Bentonville Parks Maintenance Building

Bentonville Parks Maintenance Building: A New Operations Hub for Parks and Recreation

Bentonville, AR

Maintaining a growing parks system takes more than equipment and manpower. It takes a facility designed around how crews actually work. For Bentonville Parks and Recreation, that meant replacing a cramped working environment with a dedicated operations hub that brings offices, maintenance, equipment storage and greenhouse operations together in one location.

Crossland constructed the 17,872-square-foot Bentonville Parks Maintenance Building to serve as the central hub for the City’s parks maintenance team. The facility combines an approximately 5,000-square-foot office with a 13,000-square-foot shop and warehouse, giving employees purpose-built space for both day-to-day operations and field support.

Designed Around the Work
The shop was planned for the equipment and activities that keep Bentonville’s parks operating. Seven equipment storage bays provide room for vehicles and machinery, while three maintenance bays include a vehicle lift for in-house service and repairs. A storage mezzanine adds usable space overhead, and a centralized compressor system distributes compressed air through multiple lines across the shop, creating a practical setup for maintenance crews.

The project also includes a 2,500-square-foot greenhouse and 2,700 square feet of exterior material storage bins for soil and other materials used by the department. Crossland crews helped tear down and reconstruct the greenhouse and also self-performed openings, building specialties and minor steel erection at the mezzanine.

Architecturally, the building combines the efficiency of a pre-engineered metal structure with materials selected to complement Bentonville’s civic environment. Brick veneer and metal panels give the exterior a more finished appearance than a traditional maintenance building, while the office interiors were thoughtfully value-engineered to meet the project budget without losing the functionality the parks team needed.

Making a Tight Site Work
A narrow footprint made construction logistics a constant consideration, particularly when coordinating large material deliveries and maintaining access around active work. One of the most demanding phases involved installing an 18-inch sanitary sewer main approximately 14 feet below grade through the middle of the site. The work temporarily cut off access across the project, requiring careful sequencing to keep construction moving around the utility installation.

Protecting the Budget in a Changing Market
During construction, tariff-related cost increases occurred between bidding and contract signing, creating the potential for added expense before work had even begun.

Rather than passing those increases along, the team worked through the project buyout and coordinated with the building erector to offset the added costs. The strategy protected the City’s original budget.

When additional field issues arose during earthwork, Crossland again managed the corrections without adding cost to the owner. That focus on solutions, combined with close schedule and logistics management, allowed the team to deliver the facility on time and within budget.

For the Bentonville Parks and Recreation team, the difference is tangible. Employees who had been working from a small, cramped office now have a facility designed specifically around their work, with room to maintain equipment, store materials, support greenhouse operations and coordinate the daily work required to care for Bentonville’s parks.

Project Facts

Industry Sector: Community, Municipal
Cost: $6,400,000
Size: 17,872 SF
Delivery Method: Negotiated, Construction Management
Self-Perform: Demo, Finish Carpentry, Rough Carpentry
Owner: City of Bentonville
Architect: Hight Jackson Architects
Engineer: Crafton Tull & Associates, Inc.