Georgia Franchiser Primrose Schools Moves Forward With Pinnacle Hills Plan

The local franchise owner of a Georgia-based preschool and child care franchise has secured the land where the development will be built near Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.

Katie and Hunter Hart of Rogers paid $640,000 ($7.78 per SF) for the 1.89-acre site, situated behind the offices of dentist Nick Yiannios on Pinnacle Hills Boulevard.

The previous owner was Big Fam LLC of Cave Springs.

The purchase was backed with a loan of $3.58 million from Evolve Bank & Trust of Denver.

Katie Hart is the school’s franchise owner and day-to-day operator. Construction is imminent on a 12,200-SF building that will be known as Primrose School of Rogers. The school will have an enrollment capacity of 203 children from six weeks old through Kindergarten, and will also feature afterschool programs.

The cost to open a Primrose school, including franchise and real estate costs, ranges from $3.5 million to $5.7 million.

Children’s Design Group of Georgia is handling the design work of the Rogers location and Steele Development and GenX Contracting, both of Bentonville, are the general contractors. The estimated total for construction costs will be about $2 million.

The school is expected to open in the first half of 2017 and will bring approximately 40 jobs. Primrose currently has more than 300 schools in 25 states. The company will expand to Wisconsin later this year, and the Rogers school will mark its 27th state.

Primrose enrolled approximately 48,000 children in the 2015-16 school year.

“Northwest Arkansas has the strong demand for high-quality early childhood education that we look for when entering a new market,” said Bill Pierquet, Primrose’s senior vice president of development. “It’s a strong employment center and a great place for families, and we’re excited to open our first school in Arkansas.”