More Office/Retail Development Planned for Fountain Plaza Area

A central Arkansas ownership group is set to start construction of an office and retail development in the Fountain Plaza addition of Bentonville.

Construction of The Centre at Fountain Plaza, a 26,512-SF building, should begin before the end of the year, according to Jeff Kemp of Commercial Realty LLC. The location is on a 2.76-acre lot between Christian Brothers Automotive and a Metropolitan National Bank branch on Southeast Walton Boulevard.

“We should be able to deliver space by the end of the second quarter [of 2013],” Kemp said.

Commercial Realty is representing the developers, led by Leonard Boen of Little Rock. Boen bought the 3.5-acre parcel in Feb. 2006 for $2.2 million. He sold 0.75 acres to Christian Brothers in April 2010 for $625,000.

The building will be similar to The Shoppes at Fountain Plaza, a recently completed 23,000-SF strip center also developed by Boen about a quarter-mile east on Southeast Walton Boulevard. All but 2,000-SF of that building has been leased, Kemp said.

“We have five tenants and we are working with a national retailer for that [remaining] middle space,” he said.

Van Tassel-Proctor Construction and the architectural firm Roark Perkins Perry Yelvington, both of Little Rock, are likely to lead development of the new project.

Also in Bentonville, Commercial Realty represented a client who paid Signature Bank of Arkansas $1.2 million in late September for a 14,500-SF commercial building at 1007 S.W. A St.

Commercial Realty is leasing the building for the new owner, Craig Soos.

“That will be a professional office building called Main Street Building Center and we’ve got it about 75 percent leased,” Kemp said.

Kemp said a second building of similar size is being planned for construction, beginning in the summer of 2014, on adjacent acreage.

“Bentonville is hot right now; it’s no secret,” Kemp said.