More than 200 people have filled the special-events center known as The Apollo on Emma in downtown Springdale, and they're waiting on some big news from Mike Malone on this hot Thursday afternoon.
Malone spent 10 years as the president and chief executive officer of the Northwest Arkansas Council, the influential organization founded in 1990 by Sam Walton, Don Tyson, John Tyson, J.B. Hunt, Mark Simmons and other business leaders to advance the region's economic and political interests. Malone was hired in 2006 to succeed Uvalde Lindsey, the council's first president. Malone left in 2016 to join Walton family heirs Steuart and Tom Walton in a new entity known as the Runway Group.
The agenda of the Runway Group is an ambitious one. It wants to make Northwest Arkansas a world-class destination for talented residents and well-heeled visitors. It's involved in restaurants and other hospitality projects, real estate development, aviation businesses, cycling advocacy, retail and the arts.
"We're trying to make this the best region in the country by creating extraordinary experiences for residents and visitors alike," Malone says.
A year ago, I attended the first Invest Springdale summit. It was announced at that meeting that Walton family interests planned to renovate the 5,425-square-foot Ryan's Department Store building and demolish the adjacent 24,191-square-foot San Jose Manor on East Emma Avenue. The structures had been purchased in June 2014.
I'm back at this year's Invest Springdale event at the invitation of Jill Dabbs, the former Bryant mayor who headed to Northwest Arkansas earlier this year to serve as executive director of the Downtown Springdale Alliance.
Malone and a couple of associates--Rob Apple of the RopeSwing Hospitality Group and Brenda Anderson of the Blue Crane Development Group--are ready to show those at the summit what's about to happen. There will be new commercial spaces, 48 apartments that will bring full-time residents to Emma, and a concept from RopeSwing that's certain to draw people to downtown Springdale.
RopeSwing is the company behind such popular Bentonville restaurants, meeting and entertainment concepts as the Preacher's Son, Record, Pressroom, The Holler and Louise at Thaden Field.
The new concept in Springdale will be called Traveling Public. Michael Hsu, one of the hottest architects in Austin and the person behind such projects there as Shake Shack and ATX Cocina, will be involved in the Springdale initiative.
Apple joined RopeSwing in 2014 following a career that included stints with DreamWorks Animation and Disney Consumer Products. Traveling Public will be the first RopeSwing project outside Benton County. The Walton family has shown that it will spare no expense--from the most high-profile designers to the best chefs--when creating experiences that one normally would have to be in a much larger city to find.
Traveling Public will resemble The Holler, which is inside the hip 8th Street Market in Bentonville. The Holler describes itself on its website as "a space where you can be social, play shuffleboard with friends, work comfortably with great coffee, or dine and drink no matter the occasion or time of day." It's open from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 7 a.m. until 1 a.m. Friday, from 9 a.m. until 1 a.m. Saturday, and from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. Sunday. There are 182 outlets for those who bring their laptops and work. The menu includes everything from coffee, tea and breakfast pastries to burgers, chicken wings, cocktails, beer and wine. Shuffleboard courts can be reserved.
"We view The Holler as the living room for the Market District in Bentonville," Apple tells those at the Springdale meeting. "Traveling Public can play that same role here."
Work is expected to begin later this year and be completed in early 2021.
There's more. Don Harris, a former executive vice president for Walmart who's now a partner at Shiloh Capital, announces that his company will begin work this fall on 24 residential units at 726 E. Emma.
And Tyler Christopher, an executive vice president of SkipStone Pictures, announces that Skipstone will continue to shoot family-friendly movies for Netflix in Northwest Arkansas. Christopher is best known for his role as Nikolas Cassadine on the long-running ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital. Christopher now lives in Indianapolis and is considering moving to Springdale.
"For every dollar we spend here, we would have to spend close to $100 in Los Angeles," he says. "We've already shot two films here, and we're about to do more. The next one will be a musical. We move quickly. We take 13 to 18 days to shoot, working 12 to 15 hours a day. Then it takes about six months of post-production work before a movie airs."
Christopher says he views the area as "the next Austin," a place where music, movies, art, great restaurants and high-tech businesses come together in a laid-back atmosphere.
Downtown Springdale lagged behind the downtowns of Bentonville and Fayetteville for a time, but things now are coming together in a big way. The trail system known as the Razorback Regional Greenway served as a catalyst for development, especially after the city uncapped Spring Creek in 2016. The momentum continued when Tyson Foods Inc. renovated a 56,000-square-foot facility at 319 E. Emma Ave. and brought 260 information technology workers downtown in November 2017.
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 07/03/2019