Centerton soccer park listed for $5.1 million

The commercial development opportunities in Benton County are already enormous. Following Wal-Mart Stores’ announcement of a new headquarters in Bentonville, the prospects for what can be now seem immeasurable.

Among the more intriguing potential investments is a soccer park just west of Bentonville, at 11301 Highway 72 West in Centerton.

Colliers International in Rogers recently listed the property for $5.1 million. It includes two parcels totaling 45 acres. There is a 12,600-square-foot building on the property, but the bulk of it is made up of six soccer fields used by a player development soccer club called Sporting Arkansas, an affiliate of the Major League Soccer team Sporting Kansas City.

The property is owned now by Joe and Lori O’Connor, who paid $901,000 for the land in 2003, then developed it as the headquarters for a soccer club called Ingram Futbol Club.

Joe O’Connor and his family moved to Benton County from San Francisco in the early 1990s because of his job working for Clorox.

His impetus for building a soccer park was largely because of the soccer-playing O’Connor children, one of whom (Kelly) was the state player of the year while attending Bentonville High School, and lettered four years (2007-2010) at the University of Arkansas.

The O’Connor kids are now grown, and their parents moved from the area a couple of years ago. Joe O’Connor initially approached the city of Centerton last summer with an offer to buy the property from him for $4 million, but those conversations did not go very far.

The property has frontage on Arkansas Highway 72 and is two miles from Bentonville West High School.

And its proximity directly across the highway from one of Benton County’s most upscale neighborhoods (Talamore/Oak Tree) should certainly be a benefit.