Walmart Headquarters Takes Shape in Bentonville

Cindi Marsiglio, Walmart’s senior vice president for corporate real estate

There is no questioning the scale of Walmart Inc.’s new corporate campus in Bentonville.

The numbers are telling: 12 office buildings, 11 parking garages, 10 facility buildings for amenities such as a fitness center. In 2021 alone, contractors on the project have received permits valued at more than $630 million. Since 2019, the value of the permits has totaled more than $711 million.

And the project is just now getting into vertical construction of the buildings and garages.

“This year has been a year of paving, parking and power,” said Cindi Marsiglio, Walmart’s senior vice president for corporate real estate. “Paving, parking and power are the enablers to the office building construction. We are on schedule. We are looking forward to seeing more bricks and sticks.”

Walmart announced the project in September 2017. At the time, CEO Doug McMillon said the “ad hoc office network” of 20 buildings spread throughout Bentonville was complicating Walmart’s growth and collaborative needs. The new campus would be in one immense place with natural light in the buildings, open landscaping and plenty of parking.

Walmart selected Gensler of San Francisco as the project’s executive architect but also hired local operators including Miller Boskus Lack Architects of Rogers, CEI Engineering Associates of Bentonville, Nabholz Construction Corp. of Conway and the Springdale office of Flintco LLC of Tulsa.

“Each project element in and of itself is a large complex undertaking,” Marsiglio said. “The benefit we do have is being on a continuous parcel; having the 350-ish acres sort of isolated is one of the big advantages. All the vendors with us have to work in very close coordination to keep the site moving forward and safe.

“That just takes really excellent planning, excellent communication and excellent partnership between Walmart and all of our contractors, as well as our architects and engineers who designed the site for us.”

Marsiglio said Walmart aims to open the campus in stages through 2025. The first new building has opened: a 400,000-SF layout center on Southeast Eighth Street that Crossland Construction of Rogers built with a $73.05 million permit.

Marsiglio said McCownGordon Construction of Kansas City should complete two central utility plants in the first quarter of 2022.