Collier Taking Heed

Plans for a 100,000-SF, multifamily/mixed-use building in downtown Fayetteville are “permanently on hold,” said Mel Collier, owner of Collier Drug Stores and the would-be developer of the project, called Collier Place.

“There’s just too many similar projects in the works right now,” Collier said, “and we weren’t made aware of them when we started working on it.”

Architect Chris Baribeau of Modus Studio, who designed the project, said his firm began work on the project last fall.

The 1-acre site, bounded by Dickson and Watson streets and St. Charles Avenue, is up for sale, Collier said.

Several multifamily projects are currently in the works in downtown Fayetteville, with expected completion dates in the next couple of years.

In the latest Skyline Report on multifamily vacancies, University of Arkansas economist Kathy Deck said a recent decline in multifamily vacancy rates is good news for developers, but she urged caution against seeing this “as a signal to begin building without restraint.”