BENTONVILLE, Ark. — At Tuesday's school board meeting, the board voted 5 to 1 to approve a land donation to the Excellerate Foundation.
Bentonville School Board President Kelly Carlson says "That's five usable acres behind the Bentonville high school on J Street, to the Excellerate Foundation so that they can explore developing a 100-unit, attainable housing project [and] 60 of those units would be traditional income tax supported units."
Carlson says those 60 units will model traditional-style apartment homes for community members to rent out, and the other 40 units will be single-family homes used specifically for teachers working for the school district.
"Teachers will have the option to live there and lease, or they can enter into an equity share program, which will allow them to begin building equity for their first downpayment for their first home. So it's a very exciting project," Carlson said.
Teachers can only live in those 40 single-family homes for five years, making only principal payments with interest, but when they leave, Excellerate CEO Jeff Webster says they'll get back the principal they put in.
"There won't be a downpayment requirement, they don't have to pay PMI, they don't have to pay taxes, they don't have to pay insurance on the building ... As they exit at the end of five years, they should have $50,000 cash to [use on] their next house. So it's it's a pretty special program for the teachers," Webster said.
Webster says the property sits on a total of 9 1/2 acres, but only 5 1/2 of the acres will be developed on due to the remaining acres being in a floodplain.
"There's an endless upside for how can it positively affect the community," Carlson explained.
Webster says the market rate in Bentonville for a one-bedroom is about $1500 a month depending on square feet, but these rental units would be significantly cheaper.
"[40 units] should be about 750 a month, and the [60 other] units with two-bedrooms ... those should be about $1,000 a month, Webster said.
The Bentonville Public School District is the first in the region to approve a housing proposal.
"We always say that it's a win for the parents of the students that live there, and for other people that are in the district that can take advantage of this. so we're excited to simply be doing our part in helping address affordable housing issues that are out there," Webster said.
Carlson agreed in a similar statement saying, "I look forward to the success. providing attainable and affordable homes to make this community better. And as we are trailblazing, hopefully, others can be encouraged by what we've accomplished here, and look to do other projects throughout this region that can provide affordable and attainable homes for all the citizens."
Construction is expected to be completed with full occupancy by August 2026.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.