Reindl Warehouse Gets $2.5M Facelift

aAfter quietly renovating the interior for the past four years, Brian Reindl recently began putting a new roof and brick facade on his 75,000-SF warehouse complex at 509 W. Spring St. in Fayetteville.

Reindl said the 60,000-SF main building, which was constructed in 1916, was a Swanson Foods plant when the first frozen chicken dinner was created there in 1955 (a year after the invention of the first frozen TV dinner, which featured turkey). From later that year until 1965, the building served as a Campbell Soup plant.

Reindl bought the three buildings in 1999 for $1 million from John and Ann Sugg of Fayetteville. Reindl’s silk-screen T-shirt business, B. Unlimited Enterprises, was doing so well, he didn’t want to give up his spot near Fayetteville’s Dickson Street and the University of Arkansas. If he owned the building, there wasn’t much chance of being evicted or having the rent raised.

Reindl said he will have spent at least another $2.5 million on renovations by the time they are completed in 2004.

Washington County appraisers put a value of $194,450 on the buildings in 2001, but that’s when they were being used primarily as storage space.

Rob Sharp of Fayetteville is the architect for the renovation project, which will spruce up the former food-processing plant to be known as Reindl Warehouse.

The current tenants of Reindl Warehouse and square-footage are:

• Christian Fellowship of Northwest Arkansas, a church, 5,400 SF

• Houndstooth Clothing Co. headquarters, 4,000 SF

• Blink Inc., a photography studio, 3,400 SF

• Taylor Mack, an advertising firm, 2,400 SF

• Flying Burrito, a restaurant that is scheduled to open this spring, 1,850 SF

• Bath Junkie, headquarters for a chain of bath supply stores, 1,500 SF

• Metropolis, a hair salon, 1,500 SF

Reindl said Darrell Potts recently signed a lease to open a 3,400-SF Lewis & Clark Outfitters outlet store in Reindl Warehouse, but that’s contingent upon financing coming through.

Reindl said most of the space is leased in the warehouse, but renovations that are under way will free up another 18,000 SF in the basement and 6,000 SF on the first floor.

Originally from Alabama, Reindl came to Fayetteville to attend the UA. He received a bachelor’s degree in education in 1987. That same year, he started his first silk-screen T-shirt business, Ink Promotions of Little Rock, which he operated for five years. Reindl ran B. Unlimited for 14 years before selling it last year.