KJW

(To your above quote, Mith, I agree.) I used to joke when first moving here that NWA was a major metro area that didn't really know (at the time) it was one. Now, Bentonville seems like a city that's really trying to show it's becoming one even as it's not quite there (by itself) yet. As of January 2013, driving south on Walton Blvd you'll notice: 1. That building across from WM headquaters on 5th Street, the one that's the "tallest in Bentonville", now has on the west and north sides lit flourescent letters for TATA Consultancy Services, a worldwide firm based out of India. Who would have thought 30 years ago that would have been the tallest advertisement in Bentonville in 2013? 2. Driving farther south, you can see the I Street corridor all lit up, reminiscent of lights on a bridge or a major corridor. What makes this strange is that on the east side is the Bentonville airport runways so there will be little lighting, and on the west side there is still a lot of vacant land although heavy development has occurred in all directions less than a quarter mile away. The city is anticipating a lot of growth on I street and I'd concur...it looks like an emtpy jug that has just been dropped into a pool.

I searched 11 pages back on this forum and didn't find a "Medical" related one, so I'll add this here since both these tragic events occurred in Bentonville. A few weeks ago, a 17-year-old Bentonville High student was hit by a school bus and eventually was airlifted with critical injuries to Mercy Hospital (formerly St. John's - a HUGE hospital) in Springfield, MO. This week, a Washington Junior High student was hit by a car near the school, and he, too, was airlifted to Mercy / Springfield with life-threatening injuries. There have been notable changes in the hospital scene here in the past 10 years, but in a metro area of half a million people it's sad that there's apparently not a local facility equipped for traumatic cases as these two young people. I hope that is able to change, as soon as possible.

This is Bella Vista news but might as well post it here...ground was broken last week for the new Mercy Clinic in BV, right across the street from Cooper Elementary School. Man...that's going to be another crowded BV street (Dartmoor) but it's good news for the village nonetheless.

zman, I'm honestly almost glad you said that as I'd worried whether this would sound bigoted. (This is one of those moments where I still value that we have free speech to clarify ourselves. At least at this particular day in time.) I don't know how best to say "At first I thought they were trying to put together a soccer game", but that's what I thought as frequently, no, almost always, the men I see at the fields in south Bella Vista, east Bentonville or north Centerton after hours are Hispanic, playing what we call "soccer". I wasn't worried, just thought that's what they were getting ready to do but I saw they weren't exactly dressed for it, and noticed they seemed to be marching through a field putting stakes down. I've never seen that before, or rather, I've just never witnessed it when it happened. (Dunce cap)

- Man...houses, houses, HOUSES!!!! I visit west Bentonville and houses seem to be going up everywhere. Perhaps not quite at the rate of the boom years of '02-'04, but it seems close. Along Airport road Sunday I saw a group of Hispanic men who seemed to be planting stakes along the ground for yet another subdivision...I couldn't tell what they were doing at first as there were so many. - Remember this intersection "Bright and Gator" (a roundabout, no less). It's brand new, but will be one to stay away from by this time next year as it's squarely between a brand new middle school and brand new junior high in southwest Bentonville. Sure looks to me that next August it will instantly become one of Bentonville's busiest. - Sold an item on craigslist to a couple living in the Links apartments off Moberly in Bentonville. The asian population growth here is astounding...it looked literally on an early summer night like every resident in that sizeable complex was of Indian descent. Not complaining, just noting. Saw an article recently that broke down the rates of foreign workers analyzed by multiple categories. I think NWA was something like 6th in the nation in terms of percentage of workers on temporary visas, and the IT community here is largely responsible for that in this point in time. Fascinating to see the changes here. Speaking of new people: - Better late than never on this news (especially after last month's millage rejection). Bentonville has over 1,000 new students projected in the district, about twice what they were expecting. There's a good chance they'll hit 4,000 at the high school this year rather than next. - In downtown Bentonville, things are slowly changing with the Crystal Bridges arrival. Banana plants now line the fountain (hope they're genetically engineered for NWA winters). And lots of businesses are putting out some interesting signage...some quasi-old-metal-and-neon style (the former hotel whose name I can't remember off the SW part of the square has this), some just metal...but the common element is that most of said signs are hanging at the second story level of the buildings to which they're attached.

Hey, Julles - good to talk with you again. Saw the same thing at the window when picking up a meal for my family - the girl at the window said they'd heard it was a physician's office.

