Crossmark Building to Serve Wal-Marts Manufacturers

An 18,500-SF building planned near the Bentonville campus of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s headquarters will house the Crossmark Center for Collaboration.

“We’ve been working closely with Wal-Mart on this for some time,” said Wayne Luciano, a spokesman for the Plano, Texas-based company,

Crossmark, a sales and marketing services provider that represents both Wal-Mart and many of its manufacturers, will likely use the entire building, which will provide “an opportunity for manufacturers for Wal-Mart to get together with Wal-Mart representatives,” Luciano said.

The building will include meeting rooms, a test kitchen, wifi areas and room for video conferencing.

The building site at 607 S.W. F St. is bounded on three sides by Wal-Mart offices.

Crossmark will keep its Northwest Arkansas office at 3301 S. Market St., Suite 208, in Rogers, Luciano said. Fifty-two people work in that office, and several more will staff the new building.

Luciano said construction should begin soon, with completion expected in spring 2013.

Large-scale plans describe a two-story brick building with stone cast accents. The plans include a 32-stall parking lot at the corner of Southwest F and Southwest Fifth streets, and nine on-street parking spaces.

Crossmark traces its beginnings to Fort Smith, where it was founded in 1905 as Johnson & Hunt Merchandise Brokers. It has offices in 23 states as well as Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.