You’re on the south segment of the Frisco Trail in Fayetteville. As you cross Prairie Street, lush greenery begins to envelope the path. A creek runs to your left. You’ve entered the Lower Ramble.
But the scene begins to change as you make your way north.
You encounter signs of development all around you. The Upper Ramble— a continuation of the Lower Ramble park— begins at the trail’s intersection with Center Street. Where a group of small businesses once dotted the trail, a construction site now stands. Continue up toward the park’s Civic Plaza on Dickson Street, and you’ll find another construction site, this one in the parking lot of a business center called the Metro District.
To some, this is the sound of progress—necessary growing pains that will eventually prove fruitful for Fayetteville. Others say all this development is bad for business.
As summer rolls around, Fayetteville has indeed lost one entertainment venue. Ozark Escape is an escape room in the Metro District business center, located just south of the Upper Ramble’s Civic Plaza. Miles Rumsey, the company’s communication and brand director, says that rising rent forced Ozark Escape’s management to make a difficult decision.
“Honestly, there's several factors that kind of come into play when you decide whether you can stay or if you can move, or kind of how to respond to something like this,” Rumsey said. “But yeah, our rent has been increased dramatically, and we just, we just can't run a business successfully. If we did, it would be borderline, kind of, is it going to be successful or not? So unfortunately, we made the decision— the owners— they decided that it's just not feasible, and it's kind of not worth the effort with the rising costs of everything, including rent."
Rumsey says rent has increased nearly 50% over the last year.
“I mean that that's a huge one, especially around here in Fayetteville, in a city that's growing,” he said. “But just all the costs kind of added up has kind of forced their hand into deciding that this, this is going to be it. This is the end of the business.”
As of May 1, Ozark Escape shut down permanently. Rumsey says they have no plans for relocation. Other businesses say they are also facing rising rent and a lack of parking and point to an ongoing hotel construction project between the Upper Ramble and the Metro District as the culprit. Employees of the multi-use business Kava Bar and Club 509 say they have noticed a change since work on the hotel began.
"I work the busiest days," Koda Miles says. "So Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And I work all of the events, so I can definitely tell there's been a decline in our customer base ever since they started the construction, especially because the noise is really distracting when they're working, and people can't tell that they can park here anymore."
That’s Koda Miles, a bartender at the Kava Bar. She says all of the construction is driving away customers.
"My tips are down 50%, which is the majority of my income," Miles said. "So that is not easy, and it's definitely we're a small woman-owned business, so there are three people that work here. We all wear a lot of hats, and this is affecting all of us in our personal lives. You know, it's like not just a job. This is our livelihood."
JT: What are y'all doing to curb that?
"We're trying to up our amount of marketing, but there's only so much you can do with limited funds," she said. "And like Instagram, we have specials. We're just trying to promote our specials and our events, and make sure that people know that they can still park here at the upper level of the parking lot in between us and the park."
While the construction is making it harder for some organizations in the business center, the work is for a purpose. Carl Kernodle says he believes that Fayetteville will be better for it. He’s CEO of Two Trout, a hospitality development, design and management company that’s working with property owner Brian Reindel to oversee the construction of the new, seven-story, 114-room hotel.
He says the site’s proximity to the Upper Ramble and the Razorback Greenway helped him convince the city that the hotel was a good idea.
"A few years ago, the city of Fayetteville sent out an RFP asking for owners to propose to buy that piece of property," Kernodle said.
JT: What's an RFP?
"RFP stands for request for proposal," he said. "So they sent it out nationally and asked hotel developers and hotel owners to propose buying this piece of property. Brian Reindl, who owns the Metro district, obviously watched this and was one of the people who submitted a proposal to buy this from the city. So we actually closed the transaction of buying that piece of property at the end of 23, so it took a few year process. It required going through the city acquisition or sales process to be able to buy public land. So it was being sold to a private entity, and then that had to be approved by the city council. We went through that process. City was very rigorous in this because they wanted to make sure that the owner they sell it to is actually going to deliver what they're needing or wanting. So they wanted a hotel, and so we had to go through and show the design of what the hotel was going to look like, how many keys it's going to have, and how it's going to work. And that had to get approved before we could buy the land."
