By Andrea Bruner, White River Now
Of the 156 total building permits issued in the city of Batesville in 2024, only five were for new residential (single-family homes). That’s pretty much on trend since Covid.
It’s also evidence of the current housing crisis, as Crystal Johnson, Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce CEO, reported to the city council a month ago.
Batesville Code Enforcement Officer Chad McClure said that last year, his office recorded a valuation of $15.2 million in building and project permits (including residential, commercial, and industrial categories).
Building of new residential homes may have slowed, but overall, the number of permits shows that developers and business owners are investing in the city of Batesville to the tune of several million dollars.
At the Dec. 17, 2024, council meeting, Johnson said the community is short 1,000 rental units and 1,000 homes. More than 7,500 individuals from surrounding areas commute into Independence County for employment, accounting for 44.5 percent of the people employed in the county. Twenty percent of those commute further than 50 miles to their job, but 45 percent of those said they would buy or rent here if housing were available, Johnson said at that time.
Building of new residential homes may have slowed, but overall, the number of permits shows that developers and business owners are investing in the city of Batesville to the tune of several million dollars.
The vast majority of the permits were issued for new commercial or commercial remodels, McClure said. Among them are:
- Lyon College, commercial remodel, $3.99 million; electrical permit, $25,000;
- Batesville School District, 2 Pioneer Drive, new commercial (two separate permits), $3.98 million; 490 College St., sign permit, $3,600;
- Elite Storage of Arkansas, 1110 24th St., $1.25 million for new commercial (climate storage units); electrical permit, $146,500; sign permit, $7,202;
- City of Batesville, 500 Main St., Main Street streetscape (bicycle/walking path), $1.28 million;
- PB General Holdings, LLC, 611 N. Central Ave., new commercial, $1 million;
- Five Below, 19 Eagle Mountain Blvd., $710,710; commercial remodel; sign permit, $5,200;
- White River Health, 1710 Harrison St., parking lot addition, $669,770; sign permit, $47,000; sign permit, $21,308;
- OMP, 1420 St. Louis St., commercial remodels, $595,443 and $50,000;
- Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, 425 St. Louis St., new commercial, $507,700; sign permit, $18,295;
- Derrick Hawkins (The Board on 3rd restaurant), 156 Third St., commercial remodel, $350,000 (image via The Board on 3rd Facebook);
- Classical Xchange, LLC, 325 Main St., commercial remodel, $350,000;
- 7 Brew Coffee (Manshine LLC), 770 St Louis St., new commercial, $66,400; sign permit, $37,755;
- Beller Dental, 635 Boswell St., $300,000;
- Poke and Paddle, 146 Third St., commercial remodel, $240,000;
- Ricky Milton (Las Playita’s), 350 Harrison, commercial remodel, $150,000;
- Frank Tripp, 2050 Jennings Lane R, new commercial, $111,300;
- Bad Boy, 51 Industrial, commercial remodel, $141,230;
- Walmart, 3150 Harrison St., commercial remodel, $110,000;
- Cypress Bend Properties, tower modification, $103,999, and Crown Castle, both at 1100 Dogwood St., $56,000;
- North Heights Church of Christ, 200 Warrior Road, commercial remodel, $65,000;
- Batesville Fire Department, 590 White Drive, sign permit, $36,618;
- Scott Perkey, 398 Barnett Drive, commercial remodel, $30,000;
- American Tower Corp., 1355 Main St., work on cell tower, $15,000; 4313 Harrison St., work on cell tower, $15,000.
The new Dollar General Market will be built on Central Avenue between Carter and Chestnut (pictured above).
“They have acquired almost that entire block right there,” McClure said. “There was a house that burnt on the corner.”
