Convention Center Missing Piece to Rogers? Puzzle

Renowned hotel developer John Q. Hammons is so enamored of the goings on in Benton County that he is bypassing his publicly traded company and making the planned Rogers hotel and convention center a personal project.

Rogers officials say the addition of Hotel Charlevoix, a Marriott Renaissance Resort, will help the town compete for its share of the Northwest Arkansas market.

Construction is scheduled to begin May 1 on the hotel at Pinnacle Hills, near the Champions Drive exit on Interstate 540. The hotel will be 10 stories tall with about 250 rooms and suites, as well as more than 30,000 SF of meeting space. It is to be completed in the fall of 2002. The hotel will be owned by Hammons and managed by John Q. Hammons Hotels Inc.

Rogers Mayor Steve Womack called the hotel the missing piece to the puzzle for the city.

“Our town has always been a bedroom community to other towns,” Womack said.

He said several factors have helped make the Rogers and Bentonville area “a trade center for Northwest Arkansas.” Those factors include the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the vendors to the world’s largest retailer, the Rogers Municipal Airport/Carter Field, Beaver Lake and the Northwest Arkansas Community College.

“We used to dream about it,” Womack said. “Now those dreams are turning into reality. Retail trade was all Rogers needed. Everyone was ending up in Fayetteville to shop, and Fayetteville was getting all those tax dollars. Now we can keep them.”

The area is certainly the hotbed of Northwest Arkansas development. Even First Baptist Church of Springdale is planning to build a second location on nearby Horse Barn Road, just north of Pinnacle Hills. Village on the Creeks and other established businesses at Pinnacle Hills have made it one of the most attractive places in the Benton and Washington County area.

It’s a fact that has not been lost on Hammons, whose business is in Springfield, Mo., and whom Womack called a “shrewd businessman.”

Hammons already has two hotels in Northwest Arkansas, both in Springdale: the Holiday Inn Convention Center and the Hampton Inn & Suites. Although the Hotel Charlevoix will have more rooms than the 200-room Holiday Inn Convention Center, it will have less meeting space than the 48,000 SF Holiday Inn meeting space.

“Northwest Arkansas is one of the fastest-growing business centers in the United States and is the perfect market for an upscale luxury hotel,” Hammons said. “The Hotel Charlevoix will be the premier meeting and convention hotel in the region.”

Tom Ginn, vice president of business development for the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, said the planned hotel is “a really good testimony to what’s going on in Rogers.”

Hammons has also partnered with Gary Combs, Carla Tyson, John Tyson, and J.B. and Johnelle Hunt on a six-story, 96,000-SF office tower that will be adjacent to the new hotel.

“It’s my understanding after many conversations with Mr. Hammons that he has developed a bit of an affection for Benton County and recognizes the economic impact a convention center and upscale hotel will have in this particular neighborhood,” Womack said. “Given the demographic nature of Rogers and Bentonville, this facility should be in high demand …

“It’s going to fill a real important niche in our community.”