ROGERS : Site at Pinnacle Hills offered for arts center
Posted on Saturday, March 15, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/219737/
A proposal showing a possible Rogers location for the Walton Arts Center is scheduled to be presented Tuesday to city planning commissioners as developers seek to rezone the land.
The development, called The District at Pinnacle Hills, is south of Pauline Whitaker Parkway on the west side of Interstate 540 near the Promenade exit currently under construction.
Pinnacle Investments, which is developing the Rogers property, presented the site to consultants investigating the Fayetteville arts center’s future as a possibility for the theater.
However, the developer’s project architect, Geoffrey Butler, said it’s still a “long shot.”
A three-phase feasibility study is under way for the Walton Arts Center to evaluate future needs.
Phase 1, released in October, found the center is close to capacity and has fewer seats than art centers in similar communities. Phase 2 will focus on what type of facility is needed, where it could be located, how much it will cost and what it will look like. Phase 3 will focus on fundraising.
Los-Angles based Arts Consultant Group, a firm that studies cultural organizations, is conducting the second phase of the study, which is expected to be finished by mid-April.
Consultants have been talking with officials from North- west Arkansas’ major cities to see where an expansion or new facility could be located as part of the study’s second phase.
Terri Trotter, Walton Arts Center vice president of external affairs, said in February that the center could consider building a theater with the capacity of between about 1, 400 and 2, 500 seats.
Consultants have looked at sites all over Northwest Arkansas, she said Friday, and the center is “not anywhere near a site-selection process.”
The theater is a small portion of the plans and shouldn’t be the main focus of the overall concept, Butler said. Plans also include high-end retail, restaurants, office space, hotels, two parking garages and a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market.
“The only sure thing on that whole development is the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market,” he said. “The rest of it is basically open to development.”
Rogers Mayor Steve Womack called the concept plan a “reflection of possibilities,” but cautioned against reading too much into the art center’s inclusion in the rezoning request.
“When you’re planning a proposed development, I think it’s appropriate to give scale to a project like that to see the possibility of what could happen.”
Theresa Nazario, general counsel and asset manager for Pinnacle Investments, said it’s important to know plans are not concrete. “Although it has been included in our plan, the development is more than just a performing arts center,” she said. “There’s a lot of things coming to the table.” Trotter said she’s uncertain what the center’s feasibility study, which is expected to be finished sometime in the fall, will find. But she’s pleased to see people are engaged with the future of the Walton Arts Center. “I think that all the discussion going on about the concept is really good,” she said. “It’s important for raising awareness in general about the needs in Northwest Arkansas and the fact that the performing arts are really central to having a vibrant community. From that standpoint, it’s exciting that people are dreaming about possibilities.”
To contact this reporter: aotoole@arkansasonline. com