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ARKANSAS: NO LONGER IGNORED

Retail developers from around the U.S. are busy in Arkansas. The active areas include Little Rock and its environs. And a lot of it has to do with Wal-Mart. The discount giant has persuaded some of its key vendors to open offices in its home city of Bentonville, Ark., resulting in “massive job growth,” says Philip Kroskin, principal of Bos Group, a Bethesda, Md.-based developer. “But there is no town center, no core or central place,” said Kroskin.

Bos is at work on Pleasant Crossing, a multiphase center that is part of a master-planned community next door to Bentonville in Rogers, a bedroom community for senior Wal-Mart executives. A Wal-Mart Supercenter has already opened there, a power center is scheduled to open next spring, and next fall a lifestyle center anchored by a Parisian will follow. In all, the first phase will comprise 1.2 million square feet of retail. Later phases will contain offices, residences and additional retail, says Kroskin.

Across the street the Nelson & Beaty Co., of Fort Smith, Ark., is building Centre Pointe at Pleasant Grove, a 250,000-square-foot power center slated to open next June.

“This is the [market’s] north-south corridor,” said Lance Beaty, general partner. “This is the location.”

Also in Rogers, General Growth Properties is developing Pinnacle Hills Promenade in partnership with The Pinnacle Group (a group of private investors). This 980,000-square-foot open-air center will contain a Dillard’s, a JCPenney, a cinema, 275,000 square feet of specialty shops, 70,000 square feet of offices and a 275,000-square-foot big-box retail village. The opening is scheduled for the middle of next year.

Meanwhile, in the state capital, the new Clinton Presidential Library is drawing tourists and providing convention opportunities (the city’s convention center is being expanded). Accordingly, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based RED Development is planning a 305,000-square-foot lifestyle center in west Little Rock called The Promenade at Chenal. That opening is scheduled for the spring of 2007.

Pleasant Ridge Town Center, also in Little Rock, will consist of 300,000 square feet of lifestyle-oriented retail. Jones Lang LaSalle is handling the leasing for the locally based owner, Schickel Development. The project will feature Fresh Market, a gourmet food store; and Parisian. The opening is set for next October.

In Jonesboro, plans are under way for the only enclosed U.S. regional mall scheduled to open next year. Called The Mall at Turtle Creek, the 750,000-square-foot project will be anchored by Dillard’s, JCPenney and Target, and is a development of Owensboro, Ky.-based David Hocker & Associates and Jonesboro-based MBC Holdings.

— Debra Hazel