Bentonville Plaza, surrounding land sold to Oklahoma City investor for $56.8 million

An Oklahoma-based investor has paid $56.8 million to acquire the nine-story Bentonville Plaza office building and 16 additional acres, near the the headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores.

Square Deal Capital Inc., founded in 2013 in Oklahoma City, purchased the multi-tenant building at 609 S.W. 8^th St. and surrounding land in two separate deals, which both closed Thursday (Nov. 10), according to Benton County land records.

The 275,000-square-foot Bentonville Plaza (3.18 acres), the tallest building in Bentonville, and contiguous land totaling 7.51 acres sold for $54.8 million.

For $2 million, Square Deal bought an adjacent 8.68 acres to the south along U.S. Highway 71 Business, property that once included the George Nunnally Chevrolet auto dealership. The site is largely a crumbling parking lot and has been vacant for more than five years since Nunnally moved to a new Bentonville location on Moberly Lane in July 2011.

The seller in both deals was FBE Limited LLC of New York, a privately held real estate and capital management company. FBE Limited also owns Bentonville Commerce office park, an eight-building group of properties with 120,000 SF on 10.8 acres, just off South Walton Boulevard behind two strip mall centers, the Bentonville Post Office and Burger King.

Sage Partners, a commercial real estate management firm headquartered in Fayetteville, will continue to provide full-service management and brokerage services for Bentonville Plaza, which is about 98% occupied, according to Sage Senior Vice President Grady Mathews.

Simmons Bank partially financed the purchase with a $36 million mortgage. Square Deal representatives declined to comment, and instead referred questions to Mathews.

“There is obvious value to owning property in Bentonville,” Mathews said. “Walmart is here, and this is a group that understands our market. This will be a good addition to the portfolio of Class A office space they already have.”

Mathews said plans for the Nunnally property and other acreage surrounding Bentonville Plaza are still being discussed, adding the idea is do something within the next year.

Construction on Bentonville Plaza began in May 2003 and the building opened to tenants the following year. Pitcairn Properties Inc. of Jenkintown, Pa., was the developer, and the building was designed by Sydness Architects of New York in collaboration with Harrison French of Bentonville.

The property includes the IDK Café restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating, as well as a fitness center with key card access.

Mathews said the building has 34 tenants. The largest is Tata Consultancy Services, an IT services, business solutions and outsourcing organization based in India. The firm has prominent signage near the top of the building’s exterior, and its offices occupy the entire ninth floor, about 30,000 square feet.