Expanding ‘Core’ Business

Eagle-eyed observers may have noticed some dirt work being done on top of the wooded hillside that’s behind Bariola’s Pizzeria and Einstein Bros. Bagels on West New Hope Road in Rogers.

The owner of that acreage, Hunt Ventures, is in the process of putting in utilities for future development of the area known as the Trout Farm property. HV is also putting in a lower parking lot, with access from West New Hope Road and North 46th Street, to help facilitate bike trail parking and overflow parking for Bariola’s.

On the Trout Farm hillside, where a dilapidated house now stands, will be a 22,000-SF, multitenant office building. The main tenant will be Core Architects of Rogers.

Core Development LLC is in negotiations with HV to buy that portion of the property. Dusty Graham, a partner at Core Architects, said the company anticipates purchasing the land and starting construction in the first quarter of 2013.

Core currently leases its office space in the 70,000-SF Coca-Cola building at 1800 S. 52nd St. across Interstate 540 in Rogers.

The Trout Farm property is so named because it was formerly a freshwater trout farm in the early 1900s. The spring-fed trout later drew patrons from near and far to the Tail of the Trout restaurant, one of the finest in the four-state area, which stood on the hilltop until 1999.

The business was owned by Clyde “Bud” Bloomfield, a star athlete for the Rogers Mounties in the 1950s who went on to pitch briefly for the St. Louis Cardinals and Minnesota Twins. Bloomfield died in December at the age of 75.

The house where Core’s Pinnacle Springs office building will be constructed belonged to the Bloomfield family.