Hundreds of people gathered at the new Walmart Home Office on Friday for the company’s grand opening celebration and tours of the campus.

The new headquarters of the world’s largest retailer sits on 350 acres on the east side of J Street, between Central Avenue and 14th Street. The opening marked a significant milestone in the multi-billion dollar project that began in 2019.

Two of 12 office buildings are open, with a goal to open an additional office building each month throughout 2025 as the company continues to add finishing touches, said Cindi Marsiglio, senior vice president of corporate real estate.

Walmart employees and other community members convened in Sam Walton Hall, a new 200,000-square-foot, two-story auditorium, for an opening presentation before setting out on a walking tour of the new campus.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was also in attendance.

“I think it’s safe to say that Arkansas has never had a development project like this ever before,” she said.

She spoke about how far the company has come from the days of Walton’s 5&10.

“I know I speak for our entire state when I say how grateful I am that Walmart has stayed true to its roots through all of the years. You’ve never turned your back on Bentonville, Northwest Arkansas, or the entire state that we’re lucky enough that you call home,” she said.

The Campus

The 12 office buildings on Walmart’s new campus are set up in “neighborhoods,” surrounded by seven miles of bike and nature paths. 

Dan Bartlett, executive vice president of corporate affairs, emphasized the importance of the campus being open to the community, with retail shops and restaurants that will begin to open in the spring. Some of the amenities include Bentonville Bicycle Company, Flyway Brewing, Gearhead Outfitters, The Gents Place and Yokozuna Sushi.

“Oftentimes, you see corporate campuses that … go out of their way to wall it off from the community, to make it exclusive. We had the opposite idea,” he said. 

An on-site child care center, which opened in 2024, offers employees access to child care and early childhood education for infants through pre-K. The facility currently has 400 children enrolled. 

“We thought we would be there at about year three. Eight months, we’re already there,” Marsiglio said.

Walton Family Whole Health & Fitness — which has been open for a year — is over 360,000 square feet, featuring a variety of amenities. Marsiglio said they have over 30,000 members and have seen over 750,000 visits to the center since its opening.

It includes indoor and outdoor tennis and pickleball courts, group fitness studios, weight and cardio areas, a lap pool, leisure pools and hot tub, a meditation garden and walking pathways, hydromassage and cryotherapy, and a youth activity center.

Within the Walton Family Whole Health & Fitness, there is also a cafe and the Nutrition Kitchen, where associates can watch chef demonstrations and take cooking classes.

Other features on the campus include outdoor patios, rooftop terraces, food truck pavilions and Helen’s Amphitheatre — a large gathering ground in the middle of campus.

Buildings were constructed from sustainable materials, such as regionally sourced mass timber, and are powered by renewable energy. Fifty percent of the campus is green space.

City Councilman Octavio Sanchez, who worked for Walmart for 32 years before retiring, was at the opening celebration. He said having all of the employees in the same area is a huge advantage for the company, and thinks the project was well done. The one thing he felt the company could have incorporated into the project was housing for its employees.

“That would have made it easier for the employees that are going to be working here,” Sanchez said.

City Councilwoman Cindy Acree’s first job as a teenager was in Walmart’s warehouse. 

“To be able to be a part of a thriving community that still has held on to some of its small-town culture, it’s amazing,” she said. “To be home to the largest corporation in the world and still feel like we have roots here, we haven’t lost our perspective.”

By The Numbers

• 50% of campus is green space

• 50% of associates live within 5 miles of campus

• 30,000 members of Walton Family Whole Health & Fitness

• 1,000 bike parking spaces

• 400 children enrolled in Little Squiggles Children’s Enrichment Center

• 300 EV charging stations

• 7 miles of pedestrian paths and bike trails

• 13 acres of lake reservoirs

• 1.5 million cubic feet of mass timber used in construction