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[chittlins]

Over a wide area, maybe. It seems we may be heading into another market pull back of some nature though... hard to say how that will affect NWA. Good thing about this area is that it is at least somewhat diversified. 

I'll be interested to see how it bleeds over westward toward Tulsa and vice versa. Historically, NWA has made use of Tulsa for access to major things it didn't have like the airport and the arena with the big acts coming through. Now they are starting to grow towards getting those things on their own, with the expansion of their airport and such.

It's spread out, but it really is a super region that SDC has to draw from.

We were having a conversation elsewhere about XNA. It's insanely expensive to fly out of due to so much business traffic and that is what it depended on. Folks wanting to fly cheaper drove to Tulsa and hopped on Southwest and many are still doing it. But...as the area grows demand for more leasure  travel friendly pricing is building. Many are baffled by XNA management. They talk the talk about lowering airfares but 5he walk ain't happening. Just look at Springfield's Allegiant offerings compared XNA's and you see where this is going. Allegiant could easily fly another 3 to 4 routes and do well on them. Austin, Ft. Lauderdale and New Orleans come to mind. Frontier would find gold with Denver and Silver with Orlando. They'd trounce Allegiant there since they go into MCO. If the growth continues. Southwest has to start to take notice as it becomes big enough as a stand alone market. The problem with Southwest is they have fallen for Boeing's trap of going for bigger and bigger 737s with no plane for smaller markets. They stupidly handled the 717 they got from Airtran to Delta for a song all because Bo3ing want done with the last redheaded step child they adopted when they bought McDonnel Douglas.That's what Air Tran was running into Branson. It was right sized at 117 seats. Any 737 was too much for Branson and Southwest has since retired the smaller 737s that they did use on Branson.  Delta loved the size so much, they have ordered similar.Bombardier CS100s. They thing with the C Series is they are so darn fuel effiecient and with stupid range for their size. Boeing tried to kill off the plane and guided it into the arms of Airbus  where they dump the A319. Southwest is so wedded to Boeing that they'd never would consider it and they should be all over it.

What's been going on with the C-Series ad Boeing's fight against it is great theater. Boeing forced Bombardier to make a sweetheart deal to Airbus to save it. Airbus announced they would build a plane already 52% American in content  at it's Mobile AL assemby plant. All the while p $#ING off  Canada, Great Britain and Ireland to the point they thy are in great jeopardy of losing military sales of F-18s and other planes. Now they are chasing Embraer's skirt but getting rebuffed by the Brazilian gov't refusing to allow a foriegn buyout of them. They could have bought the C Seies from Bombardier for chump change but went for the kill and got floored by the counterpunch of Airbus buying a majority stake in it for baeically nothing. Bombarsier si evn going tho pay to build the FAL in Mobile for Airbus. They managed to get the Commerce dept to slap some horrific punitive tariffs on the planes that Delta bought but that got overtuned at the ITC by a 4-0 vote.

America needs some upstart airlines but the pilot unions and the legacies have manufactured a pilot shortage where you have to suffer at regionals at low wages while wanting on a seat at the big boys.  It's placed a huge burden of entry into the field.

[chittlins]

Population estimates released this spring show Northwest Arkansas (Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro) continues to grow at a brisk pace ... the area grew 2.3% with a population of 537,463.  The area is netting 34 people per day, eclipsing 1,000 people per month migrating to NWA for a total of 12,287 people added to the population.  The area is the 14th fastest growing metro in the US, up from 20th in 2016.

[sdcfan88]

Forgot to mention on an entertainment related note NWA as of Feb 2018 has their own Dave N Busters now. Its in the Pinnacle Hills Promenade where the old food court used to me. I am a game tech there and helped with setting up the facility, so feel free to come say hi. lol

Note if you have been to one before this one is actually half the size of most other DnB's due to them repurposing an existing building.

[chittlins]

Forgot to mention on an entertainment related note NWA as of Feb 2018 has their own Dave N Busters now. Its in the Pinnacle Hills Promenade where the old food court used to me. I am a game tech there and helped with setting up the facility, so feel free to come say hi. lol

Note if you have been to one before this one is actually half the size of most other DnB's due to them repurposing an existing building.

Been aiming to go, just haven't made it up I-49 yet. Yep, they took the former food Court at Pinnacle Hills which never once had full occupancy and convertEd it.

I was shocked Malco dodn't add an Imax screen there when they put them in at Razorback and Town Center.. malco has their own FEC concept with Bowling.

Malco should build that next to the Razorback in Fayetteville muy pronto.

BTW, TopGolf is supposed to announce across the interchange from there today.

Duluth Trading is supposed to be getting real close to announcing a Rogers store

[chittlins]

Individual city growth:

In national rankings of cities with over 50,000 people, Rogers ranked as the #33 (18.7% growth rate) fastest growing city nation wide and Fayetteville ranked #63 (15.9% growth rate).  However, had Bentonville qualified (they are at 49,300 residents) they would have ranked 8th nationally as its growth rate is 39.7%

[HumphreyHawk]

Forgot to mention on an entertainment related note NWA as of Feb 2018 has their own Dave N Busters now. Its in the Pinnacle Hills Promenade where the old food court used to me. I am a game tech there and helped with setting up the facility, so feel free to come say hi. lol

Note if you have been to one before this one is actually half the size of most other DnB's due to them repurposing an existing building.

