Plans for a 228,000-SF office and mixed-used building in downtown Bentonville were submitted to the city Monday.
A year ago, the office-sharing company WeWork of New York announced it would build at 224 S. Main St. with partner Josh Kyles, a Bentonville real estate developer who owns the property. Since then, WeWork has undergone upheaval in the wake of its cancelled IPO in August, which revealed huge financial losses and led to the departure of CEO Adam Neumann.
The plans submitted Monday are still for the WeWork project, Kyles and the development group Cushman & Wakefield/Sage Partners in Rogers said. The project is title, "Bentonville City Center."
See the Plans: Download the planning documents here.
Kyles told Arkansas Business that the large-scale development plans were developed by Marlon Blackwell & Associates of Fayetteville in concert with WeWork, which had hired famed Mexican architect Michel Rojkind for the building’s design.
The building's opening date is projected for 2022.
"It is the decision of the owners, developers and marketing team to only disclose the large-scale plans at this time, when so many of our friends and loved ones are being adversely affected by COVID-19," Kyles said in a news release from Cushman & Wakefield/Sage Partners. "We look forward to better days when we can truly celebrate this development and share plans, renderings and details with the community. Until that time, we have no further information to provide."
Gov. Asa Hutchinson attended the announcement of the project on April 1, 2019. The building was touted as needed space for 3,200 office workers and entrepreneurs, and WeWork officials said they hoped to open in 2021.
Kyles and partner Kris Compton bought the 1.5-acre lot for $3.5 million in 2015. It was once the site of a since-demolished nursing home and is just south of the city's thriving downtown square.
