First building on Walmart’s new Bentonville campus opens Jan. 12

The Walton Family Whole Health & Fitness will open Jan. 12 at 1400 S.E. Fifth St. in Bentonville.  A company spokeswoman confirmed the date on Thursday (Dec. 14).

The fitness center will be the first amenity building to open on Walmart’s new home office campus since the project’s initial announcement in September 2017. A layout center was the first building Walmart opened on campus in February 2022.

The construction project is a massive campus build that encompasses roughly 9 city blocks, 12 office buildings and 10 community buildings with outdoor and indoor areas of recreation. Cindi Marsiglio, senior vice president of real estate at Walmart, said earlier this year there are as many as 800 people working on the building site daily.

Most campus buildings are expected to open in 2025.

In a corresponding move to the new health and fitness center, the Walton Life Fitness Center, the retailer’s existing fitness center for employees at 1701 S.E. 14th Street (Arkansas Highway 102), closed at 9 p.m. on Dec. 15. The closure allows the company to relocate equipment and train new staff members for the new facility.

Walton Family Whole Health & Fitness opens at 5 a.m. and closes at 9 p.m. A spokeswoman said the 360,000-square-foot facility was designed for members’ whole health in mind. Tennis and pickleball courts, hydromassages and cryotherapy are just a few of the examples of offerings that illustrate Walmart’s investment in associates’ health and wellbeing.

According to city records, the permit used to build the health and fitness structure was valued at $79.3 million.

All part-time, full-time and temporary Walmart and Sam’s Club employees in the Northwest Arkansas area are eligible for membership, along with long-term associates meeting retiree eligibility criteria of:

• At least 20 years of continuous service with the company (regardless of age) or
• 10 years of continuous full-time service plus age equals 70 years.

Walmart has partnered with Minnesota-based HealthFitness, a health and fitness management company, to oversee the operations of Walton Family Whole Health & Fitness.

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