Although Bentonville, Northwest Arkansas, boasts several amenities and top industry brands, it is still a developing city. Hence, many construction projects are underway throughout the area. While some, like the Walmart headquarters, are evident, others are not quite so, yet still have massive potential to turn the town around.
Quilt of Parks is an extensive project to resurface downtown Bentonville entirely. It will feature new parks, amphitheaters, urban canopies, and long trails. The Convergence is another exciting but unknown project to link the Amazeum with Crystal Bridges, which residents have always wanted.
Stick around to learn about these behind-the-scenes projects, as you may consider moving to NWA apart from these solid reasons.
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1. Quilt of Parks
The Quilt of Parks is a complete redesign of downtown Bentonville, which is quite a doozy for our town. Despite being in the works for a while, it’s still not well-known.
The project will primarily include the following:
- Brand-new parks
- Amphitheaters
- A promenade for walking through businesses
- Hangout spots from public seating areas to gardens
Whenever I bring people to Northwest Arkansas or meet up with others visiting, we hang out for coffee at Onyx.
While discussing, I always ask them if they would buy property next to Apple or Google headquarters 5-15 years before their construction. The answer’s always an unequivocal “yes,” which is unsurprising because the whole area benefits from their presence, as we see today.
Hence, people should start foreseeing that whenever they come here during construction periods.
What will become of the constructions in the future, i.e., from 2025, will be a major game changer for how people do things and run businesses here and how others will run them across America. For example, Walmart headquarters’ presence will come with exciting perks.
The rail system will also leapfrog competitors in various industries to do things better and differently than others have done in the past. Long story short, this will be a significant improvement for Bentonville.
Despite already being a fantastic city, they are still active, pushing the envelope of what a city should be and what they want the future to become.
Presently, The Quilt of Parks has the following developments:
The Dave Peel Park
If you’ve been to Dave Peel Park, you’ll be familiar with a vacant area adjacent to the park. That space is now turning into a vast family-friendly play center. It’ll have a lot of seating areas and sites for family hangouts.
They mainly choose that location because it is adjacent to the Square, where everything happens in Bentonville.
It can be the first project to kickstart the Quilt of Parks constructions, which will happen very soon, maybe in 2023, one at a time.
Furthermore, a big activity center with a future city hall adjacent to the new Dave Peel Park will lie down the road. It’ll have actual amphitheater seating, giving room for entertaining performances.
Of course, there’ll also be trails for bikers to enjoy summer rides.
The brick-laid roads will have new businesses, structures, and future developments due to the rebuilding of the downtown section.
Additionally, the park, Tusk & Trotter, Travolle, and many retail outlets will be organized differently, with new brick-laid roads passing through. All roads around will also see a new face-lift.
Walking down, you’ll also notice many more urban canopies (trees) that should offer cool, relaxing shades.
The Commons
The Commons will be another adjacent park, a little farther south from the Square, but with easier accessibility. It’ll feature rain gardens and a big theater.
The idea is to have totems here, as they’ve started subscribing to the “live, work, and play” notion in NWA. Hence families living around the area will have a great place to live, work, and play.
I found it even more fascinating that they’re reconstructing all the downtown sections. However, they’ll take one at a time because redoing everything will be too much chaos for Bentonville.
You can expect everything new and a reshaped space that’ll be more accessible and available for people to walk and drive through. Therefore, it will be an “even better” place to hang out with friends and family.
Essentially, the plan is to redo the downtown section with Dave Peel Park. Another park they have yet to disclose more about will lie on the east side and one more southeastern.
The amphitheater will be on the south near The Ledger with another development and Lawrence Plaza, which is presently functional.
Then, The Commons and Compton Gardens will lead to Crystal Bridges on the north.
It will be a whole new redesign of the downtown section of Bentonville, growing in size with more parks, bike trails, etc.
Also, I have a 3-day itinerary that can help you decide what activities to do if you’re overwhelmed by everything Northwest Arkansas has to offer.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a foodie, a sports person, a sightseer, or want to spend quality time with your kids; I have something for you. Check out the link below to learn more:
https://www.allthingsnwa.com/3-day-itinerary-northwest-arkansas
2. 8th Street Gateway Park
True to its name, the park will be on Eighth Street in Bentonville, far west of Walmart Headquarters but close to the Square. Speaking of which, did you hear about The Master Trails Walmart plans to build around its HQ? Check out my article to learn all about it.
Now, coming back to the 8th Street Gateway Park, currently there are plans to build surrounding trails connecting to the main Applegate Trail heading west, then north to Kohler Mountain.
The redesign will be massive, and I’m super jazzed to see it happen. They’ve yet to commence construction because they are busy with The Ledgers, but this will be next after they wrap that up.
The bike-friendly park will contain plenty of urban canopies, attracting more residents to hang out. There’ll also be an arena hosting many events with enough food trucks.
I’m sure they’re planning more extensive developments for homes around the area just because the park will be a significant attraction.
I’m curious how this shakes out with the sand pits and oversized clocks, and there’ll also be a lot of overpasses to the area.
With about 15-20 miles (24-32 km) of bike trails, it will be the go-to destination for avid bikers in the area.
I know they intend to finish it by 2025, so my best guess is they will start progress in 2023 and finish in 2024.
3. The Convergence
The Convergence is probably “the most unknown” project and, admittedly, the most challenging to foresee its end product. However, I’m excited because it will finally connect the Crystal bridges to the Scott Family Amazeum.
The Amazeum and Crystal Bridges are next to each other, sharing parking lots and entrances, so now they’re making a big open area to connect both facilities.
Hence, they’ll be working hand in hand in the upcoming years.
Crystal Bridges is currently finishing up a big eight-story parking lot to remove the parking from those areas. It’ll now be a tall parking area instead of a flat one.
They’ll turn the 2-3 acres (87,000-131,000 sq ft) of land into a fun area for kids and connect the spaces.
I assume a creek runs through Crystal Bridges and the museum, so there may be long trailheads along the areas.
They may add a lot of fun places for kids to hang out, which will also attract families, which is Bentonville’s favorite activity.
Therefore, if you’ve ever felt like the Amazeum and Crystal Bridges need to be connected, know it is in the works and will happen sooner than you think.
Also, Crystal Bridges is undergoing a significant expansion – they are building the Alice Walton School of Medicine while finishing the eight-story parking lot. Hence, when you’re over there, you’ll notice the massive construction that’ll continue for the next two years, as they have already laid out the structure.
They will likely begin The Convergence’s construction once they gradually complete those projects, which should be sometime around mid to fall 2024 because they are well-equipped to knock it out rather quickly.
That said, there’s a lot more happening around Bentonville and a lot more places worth mentioning. If you’re interested in learning more about the area, check out my article offering a quick tour of Bentonville, Arkansas.