officials. It gave a specific land-use design for the existing location, as well as three alternate concepts that could be considered. It was also the only proposal offering the potential for funding of $33.4 million, in the form of donated property, street improvements and construction investment in future parking facilities.
In contrast, the winning proposal, offered by the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, described a site of up to 10 acres a half-mile from the Bentonville square. That was the extent of the description. No financial commitment was promised.
If graded on effort, the Fayetteville proposal would have gotten an A. Bentonville’s grade would have been significantly lower.
It seems that the site decision was finalized in June, when the Walton Family Foundation - a major donor to the arts center - announced that it likely would not be a lead donor on an expansion project that did not happen in Bentonville near Crystal Bridges.
The timing of that letter could not have been worse. It spoiled the public’s impression that each site proposal would be fairly evaluated. Something odd happened to this process. About three weeks ago, officials of the board’s facilities committee told us that a site recommendation probably wouldn’t come until March or April. At that time, 15 sites purportedly were still in the running. Suddenly, this week, a news conference was hastily arranged to make the site announcement.
Huh?
A lot of people - especially those in Fayetteville - invested a lot of time and effort to win this expansion.
They were under the impression that their proposals would be given fair consideration. It seems that that “process” was all an illusion. And it wasted a lot of people’s time.
The announcement was a clumsy, amateurish performance. It didn’t spoil the show for Bentonville, but it certainly could have been better handled.
Opinion, Pages 14 on 12/05/2010