Wingate Inn Planned Near Wal-Mart HQ

Developers in Minnesota plan to build a 73-room “bread-and-butter hotel” on Walton Boulevard just north of the headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville.

Craig Anderson, a hotel developer who owns Commercial Property Associates LLC of Plymouth, Minn., said the four-story Wingate Inn will be smaller and have more personal service than the nearby Bentonville Plaza, a 250-room, 200,000-SF hotel/convention center planned by BES LLC. Last fall, BES began tearing down houses and clearing land for that 8.8-acre development that also will include three office buildings.

With approval of the Bentonville Planning Commission, Anderson hopes to begin work on the Wingate by August and have it completed within a year.

Anderson said the Wingate Inn will feature a swimming pool and 15 suites with hot tubs. Like the Bentonville Plaza, the Wingate will be within walking distance to Wal-Mart’s headquarters.

Anderson said he was hired by Roger Hoy of Sundance Lodging Inc. of Minnetonka, Minn., to develop the Bentonville hotel. Sundance is still securing funding for the project, Anderson said.

Sundance

According to the company’s Web site, Sundance currently has 18 hotels, including two in Arkansas: a Motel 6 in Eureka Springs and a Holiday Inn Express in Arkadelphia. Sundance also owns franchise hotels under the names Days Inn, Super 8 Motel, Comfort Inn, Best Western, Radisson, Ramada and AmeriHost Inn & Suites.

Sundance Lodging purchased 1.66 acres for the Bentonville project in March. The site at 319 S. Walton Blvd. is currently home to the Finish Line Car Care Center.

Anderson said he also found a possible location for the hotel at the intersection of Interstate 540 and Arkansas Highway 102, but the developers at Sundance preferred the Walton Boulevard location because of its proximity to Wal-Mart headquarters.

In addition to being more customer-friendly than the giant Bentonville Plaza complex, Anderson said, the room rates at the Wingate Inn will be lower.

Wingate

Wingate Inns International Inc., a subsidiary of Cendant Corp., was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Parsippany, N.J. The first Wingate Inn opened in 1996. The company has franchise agreements for more than 200 hotels, either in existence or in development.

Wingate describes the hotels as mid-priced and geared for business travelers, with oversized rooms (17 percent larger than average rooms), free continental breakfast and technological perks such as wireless telephones and high-speed Internet-access connections in every room.

Bentonville Plaza

Al Fratoni with BES LLC refused to provide an update on the clearing of land for the Bentonville Plaza. Fratoni said he preferred to wait until after BES’ large-scale development plan had been approved by the Bentonville Planning Commission.

Last year, Kevin Harrison, project manager for BES, said the hotel/convention center and three office buildings that make up Bentonville Plaza will cost $80 million-$100 million. He said construction may take five years to complete.

The Bentonville Plaza site is directly across Eighth Street from Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club headquarters. Financial backing for the project came from Elliot Spence and Michael Steinberg of New York, Harrison said.

Harrison said the hotel and convention center will be 200,000 SF. Two of the office buildings will be eight stories and about 200,000 SF each. A third office building will be 12 stories and 500,000 SF. Restaurants and retail spaces also will be available at Bentonville Plaza.

The complex is surrounded on the east and west by Wal-Mart corporate parking lots.

At this point, BES hasn’t partnered with a particular hotel chain on the project.