Springdale, Emma Avenue Up Next for Daniel Hintz?

Special events dynamo Daniel Hintz of Downtown Bentonville Inc. is rumored to be headed to Springdale on a contract basis beginning in 2014.

But in an interview Monday, Hintz steadfastly denied that any concrete plans were in place with the nonprofit Downtown Springdale Alliance.

“I have not talked with anyone in an official capacity,” Hintz said, when asked about the Springdale prospect. “There’s nothing official on the table that says, ‘Dan will do this.’” 

Hintz did, however, concede there is opportunity in Springdale.

“Springdale has momentum with the downtown revitalization plan, and for a downtown guy, that’s exciting,” he said.

And, he added, “building capacity in downtowns in Northwest Arkansas” is what he loves to do. After six years as the executive director of Downtown Bentonville Inc., he said he’s “looking for other challenges.”

Hintz, a major player in making the Bentonville square one of the region’s top cultural and entertainment destinations, announced in July that he was leaving his current post as executive director at the end of the year.

He said his main focus right now is making sure the transition in leadership in Bentonville is smooth.

Ed Clifford, CEO of the Jones Center and a board member with the Downtown Springdale Alliance, said the idea of contracting with Hintz has already been broached.

“I said, ‘Might you be available,’ and he said, ‘I might be available,’” said Clifford, the former executive director of the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce who hired Hintz in 2007 to run Downtown Bentonville Inc.

People in Springdale said they thought it was a done deal that Hintz was on the way.

“He’s looking for a new challenge,” one source said. “Daniel is coming to Springdale as a consultant. Amazing things are happening downtown.”

Another source, not quite sure of who Hintz was, said she was told by a high-ranking city official, somewhat erroneously, “The guy who turned Rogers around is coming to Springdale.”

When and if Hintz comes on as a contractor, his primary goal will be to help the Alliance breath life into Emma Avenue, once a thriving business district that has sagged in the last 20 years, Clifford said.

The Alliance board met on August 9 and, in Clifford’s words, “put together the bones of an organization to put together events similar to downtown Bentonville, to create footsteps downtown [in Springdale].”

Hintz, as a consultant, would lend his expertise in special events and community development as the alliance plots the social future of downtown Springdale. Clifford also said Hintz would probably help find the individual who would ultimately be hired to organize events and promote downtown on a fulltime basis.

“I’d like to see him hire another Daniel for Springdale,” Clifford said.

News of Hintz’s interest in Springdale dovetails with the city council’s approval in July of the Springdale Downtown Revitalization Master Plan. Talk of Hintz also surfaces as work continues on the Springdale leg of the Razorback Regional Greenway, which will run through downtown with a trailhead at Shiloh Square on Emma Avenue.

Signature events on the Bentonville Square include the farmer’s market, First Fridays, the Art and Culinary Festival and Pickin’ on the Square.

Prior to his post in Bentonville, Hintz served as executive director of Fayetteville Downtown Partners.