Bentonville puts 2 buildings up for sale

City plans to vacate longtime homes of government offices, municipal court

BENTONVILLE — The city is accepting bids until Oct. 25 for two downtown government buildings a block west of the downtown square.

Mayor Bob McCaslin told Bentonville City Council members in August the investment to repair and maintain the buildings at 115 and 117 W. Central Ave. wouldn’t be the best use of taxpayer money because the city plans to move out of them.

The three-story building at 117 W. Central Ave. houses the mayor’s office, purchasing office, utility billing, human resources, accounting, information technology and legal departments.

It needs a new roof and mold abatement and has other “significant needs,” McCaslin said.

The city bought the building at 117 W. Central Ave. for $65,000 from Rogers Investment Co. in 1981, according to county property records. Not much is known about the building’s history. It doesn’t appear on a 1908 Sanborn map, said Leah Whitehead, president of the Benton County Historical Society. The Sanborn company has published detailed maps of cities for fire insurance purposes since 1866, according to its website.

A 1964 phone book shows Callison-McKinney Hardware and Furniture at 117 W. Central Ave., Whitehead said.

The 115 W. Central Ave. building just east was built in 1906 as the Benton County National Bank building, according to records from the Historical Society. The bank consolidated with First National Bank of Bentonville in July 1930 and closed its doors five months later.

The city bought the building in 1934 and used it for office space and the library, according to the Historical Society. The building was later used for the municipal court and City Council chambers. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places.

Albert Oscar Clark designed the building, which is characterized by its Roman temple form, in 1906. The building’s design is symmetrical. Four marble columns with modified Corinthian capitals resting on a raised platform accent the front. Large semi-elliptical windows are above the main entrance.

The two buildings are in a prime location, said Dana Davis of Keller Williams. He added that building prices downtown have risen significantly as the city’s grown. The Massey Hotel building at 125 W. Central Ave. west of City Hall sold for $570,000 in 2006 and $2.86 million in 2017, according to property records. The building at 109 N. Main St. on the west side of the square sold for $539,000 in 2005 and $1.4 million in 2017.

The sale of the city-owned buildings could provide more retail and office space in the downtown core, Davis said.

“It gives a developer an opportunity to put in some different, unique uses that are in walking distance of the square,” he said. “It just depends on what a new owner would want to do with that particular space.”

The city plans to build a new City Hall just north of the Community Development Building at 305 Southwest A St. where the council meets, McCaslin said. The city owns the land. There are no estimates on what a new building would cost.

The city will work with a buyer on a time frame in which employees would need to vacate City Hall on West Central Avenue, McCaslin has said.

It would be similar to when the city continued to operate out of the utility buildings on Southeast Fifth Street after they were sold and while the new maintenance facility on Southwest Municipal Drive was constructed.