Nelms Family Buys Ben Jack's Guitar Store In Fayetteville

Staff Photo Michael Woods • @NWAMICHAELW After 50 years Ben Jack’s will be changing owners. Don Nelms recently purchased the business and will move the store to the larger building and change the name to Sunrise Guitars.
Staff Photo Michael Woods • @NWAMICHAELW After 50 years Ben Jack’s will be changing owners. Don Nelms recently purchased the business and will move the store to the larger building and change the name to Sunrise Guitars.

FAYETTEVILLE -- One of Northwest Arkansas' oldest music stores has changed hands and will move to a new location on North College Avenue.

Ben Jack's Arkansas Music has catered to budding Jerry Garcias, Eddie Van Halens and area guitar aficionados in Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Rogers and Bentonville for nearly 50 years.

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Ben Jack’s Arkansas Music

For more about the company, which has operated in Northwest Arkansas since 1965, go to benjacks.com.

After the store's founder, Ben Jack, died in 2009, the Fort Smith, Rogers and Bentonville stores closed, leaving just one shop on Drake Street in Fayetteville.

Don Nelms, whose family has owned car dealerships in town for decades, said he, his son, David, and Roy Shorter, chief financial officer for the Nelms auto business, bought the Ben Jack's business and inventory Nov. 21 from Ben Jack's widow, Shirley Jack.

They plan to move the operation to 2781 N. College Ave., where the Nelmses' old Adventure Subaru dealership has sat largely vacant for several years. Don Nelms said he hopes to have a new store open within a year. It will be called Sunrise Guitars, a tribute to Don Nelms' love of nature photography and, for him, a symbol of new beginnings.

"I think our story is yet to be told," Don Nelms said. "We know there's a great opportunity here for an institution that can last. And that's what we're trying to achieve."

Shorter and David Nelms have been playing music in Northwest Arkansas for years. More recently, Don Nelms has tried his hand at songwriting and has also begun collecting guitars.

"Instead of having a collection of guitars, I bought a guitar store," Don Nelms said with a laugh Wednesday.

Shirley Jack's nephew, Gary Burkhart, said his aunt knew the store would be in good hands with the Nelms family.

"She had not really considered selling until she was approached by Don," Burkhart said. "She was just really comfortable with the Nelms family and the ideas that Don had moving forward."

Ben Jack's will continue to be open for the next year or so on Drake Street. Don Nelms said he plans to retain the store's staff. Sunrise Guitars will continue to offer new and used guitar sales, instrument repair and private music lessons.

He wouldn't disclose how much he paid for the Ben Jack's business Wednesday.

Guitarist Earl Cate, a local favorite, managed the Fayetteville Ben Jack's store for eight years in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Cate said Wednesday there weren't a lot of places musicians could find big-name guitar brands, such as Peavey and Fender, at that time. And, he added, the store provided a great place for people to get lessons and interact with others in the local music scene.

Cate said it will take some time for people to realize Ben Jack's won't be on Drake Street anymore. But, like Burkhart, he said he thinks the company is in good hands.

"I think they're going to have even more room at the old Subaru store than they do now," Cate said. "I look for it to do really well."

The College Avenue Subaru store closed in 2012, when the Nelmses opened a new dealership on the east side of Interstate 49, at 2296 N. Henbest Drive. Don Nelms said the family has been using the old location as vehicle storage and overflow parking since then.

With an upcoming expansion of the new Adventure Subaru dealership planned, the old location is no longer needed, he said. The Nelmses are planning to add parking, display and service space and an entirely new used car dealership over the next 2½ years at the Henbest Drive site.

City Council members approved a rezoning request Tuesday that will make the expansion project possible.

Burkhart said Wednesday he didn't know what Shirley Jack will do with the old Ben Jack's store on Drake Street after the business moves.

NW News on 12/04/2014

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