Horton Farms hits market with $12 million price tag

A popular executive retreat, estate home and event venue in rural Benton County has been listed for sale, with an asking price of $12 million.

Horton Farms at Dry Creek, site of numerous events the past several years ranging from corporate retreats, weddings, receptions and nonprofit fundraisers, is being sold by owners Darren and Karen Horton. Approximately 197 acres, the non-working farm includes a 15,000-square-foot estate home, 5,500-square-foot guest home, the Sierra Executive Retreat, a 3,200-square-foot, two-story log cabin, and the newest building, an 8,500-square-foot event venue called Sierra Grand Hall.

There’s also a secluded team building course at Horton Farms, a sprawling property accessed through a gated entrance off of Bethlehem Road about five miles west of Centerton, and north of Arkansas Highway 102.

Nicky Dou, a Realtor with Keller Williams Market Pro Realty in Bentonville, is marketing Horton Farms, via the website arkansasluxuryestate.com. She said the property will also be featured in an upcoming issue of Cowboys and Indians, a Dallas-based 
magazine focusing on the Western lifestyle.

“It’s a very unique place, and the value is exceptional for the right buyer,” she said. “There’s a lot of potential, even to reinvent the entire property and do something completely different.”

Dou, a high-end Realtor and the top-producing real estate agent in Northwest Arkansas from 2014 to 2016, said she’s never listed a property quite like Horton Farms.

“There has never been something like this to sell in Northwest Arkansas before,” she said. “It truly is the most amazing place I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of places.”

Darren Horton is the former owner and CEO of Bentonville-based Premier Concepts, which provides in-store service and support to Wal-Mart Inc. and its suppliers. He sold the business earlier this year to a competitor, Missouri-based Premium Retail Services, for an undisclosed amount, and is staying on after the acquisition for a year as a consultant.

He and his wife assembled the property, primarily used as a dairy farm, in two separate deals. The first in March 2006 yielded 117.3 acres from the family of Richard Moffitt. The second, in May 2008, was an approximately 80-acre parcel acquired at auction for $288,000.

The Hortons made their residence in what is now the executive retreat center until a couple of years ago, when construction of the estate home was completed by Bentonville homebuilder Tall Oaks Construction.

So why sell?

“The short answer is our family all had a role in the Horton Farms business,” he explained in an email. “My daughter and son-in-law wanted to get into the construction business after having supervised all that was done at Horton Farms, and we [Karen and I] didn’t want to be tied to the farm.

“So we’ve made it available to the next person and family with the dream of living on the most beautiful piece of property in Northwest Arkansas, and to live in a home that if the secret were known, would be the envy of most.”

Horton Farms hosted more than 30 events last year on various parts of the grounds, Horton said.