Centerton New Hot Spot for Builders

In the coming months, the once quiet community of Centerton will grow at the speed of sound.

In the 2000 census, Centerton had 2,146 residents. The mayor of the Benton County hamlet, Ken Williams, estimates his town has grown to about 3,500 today. And with the plans that are currently in place, Centerton could have a population closer to 7,000 in about 2005.

In what is believed to be the largest lots sale in the history of Northwest Arkansas and possibly the state, John David Lindsey has contracted to buy 851 lots from Hometown Developers LLC — Gary Combs and Neil Johnson — just north of Centerton’s city hall. The $20 million transaction could have a final cost effect of about $100 million when the last nail has been driven at Sienna and Windemere subdivisions.

The first closing on the deal, which will affect about 550 of the lots, is expected in August.

Lindsey, executive broker and sales manager of Lindsey & Associates Inc.’s Rogers office, said his demographics show an average of 2.7 people live in each household. Once at full capacity, the 851 new homes would result in about 2,298 new residents alone. The town only had 491 people recorded in the 1990 census.

And Walker Construction has been adding an average of seven new homes each week in some of its Centerton subdivisions.

Combs called the latest project something that “will change the landscape in this part of the county.”

“In other words, Centerton will soon be about the size Bentonville was when I came here in 1981,” Williams said. “We’ve been continuing to grow at a rapid rate. And now we’re adding 551 homes at Sienna alone. That’s a tremendous amount of building in a short amount of time. And the interesting thing is that since all of this has come to town with Sienna and Windemere and the publicity surrounding it, we’ve had two new developers purchase land. One plans on a 205-home development. But by far this is the biggest project we’ve had come in here. Our growth rate is just going to multiply.”

Centerton’s city budget has almost tripled from $500,000 in 1996. Williams noted that at that time, the town only had five retail businesses. Today, that figure is closing in on 50. And a four-acre commercial section has been set aside on the southeast corner of the Sienna development.

Partnership

The Sienna/Windemere project will be unique to Northwest Arkansas in other ways.

Combs’ company, Basic Construction of Springdale, will coordinate the infrastructure while Lindsey Construction will build the homes. Combs said similar work takes place in cities such as Las Vegas, Dallas and Houston.

“We form the entrance to the driveways as we go along,” Combs said. “Then [Lindsey] comes in and builds around them with their crew. It definitely increases the production, I’d say by at least 10-15 percent.”

Basic Construction will have eight crews on site with about 100 people working. The payroll alone over 18 months will be about $25 million-$30 million. And the economic impact of the large-scale project will be felt in many other areas of Northwest Arkansas with taxes, materials purchased, etc.

While Sienna and Windemere will be in the Bentonville School District, the builders avoided paying the impact fees — the average per single family home is $3,598 — that Bentonville charges, an overall savings of more than $3 million.

“Building the subdivision in Centerton allows the savings to be passed on to the consumer,” Johnson said.

Combs has become one of the most prominent developers in Northwest Arkansas. He was the original developer of Pinnacle Hills in Rogers. He also built the upscale Candlewood subdivision in Fayetteville.

Johnson has 30 years of experience in construction, including 17 years as a developer. The owner of Richland Construction Inc. in Springdale, he built the upscale Springdale subdivisions of Thornberry, Windsor, Monticello and The Oaks; Cedar Point in Fayetteville and others in Clarksville and Danville.

But Combs said John David Lindsey and the Lindsey companies are what will make the mass production project so successful.

“No one is better suited to do this than Lindsey,” Combs said. “They have everything from the builders, Realtors and on and on.”

Design

Lots at Sienna and Windemere will range from 80×115 feet to 80×140 feet, the homes will range from 1,325 SF-1,700 SF and they will be priced to sell from $108,000-$139,900. They will be all brick with hard-surface counter tops in the kitchen and bathroom, and they will have a Jacuzzi whirlpool bath with a separate shower.

The streets will be named after Civil War generals, such as McKissick Springs.

Combs and Johnson donated 18 acres to Centerton, including a five-acre lake. The land had been in the Beasley family since 1880, but it was not being used when Combs and Johnson purchased it for development.

Combs also noted that many large trees were kept on site. “And there’s not even a tree ordinance up here,” he said.

The first 100 lots will close Aug. 1, and Lindsey expects to begin construction on 100 homes the very next morning.

“Every 30 days we plan on having 100 lots ready and prepped for Lindsey to start building,” Johnson said. “Doing it all at once generates activity. Different production companies have looked at this area. They just weren’t ready for this type of activity. Plus, now we’ve got a local person doing it, and that’s important.”

Lindsey said the Bentonville apartment occupancy rate is very high, but he and Combs agree that some renters would find it more favorable to move only four miles from Walton Boulevard and have a mortgage payment in the same neighborhood of their monthly rent rate.

Infrastructure

One of the biggest hurdles still to clear for Centerton is the road situation. Its two main roads are state highways — 102 and 72.

“We have no control over state roads,” Williams said. “There are times during the day 102 is backed up from Bentonville all the way to Centerton. You start and stop and never get over 20 miles per hour. It can take over half an hour. But the Bentonville School District has worked very well with us. Their buses on 102 don’t make more than three or four stops on the highway.

“Our state representative, Darrell Pace, during the last regular session said that 102 had at least been put on the list to be reviewed. But there is no funding or timetable for it right now. [Pace] said he thought it would be expanded somewhere down the line, but it may be five years.”

Williams also praised former Centerton Mayor Sherman Kinyon, who was adamant about telling people many years ago that the town would experience big growth one day. “People laughed at [Kinyon],” Williams said. “But I thank the Lord for my predecessor because he had some far-reaching vision. He told the city to start putting in sewer lines. And because of him even with the development that’s going in right now we’ll only be at half capacity on our sewage.”

Everyone including the engineers, builders and developers had praise for how professional Centerton’s government was in getting the project to where it is today.

Engineer Greg Shipley of Morrison & Shipley Engineers Inc. in Fort Smith said plans were submitted to the Centerton Planning Commission in late March and approved in about six weeks.

“They recognize the positives of growth,” Johnson said.

Combs added, “The Centerton government is probably one of the nicest and most fair bunch of people we’ve had to deal with.”

Johnson said the funniest part of the massive project is how it all got started.

“All of this started over a cup of coffee at [Springdale’s] Neil’s Cafe on Christmas Eve with it snowing outside,” he said. “We had no plans, but Gary and I just started talking about doing it over coffee, and here we are.”