Hilton Hotel Planned for Northwest Corner of Dickson Street, West Avenue in Fayetteville

FAYETTEVILLE — Plans are underway for a Hilton hotel on the northwest corner of Dickson Street and West Avenue in Fayetteville.

The Hilton Motto & Tempo is planned as a seven-story hotel with 220-230 rooms on the site of the former Bank of Fayetteville train station, according to a news release from Little Rock public relations firm CJRW. ​​The train will remain on the site, but the station ceased operations in September.

The hotel will have a sports bar, a coffee bar, a restaurant and a rooftop bar, the press release said.

Shash Goyal, CEO and founder of iSquare Management in Little Rock, bought 0.7 acres northwest of Dickson Street and West Avenue for $4.6 million under Dickson Depot Hotel LLC, the news release said. The purchase did not include the railcars.

The targeted completion date for the hotel is late 2026. The start date of construction depends on how long the city’s approval process takes, Goyal said Monday via email. No planning documents have been filed with the city yet, he said.

Goyal bought the property from residents Greg House and Ted Belden, who still own portions of the parcel. The pair sold 0.8 acres to the city in January 2022 as part of a public-private partnership to build the West Avenue parking deck. The deck will replace about 290 spaces that were in the parking lot west of the Walton Arts Center, which is under construction to become the city’s public arts corridor space known as the Ramble. Construction on the space is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The portion of the arts corridor that includes the civic plaza will be known as the Upper Ramble. Conceptual renderings for the plaza show a canal pumping water from Tanglewood Branch and a walkway crossing the space. A large, grassy event area with a stage will serve as a focal point. Gardens, seating areas and art installations will be located throughout.

The Lower Ramble, which transformed the Fay Jones Woods to the south into a nature attraction with boardwalks, stages and native vegetation, was completed in September 2022.

All told, the Ramble will encompass 50 acres of outdoor public space, from near the Fayetteville Public Library to the parking deck on West Avenue. Voters approved a $31.6 million bond issue in 2019 to build the corridor.

House said Monday that he and Belden still own the cars. The original plan was to integrate them into the hotel’s design, but that proved too cumbersome, House said. The couple is still evaluating options for what to do with the cars, he said.

The train bench has been located on the northwest corner of Dickson Street and West Avenue since the 1990s.

Motto and Tempo are brands of Hilton hotels.

The Hilton project is separate from another hotel planned for the southern edge of the southwest corner of West Avenue and Dickson Street. Owner Brian Reindl struck a deal with the city for that project, which is planned as a seven-story building with 114 rooms.

City Councilman Mike Wiederkehr, a downtown representative who also serves on the city’s Advertising and Promotion Commission, said Monday that he saw it as an advantage to have two seven-story hotels within a block of each other. For example, the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, could host conferences where guests could stay close together, he said.

In addition, guests at both hotels will be able to park once and walk to downtown bars and restaurants during their stay, Wiederkehr said. The two buildings will also likely bring people to the completed Upper Ramble, he said.

The northwest corner of Dickson Street and West Avenue is seen Monday in Fayetteville. Hilton plans to build a seven-story hotel at the site. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/JT WAMPLER)