Starbucks seeking approval for third Bentonville store

Starbucks is seeking approval for a new company-owned store in Benton County near the Bentonville/Bella Vista border.

The coffee chain’s proposed 2,100-square-foot store, at 3811 U.S. Highway 71, will be considered by the Bentonville Planning Commission at its regular meeting Tuesday (Nov. 5). The one-acre site is at the intersection of Peach Orchard Road, just north of a McDonald’s restaurant.

Real estate firm Haag Brown Commercial in Jonesboro is the project developer. Josh Brown, a principal of the company, said the land is under contract and the transaction is scheduled to close this week. Walmart Inc. is the owner of the one-acre site.

Starbucks has two existing Bentonville locations, both on Walton Boulevard. There’s another café nearby in Centerton.

Haag Brown has worked with Starbucks to develop approximately a dozen locations throughout Arkansas the past six years, including in both Benton and Washington counties.

“The unique thing about this site is it’s probably the best real estate we will have ever developed for Starbucks,” Brown said. “It’s such a defined ‘morning coffee’ location. Plus, all the one-mile and three-mile demographics for that site, all the data says these are Starbucks customers.”

Brown said even though the new café is in Bentonville city limits, its proximity to Bella Vista will likely make the store unique.

“Of the [two] Starbucks in Bentonville, there’s not one specifically that everybody references as the Bentonville Starbucks,” he said. “This one will be the Bella Vista Starbucks to most people.”

Pending project approval, Stonebridge Construction of Jonesboro is the general contractor and Ozark Civil Engineering in Bentonville is the engineer. Arch + Craft of Fayetteville is the architect.

At the end of the coffee chain’s fourth quarter (Sept. 29) this year, Starbucks had 31,256 stores around the world.

In the U.S. there were 15,049 Starbucks locations as of Sept. 29. The company does not make available store information by state.