A new coffee and ice cream shop is planned for downtown Centerton.

It’s a project of Dave and Jenny Marrs, a local couple who star in the home renovation show Fixer to Fabulous. 

And the building they’ve picked definitely qualifies as a “fixer.”

Paint is peeling, sections of siding are cracked, and an awning hangs haphazardly on the building at 169 N Main Street. It appears to be historic, but exactly when it was built isn’t readily available in public records databases. 

The building has been referred to as the “Merry Matrons” building. 

City Council Member Josie Reed, who is also director of the Centerton Area Chamber, told The Bentonville Bulletin that she had heard from longtime residents that the Merry Matrons was a civic club for women, similar to a Rotary Club. 

Reed has lived in Centerton for more than 25 years, and said she’s “never seen any kind of activity or anything” in the building.

In a Centerton planning commission meeting earlier this month, Dave Marrs framed the project as a way to improve the downtown area.

“I’m not trying to be 7 Brew, they do a great job with drive through,” he said. “That’s not me. I want a place in Centerton where people can park and walk and stay a while.”

He and his wife also operate Marrs Mercantile, one of the few businesses in downtown Centerton. The site of the planned coffee and ice cream shop is just a few doors down.

The renovations to the building will “make it something unique that’s not just an eyesore,” Marrs said. 

The site – and much of the rest of downtown Centerton – is in a floodplain, which Marrs said comes with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regulations that all but ensure a new building couldn’t be built on the site. 

Marrs was at the planning commission meeting to request a waiver of parking requirements because the one-tenth-acre lot doesn’t leave room for adding parking spaces. The waiver was granted with no objections.

At the meeting, ongoing concerns about broader pedestrian safety in the downtown area were also discussed. Bill Edwards, mayor of Centerton, said he is working with state officials to add a crosswalk across Highway 102 Business/Main Street, which runs directly in front of the proposed shop.

The City of Centerton is also in the process of creating a master plan to guide an ambitious overhaul of the area. Early plans call for improvements to the existing downtown and the creation of a new urban, walkable core in nearby fields.