Curious about the construction happening around the Bentonville Square? Tune in as our host, Allen Woody, and Bentonville Parks and Recreation Director, David Wright, discuss plans to elevate the Downtown Bentonville experience through projects currently underway!
Get the inside scoop on Bentonville Parks and Recreation projects happening in the downtown area, including the A Street Promenade which will convert the road to a pedestrian-only corridor.
Curious about the construction happening around the Bentonville Square? Tune in as our host, Allen Woody, and Bentonville Parks and Recreation Director, David Wright, discuss plans to elevate the Downtown Bentonville experience through projects currently underway!
Get the inside scoop on Bentonville Parks and Recreation projects happening in the downtown area, including the A Street Promenade which will convert the road to a pedestrian-only corridor.
Welcome to Visit Bentonville's podcast in New American Town. As always, we're coming to you from Haxton Road Studios off the bustling Bentonville Square. I'm your host, alan Woody, joining me in studio. Today we have David Wright, director of the Parks and Recreation Department for Bentonville. And, david, I'm sorry, I'm cheesy, but I love Parks and Rec. You are the Ron Swanson of Bentonville.
Speaker 2:I'm honored that you say that I watch that show all the time. And, yeah, let's put our Ron Swanson hat on and go from here.
Speaker 1:Amen, brother, and with Ron Swanson in mind, I'll just end the interview right here. There you go. Perfect Ron Swanson interview. Tell us you guys have really cool stuff coming to downtown Bentonville, Bentonville in generally. Let's just tackle the first thing what's under construction over? By Lawrence Plaza.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know that's a common question that I'm, that I'm getting right now, and those of those of us that watch Parks and Recreation know that if you want to learn about it, you join me on February 29th. We'll tell you all about that. Those of you that watch the show will understand exactly what that means. Yes, no, actually, what you see it, what you see at Lawrence Plaza, is really one of the more transformative projects that I think you will ever see in downtown Bentonville. Really, about 15 years ago, we had a really transformative project when we came in and we renovated the downtown square and what that did is that gave a birth or rebirth to downtown in a way that we hadn't, we had never seen in this community. We all joke those of us have been around for a while that the downtown square used to close at five o'clock and there was no activity in that quarter of an acre, and that was as recent ago as, let's say, 2006, 2007. And that project that where we came in, we renovated the road, we widened the sidewalks, we reinstalled that red brick that's out there right now all the way around the perimeter of the square really started giving a rebirth to downtown. Insert DBI and here comes the festivals and the events that occur. Visit Bentonville is a big part of that, and it's really morphed into the cultural epicenter of our community.
Speaker 2:But in 2017, 2018, we were working on the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, and it was actually our Parks Maintenance staff that kind of raised their hand as they were talking to the consultants and said, hey, we love these downtown events that we have, but you realize, you're sometimes cramming as many as seven or 8,000 people into a quarter of an acre on the downtown square and while we are happy to do it, um, what's happening is that we're destroying the public gardens where it's not the most sustainable model. And so we started thinking about, okay, we really need to, um, expand the canvas of of downtown Bentonville or the downtown square, and so that was the birth of the quilt of parks, and we knew that we had six, five. We had five public spaces. It's actually grown to six five public spaces in downtown Bentonville, the square being one of those and, and we wanted to start tying those together and and and really the whole thought process is how do we weave those together like a quilt?
Speaker 2:And so, at Lawrence Plaza, um, you see, the very first part of the construction of what ties it all together, and that is the A Street promenade. What we are doing on A Street and this is the A Street in front of the courthouse, on the east side of the squares we're removing the vehicles off of that road and we're turning it into a linear park or a promenade through that space. This car free zone, this pedestrian area only will will meander a quarter of a mile from Lawrence Plaza and Compton Gardens to the north, through the downtown square in front of Tusk and Trotter and Tavila, and all the way into an area that we will eventually call the day of the safe peel Plaza, or the commons, as we've been referring to it for a little while. And that parking lot that's right there at the south end of A Street will become a Plaza with a play space and a number of other amenities in there, and then what this promenade really will do is tie together all of all of downtown Bentonville.
Speaker 2:So imagine a, imagine a Thursday afternoon when you and your family are, um, maybe at the splash park at Lawrence Plaza and your youngsters say hey, I want to, I want to leave the splash park and I want to go to the playground down the street. You don't have to walk down those really narrow sidewalks and there's actually some areas there's not even a sidewalk at all. A lot of people actually walk down the middle of the road. You don't have to do that anymore. You're going to be able to walk down this promenade, um and and and connect to those other spaces in downtown Bentonville, and really what that will do, when this is all said and done, will create another destination, or maybe it will redefine what that day's destination is. In downtown Bentonville. You won't just come to the square, you'll, you'll come to downtown and, um, all of these public spaces will be attached to that. I'm certain there'll be a number of economic development projects that happen along that promenade.
Speaker 1:I mean this has to be amazing for businesses. I mean along those areas getting walking traffic like it's one thing to have cars, it's another thing to have People walking no you're.