Been aiming to go, just haven't made it up I-49 yet. Yep, they took the former food Court at Pinnacle Hills which never once had full occupancy and convertEd it.

I was shocked Malco dodn't add an Imax screen there when they put them in at Razorback and Town Center.. malco has their own FEC concept with Bowling.

Malco should build that next to the Razorback in Fayetteville muy pronto.

BTW, TopGolf is supposed to announce across the interchange from there today.

Duluth Trading is supposed to be getting real close to announcing a Rogers store

Where is TopGolf going?  Fayetteville or Rogers?

I took the family to D@Bs in LR a few months back and really wasn't impressed.  Food seem extremely expensive....menu was hard to figure out with the tokens they upsell ya.  Maybe I'm just getting too old now but it still feels like a Chuck E Cheeses without a ballpit.  We live in a world where you can download a lot of those arcade games to your phone.  I get some are unique and the multi-player games are great for a night out....but I'm not a big fan.  I'll probably end up visiting the Rogers one at some point.....I'm surprised I haven't had a work event or other group outing there yet....hopefully it's better than the other one I've been to.

[jstein4507]

Topgolf will be near the Walmart AMP. I read that another D&B will be in F'ville.

[chittlins]

Topgolf will be near the Walmart AMP. I read that another D&B will be in F'ville.

The area is reaching the point where one location doesn't cut it in most cases. Here, it's completely missing the college demo for the most part.  The  housing development in Uptown Fayetteville really skews to the 20 somethings. Look at the business JJ's micro brew  and beer garden is doing with it's assortment of things to do. If retail was in such a funk they'd be twins of everything.

[HumphreyHawk]

Topgolf will be near the Walmart AMP. I read that another D&B will be in F'ville.

The area is reaching the point where one location doesn't cut it in most cases. Here, it's completely missing the college demo for the most part.  The  housing development in Uptown Fayetteville really skews to the 20 somethings. Look at the business JJ's micro brew  and beer garden is doing with it's assortment of things to do. If retail was in such a funk they'd be twins of everything.

Yeap...I'm in Benton county....hardly ever need to go to Washington anymore.   Naturals games and Razorback sports are about the only reason I go.  Seem like most of the franchises that are setting up new locations are doing them in pairs now.

[chittlins]

Fayetteville is building a mid city Mountain Bike park but this is for Springdale and I just flat out stole a post from Urban Planet to share:

Springdale officials announced and broke ground this week on a new 2.75 acre bike park at the Jones Center ... the park will include the Velosolutions Pump Track and Runway Skills Parkalong with a bicycle playground for kids.

This October the park will host the 'Red Bull Pump Track World Championship Final'.

Cycling amenities in Northwest Arkansas are abundant these days - rightfully so as were only behind Minneapolis, Vancouver and Portland in daily volume of cyclist per 1,000 population.

https://redbullpumptrackworldchampionship.com/news/article/the-jones-center-springdale-arkansas-will-host-the-2018-red-bull-pump-track-world-championship-fin/

Oh, appears Duluth Trading Co will open a store in the Pleasant Grove area near AG Russell. 

Oh, and congrats go to Lowell. Way to go with allowing that obscene truck stop sign off your single exit. I'm sure all the housing develop men's love to see that thing nice and bright at night.

There's business friendly and there's ungodly tacky. They nailed the latter.

[HumphreyHawk]

The bike community in NWA is exploding.....and not by accident.  Read an article recently about a Walton grandkid who is an avid cyclist and has always loved to ride around here.....the family has been helping with funding to build out all the trails around the area.  Bentonville has and/or is becoming a "bike resort" town.....like a "ski resort".  Cyclist from around the country are coming to ride the trails.  We'll probably keep getting events like that.

[chittlins]

Fayetteville's Gregory Park Mountain Bike trail is now open

https://www.fayettevilleflyer.com/2018/09/27/video-photos-mountain-bike-park-now-open-at-gregory-park-in-fayetteville/

[chittlins]

If you know Fayetteville, you'll be grabbing your popcorn

https://www.fayettevilleflyer.com/2018/10/12/cultural-arts-corridor-early-sketches-include-reimagining-of-west-avenue-parking-lot/

[chittlins]

Frontier finally xomes to XNA.

The following is of routes and frequency to Denver: Depart XNA: 5:47 p.m. Arrive DEN: 6:50 p.m. Depart DEN: 1:58 p.m. Arrive XNA: 4:57 p.m.

The flights will happen every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

No idea how this might effect the BKG flights that I know some locals have used

[chittlins]

So, XNA was all set to land Southwest (initial service to DAL, DEN,BNA) but XNA's FBO played hardball on prices and lost it for XNA. This breakdown is what spurred Frontier on finally adding DEN.

Anyhoo, Dave and Buster's is open at Pinnicle Hills and Top Golf broke ground. Arkansas Childrens is open, since my Son's has ITP, we are now frequently visiting it.  Our Dr. there arraigned to have his blood platelets checked while we were in Paris at no cost. So, I'm singing high praises of ACH- Northwest.  A couple of Walton grandkids are investing big into downtown Springdale, new mixed use development on the way. More bike trails going up everywhere.