Multifamily Move About to be Made in Rogers?

Whispers hears a company affiliated with Little Rock developer Joe Whisenhunt may be planning a multifamily residential development on land in Rogers that Whisenhunt bought last year.

Little Rock-based PWX LLC, headed by Whisenhunt Investments LLC trustee and CFO Seaborn Bell Jr., recently asked city planners to rezone 21.18 acres west of South Dixieland Road and south of Brooks Place to RMF-18A. The residential multifamily designation allows 18 units per acre with individual ownership.

The land is Lot 21 in Phase II of The Grove addition of Rogers, a 119-acre block that was part of Whisenhunt’s March 9 purchase of 375 acres along Interstate 540. He paid $19 million for the bank-owned property.

In July, Walkers Grove LLC paid nearly $900,000 for 15.55 acres of The Grove to build homes on 38 lots. Johnny Kincaid, COO of Whisenhunt Investment Group, said at that time that no further sell-offs were imminent.

“We’re a long-term holder and we want to develop it all,” he said.

We also hear the Whisenhunt group — operating in Northwest Arkansas as Whisenvest LLC — has hired Russellville developer Burke Larkin to be the company’s point man for the development of those holdings.