Campbell-Bell Renovation To Be Completed in July

Three developers are nearing completion of the renovation of the historic Campbell-Bell building on the downtown Fayetteville square.

Richard Alexander, Rob Merry-Ship and Lamar Anderson bought the century-old building in 1999 for $730,000. They spent another $1.5 million to renovate the building for a total investment of $2.2 million. The three are now incorporated as Campbell-Bell Building LLC.

“We were able to maintain the old facade,” Merry-Ship said of the three-story, 24,000-SF building.

The building will officially be completed in early July when Mason Hiba opens his third Fayetteville retail store, Mason’s on the Square. The store will take up 2,300 SF of the first floor of the building.

Other tenants already there include NBC 24/51 (8,600 SF) and Edward Jones Investments (1,000 SF). Three of the four condominiums upstairs have been sold, Merry-Ship said. The condos range from 1,900 to 2,500 SF in size and sell for $190 per SF finished or about $130 per SF unfinished.

Alexander said the group still has 1,866 SF of space for lease in the building’s basement.

May Construction Co. is doing the heavy lifting.

The three-story Campbell-Bell building had been empty since the store closed in 1995.

Alexander said the Campbell-Bell building probably dates from the 1880s.

“That whole square was burned in 1865 by the Yankees,” Alexander said. “So all of those buildings are post 1865.”

With the renovation, Alexander said, the Campbell-Bell building had to be brought up to Arkansas’ seismic codes in case of earthquakes. Workers used angle iron and lightweight concrete to bolt the floors to the walls and make the building more sturdy.

“There was a lot of structure added to that building,” Alexander said.

Space in the Campbell-Bell building is leasing from $12 to $18 per SF depending on location and amount of finishing work that is being done by the tenant. Lease space averages about $14 per SF, but that’s considerably cheaper than $60 per SF at the Northwest Arkansas Mall, Alexander said.

The three men are also partners in 6th Street Development Co., which is currently renovating the historic U-Ark Bowl building on Fayetteville’s Dickson Street.

When completed in October, the U-Ark Bowl will contain 14 two-bedroom, two-bath, finished condominiums. That’s in addition to a 9,000-SF special events facility and an Irish pub that three local investors plan to open in the building.

6th Street Development is also responsible for the renovation of the Ozark Theater building and the Rollston Building, both in Fayetteville.