Cross Church to open new Fayetteville campus this Sunday

Springdale-based Cross Church, the state’s largest church congregation, will hold the first services in its new Fayetteville campus this weekend.

Services are scheduled for 8:15 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Sunday (Feb. 25) in the 57,500-square-foot building on West McMillan Drive at the southeast corner of the Interstate 49/Wedington Drive exit.

The new campus will seat between 900 and 1,000 people, and with 600 parking spaces will put an end to overcrowding issues at the current Fayetteville location nearby on West Wedington Drive, where parking had been a significant concern.

The congregation previously met in a 15,750-SF retail center, known as The Shoppes at Wedington, and hosted more than 2,100 people each Sunday across four services, according to the church. Cross Church members worship at one of four locations throughout Northwest Arkansas, and another in southwest Missouri. The church was ranked the 48th largest church in America last year by Outreach Magazine, with weekly worship attendance of 8,959.

Nick Floyd, pastor of the Fayetteville campus, said the church has been part of the Fayetteville community for the past seven years and he is excited to be opening a new location, first announced three years ago.

Floyd said the church owns the land, but will lease the building from Hunt Ventures of Rogers, at least initially. Milestone Construction of Springdale built the church, backed by an $8 million loan from Legacy National Bank.

“Cross Church will own the building at the end of the lease,” Floyd said. “We are also in a three-year capital campaign with our membership to raise a portion of the funds for the entire project.”

The church is situated in close proximity to a 41,000-square-foot Fitness One development that opened Dec. 30. Adjacent to those two buildings, Springdale-based hotel developer Krushiker Hospitality Group has secured the land it needs for an additional project on West McMillan Drive. KHG spokeswoman Jana McCarty says the company, which owns 12 hotels in Northwest Arkansas and the Fort Smith metro, is in the early design phase of a dual Marriott Springhill Suites and Residence Inn. Construction isn’t scheduled to begin until early 2019.

Chung Tan, the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce’s director of economic development, says the city is “excited” about all three projects. The I-49/Wedington site, she says, has been ripe for development for many years.

The Marinonis, a deep-rooted Fayetteville family, has owned the approximately 112 acres of pastureland surrounding the West McMillan Drive projects for decades. They’ve been approached numerous times by developers throughout the years about the property.

Tan said there is “more than one” retailer also doing due diligence at the I-49/Wedington site, but those evaluations were in the preliminary phase, she said, and she was unaware of any land being under contract.

LAND HISTORY
The first domino of development at the I-49/Wedington location fell in the fall of 2014 when Springdale businessmen Donnie Smith and Travis Ruff paid $3.15 million for 9.05 acres at the site.

Their intent was rooted in generosity.

As a prerequisite of their purchase offer, Smith, then-president and CEO of Tyson Foods Inc., and Ruff, co-founder of Milestone Construction Co., asked the property owners — James Family Properties LLLP, formerly known as Thomas F. James Realty LP of Little Rock — to also donate an adjoining eight parcels totaling 13.2 acres to Cross Church, the state’s largest congregation.

The church then had three options over the next three years for the 9.05 acres belonging to Smith and Ruff, both Cross Church members. One of the options was to purchase the land, which the church ultimately did in August 2016 for $3.36 million.

By eventually selling off 9.02 of the 13.2 acres it was gifted, Cross Church actually made money on the acquisition. In two separate deals within the past year — the second of which closed in early January — Krushiker Hospitality acquired 4.26 acres from the church for $1.5 million.

Fitness One paid $2.54 million for 4.76 acres in September 2016.