BENTONVILLE (TB&P) —A niche movement in commercial real estate development will soon make its debut in Arkansas.
Springfield, Mo.-development and property management company Green Circle Projects is nearing completion of an agricultural neighborhood in Bentonville known as an “agrihood.”
In the simplest explanation, an agrihood is a residential community with an urban farm as part of the property. The Urban Land Institute (ULI), a Washington, D.C.-based thought leader on housing and land use, says the idea of focusing on food within real estate projects can “translate into enhancements to health, environmental sustainability and the bottom line.”
The community-building concept dates back several decades, but agrihoods still represent only a small percentage of the overall housing market. In fact, the agrihood in Bentonville, called Red Barn, is thought to be the first of its kind in the state.
“I am not aware of any other agrihoods in Arkansas,” said Ed McMahon, a senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C. “Several other developers have expressed interest in the concept, but this is the first one that is coming out of the ground [in Arkansas].”
Read more about Arkansas’s first agrihood coming to Bentonville form our partners at Talk Business & Politics.
