Downtown Springdale will continue to grow this year with a new park, a new Tyson building and continued progress toward an even bigger 2018.
"You're going to see momentum gaining every year for the next five to six years," said Misty Murphy, executive director of the Downtown Springdale Alliance. "We're laying a lot of ground for future development."
Downtown Springdale Timeline
December 2015;Downtown Springdale Master Plan adopted by the Springdale City Council.
March 2016;Downtown Springdale Alliance launches slate of community programming, bringing around 30,000 people to events downtown in 2016.
June 2016;Water and sewer upgrades begin on Emma Avenue east of the railroad tracks. The project will be finished this year with a refinished roadway and streetscape.
July 2016;The Tyson Foods JTL Building opens, the first of two major investments that will bring around 400 Tyson employees downtown.
July 2016;A downtown task force begins work on revamping development codes for downtown.
September 2016;New stop signs added to create a safer pedestrian environment on Emma Avenue.
Source: Misty Murphy, Downtown Springdale Alliance director.
Walter Turnbow Park and Tyson's original headquarters will open this year, and construction will be done to continually improve downtown's overall ambiance, Murphy said, adding that 2017 is going to be an important year for continued construction.
"We're going to have the unveiling of the new streetscape, which is going to create a more urban aesthetic for the downtown area that is more comfortable for people," she said. "It will have more benches, more lighting and better sidewalks, and people will want to spend more time while they're down here."
Getting folks downtown
It's important to get people to spend more time downtown, said Dino Vergura, who owns The Steam, 107 E. Emma Ave., with his wife, Melanie Vergura.
The Verguras have owned The Steam, a restaurant that serves a variety of meals, including, burgers, steaks, sandwiches, pasta dishes and salads, for two years. Dino Vergura wants more restaurants downtown.
"If you get a packed house in here, and this is the only restaurant they can eat at, they're going to turn away," Vergura said. "If it happens too many times, they're not going to come back, so we need more restaurants down here. We want more variety in restaurants."
The downtown area has 11 restaurants, two coffee shops and four bars, Murphy said.
Several business owners said the potential for growth has attracted them downtown.
Tom Lundstrum and his partner, Brian Moore, purchased The Apollo on Emma, at 308 Emma Ave., in 2014. The building was built as a movie theater in 1949 and had an Art Deco motif. It operated as a movie theater until the late 1980s, Lundstrom said.
Lundstrom and Moore plan to convert the Apollo into an event center and hope to open it May 1. They will maintain the classic building's name and Art Deco style, but it is not economically viable to keep the Apollo as a movie theater, Lundstrom said.
"We couldn't make money downtown showing movies," he said.
Twenty-one buildings have sold on Emma Avenue between Main and Park streets in the past five years. Nine businesses have opened in the downtown area in the past year, including Emma Avenue Bar & Tap, Phat Tire Bike Shop, Trailside Coffee Co., Core Public House, Sire, the Tyson Foods JTL building, SalvaMex, Midtown Downtown, and Babooski's, according to Murphy.
Phat Tire and Trailside Coffee share a space next to the Razorback Greenway. Phat Tire has locations in Bentonville and Fayetteville. Grant Holcomb, a Phat Tire sales and service staff member who works at the Springdale location, said Phat Tire opened in Springdale because of growth potential. The location off the greenway also is a draw.
"This is really the halfway point between the start of the trail in the south and the end of it in the north," Holcomb said. "It's good to have a bike shop in between."
Kit Core is the bartender at Core Public House and the uncle of owner Jesse Core. Core said the Springdale location is the third Core pub on the greenway. The others are in Fayetteville and Rogers.
"This is a very bike-oriented area here," Core said. "Being on the Greenway is not only convenient for those folks, but it's convenient for us too as far as customers go."
Core's Springdale pub was located within its brewery at 2470 Lowell Road, but moved to the downtown area to create more brewery space. Core said there are many reasons why downtown was the right choice.
"Part of it was the attractiveness of being downtown," he said. "Springdale is making a big effort, as a lot of the cities of Northwest Arkansas are, in revitalizing and re-energizing and rediscovering their downtown areas and how important that is. So we wanted to be a part of that. We had the opportunity to come down here, and we're glad we did."
Katie Schneider, owner of Trailside Coffee, said business will be even better once Turnbow Park is complete.
The city signed a contract with Springdale-based Milestone Construction on Dec. 21, accepting the contractor's $1.7 million bid to finish construction on Walter Turnbow Park after the previous contractor was fired for not completing the work. Sam Hollis, Milesone president, said some work will have to be redone and he gave May 31 as the planned completion date.
More upgrades coming
Extensive water and sewer upgrades began east of the railroad tracks on Emma Avenue in June. Heath Ward, director of Springdale Water Utilities, said the water and sewer work is almost complete.
