Panel OKs projects on Rogers’ west side

One Uptown to have three stories with retail, offices, restaurants, rooftop seating

The Rogers Planning Commission also approved plans for Fire Station No. 8 on West Pleasant Grove Road.

ROGERS — The city’s growing west side is on its way to seeing more development after the Planning Commission on Tuesday approved plans for three projects.

A developer plans to begin construction in April of a mixed-use development on the city’s west side.

The commission approved plans for One Uptown, a more than 64,000-square-foot development on about two acres at the corner of South Champions Drive and West Pauline Whitaker Parkway.

Property owner Laurice Hachem of Florida-based Hachem Investments Inc., said One Uptown would have three stories with retail space on the first floor, office space on the second floor and restaurants on the third floor with rooftop seating.

No specific stores or restaurants are planned for One Uptown, but Hachem said she would like to see a coffee shop with outdoor seating on the bottom floor.

Hachem said the goal is to complete the development by April 2020.

The commission also approved plans for Fire Station No. 8 on West Pleasant Grove Road. The more than $3 million fire station is to be paid for using money from the $299.5 million bond issue voters approved in August.

Fire Chief Tom Jenkins said the city needs a fire station on the west side to accommodate growth, noting the Shadow Valley and Scissortail neighborhoods. In 2011, the department could reach 99 percent of addresses in the city within six minutes and 30 seconds. That has since dropped to about 94 percent, Jenkins said in December.

The city hired 12 firefighters to work at the new station. In December, the City

Council accepted a $1.2 million Staffing Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to pay 75 percent of the firefighters’ salaries and benefits for three years.

The fire station will be more than 7,800 square feet on about three acres, planning documents show.

Plans for a steakhouse also were given the green light from commissioners.

Plans for Houston-based Saltgrass Steakhouse show it would be more than 8,000

square feet on about 1.5 acres on South JB Hunt Drive behind Walmart Neighborhood Market on the city’s west side.

The commission unanimously approved all three items.