Sanctuary Slated For Christmas Season

Jim Lavender is spending about $1 million to buy and convert a 106-year-old church in Bentonville into a unique upscale restaurant called The Sanctuary. The building was home to the First Christian Church of Bentonville from 1898 until the 1970s.

Lavender said he paid $395,000 to Frank and Norma Farrer of Bentonville for the one-story, 8,000-SF building that recently housed Chapel Gardens gift shop and deli.

Lavender said he will renovate the building to add a kitchen on the ground floor and a wine cellar in the basement. He also plans to do landscaping, fix the wrought-iron fence and install gas lights at the front and around the perimeter. Lavender plans to open The Sanctuary by Dec. 10.

“I want it to look as close as it can to the way it did in 1898,” he said.

Lavender said he got the idea from The Abbey, a church-turned-restaurant in Atlanta.

Lavender owns five Yesteryears Antique Malls, two in Eureka Springs and one each in Rogers, Tontitown and Ozark, Mo.