BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Bentonville’s Quilt of Parks project has been in the works for almost a year now, and construction continues as crews work toward a summer of 2025 finish.
According to the city’s parks and recreation department, the project is now finishing up phase two of four.
The Quilt of Parks project was born about five years ago when the Parks and Recreation Department discussed the area’s growth.
“Downtown Bentonville had really become the epicenter for public events … but we were cramming these 10,000 person events into a quarter of an acre area on the downtown square,” David Wright, Parks and Recreation director, said. ”We started saying, ‘Okay, how do we expand that canvas a little bit?’”
The answer they came up with was to connect the square to five public downtown spaces.
“What we wanted to do was to expand those and connect them, kind of like we're weaving a quilt together,” Wright said.
The Quilt of Parks will connect the Bentonville Square to Lawrence Plaza, Dave Peel Park, Town Branch Park, the Commons, and Activity Center Park.
All of those spaces connected together will form a new, linear park: The A Street Promenade, which will only be open to pedestrians and cyclists. Cars will be able to cross the promenade at Center Street and Second Street.
“What you will see in your car is that when you cross the promenade, it's a red brick pathway,” Wright said. “… When the vehicle drives up onto the promenade, onto that speed table, it tells the vehicle driver, ‘I’m the guest in this area. This isn't a road; this is a walkway,’ and encourages the vehicle driver to slow down.”
Wright said the new layout will be an adjustment, but it will allow the square to continue being the center for large community events like Downtown Bentonville Inc.’s Farmers Market and First Friday.
“The size of First Friday, the size of Farmers Market, we wanted it to continue to grow, and with the help from the city, with this brand new project, no doubt it is going to be another belle at the ball,” Aaron Nolan, Communications Director for Downtown Bentonville Inc. said. “We’re going to continue to grow in every possible way.”
Wright said he believes in the future, it will pay off for the entire community in more ways than one.
“It could potentially be one of the largest economic development projects the city of Bentonville has ever undertaken,” Wright said. “If we can fast forward, let's say a decade and a half or two decades from now, that promenade will be full of shops and restaurants and art galleries … The long-term impact or the effect of this investment may not be felt initially, but our kids, our grandkids, are really going to see the benefit of being able to remove the vehicles, encourage pedestrian flow, and the retail that opens along with it will have an impact much longer than any of us.”
The next step is to open the walkway in front of the Benton County Courthouse to pedestrians. After that, crews will move construction to the area between the new hotel at the intersection of E Central Ave. and A Street and the restaurants along A Street.
Wright said October is the busiest month for the restaurants downtown, so the goal is to finish that project phase by mid-October.
The entire project is expected to be complete by the summer of 2025.
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