BENTONVILLE -- Real estate agent Natalie Edwards remembers when downtown Bentonville was a bit of a hard sell.
The streets were quiet, most houses were in various states of disrepair, and there wasn't much in the way of amenities in the area. Downtown was just a place to buy a cheap house.
Though houses in the Bentonville historic district along West Central Avenue usually sold fairly quickly, Edwards had one house listed there for five months.
"Downtown real estate sales were very quiet," Edwards said. "Nobody was calling and saying, 'Show me all you got downtown.' It just wasn't on people's radar."
That all changed May 23, 2005, Edwards said, when Alice Walton unveiled plans for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which promised to transform downtown Bentonville into a destination for tourists across the country.
The house on West Central sold the same day the museum was announced.
"To me, that's when it started," she said. "The announcement of Crystal Bridges made experienced investors say, 'I think something is going to come of downtown.'"
Since that time, Edwards has seen a steady increase in downtown housing interest as the construction of restaurants, shops and attractions increased the desirability of downtown living. Momentum temporarily was halted when the national recession hit around 2008 and slowed the downtown real estate market. After the recovery started -- around 2010 -- property values and sales have increased, she said.
The opening of Crystal Bridges on Nov. 11, 2011, and the debut of the Scott Family Amazeum on Wednesday have only sparked more interest.
The increase in downtown housing options, which include apartment complexes, single-family homes and multifamily homes, provide living spaces within a 15-minute walk or bike ride to downtown happenings such as First Fridays and the Bentonville Farmers Market. That creates the sustainable, community-engaged lifestyle that is driving demand for downtown housing, developers said.
"You can't get a better location," said Melanie Merkling, a real estate agent who moved in June from her house on Northwest B Street to the Thrive apartment complex a few blocks south of the Bentonville square. "My whole world is within my view right now. I really like how bigger cities have catered to pedestrians, but I've never wanted to live in a big city. So downtown, you have all that with a small-town feel."
Though development has drawn many big-city amenities to Bentonville, residential developers said they're committed to maintaining a small-town atmosphere by marrying historical characteristics with modern features fitting in with the architectural style of downtown neighborhoods.
"Our hope when we build is that it looks like these homes predate everything else that was here," said Todd Renfrow of Lamplighter Restoration.
Developers also said they aim to help residents get involved in the downtown community by collaborating with local businesses.
Thrive, a 44,000-square-foot building on the corner of Southwest Fourth and A streets, consists of 62 residences and two commercial spaces designed to increase support for local businesses. Thrive also offers its residents discounts through partnerships with some community businesses.
"We want to support growth and development down here," said Eve Rosin, experience curator at Thrive. "It doesn't feel corporate. It has a community-based feel because we want people to be invested in the area and to develop those relationships."
But community living comes at a cost. With the ongoing development of the city, home values are on the rise, especially downtown.
Some Lamplighter homes listed on Southwest D Street cost upward of $600,000, about $220 per square foot, according to real estate listings. The average price for a house downtown was $134,555 in 2012, according to the city's Southeast Downtown Area Plan published last year.
Rent at Thrive ranges from $770 to $1,275 a month. The average price for a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in Bentonville is $600, according to the 2014 Northwest Arkansas Apartment Market Survey from CB Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate brokerage firm.
Many residents, however, said the downtown lifestyle is worth the price, especially because they can save on gasoline because of the walkability of the area.
"I feel like the price, for what is offered, is extremely reasonable," Merkling said. "It's not just a home you're getting, it's a community and a lifestyle."
With renewed interest in the downtown area, restaurant and business owners have flocked to the square, making it imperative for the city to encourage high-density residential development to sustain the growing number of amenities downtown, said Troy Galloway, community and economic development director for the city.
"Development in the housing market and the downtown area are mutually beneficial, mutually supportive and mutually dependent," Galloway said.
In 2004, the city started an extensive development project to facilitate downtown growth by removing infrastructure impediments that kept residents and developers out of downtown, Galloway said.
As part of the project, the city installed sidewalks and pedestrian lighting on the blocks beyond the square, improved the visual appearance of storm ditches and overhead power lines and updated water and sewer lines to meet the needs of new development projects, according to the city's 2007 downtown plan.
The city also adopted a plan for 300 acres southeast of the Bentonville square where residential construction has lagged behind the rest of the downtown area, according to the Southeast Downtown Area Plan. The goal of the plan is to develop an Arts District and a Market District to create distinct neighborhoods, which also will create additional destination points downtown, according to the plan.
The Arts District, four blocks south of the square, will be anchored by the Bentonville Public Library and include cultural facilities such as galleries, theaters, book shops, dance studios and performance spaces.
The Market District, along the Razorback Regional Greenway trail, will focus on developing a food and culinary attractions to provide healthy food options for residents.
Expansion will slow once development hits the edges of what buyers consider the "walkability zone," ending the residential building boom. However, because of possibilities for a lucrative resale market, interest in downtown housing won't be slowing any time soon, even after construction has waned, Edwards said.
"We're still a long way from that," she said. "This is just the beginning."
Metro on 07/20/2015