story by Rose Ann Pearce
rapearce@thecitywire.com
The historic Lane Hotel in downtown Rogers was purchased by the Walton family doing business as KLS Leasing. The new owners reportedly paid $1.6 million for the multi-story brick building located on the corner of East Poplar Street and 2nd Street in downtown Rogers.
The sellers were 92nd LP, a New Jersey investor group, and were asking $1.999 million for the property that has been listed for sale since 2009. The deal closed June 30, according to a deed filed with the Benton County Circuit Clerk.
KLS has already made substantial investments in downtown Bentonville as well as downtown Springdale in recent months.
Rogers real estate agent Craig Hull, who represented the sellers in the transaction, recently told The City Wire that the building opened in 1928 as a hotel and in its later years, it was converted to a nursing home but has been closed for about a decade.
The building has about 42,000 square feet on five floors, including the basement, said Hull, who is with Hull and Associates Commercial Real Estate. As a hotel, the building featured 72 guest rooms and about 20 of those rooms had to share a bathroom. Some of the hotel furnishings have been donated to the Rogers Historical Museum. Hull said workers spent last weekend removing the furnishings that were left from the nursing home. Some of the vintage pieces from the hotel were left for use.
The building is a major landmark in the downtown area and Hull said the new ownership group is collaborating with Rogers architect John T. Mack, principal of JKJ Architects PLLC, for a complete renovation. Though he did not divulge the owner’s plans for the site.
“It was a hard deal to make,” Hull said. “I hope the new owners make it a real treasure for Rogers for years to come.”
City leaders are eager to see more development in the downtown region – so much so that the city is spending nearly $450,000 for an economic development plan specifically for downtown. They are also spending $5 million more on redevelopment and expansion of green space at Lake Atalanta, on the eastern edge of downtown.
“The buzz has started. ... A number of real estate transactions have occurred or are pending. There are at least four different transactions in the contracts in the last two months. Developers are getting ahead of the curve and tied to a specific location in anticipation of what might happen,” Hines said recently.