Speaker 2:You're exactly right. I mean, you think you look at, you look at projects like this around the country, um, like the Pearl Street uh mall in Boulder, colorado, um, or the Cherry Cherry Creek um promenade that's in Denver, uh, the fourth street promenade in Santa Monica, california. And you look at the um, you look at the. You know that's a center of trade in those communities and that I really do think that's what happens here. And the really unique thing is, you know, is that you know we're going to have hotels. I have two hotels on that and so you have building customers that will be part of that. 21 C is one of those in the new hotel that they're building there at central and a being the other, and so you've got these built in customers. So you've got to think that this becomes the perfect location for future restaurants, shops, maybe additional art galleries and those kinds of attractions in downtown. So what's our timeline on that.
Speaker 1:That's that's amazing.
Speaker 2:That's. That's the 16 million dollar question.
Speaker 1:Is it 16 million? It seems like it'll be a little more but that's okay, that's what it costs. Um, yeah, so so 16 million dollars is a heck of a lot of money. Uh, david, how did you, how did you get it?
Speaker 2:You know that that. That's where that that's where I always slow down when I talk about this, because money's a good time to slow down. It is it's try, it strikes a chord. The truth of it is is that 16 million dollars 100 came from the waltin family foundation. Oh, wow, yes, 100. Um the, the taxpayers of bentonville are paying zero percent Of the um of the cost of the a street promenade Um that's amazing.
Speaker 2:I know, I know the um, the. The design was paid for in a grant from the waltin family, um, um, um, it that that grant included enough to do all of the other testing and everything that we needed to do To to make this a reality. And then the construction cost of right at 16, 16 million just a hair north of 16 million Was 100 in a grant from the waltin family foundation. It, it, it is, um. It's such an honor to get to work with a, a group of people, a charitable foundation, um, but it's also driven by, you know, a family that lives in our community, that loves our town, that wants to see growth and wants to see they want to do good things for the people that live here, and they have, absolutely Without hesitation, invested in every great project in northwest.
Speaker 2:You know, I I can go through. I can go through a decade and a half of of capital projects and there's not many that they didn't contribute to in some form or fashion, even like even the laurence plaza. They didn't give any money for laurence plaza, but they gave the land for laurence plaza which is a lot of money.
Speaker 1:If you know where laurence plaza is, that land's worth a lot of money.
Speaker 2:No doubt, no doubt, and so, um, it's it. You talk about a, a group of people that are just so generous, and the fact that they've done this for our taxpayers.
Speaker 2:I I don't know that I I don't know that I could have come up with the money On the inside of the city to 100 pay for this 16 million would be something that we really would have had to pass a special bond um for, or or literally save For a long time to be able to do this.
Speaker 2:The only projects that I've ever been able to be involved in on a municipal level that's 100 paid for out of the sales tax Dollars or the city coffers, if you will have been of that size come from a special election or a bond. So the fact that we've been able to do this At 100, no cost to our taxpayers is is really special. The project's being done in four phases and we're doing that to you know, we're trying not to destroy or trying to minimize the disruption of business in downtown. So we're starting at laurence plaza. That first phase will be done shortly after the first of the year, maybe around february 1st, and then we move south and we'll start that section in front of tusk and trodder and tavola and we'll finish that section by um middle of next, of next summer, and we just continue this on out all the way through um early 2025 and the grand scheme of this is about an 18 month project, maybe 24 months If mother nature doesn't cooperate.
Speaker 1:But um she's been pretty good to you so far.
Speaker 2:Knock on wood. Yes, sir, if, um, if everything works out, we'll wrap this part of this project up um in in the first half of 2025 very cool and and you guys have been planning this for a while this isn't something.
Speaker 1:you just wake up and you're like you know what, let's make a quilt out of parks.
Speaker 2:No, you're, you're, you're exactly right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so. It all started in that, like I mentioned, the Parks and Recreation Master Plan that was adopted by the city council in 2018. And then we received a design excellence grant from the Walton family foundation that allowed us to go out and hire one of the best design firms in the country for these types of projects Design workshop is. They have offices all over the country, but we're working with the team out of Austin, texas, who's come in and they've helped manage this project. We've had a number of public input sessions, a number of stakeholder sessions. We've met with our city council and other staff members city staff members about how we actually make this a reality.
Speaker 2:It's really been in design since about, oh, late 2019. We started the public input right before we ever really, as a society, had ever heard of COVID, and the good news is that we finished that public input just prior to COVID and then we were able to work remotely and continue that design work, and so it never really slowed this project down from a design standpoint. Any any. Anytime we may have taken our foot off. The gas has been about how do we figure out how to pay for this and that funding mechanism that's there.
Speaker 1:That has taken the foot off the gas of many of my greatest personal ideas. The funding aspect. I am curious and I'd love to hear you speak on it a little bit because I really think one of the things that makes Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas as a whole so popular and growing so fast one of the top destinations in all the country to live is parks, is parks and trails and things like that. Tell me a little bit about what it's like to be on the ground floor, in the trenches, so to speak, of what is you know all over Northwest Arkansas an amazing, amazing revitalization and focus on parks and trails and things that are really making our community. You know it benefits in a million ways. All your property values are going up, you've got more neighbors, more people want to be here, better business all of that. What are your feelings towards the importance of parks in our communities? Thank you so much for watching.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, parks are part of a city infrastructure. The same way roads and sewer systems are right. A lot of times it's a lot more fun to talk about the parks. Heck, yeah, then it is a sewer system or Road, but the way easier to get excited about a park than it is.
