KJW

Centerton might as well be part of Bentonville...I suspected that all sorts of things might break loose if the second high school was approved.

As most in NWA who've watched the news know, Bentonville voters approved a millage for a second high school to be built in Centerton. (I've heard that it will be south of where the McDonalds is, or Lifeway Christian School across the street to the west.) Heritage High School was built around the old Rogers High School a few years back. Har-Ber of Springdale was built in the planned community of the same name. It will be interesting to see what happens in that area south of Centerton, where there's (at this moment) a significant chunk of open space. If enrollment growth holds, were the new high school to open at it stated capacity of 2,250, the existing Bentonville High would still have 3,100 kids when the new school opens in 2016.

Here's going to be a sight that will take a little bit of getting used to for some. The Arkansas & Missouri railroad, with both freight and revenue passenger operations, will be phasing out its current locomotives (from a firm called Alco...there are very few Alco locomotives in American service today) and phasing in these big late-model, wide-cab General Motors locomotives. When I first saw this pic it reminded me of the train from the 2010 flick "Unstoppable". These things will shake Dickson Street when they cross there...this is likely one of the very first pics of these (in service currently in Illinois):

Noticed this afternoon that Bentonville has gotten what I'm guessing may be its first Portuguese language billboard, for ABRAFARMA (Brazilian pharmacy association), located on Walton Blvd. just north of both "Store 100" and Walmart HQ. Wonder if this is also the first Portuguese language billboard message in Arkansas?

U of A at 25,000 for the first time ever.

Interesting story from The City Wire - the U of A is the 13th fastest-growing public research university in the country. Only that other U of A in Tuscaloosa is ahead of it in the SEC (I'd read, I think a Wally Hall column, that Alabama is only accepting kids with a 4.0 GPA out of high school now?!?!) That's an amazing accomplishment for U of A, and frankly with nearly 815,000 people between the NWA/FSM metro areas right now this area has to have a LOT to do with that. No wonder Fayetteville has so many new buildings.

They're adding a new floor to the building.

This is just as much Bentonville related as it is Fort Smith related...The Walton Foundation has donated $2 million to the U.S. Marshals museum. Willing to guess that with I-49 coming and opening up NWA/FSM to the northern U.S. via Interstate, they're willing to help build a genuine "critical mass" (I don't like that phrase but right now I can't think of a better one) for tourism to northwest Arkansas.

Food for thought: looks like Boise, ID is the smallest metro area that a Cheesecake Factory is at right now. Metro population estimate there is 615,000. NWA alone, going by growth rates and census 2012 estimates, has about 513,000 right now. (If Fort Smith were just a little bit closer, the combined metro area would be about 815,000 using the same calculations.) And I-49 isn't finished yet. Patience, patience...

That rumor was around in the mid-2000s. However, 6-8 years later Centerton has just (been estimated to have) crossed the 10,000 mark in population, and Walmart builds supercenters in cities with populations like that. Given how far it is from Store 100 across from Walmart's HQ, that wouldn't surprise me if it would be there on 102.

http://nwahomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=451592 KNWA yesterday: Bentonville High School will start in two weeks with 4,200 students, 5,000 by 2016 if a second high school isn't built by then.

I've never fully understood just where "the rainbow curve" in Bentonville is delineated, but: 1. It appears the old Clarion Inn in Bentonville is being renovated. Is this the new Hilton? If not, someone's bought it for something. This is northeast of where I think the aforementioned "curve" is. 2. Also, there's a lot of work happening at the old convenience store that was just west of the curve. The store's been empty for about 2 years, I believe. Don't know what will happen but it's certainly in a key area.

How much help is this going to be to XNA? http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2013/jul/23/34-million-xna-grant-announced/?news-arkansas-nwa-bentonville I'll be frank...the lack (until now) of interstate progress from the north to the Bella Vista/Bentonville line pales in comparison with XNA, serving a metro area of nearly a half-million people, itself being served by two-lane roads. It will be interesting to see what they do with this grant, which honestly seems a pittance in this era of trillion-dollar deficits.

