Growing Retail

Benton and Saline County as a whole are well known for housing growth. The schools are attractive to families and the housing market is booming with options that meet the most extravagant budgets to the more economic consumer. Retail options have grown in the area, but it’s been at a slower pace than the residential growth. The opening of Alcoa Exchange in Bryant 10 years ago, with anchors Target and Kohl’s, helped to meet consumer needs; however Little Rock and Hot Springs still serve as major shopping and dining hubs for Saline County residents. With the opening last year of Hurricane Creek Village, featuring Kroger Marketplace and Academy Sports + Outdoors, and The Shoppes of Benton, set to open next year, officials are hopeful residents won’t have to leave Saline County to meet their shopping and dining needs.

Benton Mayor David Mattingly said it’s imperative to grow retail, thus growing the sales tax base, to better serve residents with improved infrastructure and public safety. “If we give them amenities and shopping so they don’t have to go past the county line, they stay here, and the sales tax revenue grows, and we are better able to provide services and safety to the citizens,” he said. “It all comes full circle.”

The Shoppes of Benton will be located on the north side of Interstate 30, about a quarter mile west of Alcoa Road. A tentative groundbreaking ceremony was scheduled mid-May for the project, which is slated to open next summer. Mattingly noted the following national establishments that are expected: TJ Maxx, Ulta Beauty, Hobby Lobby, Pet Smart, HomeGoods, Rack Room Shoes and Texas Road House.

GBT Realty Corporation of Brentwood, Tenn., is the project developer. Jeff Pape, GBT’s managing director, shopping center division, said Benton is a prime location for this development because of the market’s continued growth and current lack of retail in the area. “The Shoppes of Benton will not only strengthen retail amenities but also provide more choices for consumers,” he said.

The center will serve as a “destination shopping experience with a stellar mix of national retail tenants that provide soft goods, services and dining options,” Pape said. The anchor tenants pursued the Benton market and this development, he added. “GBT then created a strong merchandising mix to compliment their soft goods offering.” The Shoppes of Benton, with about 1,300 parking spaces, is designed to be “a first-class shopping center,” Pape added, with architectural details that complement the Benton Event Center as well as the Riverside Park Project currently under construction.

Over the past decade, Benton’s population has grown more than 40 percent, Mattingly said. This development is the type of investment that provides “exponential returns in job development and tax revenue,” he said. The retail center is expected to bring more than 700 jobs and nearly $1.7 million in local annual tax revenue to the city of Benton, GBT reports. Texas Road House, a restaurant, will be an outparcel location, and negotiations are under way with several additional soft goods retailers as well as a national fast-casual restaurant for one of the three remaining outparcels.

The Shoppes of Benton is made possible by a resolution passed last September by the city of Benton that established a partnership with the Benton Public Utilities Commission to support the infrastructure improvements needed at development sites. An estimated $1.4 million will be contributed by the public partnership in the form of materials and equipment needed to extend water, sewer and electrical services. The retail center is the first commercial development to capitalize on this agreement.

Mattingly pointed out that Benton is in a prime location for growth and consumer activity, not only among residents but also for people traveling south and north on I-30. Even people south of Benton on their way to the Outlets of Little Rock Building have to drive through Benton first. Amenities such as The Shoppes of Benton makes the city an even more enticing place to stop and stay a while – and shop, too.