Walmart Buys 126.1 Acres for $4 Million

by Paul Gatling ([email protected]) 126 views 

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. recently paid $4 million for 126.1 acres of undeveloped commercial land in Benton County.

According to a deed filed Jan. 30 at the Benton County Courthouse, the company paid Todd Butler for the property west of Peach Orchard Road near its intersection with U.S. Highway 71, west of a Lowe’s Home Improvement store.

Butler, who owns Ozark Civil Engineering Inc. in Bentonville, completed the transaction in the name of Mitchell & Spencer Properties LLC, named for his two sons.

At a meeting of the Bentonville City Council on Jan. 21, 120 acres of the property was rezoned from agricultural to general commercial.

Future land use, according to public records, indicate the property will be developed as commercial and mixed use.

Of the 126.1 acres, 79.5 lies in the Bentonville city limits. The remaining acreage has been petitioned for annexation into the Bentonville city limits.

The land is also in close proximity to an interchange along the planned Interstate 49 corridor. Interstate 49 is a 1,700-mile thoroughfare that would connect the Gulf of Mexico with Canada.

A section of the interstate will run from Interstate 540 in Alma north to Bella Vista, and could be complete by the fall of 2016.

Further details were not immediately available from Walmart.