1. There are now signs indicating a new BMW dealership (south side) and Cadillac dealership (north side) will be built on either side of the aforementioned new Mercedes dealership in Bentonville. 2. The Bentonville schools web site now says that Bentonville High has 3,572 students. How big is that? Well, if BHS were uprooted and moved to Texas, it would be around the 18th biggest high school in that state. Amazing. (On a high school note showing how competitive NWA is becoming, this fall, local schools in football will play St. Louis- (Bentonville, for the third straight year, O'Fallon Ft. Zumwalt West; Fayetteville, St. Louis Parkway West) and Dallas-area (Bentonville, Texarkana Texas High (in a district with many D/FW area schools); Shiloh Christian, Euless Trinity) high schools. And not just ANY St. Louis and Dallas-area schools. Fort Zumwalt West was ranked as high as #1 in the St. Louis area (Missouri-side) two years ago when BHS beat them. Texas High won the Texas 4A state championship in 2002. Euless Trinity has won something like THREE Texas 5A state championships since 2006. Think we'd have seen this happen even 10 years ago?)

Kinda surreal to see this: a Mercedes-Benz dealership is building their new showroom right in front of the new Sam's Club (old Superior Building) offices on Moberly avenue in east Bentonville. Looks like they're working on it as I type this - wasn't that in Fayetteville earlier, or is this A) a second location or B) a new firm? I'm not bemoaning whatsoever anyone who buys luxury autos - in fact, I hope it helps our local economy significantly somehow.

Mith, indeed - that's amazing. And what's best is, this is indeed going to happen with Walton money behind it. Again, my question will be what happens within the town square. No way will they raze it (although it's interesting that there's a courthouse where prisoners are frequently marched in line for their hearings just a hop, skip and jump from this "21c"). This is going to be, IMO, one of the most fascinating stories here in NWA (and there are a lot of those this past decade) to watch unfold. Again, we're reminded that this museum is going to be an incredible attraction. BTW, Mith, hope you make it up here for the Bentonville water park opening on this 4th of July. It's across from what apparently will be the gate to Crystal Bridges. They've got the main fountain working and a terraced (low) waterfall. The lights there are now functional so they're scrambling to get the landscaping done. Looks like it will be a pretty little place.

Hey, Mith, long time no visit. Very interesting new look on the UP site. I know that the gang here has heard about the new art hotel going in northwest of the Bentonville square (they've even got their "coming soon" sign up in front of the Arvest drive-through). Given that Walton money is in on this it's a done deal unless the Lord returns before construction. What seems to be quieter news is that, apparently, Bentonville's city offices, now located just west/southwest of the square on Central avenue, will also be moving. An assistant principal at Bentonville High told me that the city is building all new offices on Airport road just west of the new White Oak Station, the one a 1/2 - 1 mile southwest of Rainbow Curve. There's a lot of heavy machinery parked on the southwest corner of the Cave Springs road intersection. (That's not the road name - it just goes from B'ville to Cave Springs, Elm Springs, Tontitown and Fayetteville.) This new city complex will be about 1 mile north of the Central Park at Morning Star school. I was talking with the principal about when a second Bentonville high school would be built (he said not before 2015-16 - the newest millage authorized a junior high and before a second high school there'd have to be another vote). He said that the new high school would be in that Central Park area, and that Bentonville officials are expecting the center of Bentonville to be right where the new city complex is. (THAT'S a lot of predicted growth given that we're not in 2002-2004 any more, a discussion for another thread.) What this also tells me is that the current city offices southwest of the square are going to be vacant in the future. I think they renovated the facade of the buildings there in the past couple of years. It will be interesting to see if, as the old song said, they stay or should they go...especially given your discussion in the Crystal Bridges thread about a possible entertainment district in B'ville. The current city offices are, frankly, pretty outdated looking.

