Craft cocktails, mountain bikes and art: Walmart’s hometown is booming, and getting more expensive

The population of Bentonville shot up from 36,000 in 2010 to 58,000 in 2022, and it’s on track to grow to 200,000 people by 2050, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The town has more cranes per capita than any other U.S. city, according to Cushman & Wakefield/Sage Partners. More restaurants, new hotels and a medical school are all underway.

But the biggest construction project is Walmart’s new headquarters, which will sprawl across roughly 350 acres. The campus will include biking and walking trails, a food hall, and a range of other amenities. Its new fitness center and daycare opened this spring, and other parts of the campus will open in phases, starting next year.

Even the Walmart Museum is under construction. The museum, located in the first 5 & 10 store that Walmart founder Sam Walton put his name on, is getting renovated to look more modern and include tech-enabled displays like a life-sized hologram of Walton that answers visitors’ questions.

Walton’s family continues to shape the town as it grows. His grandsons, Steuart and Tom Walton, have helped to bring mountain bike trails to the area and turn Bentonville into a destination for the sport. They also are behind a real estate firm and a hospitality group that’s opened high-end restaurants and built apartment complexes. Sam Walton’s daughter, Alice Walton, founded Crystal Bridges, an American art museum that’s free to visitors. She’s now opening a medical school in Bentonville that plans to enroll its first class of future doctors next year.

Bentonville’s boom has started to change the identity of America’s best-known discounter — and has made Walmart’s backyard a pricier place to live. As newcomers move from other states and cities, the demand for million-dollar homes has shot up, and affordable housing has become harder to find.

Realtor Kristen Boozman, who works for Sotheby’s, helps clients search for homes in the Bentonville area, including many buyers who are relocating from another city.

“Ten years ago, we had 14 homes that sold for over a million dollars,” she said. “Last year, 2023, we had 244.”

Bentonville’s population is younger, wealthier and more highly educated than the rest of the country, according to Census Bureau data. The city’s median age is 32, seven years younger than the rest of the U.S. About 52% of its population holds a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 36% nationally.

Its income levels are much higher, too. Bentonville’s median household income is approximately $99,000 annually. That compares with the $55,432 median household income in Arkansas and $74,755 nationally.

Household incomes have also risen locally. The median household income climbed about 25% from 2017 to 2022, the most recent data available, outpacing gains across the U.S.

For Walmart employees, most of whom work in the company’s stores and warehouses across the U.S., Bentonville would be hard to afford. The median Walmart employee makes an annual salary of $27,642, according to Walmart’s most recent proxy statement.

Tracy Robinson never imagined she’d live in Arkansas. The 36-year-old lived in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Miami before moving to Bentonville for a job at Walmart. She leads a team that coordinates with manufacturers that make baby products for Walmart’s private-label brands.

Robinson had never set foot in Bentonville before she moved there about two years ago. She said she expected to stay for a year, so she could add Walmart to her resume.

But once she arrived, she enjoyed the town’s slower pace and its big-city amenities. Her dog, Stanley, also settled in quickly — sporting a bow tie as he chased squirrels and went on long walks in the sculpture garden outside of Crystal Bridges.

Robinson was also surprised to find a restaurant and bar scene with dishes — and prices — similar to Miami.

One of those restaurants is led by chef Matthew Cooper. He helped jump-start Bentonville’s upscale food scene as the executive chef of The Preacher’s Son, a restaurant off of Bentonville’s downtown square in a converted former church. The restaurant, which has a speakeasy in its basement, is owned by Ropeswing Hospitality Group, founded by Sam Walton’s grandsons, Tom and Steuart.

Now, Cooper has a restaurant of his own, Conifer, which serves up dishes like buffalo mushrooms with Gorgonzola mousse and lamb meatballs with wild rice, carrot, pistachio pesto and goat cheese. On the recent seasonal menu, entrees cost as much as $60.

But Cooper said he’s gotten little pushback to the prices from business travelers and local residents.

“They were from places where those prices were already prevalent,” he said. “So it really hasn’t been that much of a fight.”

For Conifer’s restaurant workers, though, living in town has become a challenge as rent and real estate costs climb. Cooper said he strives to offer competitive wages and benefits, but most employees don’t live in Bentonville. Many commute from cheaper parts of the region, and some have roommates.

High housing costs inspired a unique project that will soon rise in Bentonville: A roughly $35 million development with a mix of 120 apartments and 40 single-family homes, with many earmarked for teachers and other employees of the Bentonville Schools.

The project is expected to be completed in late 2025. It is funded with a mix of donations and federal and state money, and overseen by the Excellerate Foundation, a local nonprofit.

The project was inspired by the public school district’s struggles to hire and retain teachers because of the area’s higher rents and home prices. Some teachers accepted jobs, only to turn them down after looking for a place to live.

“It’s just not affordable is the straight-forward bottom line — especially when you’re talking about people that are in a serving industry, be it community service, staff of the cities or people that are firefighters, police officers, teachers,” Excellerate Foundation CEO Jeff Webster said.

Teachers and other school district employees who move into the development will pay $1,500 per month for their homes. When they depart, they will get a balance based on their monthly payments and portion of the home’s equity appreciation, which they can put toward the purchase of a permanent home.

A Walmart spokeswoman said the Walton Family Foundation funds and advocates for affordable housing projects in the Bentonville area. Excellerate and the Walton Family Foundation have also worked together in the past, including on a job training program. The Walton Family Foundation is not involved in the Bentonville housing project for teachers.