BARLING -- Chaffee Crossing has been bursting with new multifamily residential options in Fort Smith and Barling recently, with the latest project breaking ground Tuesday.
The Prairie at Chaffee Crossing will offer studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments at 1800 Frontier Road in Barling, adjacent to the new Arkansas 255 corridor under construction and across the street from the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education.
The 180-unit complex will have one- and two-bath combinations, and amenities included in phase one of the 14-acre development will include an on-site office, a clubhouse, fitness center, swimming pool and dog park.
Griffin Construction of Fort Smith is the contractor, and Ghan & Cooper Multifamily will manage the property.
Jana Mundy, vice president of property management for Griffin Properties of Fort Smith, said phase one is expected to be open in the spring of 2024, and they're excited to bring a quality multifamily project to the community.
Ghan & Cooper owner Rodney Ghan echoed the sentiment, noting the project's proximity to other developments in the area.
"When we bought the property in 2015, we felt sure it would be a good investment because people would want to be near the growth in Chaffee Crossing," Ghan said. "With all the new businesses, educational opportunities and amenities now in place, it will be even more appealing. This will be a wonderful place to live, and it will only get better with time."
Daniel Mann, Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority executive director and CEO, said there are 42 residential neighborhoods of all types in Chaffee Crossing, with multifamily accounting for 4,200 or 62%.
"So from a multifamily standpoint that's an increase of about 9% since 2021," Mann said. "So what we're starting to see from the development from a residential standpoint is higher density development. I think that's very attractive for young professionals coming into our market, new families through the Foreign Military Sales Pilot Training Center as well as students and faculty for the Colleges of Health Education."
Mann said the colleges have also been working on mixed-use residential and commercial retail developments on its campus.
"So it's commercial retail on the ground-level with floor two and three as residential," Mann said. "That's a $23 million project that they kicked off last year and expect to have that completed by May of this year. They also have phase three of The Residents under construction. That's another 149 units going into that phase, phase three. And they also have phase two and phase three of The Porches at Heritage underway.
"So I think that also contributes heavily to the uptick in multifamily. So the colleges are very strong; they're moving forward quite expeditiously on their residential development as they have about 900 students now, and that number will just continue to grow."
ERC Holdings held a ribbon-cutting last fall for the 61 houses completed in phase one of Regency Park on West Chad Colley Boulevard, as well as a groundbreaking for the roughly 50 houses in phase two.
"The economic impact is huge, and also the affordability is the big issue that we want people to land on," Rod Coleman, ERC Holdings chairman, said at the time. "This product here is going to be somewhere between $185,000 to $215,000, which is really needed in Fort Smith for people to have ownership."
Mann said ERC Holdings has its next phase ready to start once the permits are issued by Fort Smith. Chaffee Crossing can see more industrial development in the coming months as well, he said.
"Industrial is still a strong sector," he said. "I would expect something coming out very, very soon, an announcement on an industrial project, a large-scale warehouse distribution. We made an announcement last summer where the board approved a sale on that. We're getting close to closing on that property. Mixed-use industrial offices, I think, from a distribution standpoint is still going to be strong.
"I also believe that commercial retail is going to be another driver as we have reached over 3,600 direct employees working out at Chaffee Crossing right now, and that number continues to grow as well as the density in the housing sector. Out of that 4,200 units, only 52% of those are fully built or under construction, so there's still a lot of residential development taking place. We forecast probably around 6,000 units that we should see out of Chaffee Crossing in the next few years."
A jogger runs, Friday, Jan. 13, 2023, near the construction site of a new 180-unit apartment complex at 1800 Frontier Road in Barling. The development will be named The Prairie at Chaffee Crossing, a groundbreaking for which was held Tuesday. Visit nwaonline.com/photo for today's photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)