We're open : New businesses bring life to plaza at Rogers intersection
Posted on Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Daily Record photograph by Sarah Nader Customers enjoyed food and drinks at the recently opened J.J.'s Grill n' Chill at 4500 W. Walnut St. in Rogers on Monday evening.
With an estimated 21 percent of new-construction commercial and office space unoccupied in Benton and Washington counties, the fact that the retail plaza at 4500 W. Walnut St. sat nearly empty for the better part of two years was hardly surprising or out of the ordinary. Even with the constant traffic flow in that area, just east of Interstate 540 near the Scottsdale Center, times are tough and many investors are hesitating before opening new businesses.
But things have all of a sudden perked up at 4500 W. Walnut St., where the only tenants three short weeks ago were a National Guard recruiting office and Angel Nails. A Verizon Wireless dealer, the state's first BatteriesPlus store and a new restaurant, J.J.'s Grill n' Chill, have all opened in recent weeks, bringing the once-unoccupied, new-construction plaza to life.
While Verizon Wireless is a familiar concept, BatteriesPlus and J.J.'s Grill n' Chill are new to the area.
BatteriesPlus
For anyone who has not heard of BatteriesPlus, co-owner Chris Cox believes his newest location will save more than a few people in a pinch.
"The comment we get most is, 'We've been everywhere ..." said Cox, whose family owns two additional BatteriesPlus stores in the Tulsa area. "We want to change that. We want BatteriesPlus to be the first place you turn when you need a battery - any battery. What's different about our location (in Rogers) is this is the first BatteriesPlus in the entire state of Arkansas."
With batteries of all shapes and sizes for power tools, digital cameras, camcorders, cell phones, smart phones and even automobiles and watercraft, Arkansas' first BatteriesPlus may very well have that odd battery you just can't seem to find anywhere else. And if they don't, BatteriesPlus, in most cases, will offer to actually sit down and make you one.
"We try to have everything you could need in stock, but if for some reason we don't, we have a tech center at the back of the store where we can build your own battery on site," Cox said.
BatteriesPlus has been open for one week and has already assembled a new power-drill battery pack, built a battery to fit a Dustbuster and used defective batteries brought in by customers as templates for constructing new ones.
"There are a few cases where we might not be able to work our magic, but normally, as long as we can get into it, we'll do it," Cox said. "At our Tulsa stores, 30 to 40 percent of our business is done at our tech center. I expect that will be the same here in Rogers.
"There are customers that have been coming to us for years that come in and say, 'We finally found something you don't have.' I'm happy to tell them, 'Yes, we do.'"
J.J.'s Grill n' Chill
J.J.'s Grill n' Chill is Jody Thornton's third restaurant and his first outside Austin, Texas. The full-service restaurant boasts a large bar with more than 30 beers on tap, a wine list and more. But the restaurant's menu is what manager Ryan Lewis said tends to get the taste buds going.
"The dishes you order here have flavor," Lewis said. "It's started to catch on quick. We get really good lunch and dinner crowds."
So far, the hottest items on the menu have been the Philly Cheese Steak, J.J.'s World-Famous Cheeseburger and the Roadhouse Spuds, scalloped potatoes drowned in J.J.'s special cheese sauce and bacon bits. J.J.'s also offers Happy Minutes, where all domestic draft beers are served up for 50 cents between 3 and 3:15 p.m. According to Lewis, Happy Minutes will be offered the first 15 minutes of every hour until 6 p.m., daily.
The menu also includes a variety of wraps, sandwiches, grilled items, appetizers, salads, soups and even homemade cheesecake.
The interior is casual, with the walls covered in barn wood, local photographs, memorabilia and more.
"All around, we're trying to separate ourselves from the typical chain restaurant," Lewis said. "We even have acoustic music every night from 6 to 9 p.m."
Lewis and Cox both said the traffic counts in the area of Walnut Street, immediately east of I-540, made the plaza an attractive location to bring their concepts to a new market. And with that, a relatively uninhabited parking lot just a few weeks ago has become part of those traffic counts.
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