Local Investors Pay $1 Million For Five Downtown Springdale Properties
by October 14, 2015 4:29 pm 517 views
A Springdale businessman has joined the list of those investing in the renewal efforts of downtown Springdale.
Rob Kimbel, the owner of Kimbel Mechanical Systems Inc., has paid $1 million for five buildings at at 101, 105, 109, 111 and 126 W. Emma Ave.
Legacy National Bank of Springdale financed the purchase. Joseph and Sheri Kilgore were the sellers.
Only the building at 101 W. Emma Ave. is vacant. The others, Kimble said, are leased to a hodgepodge of tenants ranging from attorneys to bail bondsmen. The Photographic Society of Northwest Arkansas is a notable tenant, at 126 W. Emma.
Kimbel, who made the purchase in the name of Downtown Blend LLC, said he is planning to “gut” the 101 property and redevelop it for office space for two of his real estate-related businesses — Spring Creek Rentals and Quality Housing Partners — that currently occupy office space on Old Wire Road in Springdale.
The development should bring about a dozen jobs to downtown Springdale when the renovation is complete next spring, Kimbel said. Modus Studio of Fayetteville is handling the design work.
“I have some [business] interests in downtown Bentonville and downtown Fayetteville, but I live in Springdale,” Kimbel said. “So I want to be a part of what is going on in downtown Springdale.”
On Oct. 8, Tyson Foods Inc. held a downtown news conference to announce its plans to build a 44,000-SF office building near existing structures the company owns at 317 and 319 E. Emma Ave., less than a quarter of a mile from Kimbel’s renovation project. That building is part of the company’s plan to move about 300 corporate employees to downtown Springdale in the next couple of years.
Kimbel also said Don Struebing is a partner in Downtown Blend. Struebing was an All-American offensive lineman and perhaps the best center prospect in the nation at Springdale High School (Class of 1993).