One of three new locations in America for this British company...they will be in the old "Emerson building": http://nwahomepage.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=444202

Published today in USA Today: "Walmart's hometown: 'Mayberry' goes Manhattan"

http://www.nwabusinessjournal.com/11655/crossmark-building-to-serve-wal-marts-manufacturers Just saw where they're plowing ground for this building, and as the late Paul Harvey used to say, it's "a 'strange'". It's located across the street east of the WM headquarters, and immediately north of the old Sam's Club building, now the HR department, I believe. For a moment I thought finally WM was building a new facility there, but it's Crossmark's. Weird to see how partially surrounded this place is by Walmart buildings.

I still think probably one of the weirdest (or maybe not) things in Bentonville is the DreamWorks office right next to the Walton Museum on the square. The DW place apparently was "christened" by Stephen Spielberg himself though it was kept largely under wraps...there's no doubt who is renting the office which goes deep in the building behind the Walmart museum. It appears that DW and WM will be working quite closely on certain projects which ostensibly will be distributed only trhough Walmart.

Maybe Mike Duke, current Walmart CEO, thinking how: 1. Crystal Bridges was started by Alice Walton, Walmart founder and first CEO Sam's daughter; 2. The Northwest Arkansas Naturals (if the combined Fort Smith/NWA does indeed hit 1.4 million, wonder if they'd go AAA? Right now, the 784,000 estimated NWA/FSM combined population is bigger than current AAA ball club cities Des Moines/Ames and Colorado Springs) were very much helped along by Kansas City Royals owner David Glass, Walmart's second CEO. 3. The upcoming Amazeum features, on their web site, something like "Sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Lee Scott", (the former a.k.a Walmart CEO #3). Gut feeling is that Mr. Duke may be involved in something significant to follow suit here in NWA. We'll see.

Dang, I go to Fayetteville and every time it seems like a new high-rise dorm or something is being built. That school moving to the SEC was a very far sighted move. That city will never dry up and blow away. And though I'm a teetotaler there's no place in NWA like Dickson Street.

http://amazeum.org/ With the people they've got behind this, this may be a sight to see, indeed. 1,000,000, here we come...

My thoughts exactly. Hopefully, they have better circulation and other aforementioned new technology to avoid disease transmittal that would make it even safer than the 1990s/early 2000s such parks which were constructed.

There's a fascinating "tripleheader" of urban development stories in the business section of today's Ar-Dem-Gaz, with Bentonville (arts and dining developments), Fort Smith (U.S. Marshals' Museum and recent downtown development there in advance of that) and Little Rock (new hotels on the edge of the city's entertainment district). The headliner is the Bennie story, and contains this quote: The article also said that the Table Mesa cafe in downtown Bennie was started by a restaurateur who closed a successful Seattle (!) restaurant to come here and start this. It tells of other people moving their businesses from other places to Bentonville, as well as people who have come in such as the 21c Hotel and museum. I don't yet know what we have here, but it's something very interesting. (The Fort Smith article says they, too, are excited by the heightened-above-expectations numbers at Crystal Bridges). Tellin' ya, though...the thread that will link this together is a completed I-49/I-69 corridor (with, I'd add, the planned 4-lane highway to the airport, which is amazing for a metro area this size that it's still served by two-lane roads). If it ever gets finished, I'm expecting that 1,400,000 person NWA/Fort Smith population figure. Guaranteed.

On Hudson Ave. in Rogers, toward the northeast side, there was a furniture store called with a term of endearment for someone's female spouse, "Lovey's" or "Honey's" or "Sweetie's" (can't remember but something like that). Had a feeling it just wouldn't take off, and I don't think it ever did. That's the gamble of small business. However, drove by there this afternoon and now it's a Sikh temple. Not only that, but there's another one in Rogers, too, now...right near Stitt Engineering on Business 71. Only in Northwest Arkansas. And gang, if we still have a country in a few years, I'm believing more and more that the 1,000,000 person figure for the NWA metro area (not including Fort Smith) is going to be achieved. This place just keeps filling in, filling in, filling in, and there's something new I see each time I drive south from Bella Vista.

Well, Z-man's map may be starting to come true. Looks like NWACC will be building a campus just west of the Arvest Ballpark. If it gets as big as the one in Bennie, it will be fascinating to see what happens in that area.

Mith, Now THAT's a fascinating picture from Bentonville. I honestly don't know what the heck it signifies, but...(EDIT: perhaps they were releasing them to fly directly over "Store 100" a few blocks to the south?)