City council members needed to ensure that the public receives what they have communicated to the city that they want. City Councilwoman Sarah Moore referenced a letter from the city’s arts council during the meeting in which the council members unanimously approved the property’s sale.
"They raised some concerns about there being additional explicit language in the contract that really spoke to more specifics about the way in which art could be potentially displayed," Moore said during the November 2023 meeting. "So I just, I'm going to progress over perfect tonight, but I still think that that's a huge opportunity, and I'm going to again agree on the amendment in good faith, because I've heard that there are efforts that are going to be made between the city and others that we're going to really dig into that, but I think there's a huge opportunity to make sure that we really elevate that in the best way possible, and especially that we create that exposure. We have 20% of our population in poverty, and I really want to make sure that they feel coming from the civic plaza, that they are welcome. They don't have to be monetized by ice cream or coffee to enjoy the arts."
Public art will be included in the hotel lobby—not a rotating gallery, but paintings or sculptures that anyone is welcome to view. Kernodle says his team aims to increase public access by incorporating the Upper Ramble and the Greenway into the hotel’s design.
"When you walk in the front door, there's a glass wall to the back that looks out on the park, so you have this open space that a lot of other city hotels don't have," Kernodle said. "And we need to talk about the trail. So the Greenway Trail, as it goes through now, people who've gone through that area go through a parking lot, right? And it's been that way for a long time. So we had cars and people using the same parking lot. Right now, it's kind of a mess of a parking lot, but that's still the path, even though the city built the park, and there is kind of a curving path that comes off the Greenway Trail. And you can go into the park this way. The park is designed, you can still access the park from the Greenway Trail, but a lot of that through traffic cyclists, you know, people walking, if there's an event going on in the park, they didn't want to force those people into a public gathering, right? So we are building a new trail."
The trail will run right in front of the Metro District and any ground-level businesses in the space, like Prelude Breakfast Bar, Rolandos Restaurante and the Kava Bar. Kernodle says potential patrons such as hotel guests, trail goers or others will naturally flow toward those businesses housed in the Metro District. But where will those customers park?
"We want to be able to provide parking for people coming to the entertainment district, and so we recognize that that is a concern," Kernodle said. "There's two public garages in the area, right? When those garages were built, there were some provisions in the West Street garage that made spaces available for people coming from out of town. One of the provisions for us regarding the sale of that property is that we have to valet park. So Brian had to find a place to valet Park. That's part of this purchase agreement. So it's in our agreement. We have a piece of land that will be used for parking. And I can't believe it's 55 to 60 spaces is how much we have, and we have to have those spaces at all times for the hotel."
Inside the Kava Bar, local Lou Massey says projects like the new hotel are making him feel unwelcome within the city.
"I think we're just moving to a point where it's going to be about, like, how much money you have, where you're coming from, and what you can give to the corporate side of this place," Massey said. "I grew up, you know, but I've struggled with housing before. You know what I mean, because there's no protection and there's not enough, there's not enough housing for people who aren't going to college. You know what I mean, because we're having such an influx of college students, and it's like, that's cool to an extent, but like, when it's impeding on, you know, locals, that's not cool."
The new hotel, which has yet to be named, will take anywhere from 20 months to two years to complete. Work on the actual building hasn’t even begun yet, as they must first complete a city project, reworking a sewer line under the property. Regardless, Kernodle says he aims to mitigate disruption as much as possible.
"But it happens," Kernodle said. "And then it's gonna continue to be that way while we're building, you know, a seven-story hotel. I compare it to when the city did the parking garage just up the road, the West Street garage, and it disrupted the streets. And, you know, I was here when they were doing all that work, and you know, there were lane closures, and there's construction traffic, and they're pouring concrete in the, you know, early, early morning, we're going to have this. We're going to continue that experience. And I'm sure it's going to be troublesome to the neighbors. We're going to be trying to be the best neighbors we can. My goal is to get this thing done as quickly as we can, so that, you know, citizens of Fayetteville will get this beautiful new hotel."
