More infill proposed for downtown Fayetteville.

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Why won't anyone freaking develop that spot? It's a prime location.

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It is a prominent location, but for all intents and purposes, that's the edge of downtown. Think of it from a "park and walk to" scenario. There's no ability to park and walk to that spot from the east or south, as the topography drops off sharply into the ravine.

There's an owner who has said they will redevelop it at some point, but I haven't heard anything specific in a long time. I'd think someone gets sick of paying annual property taxes on it, although there is pay parking there right now that probably covers at least that part of it.

The big condo buildings still have vacancies, but those projects blew their pro-forma because they shot for sales of small units at a really high price point, and used a lot of steel in construction, back when steel was at a premium. I don't think the Legacy Building has ever been realistically priced.

They're gradually being retraded and downgraded in price as each subsequent owner realizes that.

That's no reason to not root for this project. I am not sure if they are proposed as rentals or as condos, but it's a nice building from a good architect. I have no desire to move downtown. Too loud and busy. But good for anybody who does.

Mark Zweig recently sold two houses on Church Ave for $900k a piece. The market definitely exists for more high-end downtown, you just have to find the sweet spot of good amenities, high quality, and decent price point.

People love to talk about infill and pretend Fayetteville is a little Portland. It just isn't so. We can build all the 8 story buildings we want, but if people don't move in, it doesn't matter.

No shortage of single family subdivisions on the drawing board though

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pretend Fayetteville is a little Portland. It just isn't so

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How
fricking
DARE
You?

It's a pretty building. Why the frick do you care if it succeeds once it is built?



I've never been in the upper floors of Three Sisters, but I like looking at it and I have drank in the ground floor bars. That's good enough for me.

I like The Dickson. I am not a fan of Legacy, but I've enjoyed dinner there. My main issue is that they went cheap on the finishes late in the game, trying to make up for excess on the front-end.

I do like the architectural style and homage to old, local buildings. But I'm kind of tired of people pretending about what Fayetteville and NWA are

Look at downtown Bentonville. Thrive and the NW corner of the square. People are redoing 100 year old SF houses near downtown and people eat it up. Condos not so much

Same in Fay. Student apts work great. Renovated luxury SF such as Zweigs properties or those on Spring work great. Nothing in The Dickson or Legacy. Hell they converted both to have "hotel" rooms to try and help the 70-90% vacancies they have

Fayetteville is a lot more about strip malls along Van Ache and row houses along Rupple. Probably always will be

You're so freaking mad. I don't understand why.

Developers generally only build what people will buy or rent. I agree that those two specific projects were fricked up. Eventually, someone will live in them. Someone owns them now and pays the interest on the notes, maybe even just from revenues from the businesses in the ground floors. People don't generally buy buildings to intentionally take a loss on them.

Developers propose projects that they think will work, because people don't generally deliberately frick themselves financially. Those two specific projects were last-boom-cycle hubris. They had so much in them that the Legacy was offering 800 sq ft for sale for $500k. That's crazy. $1100 a month for 1000 sq ft in a stick-built building, not so much.

There are a lot of row-houses and even condos planned for downtown Bentonville right now.

You're saying that these people are pretending to be something the area is not. Well, if that's correct, they'll frick themselves financially and won't ever build anything again. I personally believe downtown Bentonville will be full of midrise development in the near future, just because land values have gone through the roof, and the number of amenities down there will dictate demand and eventually make developers want to go vertical. NIMBYs will fight it, as they have in downtown Rogers. But eventually, it will happen.

I think you've got a little too much Scots-Irish reactionary blood in you if the decisions of private developers cause you this much anger.

Regarding Austin....

The vast majority of Austin has been built post 1960. Hell, over half of it has been built post 1980. Most of the city of Austin (which is over 10x the size of Nam) consists of subdivisions, cul de sacs and single family homes. Maybe 30,000-40,000 people live in urban high rise development there right now. That's less than 5% of the city.

Fayetteville has a population of 84,000 or so, depending on growth occurring right now. 5% of Fayetteville is 4,200 people. I'd wager that nearly that many people in Fayetteville already live in that type of housing, or will this fall when three new mid-rise buildings open up.

The primary comparisons to places like Austin and Portland are in the millennial-heavy (which NWA actually is, according to studies) college town, progressive, outdoorsy, craft-beer drinking, dog-park using, white people enjoying, coffee-drinking atmosphere.

Fayetteville and NWA at large do as well with those categories as anybody.

I would love for light rail and all that other urbanite shite to happen

I'm also realistic. We will need some non chain restaurant development first. Everyone loves to talk about the new damn taco bell. What is this, Bryant? People talking about taco bells?