Speaker 1:A new bridge, no question, but you have to have all of them.
Speaker 2:They're all really important.
Speaker 2:They're part of the DNA of a community.
Speaker 2:I like to always say that the parks are what gives a community a personality, the way, the way that you, you know, the way you think of a community, what you think of a town, the way you do, the way you or what you visit when you're in those communities. They're often public spaces, they're often Something you do in your leisure time, or maybe they're a little more organized recreation, and always tell folks the towns in America that are the most successful or the ones that growing the fastest are the ones that realize that parks and recreation is an essential service, the same way as police, fire and Transportation. If you, if you invest in the people who live in your community, that the investment will have a return. And and we certainly have done that in Bentonville for the last decade and a half. You know a lot of people don't realize that right now Bentonville has a hundred and seventy five million Let me say that again a hundred and seventy five million dollars worth of parks and recreation projects that are either under construction or in design.
Speaker 1:Wow, I would take that and put I know Wow's right because a hundred and seventy five million would have been a pretty cool number. For total, we have a hundred and seventy five million dollars worth of parks. You're talking about a hundred and seventy five million dollars worth of coming soon parks.
Speaker 2:That's, that's exactly. That's exactly right. Let's go compare that to Denver Metro or to Austin, texas or Minneapolis Some of the best parks districts in the country and they don't have a hundred and seventy five million dollars worth of capital improvements Tapping in their park system. It is a it's a it's a busy time, but it's really it's a fun time to get to work for the parks because the projects that we are designing and building as we speak they live longer than us, that they'll be here long after I'm gone.
Speaker 2:Generations down the road will benefit from the work that we're doing today in our community. So I do. I recognize that.
Speaker 2:You know, having a section of a street closed down is an inconvenience for some of those businesses that are out there, some of those residents that live there.
Speaker 2:But what I always ask people is, like you know, let's um, let's take it, let's think about how we're taking a present day one step backwards, but how many step forwards are we gonna take when this is complete? Let's think about, think about the end project when you're all said and done, and all the benefits that come out of that. I mean, we mentioned just a second ago the number of of Types of businesses that will open just along this promenade. Businesses need foot traffic, businesses need people in front of their, in front of the storefront, and that's exactly what we're doing. We're we're we're providing an audience for these potential businesses that can happen and occur in downtown. And think about the sense of place, think about visiting downtown on a random Tuesday night in the middle of the summer, or the middle of the winter, for that matter and think about the things that you can do in these Spaces and and we get to live here and we get to benefit from that for generations to come.
Speaker 1:It's really fun to be a part of it really is cool, and you know for the business owners that that you, when you open a business on the square, you do expect some of this. You know some revitalization and and progress, which can be painful sometimes, but the the simple truth is is Foot traffic is magical when it comes to profit, because people can drive by your place every day and never stop. If I walk by it, I'm really, really, really inclined to stop by eventually.
Speaker 2:So then, that's powerful and it is power, but it's, you know, in one of these, in one of these things, it's more than one thing. I mean, it's sense of place, it's quality of life, um, but but it's power in the sense that it's money and and sales dollars, that's an investment in our community, it's jobs, it's all of those things that go along with uh, with having a healthy uh economy in the community.
Speaker 1:Now let's switch gears. Just a second it there is, you know, a street a little shut down there. There is some different traffic patterns here right now, but we all want to come to Bentonville for the holidays, right, so we all want to see all of that. Is there some things we need to be aware of, or maybe some hacks that we can get, or tips and tricks that we can use to get around?
Speaker 2:The thing, the thing to know in downtown right now Is that, um, you know, main street is open and healthy, uh, central is open and healthy, second street is open and healthy, um, and so if you're coming through downtown, um, stick to those main corridors. Southwest a central main street and then even second street, um are all open and available. Um it, it's hard to get down a street right now. It's hard to get down Um, um, and I say a street being the, the, the, the southeast and northeast a street, sure, um, and it's difficult to get down northeast b street by dave pill park and the new parking garage right there next to the county administration building.
Speaker 2:I think, other than that, um, things are, things are, will be better after Thanksgiving or after december 1st. The 8th street project um is is, you know that's a big project. It kind of cuts the town in half Um, but if you come in from the, uh, come in from the east, come in on central. If you're coming in from the west, you come in on central and you can all get down.
Speaker 1:You can all get down there safely and a lot easier david, thank you so much for joining me today and thanks to everyone listening. Remember you can catch all of the new americantown podcast episodes on streaming channels following our social platforms. Are going to visit bentonvillecom. Don't forget to follow visit bentonville on facebook, instagram, twitter, linkedin, youtube and tiktok. We have tons of exciting events coming to bentonville in 2023. Check out our event calendar and plan your trip today. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time.