Phoenix Mall property gets interest from doctors

A few doctors anxious about financial and working relationships with area hospitals have expressed an interest in leasing 40,000-square feet of former clinic space in the old Phoenix Village Mall in Fort Smith.

The 35-acre mall property bounded by Towson and Wheeler Avenues in Fort Smith was purchased Jan. 22 by FSM Redevelopment Partners LLC. The company is an affiliate of Bentonville-based Nelson and Beaty Properties LLLP.  Stephen Nelson, a Fort Smith physician, and Lance Beaty are general partners in Nelson and Beaty Properties.

Much of the mall area has been vacant for years, with parking lots and many buildings in need of extensive repair or demolition.

Beaty told The City Wire he has been approached by several independent doctors “from both sides of town” — meaning Sparks Regional Medical Center and St. Edward Mercy Medical Center — who have a “considerable degree of angst” about the financial and/or working conditions at the two hospital networks.

Some doctors in the region have made public their concerns about the continued decline in the number of area physicians and nurses and a deterioration in the financial health of area hospitals and individual physicians.

The medical space at Phoenix was once used by River Valley Musculoskeletal Center before doctors with that group moved in October 2006 to a new facility at Phoenix Avenue and South 79th Street.

“We’ve inherited 40,000-square-feet of medical space there that is in excellent condition and these (interested doctors) know that this could be opened up and used in relatively short order,” Beaty said.

Beaty has said many buildings on the property would be demolished and a new retail space would be built and then the old 65,000-square-foot retail space would be demolished.

Would the renovation and other work, along with the less-than-attractive exterior of the mall be a turn off for anyone considering leasing the property?

“We’d specifically design around that type of issue,” Beaty responded to the above question. “There will be some construction that will be phased in, but it should not effect ongoing operations.”

Continuing, Beaty noted: “The key is to develop the mall exterior so that it is inviting,  including better landscaping, better lighting and removing unnecessary structures.”