Couple of thoughts: 1. Regarding the rankings - I read an article in the Benton County Daily Record a month or two ago consisting of interviews from people touring the upcoming Crystal Bridges museum site. They were in awe, saying there wouldn't be anything like this in America. Wonder how far we'll go up in the "Culture" category when that opens? 2. Not to belittle Ole Main but - it's a shame they couldn't get a better picture of the NWA metro area than the one they used. (Then again, what would they have used?) Then again, they're still calling this metro area "Fayetteville" (not to belittle Fayetteville, but you all know the NWA drill as much as I). 3. Notice that, out of the top 25 places, Arkansas was only one of five states (AR, CO, NC, TX, WA) to get two or more metro areas listed. All in all, only 14 American states were represented in that top 25 list. Considering the competition, that's pretty good, IMO. Forget the discussion, but somewhere I was talking with someone about the two main metro areas now in Arkansas - how if you figure one as Little Rock/Pine Bluff/Hot Springs/Searcy and the other as NWA/Fort Smith (adding in projected metro area counties for NWA such as Adair and Delaware in Oklahoma and possibly Carroll in Arkansas) you get two metro areas headquartered in the same state that are near, in population, what Louisville and Memphis were in the late 80s/early 90s. California, Florida or Texas we ain't, but this is still making for an interesting mix of demographics, growth and opportunities.

Another month , another record at XNA - 51,000+ passengers in November 2007. More destinations, more flights, more enplanements...

This is interesting...Cotswold Village, a "fairytale style" subdivision of English limestone houses to be built by 21 families on Beaver Lake in Rogers. The families have pooled their money and apparently are on track to build this.

The day after I wrote about it, they've turned on the sign for the Value Place hotel at Elm Springs & I-540...just like the one in Bentonville, that thing is BRIGHT. The Kum and Go store has strobe "blinkers" on its highway sign also at that interchange. Elm Springs isn't a sleepy exit any more. Also, now that the building is rising from the ground security lighting is now on at Arvest field...giving us a very small taste of how that area is also now "lit".

Mith, I read that same article and found myself shaking my head. That Harp's has indeed been doing well. But...an anchor for downtown? Are folks going to drive from Fayetteville, Fort Smith, McDonald County (all 60,000 of them predicted in the next decade or so) or Little Rock to see the Victory Theatre (the other talked about anchor in that article)? When I lived in Atlanta we'd drive up to the Chattanooga Aquarium...folks from Nashville did, too - and it was worth a drive up there (that was before the gas price increases of today). Either they've got big plans for the Victory Theatre, or - well, let's see what they come up with.

strmchsr, Remember, the writer of this article is from Washington, DC. This part of the USA may be "flyover country" to him if its not on the east coast (Florida, Bos-NY-Wash) or west coast. Still an interesting article...word is getting out, and Wal-Mart can give a dream such as this clout. (Believe me, W-M is taking this sustainability initiative VERY seriously.)

XNA is such a strange, strange case. Northwest Arkansas (the current 4 county metro region) may be about to add two counties in Oklahoma which will push that metropolitan area's population to a smidgen below 500,000 at current year estimates. And the airport STILL looks like a crackerbox. (Sorry, JMO, but it does.)

CellarDoor, 1. Indeed, we're blessed enough to give money to both around here, amply, if we so please. 2. If I gave money to either, most of us would rather do it discretely...we're not looking for credit.

Why be pikers? Let's honor Him with a 500 foot one...I'll make whatever donation I can. Now, on a different note, did anyone see where the expo center in Rogers on Walnut has been purchased for 2 million (it appraised at 4)? As much as I hate to see "corrections" happen in the real estate market there are lots of opportunities, and the paper seemed to hint that this might, just might be the location for the rumored Incredible Pizza Company in NWA.

A little more...actually a lot more on this in today's BCDR:

So (if indeed Orlando is again going to be accessible from XNA) that makes it official? XNA now has flights to more destinations at this time than Little Rock National does? Here's a wild thing...Wichita (home of the nation's 67th largest television DMA compared to XNA's102 ranking, and home for the last year to NWA's new Texas League baseball team) Mid-Continent airport has flights to, as I recall, 10 destinations at this point in time.

There is a BIG article today in the Wall Street Journal about XNA, and different opportunities and problems its facing. I don't know if there's an online link to this yet.

Wow. I just drove New Hope Road from below the new mall to Business 71. When you get above that hill east of the mall, that road is so wide and straight and LONG. There are also buildings going up between the mall and the crest of that hill...don't know what they are but it just makes me more intrigued to see what that area is going to look like 5 and more years from now.

Sammy, I'm astonished there's not been more talk of a parking deck...I didn't think those things were that expensive.

Matt, if one were to view Little Rock National airport and XNA simultaneously it would be easy to think I'm joking (and indeed, LRN served about 1.2 million folks last year vs. about 600,000 for XNA) but...given your "Orlando" news... According to yesterday's Demo-zette, Little Rock National now serves 18 cities. That means XNA is now going to have flights to as many cities as Little Rock's airport now does. Wild...