Steel Deal Yields Building for Wal-Mart Vendors

Burt Hanna and David Slone, two of Fayetteville’s most successful businessmen, plan to build a four-story, 396,000-SF office building in Bentonville for vendors to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

“I got a good deal on a building,” said Hanna, owner of Hanna’s Candle Co., a Wal-Mart vendor itself. “I found a building that wasn’t even built that was a good deal.”

Hanna said the steel for the building had already been fabricated when a California computer company decided not to build it.

The building will be constructed instead in Superior Square, a commercial subdivision under construction on Moberly Lane. David Slone, co-owner of Superior Auto Group of Fayetteville, owns the 40-acre subdivision in Bentonville. Hanna said construction on the subdivision should be completed in mid-July, and he and Slone can begin the permitting process for the new building then. Hanna said he hopes to have it completed in about a year.

Together, the developers are calling themselves Slone Hanna Partnership.

“I’m just trying to be the David Slone of the candle business,” Hanna said of his business partner.

Hanna said the new building will tentatively be called The Superior Building. After it’s completed, it will be renamed for the largest tenant.

Hanna said he plans to offer office space in the building for at least 33 percent less than the going rate in Bentonville. That would make it about $10 per SF per year.

“Wal-Mart vendors have to provide a value, and we’re trying to do the same with office space,” Hanna said.

Hanna wouldn’t reveal the cost of the project, and Slone had no comment.