CONWAY, Ark. (May 5, 2006) – The Hendrix Board of Trustees today voted to approve the first phase of The Village at Hendrix, a community that will be built on 100 acres of undeveloped land owned by the college across the street from the campus. The first of five planned neighborhoods will be developed for residential and commercial use over the next three years.
During a news conference after this morning’s board meeting, Hendrix Board Chair R. Madison Murphy said the development will create a long-term source of revenue to support academic programs for the college.
“The board has considered many proposals for use of this property over the last 10 years, and we determined that the most significant proposal that will positively impact Hendrix and the Conway community is the creation of a ‘college town’ that complements Hendrix and adjoining neighborhoods,” Murphy said.
He also announced the board selection of Traditional Neighborhood Development Partners, LLC, of Durham, N.C., as project developers. The company specializes in the creation of compact, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods that feature excellent architecture and high-quality buildings. Among TND Partners’ projects is Trinity Heights, an award-winning project adjacent to Duke University’s East Campus which has become one of Durham’s most popular neighborhoods.
Hendrix President J. Timothy Cloyd said The Village at Hendrix will be the first fully developed neighborhood in Arkansas to adopt New Urbanist principles that promote the revival of traditional neighborhoods. New Urbanism is an international movement to reform the design of the built environment, raising the quality of life and standard of living by creating better places to live.
“Our commitment is to create a place that honors and serves all past, present and future members of the Hendrix community and the greater Conway community,” said Cloyd. “The Village at Hendrix will bring to life memories of a lifestyle when the grocery store was truly around the corner and neighbors could chat with each other from their front porches – a vibrant, close-knit, environmentally-friendly community that promotes intellectual stimulation.”
T.J. Johnston, executive director of the Conway Downtown Partnership, said the development will be an asset to Conway. “We give it a big thumbs-up,” he said. “As we continue to redevelop the downtown corridor, The Village at Hendrix will complement the work that is being done. Hendrix has always been a big supporter of downtown development, and we’re excited about having an attractive, walkable environment that connects Hendrix to downtown.”
Robert L. Chapman, III, a partner with TND, described the development as “a once-in-a-lifetime project – perfect location, a dynamic town, a beautiful site, and a great sponsor. On top of that, Hendrix has chosen Andres Duany, widely regarded as America's greatest town planner since Daniel Burnham in the late 19th or John Nolen in the early 20th century, to design the village.”
He added, “It's a chance to build a place that will help change the course of development from suburban sprawl to compact, friendly and walkable neighborhoods. By uniting great architects and dedicated builders, we can recreate the magic of America's finest small towns. It's also going to be a lot of fun."
Chapman, who said ground-breaking for the first neighborhood should begin in spring 2007, listed the following elements planned for the first neighborhood:
- 68 single family detached houses
- 23 townhouses and live/work homes
- 75 apartments
- 69,683 square-feet of retail/office space
Adjacent to The Village at Hendrix is a 30-acre, $22.5 million complex for the Hendrix Wellness and Athletics Center and athletics fields that are currently under construction on the north corner of the acreage at Harkrider and Siebenmorgen streets. The center, being built by Nabholz Construction of Conway, will open for fall semester 2007. The Wellness and Athletics Center will include competition and recreational gymnasiums, a kinesiology lab and classrooms, a competition aquatic center and a fitness center.
Cloyd anticipates that The Village at Hendrix will be developed in five phases over the next 10 years. The goal of commercial offerings will be to enhance the community by adding amenities and services such as a corner grocery, a coffeehouse, a bookstore and an ice cream shop, a charter school and a hotel.
The Village at Hendrix and the Wellness and Athletics Center are part of a 10-year master plan developed in January 2005 by the internationally-recognized urban planning group, Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company. DPZ is probably best known for designing the award-winning community of Seaside, Fla. DPZ’s principal planner and co-founder of the New Urbanism movement, Andres Duany, recently conducted the charrette planning sessions for a new model in rebuilding New Orleans in the hurricane aftermath.
“The Village at Hendrix has the potential to become a model for universities across the country that strives to achieve a new synergy between their campuses and the surrounding communities,” said Duany. “There are other academic institutions following similar paths of development, but it is rare to find the amazing opportunity that we have encountered at Hendrix.”
He added, “The vicinity of the campus and downtown Conway, the convenient access to important regional thoroughfares, as well as the sheer size of the site, create the unique circumstances that ensure the success of The Village at Hendrix.”
Hendrix, founded in 1876, is a selective, residential, undergraduate liberal arts college emphasizing experiential learning in a demanding yet supportive environment. The college is among 150 colleges featured in the 2007 edition of the Princeton Review America’s Best Value Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.
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Contact: Judy Williams, office 501/450-1462 cell 501/626-3042 williamsj@hendrix.edu