"The next phase of the project will be the streetscape and sidewalk work," he said.
Streetscape renovations will be done on the downtown's east side by Crossland Heavy Contractors of Rogers. The work will involve improving and expanding sidewalks, landscaping and potentially installing sprinkler systems for the new vegetation, improved lighting and unique designs in the pavement at crosswalks and other key focal points, Ward said.
He described downtown's east side as being from the railroad tracks to Park Street and the west side as being from Blair Street to Thompson Street.
The estimate for the streetscape renovations was $1.4 million, but Crossland came in at a little over $1.1 million and plan to have it completed by summer, Ward said.
The utility will oversee the streetscape project.
City money is funding the streetscape project, but Ward said it is unknown when money will be raised for streetscape work on the west side.
"If there's money available, it could start as early as next fall," Ward said. "It's more than likely it will happen sometime in 2018."
Tyson's impact
Tyson's downtown developments are a key reason why east side renovations were given priority over the west, Ward said.
Tyson publicly unveiled its JTL Building, 516 E. Emma Ave., in July. The almost 30,000-square foot building will provide office space for Tyson and is designed to provide natural light and open areas to promote collaboration among staff.
The building has a long history, having been built in the 1930s as a Jones Truck Line terminal, and later was the home of the Springdale Morning News and most recently an Orscheln Farm & Home store.
Tyson will continue its downtown development with renovations to its original headquarters at 319 E. Emma Ave., and the adjacent building at 317 E. Emma, formerly known as the Brown Hatchery building. The original headquarters is expected to open this fall, Murphy said.
Tyson has made a concerted effort to improve the downtown with a $1 million gift to the Downtown Springdale Alliance in January 2015 and $750,000 to The Jones Center in October.
The alliance will use $100,000 for operating and programming costs the first three years of the gift. A majority of the $1 million gift will be used for "catalytic projects," which includes park improvements and improvements to public spaces, Murphy said.
"Things that we know will make a huge difference downtown," she said.
Part of the money has been spent on plans to improve Shiloh Square. The alliance hired H3 Studio, the St. Louis, Mo.,-based firm that designed the Downtown Master Plan, to come up with ideas on how to improve the square.
Future allocations from the $1 million gift must be approved by the alliance's board and Tyson representatives.
The Jones Center money will be used to renovate the center's interior and expand its fitness center and food court area, according to a news release.
Murphy described Tyson as a key partner to downtown development.
"When you think of the history of Springdale, it's incomplete without talking about Tyson and what they've meant to Springdale," Murphy said. "Having their original headquarters downtown and helping populate downtown for decades has been really important."
Tyson employs about 8,000 people in Washington and Benton counties, 23,000 people across the state and 113,000 nationally, John Tyson, the company's chairman, said in July.
Approximately 100 people work out of the JTL Building and about 250 people will work in the original headquarters, said Derek Burleson, public relations manager for Tyson Foods.
The influx of Tyson employees into the downtown area will stimulate business growth, Murphy said.
"We always want to bring in more amenities for the people who work and live downtown, and having an influx employees will make that more key," she said. "There has been a hesitancy of some restaurants to come downtown because of not enough people living or working downtown, but this (influx of Tyson employees) will spur restaurants to come downtown. There's already a huge workforce, this will push us over the top."
Marathon will be downtown
The 41st annual Hogeye Marathon, which traditionally has been held in Fayetteville, will come to Springdale for the first time April 8. Tyson is the sponsor.
The marathon was a city of Hogeye tradition for years, but moved to Fayetteville in 2003 because the road that leads to Hogeye is two lanes with no shoulder and not as safe for runners as a shouldered road would be, said Tabby Holmes, race director.
The marathon will be in Springdale this year and next year because Springdale is more centrally located in Northwest Arkansas and is more likely to attract more runners from across the region. Road construction that's going on in Fayetteville with the Highway 112 interchange was also a concern, Holmes said.
"We felt like it was going to be really hard to make a safe course," she said. "With 26.2 miles you have to get a lot of miles in, so you have to go through the city and back to get the miles in."
The marathon has multiple events, including the 26.2 mile marathon, a 13.1 mile half-marathon, a 3.1 mile 5K and four-person relay, Holmes said.
Holmes said she and fellow marathon officials will evaluate the marathon's success in Springdale to determine if the event will continue in Springdale beyond 2018.
Downtown Springdale will be a central part of the marathon.
"We're anxious about having it start and finish in downtown Springdale because of all the growth going on downtown and the excitement of Tyson and other companies making a commitment to revitalize downtown Springdale," Holmes said. "We wanted to help that and be part of it."
NW News on 03/26/2017