A glance back at the previous four years:
2023 – 145 total permits issued, $73.88 million valuation, three new single-family homes, 27 multi-family, with notable commercial to include Batesville School District fine arts addition ($46.68 million), Lopez gym, Access Medical, Independence County Senior Citizens Center, McGaha Investments, T-Mobile, and the city of Batesville Public Works building;
2022 – 181 total permits issued, $21.96 million valuation, three new single-family homes, 27 multi-family, with notable commercial to include Lifeplus addition, ALDI, White River Health orthopaedic building, Bruno’s Pizza, Scooter’s Coffee, Planet Smoothie, Adler Building renovation, and Edward Jones (Main Street);
2021 – 165 total permits issued, $16.8 million valuation, nine new single-family homes, zero multi-family, with notable commercial to include Mid-Town Plaza, Crumbs Up Bakery, Nova Joe’s, 109 Main restaurant, Walmart remodel, Car Wash USA, Take 5 Oil Change, Batesville Community Theatre on Main Street, and Las Playitas Restaurant;
2020 – 173 total permits issued, $11.1 million valuation, four new single-family homes, 40 multi-family, with notable commercial to include Stella’s Pizza, Best Dam Steakhouse remodel, and Phil Pulley office (industrial park area).
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McClure said permit valuations can vary widely from year to year:
- $34.7 million in 2017;
- $26.2 million in 2016;
- $38 million in 2015;
- $49.2 million in 2014;
- $8.57 million in 2013;
- $40.37 million in 2012;
- $113 million in 2011 (an anomaly that year with major expansions at the hospital, wastewater treatment plant, and Lyon College’s student union, among others).
“The general trend (in the past few years) has been low numbers of single-family housing units,” McClure said. “Commercial is by far one of our bigger permits. We have more commercial, although it looks like multifamily is starting to pick up.”
Single-family home building has slowed from 10 or 15 years ago, and McClure attributed this to housing subdivisions in the city “filling up.”
“We used to pick up numbers in the North Park subdivision and Sawmill subdivision. Those areas are full or mostly full. Some of our new houses now are in the Mountain Ridge subdivision and the Riverwood subdivision, and over the last five years a lot of the houses come from those subdivisions. And then just scattered loosely throughout town. I think that’s telling us we don’t have the available lots, maybe that we had in the past. …
“Just in conversations with contractors, I think a lot of new construction has taken place (outside of Batesville),” McClure said. “There’s nowhere else for them to go other than outside the city limits. We don’t have any plans for any new subdivisions.”
He also said that developers are doing more multifamily projects inside the city limits.
There are also plans for multi-unit housing at the old Powell’s Motel (above), but McClure said there may be a deal to sell the former Kelley-Wyatt’s restaurant building separately from the rest of the property.
One job not reflected in the 2024 permits is the work that has been done on the old Ramada Inn to turn that into White River Commons. McClure said unless the structure is changed (walls removed or added, etc.), the contractors do not have to obtain building permits, and in this case the rooms are still the same, just with added paint, floor coverings, etc.
There have been electrical and plumbing permits for those updates, and there may be remodeling permits filed later if offices are redone, McClure said, adding, “We’ve got a little small remodeled permit right now for one of the smaller buildings. There’s one behind where the old pool used to be.”
He also said the owner has apparently been looking for a tenant at the former Duck Blind restaurant, but that is still ongoing.
So what’s on the horizon for 2025?
“We keep having some interest from a new hotel; we’ve had people reach out about zoning and plans, but we don’t have anything official yet,” McClure said.
“I think next year we’ll be sitting here again and there’ll be some good things – we’ll have some restaurants and probably some additional apartments.”
He said there are plans for a new Sonic at the corner of Lawrence and St. Louis streets, McClure said.
“There are actually three lots there,” he said, explaining that the other two lots are reportedly going to other restaurant chains.
Yet another chain is making plans to move into a lot on Harrison Street, he added.
There have also been preliminary plans for a new shipping distribution warehouse as well as a new sports building/facility.
“I’ll say this, there could be some tremendous opportunities for the old country club property,” McClure went on to say. “That could be new commercial, new residential, there could be planning at developments. There’s no limit to what that could be, especially with new roads being built” and another ingress/egress to the country club property.
“There’s going to be a lot of growth in that area with different uses, not only commercial, but there will be some residential opportunities as well,” he said.
All images White River Now except where noted
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