10 acres changes hands in Pinnacle Hills area of Rogers for $3.95 million; hotel development a possibility
by October 17, 2019 10:35 am 5,744 views
An undeveloped commercial lot in Rogers’ booming Pinnacle Hills area has changed hands.
The Plaza at Pinnacle Hills LLC, managed by real estate investor John Schmelzle of Rogers, paid $3.95 million for a 10.09-acre tract on Northgate Road, near the intersection with Pinnacle Hills Parkway. The purchase price equals $8.99 per square foot.
Schmelzle said his plan for the property is to sell smaller individual lots to end users. He said he is also evaluating the market for building a boutique hotel on the property.
Schmelzle is the husband of Kristen Boozman, the middle daughter of U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark. Together, they have experience with another successful development in Pinnacle Hills. Through a limited liability company, they bought the land (1.02 acres) and built an 18,000-square-foot building at 3712 S. Pinnacle Hills Parkway. It was completed earlier this year and houses Kristen Boozman’s company — upscale real estate firm Portfolio Luxury Real Estate — Schmelzle’s office and additional space that’s leased to Signature Bank of Arkansas.
“My wife and I are entrepreneurs,” Schmelzle said. “What I have discovered is there are many other folks like us who want to own their own building in Pinnacle. There’s just not an inventory of lots for sale. The other large landowners in Pinnacle don’t operate under a model of selling lots to end users. They’re large-scale developers and create space for lease.
“This is one of the only areas in the heart of Pinnacle where an entrepreneur can own their own building.”
Schmelzle said the property is zoned as uptown commercial, part of the city’s new zoning classification adopted to promote relatively dense, pedestrian friendly development in Pinnacle Hills. It is adjacent to property that a Dallas group, Abby Development and Construction, is developing as Arabella of Rogers, a $33 million residential facility for senior citizens. That large-scale development is now under construction.
Both of those tracts, totaling roughly 28 acres, were previously owned by Whitpin Properties, an affiliate of the Whitaker family, one of the region’s most philanthropic families. The patriarch, Don Whitaker, managed the first Walmart store in Rogers and was one of Sam Walton’s initial hires.
Abby Development and Construction paid $4.33 million for its 18 acres in the spring of 2017. The purchase price equaled $5.53 per square foot.