Bentonville Arts District gets new businesses at Thrive Bentonville, first permanent sculpture

New commercial development is coming to the Thrive Bentonville complex as the Arts District welcomes its first permanent public sculpture. What once was an unused utility pole has been transformed into an enormous arrow, towering six stories above the Downtown Bentonville Inc. office on Southwest A Street. Artist Dayton Castleman of Rogers created the sculpture.

Across A Street and at the corner of Southwest Fourth Street, two commercial spaces on the street level at the Thrive Bentonville complex should be completed by the end of the year, ERC Companies has announced, although details are few. The two spaces have been leased by ERC Companies, the developer of Thrive Bentonville but Eve Rosin, a spokesman for the company, said leasing details, including the names of the businesses, are proprietary.

“The lessee is the one that will be announcing this information,” she said.

The spaces are described as Activator spaces with 834 square feet and 1,029 square feet, respectively. Each space has an entrance on A Street. Rosin described an Activator space as one designed to activate the area to get conversation and engagement started within the Thrive community and the community as a whole.

“These spaces are intended to strengthen the growing Bentonville art and culinary scene as well as directly support the budding Arts District,” Rosin said.

The larger of the two spaces is designated as a flexible space as a venue for events tailored to the Bentonville community, local businesses, neighbors and visitors, she added. Through Rosin, Rob Coleman, CEO of ERC Companies, said, “We have a unique opportunity to establish Thrive as an urban lifestyle brand that is fanatical about the experience of our residents.”

The location of Thrive Bentonville was carefully selected, Coleman said.

“We were enthused by downtown Bentonville’s revitalized economic buzz, its growing art scene and the new experience districts – all part of what you would expect in an urban lifestyle.”

Thrive Bentonville offers one- and two-bedroom units. It opened last May and was fully occupied within the first month. Other details on the complex also are proprietary, Rosin said.

The complex is an large part of the new Arts District. The District was created in 2014 by the Bentonville City Council as part of the Southeast Downtown Study Plan. That plan identified two experience districts – the Arts District and the Market District – to encourage a variety of residential development and create a unique urban living and working environment. 

Coleman and another developer in the Arts District, Jake Newell, are proponents of city art to enhance the livability of downtown Bentonville. Newell said he is in talks with several local artists to paint murals in the neighborhood he is developing on Southwest B Street between Fourth and Seventh Streets.

The new sculpture, “Three Feathers,” features large steel and aluminum “feathers” attached near the top of the 60-foot pole. It is outfitted with neon, making the sculpture visible from blocks away. At its unveiling last month, artist Castleman said he is interested in taking an unremarkable object like an old pole and renewing or repurposing it for public enjoyment.

“The ‘Three Feathers’ installation will allow our community and its visitors to truly begin to see our Arts District as a place where the arts can be experienced and enjoyed,” said Troy Galloway, the city planning director.

Galloway expects to see future art installations, including murals, across the downtown in the future, supported by a combination of public and private funding. “Three Feathers” was privately funded, he said. A city board, the Public Art Advisory Committee is also looking into additional art after its first three installations of sculpture on the North Bentonville Trail.

Monica Kumar, executive director of Downtown Bentonville Inc., said she loves the “Three Feathers” installation.

“It speaks well for the Arts District and speaks to the different downtown areas,” she said.

Daniel Hintz, owner of The Velocity Group, said the whimsical landmark is fitting for the emerging Bentonville Arts District, as new commercial development, restaurants, retail, food trucks and additional housing are added.