Developer flips Bentonville asset on Walton Boulevard for $1M profit

A highly visible commercial real estate asset in Bentonville has changed hands for the second time this year.

Silent investors from northeast Arkansas, mostly in the agriculture industry, paid $4.3 million for a 20,000-square-foot building at 706 S. Walton Blvd. The building sits across the street from the Walmart Home Office and near the city’s planned 8th Street Gateway Park.

Jonesboro developer Haag Brown Commercial Real Estate was the building’s previous owner. Haag Brown bought the 2.8-acre property from Memphis, Tenn.-based First Horizon Corp. for $3 million in June and announced a redevelopment plan for the entire building.

Company principal Joshua Brown said the new owners are real estate partners of sorts. They bought the building to fulfill a tax exchange requirement. He said the firm profited $1 million on the sale after spending $300,000 on the property before closing a deal with the new owner.

“Nothing will change regarding the [building] redevelopment,” Brown said. “We will be leading the redevelopment, leasing and management of the building.”

First Horizon is the parent company of First Horizon Bank/IberiaBank, which operates a full-service banking center in the building in approximately 7,000 square feet. The remaining 13,000 square feet is for lease.

IberiaBank bought the building in December 2017 for $1.25 million.

Haag Brown has led numerous commercial developments in Northwest Arkansas over the past decade. Brown said the company is looking for additional acquisition targets in the region.

“We’re developing some land in front of Mercy’s new [multispecialty clinic] in Springdale, but we’re also looking for another property to buy in Northwest Arkansas,” he said. “Everybody else in the country is trying to do the same thing.”