Local university finds new home

ROGERS — Webster University found a new Northwest Arkansas home at the Center for Nonprofits.

Webster, which held classes in Fayetteville for 20 years, made the move north so it could better serve the students and the community, according to a news release from the school.

“We were looking to downsize and get a little less of a leasing cost,” said Mike Gibbs, director of the university’s Northwest Arkansas campus. “We got to looking around and found the Center for Nonprofits had space available. We liked what we saw.”

Webster’s home campus is in St. Louis, but the private, nonprofit school has dozens of other campuses in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

The Northwest Arkansas campus offers master’s degree programs in finance, management and leadership, human resources and business administration. Webster’s Arkansas program also offers 13 graduate and undergraduate degrees online.

Webster’s 10-year lease at its location on Millsap Road in Fayetteville was set to expire this month. Classes started at the Rogers location three weeks ago.

Webster has numerous master’s program students who work for major companies in Benton County. The Rogers campus will cut their commute time and be more convenient for them, Gibbs said.

He declined to give a current enrollment at the

Northwest Arkansas campus, but said Webster is running two or three classes per term. The school is leasing about 4,000 square feet at the center.

“I’m really pleased,” Gibbs said. “We have a nice, attractive entrance right on the first floor, and we’re getting a lot of people walking by and asking questions, which was something we didn’t have in the other location.” The center, run by The Jones Trust, opened in the former St. Mary’s Hospital building on West Walnut Street in 2009.

Its focus is providing below-market-rate leases for nonprofit organizations in a space that encourages collaboration and provides easy access to services for the public. It offers a total of about 220,000 square feet of leasable space.

Chase Coonrod, community catalyst and property manager for the trust, said the Rogers facility is the largest stand-alone nonprofit center in North America. The Community Clinic and Benton County Health Department are the center’s largest tenants.

Webster has signed a three-year lease at the center, he said. The cost of the lease wasn’t disclosed.

“We’re excited to have them,” Coonrad said. “It’s a good partner to have so we can offer these services to the community. It’s going to make it a lot more accessible for people and a lot easier for them to pursue an MBA.”

Northwest Arkansas Community College formerly leased space at the center for its culinary and adult-education departments. Both departments have moved within the past few years.