While outlining a new economic development strategy for Bentonville a few weeks ago, Chamber of Commerce CEO Brandom Gengelbach briefly noted there were several city-owned properties that could be good sites for redevelopment.

The chamber’s new strategy includes taking stock of existing community assets and using them to recruit new businesses and increase sales tax revenue, which is the city government’s top income source.

While the following five properties — some with buildings, some empty lots — have been flagged as underutilized, there are no active deals in the works.

Patrick Johndrow, the city’s finance director, said any future deals involving the properties would have to be advantageous for the city.

“We’re working in concert with other entities, but we’re always looking out after getting the best value for the city and the taxpayers,” Johndrow said. “Nothing’s going to be given away.”

Three of the sites are downtown, where real estate now fetches a premium, and could be attractive to those interested in redeveloping them. It “would be nice” to have mixed-use developments on those properties “where we could have retail sales,” Johndrow said.

This building previously housed a courtroom, and the city purchased it from the county last year for $4.65 million. 

It wasn’t actually the building the city wanted — it was the parking lot immediately to the east that came with the property, Johndrow said. The parking lot will be razed to make way for the Quilt of Parks.

The purchase was financed in part by a grant and partially by an interest-free loan, both from the Walton Family Foundation. The city has five years to pay off the loan. 

Since the purchase, the city has completed a lot split, legally separating the building and the parking lot into two parcels. At the moment, the building is used for storage and also houses the city’s GIS and legal departments.

According to property records, the building is 4,914 square feet and the parcel, now separated from the parking lot, is 0.28 acres. The site is next to the Motto Bentonville hotel and just blocks away from the square. 

The city intends to sell the building and believes its value will increase in the coming years, Johndrow said.

“The building will be worth more than we paid for the entire property, especially once we get the Quilt of Parks done,” Johndrow said. “So we’re in no hurry.”

This was previously the city’s utility billing offices until those operations moved to 1000 SW 14th Street in 2021. Other city offices have since occupied the site, but it was recently vacated.

City staff often call it the “AT&T building” due to that company’s previous use of the space before public ownership. 

The building sits across the street from the public library and steps from City Hall. According to property records, it is 5,400 square feet on 0.51 acres.

Earlier this year, architects presented design concepts for a City Hall expansion that would extend into the existing parking area. In all proposed scenarios, the AT&T building was slated for demolition to make room for replacement parking, with the report concluding that the building “was deemed unsuited for renovation and/or use as office space.”  The expansion plans are paused indefinitely due to a lack of funding. 

About 20 years ago, the city took ownership of the former National Guard armory at the corner of 8th and Main streets in exchange for city-owned land near XNA where a new, significantly larger armory was built.

It was then renovated to house the Bentonville Police Department’s bomb squad, with a reported renovation cost of $300,000, according to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Some equipment for the fire department is housed in a metal outbuilding as well.   

Due to its origins, the building has a warehouse-like feel and multiple garage doors. The building sits on 0.71 acres, but square footage and other details are not readily available on the county’s property records website. 

This 1.5-acre lot is on the northeast corner of SW Bright Road and SW Regional Airport Boulevard. The property is currently undeveloped.

The property is next to a new section of SW Bright Road that stretches from SW Regional Airport Boulevard to 28th Street and was built with funding from the 2021 bond measures.

The “little bitty lot” is probably big enough for a convenience store or similar development, Johndrow said. 

This lot sits east of the Bentonville Community Center and north of the city animal shelter. It covers 6.15 acres, according to property records.