NORTHWEST ARKANSAS Focus : Eager shoppers greet Promenade opening
Posted on Thursday, October 5, 2006
ROGERS - The Pinnacle Hills Promenade opened for business Wednesday after nearly two years of construction.
The Pinnacle Group, based in Rogers, and project partner General Growth Properties Inc. of Chicago built the 980, 000-square-foot retail and office center, which is among the largest in the state.
Robert Michaels, president and chief operating officer of General Growth Properties, said Northwest Arkansas residents no longer have to leave the area in search of fine shopping.
"No more driving to Tulsa, to Kansas City or to Little Rock for your favorite retailers. We have brought them to you,"Michaels said.
The Pinnacle Group's principal partner, Bill Schwyhart, spoke of the Promenade's place in the area's entrepreneurial heritage, referring to the successful ventures of the Walton family with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the Tyson family with Tyson Foods, Inc. and the Hunts with J. B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.
Hollywood also was represented. Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., original members of the singing group The 5 th Dimension, were introduced to the crowds awaiting the final ribbon-cutting ceremony and stores' opening their doors.
Among the crowd were two Rogers residents curious to see what had become of their for- mer cow pasture in south Rogers.
Sisters Kate Scott, 21, and Patti Scott, 16, once had the run of the land now occupied by the retail center and surrounding developments.
"We used to have our cows here. Dad managed the farm for Evelyn Rice for 21 years,"Kate Scott said. She noticed one of the Promenade's streets was named in honor of Rice.
The sisters spent their childhood living in a house that once stood where the Embassy Suites hotel now sits on Pinnacle Hills Parkway west of Interstate 540.
"It really is curious to see what it is like after six or seven years,"Kate Scott said.
Patti Scott is benefiting from the changes because she has a job at the new Build-A-Bear store in the Promenade. And Kate Scott is glad not to have to drive to Fayetteville to shop.
"We're really glad to see Forever 21. We love that store,"Kate Scott said.
The two were part of a crowd that surged toward tables set up on Tower Avenue, where 2, 500 free gift bags awaited shoppers. Each bag contained a Pinnacle Hills Promenade T-shirt and a few smaller gifts. The bags were gone within 10 minutes.
Later, groups of eager shoppers strolled along the sidewalks peering into store windows and pausing to watch a sidewalk magician manipulate silver rings.
Nearly 200 people were brought in to work temporarily or assist shoppers throughout the opening weekend, said David Faulkner, the Promenade's senior general manager.
"There are 75 on the crunch crew,"he said. Those are General Growth employees from other properties who come to clean and ready a shopping center for its opening.
Kevin Kalbac was busily handing drink samples over the counter of his Dairy Queen / Orange Julius franchise inside the food court.
The former Plano, Texas, resident quit his corporate job, sold his house and moved to Rogers to open the double franchise.
"It is the first Orange Julius in Northwest Arkansas. Everybody knows the brand and it is generating a lot of interest. Ever since I moved here and would talk about what I was doing, I get the same reaction. People smile and tell me a story,"Kalbac said.
The Promenade's 980, 000 square feet includes 80, 000 square feet of office space that doesn't count toward retail space. The remaining 900, 000 square feet puts the center near the top of Arkansas' shopping centers in pure square footage, The Pinnacle Group's spokesman John George said.
George said the center's opening does not signal the end of The Pinnacle Group's involvement with the Promenade.
"We are partners in this and we will continue to be partners. We've got more property here and they [General Growth Properties ] have more ideas. General Growth is committed to the property and to the idea of this area,"he said. "We're really looking forward to what's next."
George looked around the shopping center's streets and remembered the groundbreaking ceremony in March 2005.
"You know, I still have a little jar of dirt from the groundbreaking. Funny, it doesn't look anything like what's here now,"he said.
The 106-acre site was transformed from an open field on a hill in southern Rogers in 2004 to the new center.
Investors in The Pinnacle Group are J. B. Hunt, Robert Thornton, Schwyhart and Tim G. Graham.
General Growth Properties owns and manages 209 retail properties in 44 states. It is the second-largest United Statesbased, publicly traded real-estate investment trust.
The development is a "lifestyle center,"a new concept in retailing that offers an outdoor shopping atmosphere reminiscent of Main Street shops of the past. The Promenade is laid out like the crossroads of a small downtown area.
At each end of Tower Avenue sit the retail center's anchor stores, a 155, 000-squarefoot Dillard's department store on the west end and a 98, 000-square-foot J. C. Penney store to the east. At the north end of Park Place is Malco Theater's 42, 860-square-foot, 12-screen Pinnacle Cinema.
The center has capacity for up to 110 stores and kiosks, and about 90 percent is leased. Of those leased stores, about 40 percent are new to the state or the Northwest Arkansas market, said General Growth Marketing Manager Cathy Davis.
Davis said the center will employ about 1, 500 people during peak shopping seasons.
Pinnacle Hills Promenade is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
To contact this reporter: sroberts@arkansasonline. com
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
