Historic Lane Hotel in Rogers Sold To Walton Group For $1.6 Million

KLS Leasing LLC, an affiliated company of the Walton family, paid $1.6 million to buy the 42,000-SF Lane Hotel at the corner of East Poplar Street and South 2nd Street in downtown Rogers.

The deal closed June 30, according to real estate records.

Ninety Second LP of North Bergen, New Jersey, managed by Raymond Eshagoff, was the previous owner, acquiring the property in April 2005 for $725,000.

KLS Leasing is registered in Delaware and is using the same Bentonville mailing address — P.O. Box 1860 — as that of Walton Enterprises LLC, the holding company owned by heirs of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton.

Craig Hull with Hull and Co. Commercial Real Estate in Rogers represented the Lane Hotel sellers, and had been listing the property since 2009.

“I bet I’ve been up those stairs 300 times,” he joked. “I feel like I’m selling my workout plan.”

Hull did not comment specifically on the buyer and any future development plans, saying only they are the right people with the right development ideas.

Hull did reveal that the new ownership group is collaborating with Rogers architect John T. Mack, principal of JKJ Architects PLLC.

“Whatever the new use is will be a needed addition to downtown Rogers,” he said. “My office is only two blocks away, so I am excited for the neighborhood.”

Waco Title Co. of Springdale was the closing agent for the transaction.

The five-story Lane Hotel, described by the city of Rogers website as “by far the most imposing building in downtown Rogers”, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

It opened in 1928 but was later converted to a senior retirement community in the 1960s. It has sat vacant since 2003.