Mall Outparcels Open For New Development

One plot of commercial property remains undeveloped within 200 yards of Fayetteville’s busiest intersection.
The recent purchase of the Northwest Arkansas Mall by three in-state investors means the four acres northwest of the Joyce Boulevard/North College Avenue intersection will no longer be overlooked. John Flake, Sam Mathias and Doyle Rogers formed Midwest Mall Properties and paid just under $400 million for the Fayetteville mall and two other malls in Oklahoma and Colorado.
“We would love to develop it,” Mathias said. “The only thing we are doing is vacating some old blanket easements for utilities, but we have no plans for it right now.”
Tucked between Hooters and Steak n Shake restaurants on the mall’s south side, the land could be used for either retail, restaurant or hospitality.
The first two choices may make the most sense because it’s surrounded by both restaurants and retailers. It also could be a financial institution, with a couple recently opening nearby, or even a mixed-use building with a little bit of everything.
“It’s still preliminary,” said Jessica Dearnley, chief operating officer for MMP. “Whoever we can get to come in that’s the best fit for the mall and helps bring in the most traffic, that’s who we’re targeting.”
Mathias and his partners are no strangers to commercial projects and could build something there to lease. They also haven’t ruled out simply selling the parcel.
The nearest raw land is listed for $11 per SF, meaning the mall land is probably worth more since it’s closer to the intersection. That means the four-plus acres could be worth about $2 million if sold outright.
However, it may be even more valuable than that since it has its own access street, Georgetown Road, running along the south side that is mall property, not the city’s. It also doesn’t hurt that occupancy rates at the mall have been between 90 percent and 95 percent the past five years.
“We used it as a parking lot at one time,” said Alice Church, senior manager of the Northwest Arkansas Mall. “Brett Hash was the one who originally developed most of the land around there.”
There’s also the possibility that other areas surrounding the mall could be chopped out of the original plat and used as outparcels, Mathias said. Flake said anything is possible at this point and didn’t want to rule out anything.
“We have no intentions of selling the outparcels at this time,” Flake said. “But what we have done is we’ve identified property around the mall itself which had not been developed.
“And we do intend to bring those properties to development stages in the near future.”
Mathias said the idea of adding a hotel to the site is interesting since the Courtyard by Marriott has broken ground down the street and serves as the closest hotel to the mall.
No hoteliers have contacted the partners, but none have been made aware of that possibility either.
“A hotel would make sense, but who knows?” Mathias said. “We’re only six months since the purchase, so we’re still looking at everything that’s there.
“If someone is interested, they can always get a hold of us.”