NARTI Groundbreaking Scheduled for June 1

Northwest Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute will celebrate the addition of two new facilities – one complete and the other just beginning – with double ceremonies on June 1. At 11 a.m., the region’s only cancer treatment center will officially break ground for its new Benton County facility, which will be located at 1202 E. Eagle Way. That will be followed at 1 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Fayetteville, where NARTI is opening its south satellite facility.

It promises to be an exciting day for NARTI, which opened in 1985 with support from the region’s hospitals and various community groups. NARTI has, for some time, been planning a Benton County satellite so it could provide services more conveniently to patients who live in that region. A few months ago, NARTI’s board was hoping to build and complete that facility for a June 1 opening.

But construction was delayed, for several reasons, including NARTI’s purchase of a Fayetteville facility. Built last year by a private company based in Louisville, Ky., the 7,080-SF center never opened.

NARTI officials, in particular, the group’s executive director, Eddie Bradford, had been concerned that competition would adversely affect the facility’s operations. So when the brand-new Fayetteville center was offered to NARTI, the board decided to buy. NARTI paid about $2.1 million for the building and surrounding property, which is in North Hills Medical Park, as well as some equipment. In addition, PPB, the Louisville company that sold the center, agreed to a non-compete clause keeping it out of the Northwest Arkansas market.