cocothief

Yeah its the storage that is holding them back. Storage units must be pretty profitable for them to be crucial to this developer's plans. The developers ran a big full page ad in the Sunday paper urging people to come out and support Bridgedale. I guess it didn't work.

One would think the Terminella building could be had for a song, considering what has happened lately to that company. Given the improvements being made to College Avenue along that stretch, I think pedestrian access would be fine across College Avenue without a skybridge (I hate those things personally). I think the Fullbright Building space is really probably the sexiest office finish-out in town, and the county folks see that and want to work there. I don't blame them. Its pretty swanky and I wouldn't mind working there, either...

I heard about that. My feelings are mixed about this. While I'd like to see the Marvin's property re-developed at a high-quality level, if the county is just going to buy it, and slap "Washington County Courts Annex" or something similar across the front, ala the Tyson buildings referenced in the article, I'd just as soon they leave it alone. I shop at Marvins now. If it closed, central Fayetteville would be losing its only "regular" grocery store. The closest ones to downtown would be Harps in Fiesta Square and over on Garland.

Free Wi-Fi in downtown (east) Rogers starting Thursday: http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2008/06/...60308rzwifi.txt

Somewhere I saw a layout of the design and I remember that it showed a tree planted median just south of the Dickson Street intersection. Does anybody know where we can see plans?

I heard about that. I have high hopes for this project. I am hoping that when its done, the rest of the city will demand that they complete it all the way down College Avenue. Regardless, its a start on what is long overdue.

Springdale City Council approves BILLBOARD BAN: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/227038/ I'm pretty sure this is what is commonly referred to as a sea change.

Rogers first city to step up to the Northwest Arkansas Regional Mobility Authority. http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/227017/ I guess this is a good thing. Hopefully it will accomplish some things for the region.

No, Fayetteville and Springdale are both larger. Perhaps Jonesboro is now, too.

Any actual growth in the central city is great for a city the size and maturity of LR.

I agree with this, but I'd add that WAC serves nowadays to diversify the people and atmosphere on Dickson Street by bringing in a more (truly, not STIR-patronizing) upscale crowd. I think losing WAC would make Dickson more one-dimensional, and some of the nicer places would leave.

Speaking of Garland, the section of the street you mentioned on campus and down to North Street looks fantastic. I drove down it the other day and the Sycamore trees they planted in the median have really taken off. On campus, Garland has become a very shady, pretty, pedestrian-friendly street. I guess Sycamores are fast-growing trees. I really hope N. College looks as good as Garland when its done. I wish ALL of our 4-lane streets in Fayetteville looked that good.

Make the majority of your loans to people and entities in the high-risk category, and NOWHERE is recession proof. The NWA economy (and up to this point, the national economy) is not in a recession. ANB's business practices REQUIRED a booming economy in order remain solvent. They screwed themselves trying to grow their market share too fast.

A friend of mine in sales and I were having this discussion a few days ago, about the little Wal-Mart bubble we live in up here. Aside from the real estate market (which everyone who was paying attention KNEW was overbuilt a few years ago) things aren't that bad in NWA. Aside froms some smaller construction firms and speculative real estate ventures, most people are trucking right along. The money is still flowing into Benton County, and everybody is still getting a paycheck.

Considering the circumstances, I'm sure this building got less of a hassle than a for-profit building would have. I like the design. I think its much more interesting than what was there before.

I think Fayetteville should pursue a municipal utility, like Austin Energy in Austin, TX. That would allow the city to best incentivize green/sustainable building practices in Fayetteville. Austin Energy provides rebates for residents installing solar panels, etc. Its pretty amazing what they do to encourage energy efficiency. http://www.austinenergy.com/Energy%20Effic...bates/index.htm A municipal utility might give the city enough pull (and revenue sources) to prevent more giant powerlines being built in historic areas.

It sounds like the developer is pretty married to their self-storage portion of the project. Maybe they've found a away to make the proforma work with self-storage revenues even if nothing else sells.

Thanks for posting this. This is good news for that part of town, although I read another article stating opposition to it. Go figure.

Now that they're up, these new power poles are every bit as bad or worse than I imagined them to be. Terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE aesthetic scar on an area that was becoming more beautiful by the year. I can't believe this was allowed to happen. It makes me sick.

Odd that NLR is investing in a Farmer's Market when the state's largest outdoor market is a rock skip across the river.

I also agree that this is the right decision. I believe a lot of people who live in E. Fayetteville come in off the Fullbright Expressway onto North College and then Joyce on their way home. That section is more traveled than the northern section, although the northern section to Springdale can back up during rush hour. Having 4 lanes at Joyce will help alleviate that to some degree by moving traffic on down the line that might otherwise back up. I am glad that the city decided to stick to their guns on the design of this roadway. In the future, I foresee the southern section being redesigned to match the northern parts, and hopefully a redesign of College Avenue into something similar. In 10 years when there are mature trees in the median and this roadway is still beautiful, we will all know that it was money well spent. We don't need to duplicate College Avenue on the eastern side of town.

Decision made to keep Crossover design, shorten length of improvement project: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/62667/

Thats really odd that he is having trouble getting approval. Oh well, bring it to Fayetteville, Gregg. Rogers' commercial growth is pretty amazing btw.

I don't think that speaks as much about Dave & Busters as it does the part of town you were in. Walnut Hill & Stemmons is the NW ghetto, barrio.

I believe that finishing the windows is the last step of the exterior renovations on EJ Ball. The construction crew is actually having to bust them out before installing new ones. I talked to a guy working there and he said that because of the way the windows were installed, the glass was affixed into the wall structure and that the only way it could be removed was to break it. Center Street had a lot of shattered glass in it on Saturday.