Building Focus Sustains Dual County Prosperity

John David Lindsey, sales manager of Lindsey & Associates Inc. in Rogers, said local real estate sales and development will continue to be on the rise for one simple reason.

“There is just so much growth,” Lindsey said.

He said the price of commercial real estate in Benton County might stay steady.

“Some of the commercial prices are going to level off a little bit in Benton County for the first six months of the year because in the last couple of years we’ve seen tremendous increases in it,” Lindsey said. “I think you are going to be in the $8-$14 per SF range.”

Lindsey also predicts that Washington County residential real estate will not grow as fast as Benton County because significant development awaits the completion of a new sewer-treatment plan.

“We will see residential in west Fayetteville and Farmington growing once the treatment plant is up,” Lindsey said.

Fayetteville residential permits increased 60 percent to 561 single family residential permits from 222 a year ago.

Commercial building permits have increased since 2002 in nearly every city in Benton and Washington counties and residential permits in most cities have seen an increase. Some valuation tallies skyrocketed because of large commercial projects or school construction.

Although the residential numbers in Fayetteville and Bentonville trend similar to date, the commercial development climate in Benton and Washington county will not be the same.

“Office space demand in Fayetteville is not nearly as dramatic as it is in Bentonville,” said Bill McClard, senior vice president of Lindsey & Associates Realtors

“A lot of focus for office demand has shifted from Fayetteville north over the years.”

The city of Springdale has residential plans as it just annexed 416 acres on the east side from Washington County.

“We’ve seen quite a bit of residential development in that area,” said Patsy Christie, Springdale’s city planner. “We are also seeing a lot of commercial interest along I-540. We might see some development to the southwest as well.”

Bentonville City Planner Brian Bahr said he sees the same mix of development on the horizon for residential and commercial.

“I would say that 2003 is the best year so far that the city has seen,” Bahr said. “There are still a lot of projects that are 30,000-40,000 SF coming up.”

That city received 67 large scale development applications in 2003 and approved 61. Bahr estimates the city approved requests for at least 600 new homes in 2003.

Like Fayetteville, that is a hike from 2002 when the city’s planning commission approved just six preliminary plats that totaled 358 lots.

“In 2002, we had 239 projects for the entire year, and in 2003, we had 298 projects,” Bahr said. “If this trend follows past trends, it would drop off. But I don’t see that happening. My gut feeling is that it is not going to drop off.”

Traffic alone has increased by at least 10 percent per year since the city started its counts in 2001, he said.

Jim Shearin, president of Shearin Hathaway of Rogers, said his firm hasn’t seen any kind of leveling off.

“The market is brusque and has been,” Shearin said. “With our current schedule and the transactions we’re involved in, activity has been going up.”

Christie summed up the area real estate outlook best when she said:

“Some days I wonder if we can go any faster.”