BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Les Key, owner of Meteor Guitar Gallery in Bentonville, said he is in the process of trying to purchase the historic building he rents from.
Key, along with his wife and children, has run Meteor Guitar Gallery since 2013. He said the current owners of the buildings are looking to sell the property.
"It's been in the works for a little while, and it's mainly just driven because of the market around here. The property values are just going through the roof," Key said. "So it was just a decision that was came to by the family that owns the building."
Meteor Guitar Gallery is a guitar shop and concert venue that hosts many events throughout the year. Key said a change in ownership could bring some hardships to business.
"It's just going to be dollars per square foot kind of thing," Key said. "Our rent would probably be pushing $20,000 at that point. Not totally sure that's doable."
Key said he currently pays around $4,000 in rent. He said a drastic change in rent could change the amount of community events the location holds throughout the year.
"Right now, we can do one or two cheap rentals a month, as long as we've got the rest of the month booked up pretty good," Key said. "But if the rent goes up that high, they're pretty much all going to have to be in the higher range — class reunions and high school events and things like that.”
Key added that he is currently in the process of making an offer on the building that he said is being sold for around $3.9 million.
"We've been in the process of trying to get a couple of partners and investors as well to try to buy it ourselves," Key said. "But it's a lot of dollars, and it takes a little bit to figure out what that model looks like, you know, to actually pull that off. But we're close."
Key said that he hopes to make several upgrades and changes to the venue if he and the investors can purchase the building. He said he would do so while working to preserve the property's history and legacy.
"If it were to sell and just become office space or a big restaurant, not that it couldn't make them some money doing that, it would just be a shame to see the event piece of it go away," Key said. "Because it's pretty unique and it would be hard to recreate this."
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