The Arkansas D-G had an article yesterday about condo development in LR. In it Rett Tucker said that 38 of the River Market Tower units are under contract. He also said that they were "very close to commitment" on two of the buildings three retail spaces. They are talking with a pharmacy and a pub and grill to open by the fall.
Also, he said that 96 out of the 98 units in the 300 rd Tower were had been sold.

Hi Folks; we are so very excited to see the conversations about the Osage Creek Performing Arts Center. I would like to clarify a few things for you all:

1) There is NO 20 Million dollar "donation" nor was there ever. We are looking at a few different options for financing, mostly in the private sector. Money is always a big issue with any project especially one of this scope and scale, but we are confident of the merits of this project to finalize our funding.

2) We are surely looking to host a diverse group of events, not only Rock & Roll. We would ideally like to see a variety that includes Classical Music as well as Pop, and performing arts.

3) We need local support!! This project is so much bigger than any one person or company, our goal is to bring to the forefront all of the culture and art of the region, and give it a global spotlight. We welcome any and all input from interested parties to help us best serve the people of this great region.

4) In spite of all the musings on our FB Page, there is currently no schedule of events at this time to be announced. We are actively working to oversee our logistacal and tactical planning to ensure that whatever we do is not only a success financially, but to ensure that any events are planned out well so as to minimalize the immediate impact on our communities.


Thanks, and stay in touch... Osage Creek Performing Arts Center (OCPAC)

I'm not so sure about increasing tourism, it's not like this area is a big tourist magnet. How much can one museum do? Is it supposed to be of the scale and quality of a major metro museum, the sort of museum with real drawing power? Maybe just regional drawing power? That said I'm certainly glad it's being built, let's not look a gift horse in the mouth...and I'll certainly visit soon after it's opened.

Hmmm...this applies to more than just Fayetteville. But not sure where's the best place to post this. Looks like Walgreens is applying to sell beer and wine at all it's stores in wet counties in the state. This will of course be an issue with the Fayetteville Police Chief and Sen Sue Madison. But outside of NWA I wonder if this will even be an issue at all. Seeing as how beer and some wine is already found in a lot of grocery stores in other wet counties in the state.

Yeah I'd have to say I'm okay with it also. I do think the facility itself will help draw enough tourism that it will make up the difference. I think state officials overall agree as well. I think the only thing they might have done differently is set it up so that it would be after the fact so a set dollar amount could be set. The current situation is what other states have set up as well. Had Arkansas not granted the exemption who's to say they might not have just built it in southwest Missouri instead. Or for that matter not at all.

This site is being prepped for construction finally. Crews have being taking down the houses on the property stick by stick for several weeks and now the trees are being logged. Whether actual building construction is coming soon ..who knows? Our daily newspaper has cut back on development news since the big merger and that was a major source for planning news.

It was called Park Center and had over 100,000 sq. ft of space on around 8 acres when first proposed.

Yep, that is the correct location for this development. It is a mixed use development with retail at the front near zion road and a 6 story medical office building at the Northwest corner of the development nearest Lake Fayetteville. The 6 story building will have 15 residential units/condos on the top floors. The road through this development will be given to the city as a public road and will serve as the new officail entrance to Veteran's Memorial Park (the park on the south side of Lake Fayetteville). It will align with Vantage drive to the south, and it is believed that there will be a stoplight at this intersection after this development is finished. The Parks Board approved the new entrance to the Veteran's Park and recommended a change in name from Vantage Drive to Veteran's Memorial Drive to help with visibility for the park as well as to honor our veterans (currently there is no street named 'Veteran's' in Fayetteville) There are no current active addresses on Vantage Drive, so a name change would not have an adverse economic impact on any businesses or residences. The City Council must act on the name change for it to become official and it is my understanding it will be sponsored at one of the next meetings.

That's all I can recall off the top of my head. I've got details of the development at my office and will check them later. It looks like a really nice mixed use development--especially for that area of town.

Looks like the situation that started a while back between Fayetteville and Johnson is now basically over. Fayetteville has been wanting better access to 'Uptown' also known to most as the 'Mall area'. One thing in particular is better access westward to I-540. The problem was that the land was in Johnson. Fayetteville didn't want to spend a lot of money putting in more direct access to I-540 and then let all the tax dollars from development go to Johnson. But now Johnson has decided to allow 99 acres to de-annex so that it can now be annexed into Fayetteville. The deal both agreed to was basically Fayetteville would be allowed to annex these 99 acres, which was actually less than the previous amount. And Fayetteville will still provide water and sewer services to southern Johnson. Fayetteville was already doing this. But there had been talk of Fayetteville possibly cutting off services because technically there wasn't any contract in place. Southern Johnson will also start getting improved water and sewer services as well. So that Fayetteville can get the 99 acres of what was southwest Johnson. Looks like Fayetteville will eventually have Van Asche extend all the way westward to I-540. I believe there's already a section of Van Asche in the land that was Johnson but isn't directly connected to the Van Asche in Fayetteville. I suppose the city will also look into eventually putting in an interchange on I-540 as well somewhere not too far north of where I-540 and the Fulbright Expressway branch off. But no idea what that might actually come about.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette had an interesting article about the financial details of this project. I read through this topic and it hasn't been mentioned- it seems Crystal Bridges was granted a special exemption by the state legislature from sales and use taxes that is costing any government entity that depends on those taxes a sorely needed source of revenue. The state legislature approved the measure in 2005 when the state had a surplus, local governments weren't cutting back and the project was estimated to cost much, much less than it is now. Because Act 1865 (sponsored by a Bentonville state representative, of course) didn't require Crystal Bridges to report how much it has spent there is now no way to know exactly how much tax revenue the state and local governments have lost because of the exemption.

Crystal Bridges is evidently being tight-lipped about how much has been spent on the construction and art collection but required federal reports show that as of 2008 it had spent $66 million on construction and $257 million on art. Considering the museum was supposed to open in 2009 and construction is not remotely close to being completed in 2010 it is safe to say that the construction budget is many times more than $66 million. There have been several announcements of art purchases that could have ran into the $100 million range but without disclosure by Crystal Bridges the true amount will never be known. Going by the outdated 2008 figures the state and local governments could have lost an estimated $17 million in tax revenue- if the true amount spent were known it would obviously be much more.

The rationale given by Crystal Bridges and supporting government officals is that once it is open that the museum will draw tourism dollars and national recognition that will compensate for the tax exemption. While this is to an extent probable there is no way to know at what cost those benefits will come or when they will come. The money being donated for this museum has came from the success of a corporation that already has cost state and local governments through the aid programs that it's employees use. While no one denies the importance of Wal Mart's presence to the area, it seems arrogant for the individuals to say they want a open-ended tax subsidy and they refuse to disclose how much that it is costing the average taxpayer.

It was not my intention for you to think the east side had the press box. If this picture had been taken before its removal you would be able to see the field side of the press box from this view.

skirby - your captions imply that the view "without the press box" is the facade receiving the new press box. That's not the case. The east entrance in your picture - which is a beautiful example of an art deco facade - has been recently renovated and will remain as is. The new press box is replacing the existing on the west side...you can see the crane in the background.

My editorial on the facade rendering: I appreciate the design intent to infer art deco details. However, while I'll hold on any final judgement until seeing the final product, the rendering underwhelms me...too much going on. I'd like to see the rendering from the field of the glass skyboxes, pressrooms, etc.

War Memorial Stadium without press box.

What the new press box will look like.

Target rising.The entrance will be on the north side with the back facing Doctors Hospital.