NWA is building faster than almost anywhere in America

Two numbers came out in the last few weeks that belong next to each other, and nobody seems to have put them there yet.

The first: Northwest Arkansas authorized 9,447 housing units over twelve months, which ranks the region fourth in the country among metros with more than 100,000 people. The second: a draft regional study puts the wastewater treatment plants serving those houses about $1.5 billion short.

Same region, same decade, same pipes.

This issue also has a hard deadline for anyone behind on an energy bill, an update on the trade school scholarship we’ve been tracking since August, and a look at 97 lots that just changed hands in Pea Ridge.

Saturday, October 17, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, 4307 N. Crossover Rd, Fayetteville. Free, and you leave with native plants. Hosted by the Illinois River Watershed Partnership with the Watershed Conservation Resource Center, Wings on the Edge, the Botanical Garden and the City of Fayetteville. Registration is on the event page at irwp.org.

Saturday, September 26, 8 a.m. to noon. Five check-in sites around the lake, including Prairie Creek Recreation Area near Rogers and Hickory Creek Park near Lowell, register at h2ozarks.org to pick the one closest to you. Free, lunch and supplies provided.

Tuesday, October 27, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., AGC’s NWA office, 3608 N. Steele Blvd, Suite 105. Registration closes October 23 at 5 p.m. Check agcar.net/events before you plan around it.

Census data through July shows the Northwest Arkansas metro authorized 9,447 housing units in twelve months: 15.2 units per 1,000 residents, fourth among all U.S. metros with more than 100,000 people, and up 10.5% from a year earlier. About 43% of it is multifamily.

The market underneath that has turned, though. “For the first time in many years, I would characterize this as more of a buyer’s market than a seller’s market,” said Mervin Jebaraj, who directs the University of Arkansas Center for Business and Economic Research. Price growth has cooled from roughly 20% a year to about flat.

Now the other number. A Hawkins-Weir Engineering study commissioned by the Northwest Arkansas Council and the State of Arkansas finds the region needs about $1.5 billion in additional wastewater treatment plant investment. That figure is plants only. It does not include collection lines, lift stations or the rest of the system. A draft went to a steering committee this month, and the full report is expected this fall.

What contractors should watch: if even part of that $1.5 billion gets funded, it is the largest forward pipeline in the region for underground, concrete, mechanical and electrical work, and it will be let by municipalities and utilities rather than one owner. The Northwest Arkansas Council’s State of the Region meeting is October 23, the likeliest place for a public version of this study to land.

What homeowners should watch: treatment capacity gets paid for by rates, connection fees and impact fees. When a region permits housing at the fourth fastest rate in the country and the plants are a billion and a half behind, those three things are what move next.

Figures are as reported from Census data by the UA Center for Business and Economic Research, and from the Hawkins-Weir draft as described by Axios NW Arkansas. The full wastewater report has not been publicly released.

97 lots just traded in Pea Ridge. Northrock Holdings of Tontitown bought 97 lots in Lexington Addition Phase 2 from Kinney Creek Development of Bentonville for $7.84 million, $80,922 a lot. The record names the streets: the 1700 blocks of Jarman, Kurkendall, Landrum and McKinney, 1700 to 1900 Elrod, and 2100 Hagerty. If you want to see where residential work is going in Pea Ridge over the next two years, that’s a list of addresses, not a forecast.

XNA awarded its Western Concourse construction contract. CDI Contractors of Little Rock was selected for the $78.78 million job over two other bidders, Crossland Construction at $84.6 million and VCC Construction at $91.8 million. The project adds roughly 111,000 square feet and seven gates to the terminal. A start date has been reported elsewhere as November 1, but that figure does not appear on XNA’s own project page, which lists construction running September 2026 through September 2028, so treat any November 1 groundbreaking date as unconfirmed until XNA itself confirms it.

Crossland Construction opened a lab at Bentonville High School. It opened September 8: a 1,450-square-foot climate-controlled shop with an outdoor work area through an overhead door. Crossland donated $48,000 in tools and equipment, and the wider career-education renovation ran about $500,000. Ninety students this year, room for 240. If you’ve wondered what sponsoring a high school trades program actually looks like, that’s the current local example.

NWA Rambo Olympics, October 1, Springdale. AGC Arkansas’s three-person team competition: pistol, rifle and axe throwing, followed by lunch and awards. Ozark Sportsman, 750 E Henri De Tonti Blvd. $225 per team, $25 for spectators, lunch included. Registration is open with a limited number of seats remaining; register at agcar.net.

Scholarships open right now. The mikeroweWORKS Work Ethic Scholarship closes October 31 and is built for programs two years or shorter. The AWS Welder Training Scholarship closes November 30, pays $1,000, and awards up to 800 of them a year. Both fit most of what NWTI and NWACC run.

If you’ve pulled a permit in Northwest Arkansas this year, we would like to know what changed for you. Reply and tell us.

If someone forwarded you this, subscribe free at nwatrades.com. It always will be.

Know about a counter day, a free workshop, a training deadline, or a new business we should be watching? Just reply to this email.

Levi Pittenger

Publisher, The NWA Trade Guide