The revitalizing makeover along Emma Avenue in downtown Springdale continues with several major projects set to come online in the coming year.
One of the most prominent projects is Via Emma, a $34.3 million mixed-use development by Blue Crane that will eventually cover an entire city block with residential units, commercial spaces and a community area. Blue Crane is the real estate development arm of the investment company Runway Group of Bentonville, which was founded by Steuart and Tom Walton, the grandsons of Walmart Inc. founder Sam Walton.
Groundbreaking at the Via site was in February and the first two of the project’s four buildings are scheduled to open in the summer of 2026. The remaining two buildings are scheduled to open by the end of 2026.
The project will eventually have more than 150 residential units, totaling 111,000 SF, and 11,600 SF in six commercial spaces on the first floor of the “Emma” building. Via sits inside the perimeter of four downtown Springdale streets: East Emma and East Meadow avenues and Park and South Water streets.
Via isn’t Blue Crane’s only entry in the downtown Springdale building trend. The group is also the driving force behind the $28 million Hotel Sundry, which is scheduled to open in early 2027 after breaking ground in May.
The Hilton-branded hotel, which will have 124 rooms and a ground-floor Italian restaurant, will be approximately three blocks from Via on East Emma. It will connect, as well, to the Razorback Greenway trail.
Blue Crane also opened the 55-unit apartment complex 202 Railside, adjacent to Via. Railside has commercial space and a rooftop food-and-drink patio.
“We’re supportive of investing in downtown Springdale because we see what’s already here — a vibrant community with deep roots and strong potential for growth,” said Farris DeBoard, a development partner with Blue Crane.
Fab Bathrooms
The Via project, designed by BUF Studio of Bentonville and Modus Studio of Fayetteville, will have several unique features, including use of cross-laminated timber and prefabricated bathrooms for some of the residential units.
The contractor for the project is ARCO Construction of St. Louis. Dylan Ream, ARCO’s northwest Arkansas regional manager, said the design variables and the use of CLT and prefab bathrooms make for a fun challenge. Each of the four buildings in the project faces one of the four streets that form a box around the 2.5-acre site, and each will have distinct characteristics.
Having the bathrooms constructed off-site streamlines the building process in more than one way, Ream said. The actual installation is much quicker because the pods are dropped into place and then attached to water, sewer and electric lines. The off-site production also avoids material delays that can occur all too often without warning in the construction industry.
“The big benefit from its perspective of the product piece is the time savings from a finishing perspective,” Ream said. “I get an entire bathroom unit that is prefabricated, preinstalled, prefinished. When I drop it into place and cut it loose from the rigging of the crane, it’s a finished product.
“It doesn’t require the typical construction process of roughing in the plumbing, and then roughing in the electrical, and then putting in the drywall and finishing the drywall and painting, and then putting tile down, all those parts and pieces.”
Unique Build
The use of prefabricated bathrooms is one facet that sets the Via apart, but another is the differences among the four buildings that make up the development.
Two of the buildings will be built using CLT, while a third will be a more traditional construction. The fourth will have height allowances for the retail spaces on the ground floor.
“They’re different footprints, different styles with the different product types and the different construction pieces and components,” Ream said. “The four buildings do have kind of a unique blend and look to themselves, all by each other. Because it’s different and unique — call it what you will — from our end, I think that’s what really piques our interest.
“As a general contractor that sees similar product types day in and day out, it’s the unique ones that have a tendency to burn an image into your head on what you were able to accomplish and how you’re able to go about solving the problems.”
Ream said ARCO has done several CLT projects in other states but this is its first in northwest Arkansas. The state has seen an increase in the use of mass timber, most notably in the new Walmart Home Office in Bentonville. Another prominent CLT construction is the 202,000-SF Adohi Hall on the University of Arkansas campus.
“There’s definitely a growing trend to that being used in this area,” Ream said. “We’re excited and hope to see more of it. It’s a natural product that has a really clean, natural look. It is definitely growing in this market for sure.”
Downtown Destination
The four major cities that are home to most of northwest Arkansas’ population base have seen much investment and development in their downtown areas.
Springdale, the second-largest city in the region, normally doesn’t get the attention its more prominent sister cities such as Fayetteville and Bentonville receive. Its downtown region has seen the same type of development attention, though, beginning with Tyson Foods’ opening of an office on Emma in 2017.
Developer Tom Lundstrum couldn’t be happier to see the developmental love being shown to Emma Avenue, the main thoroughfare that cuts through the heart of Springdale’s downtown. Lundstrum and his partner, Ken Hall, spearheaded the renovation of the Apollo Theater, as well as the housing developments Little Emma and Big Emma, which have added more than 100 residential units.
Big Emma, where construction has just finished, will be across Park Street from Via.
“It’s transformative,” Lundstrum said. “Obviously, all the downtowns in northwest Arkansas have gone through extensive renovation. Springdale is the last, and we’re trying to do it right. It’s the typical rising tide lifts all boats, right?
“The nice thing now is you’ve got about four or five developers downtown and we’re all in the same boat. We’re rowing in the same direction. We’ve got a common goal, and the city is a fantastic partner in that. You can see the dividends.”
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