The Amazing Race and 3 Wild Things in NWA

One of these four stories died two months after I recorded it — and it is the one I was most skeptical about, for what turns out to be the wrong reason. Here is where all four landed.

1. The artist housing project did not happen

I described a building for affordable artist housing in Fayetteville, said it was "still in the planning phases," and guessed it would go ahead. It did not.

In October 2025, Artspace announced the Fayetteville project was not viable and declined to move forward, citing insufficient state and city affordable-housing funding support. The Walton Family Foundation, which had funded a 2018 roadmap study and a 2025 feasibility assessment, said it would not fund a Fayetteville project — pointing to the same lack of local affordable-housing support and a shift in its own priorities. As of today there is no active artist housing project in Fayetteville.

On the funder, I was close but wrong. The developer is Artspace Projects, a Minneapolis-based national nonprofit — not a Little Rock organization. But my instinct was not random: Windgate Charitable Foundation is based in Little Rock, and it funded the Little Rock project I was thinking of. That one is real and open — the Artspace Windgate Campus, a $36 million, 60-unit live/work development in Little Rock's East Village, completed in 2024.

And I should retract my speculation about the business model. I wondered aloud whether the arrangement might be "hey whatever you create we get a portion of that." It is not. Artspace projects are standard Low-Income Housing Tax Credit affordable rental housing, income-restricted to roughly 30 to 60 percent of area median income, with artists given priority on the waitlist, not exclusivity. No one takes a cut of a tenant's work. I said I did not know, which was honest, but of the two models I floated, the one I lingered on was the more insinuating one, about a nonprofit housing developer.

I was also a bit glib about the framing — "you have the magical words affordable housing, let's do it." As it turned out, the project died precisely because the affordable-housing funding was not there. The magical words did not work.

Fayetteville does have a real arts-economy program this would have fit into: the Cultural Arts Corridor, a 50-acre public-space project approved by voters in a 2019 bond, linking the Walton Arts Center, TheatreSquared, Nadine Baum Studios, the public library and the university's art and design district.

2. The Workbench Collective is real, and it is woodworking only

Real and open: The Workbench Collective, at 5374 Hailey Avenue, Suite C in Springdale. It offers children's woodshop courses for second through twelfth grade, adult workshops, private events, and shop memberships that get you access to professional tools and space.

One clarification rather than a correction. I used clay work as an analogy — "same thing with clay... learn how to mold pots" — while explaining the concept. To be clear for anyone planning a visit: the Workbench Collective is woodworking only. I can find no pottery offering there. Everything else I said — the try-before-you-build-a-shop appeal, kids and adults learning together — holds up.

3. The Rogers complex has a name, and it opened

The $28 million figure was right. The project is First Street Flats, at 401 First Street in Rogers — 121 units, developed by Fayetteville-based Specialized Real Estate Group, designed by Modus Studio, built by ARCO. It sits in the Water Tower Experience District on the northeastern edge of downtown.

It is also one of the first multifamily properties in Arkansas built to Net Zero Ready standards, which I did not mention and probably should have.

Timing correction: I said it "just opened up." Move-ins actually began February 1, 2025, about six months before I recorded, so it had been occupied a while.

On downtown Rogers, my list was accurate with one spelling to fix. It is Lake Atalanta, not Lake Atlanta — a 236-acre WPA-era reservoir and park at 500 E. Walnut with more than four miles of hard-surface and 10 miles of soft-surface trail. The Railyard Bike Park at 299 E. Cherry is real, an eight-line dirt jump park open since November 2015, with the separate Railyard Park next door carrying the splash pad. The brick streets are real, the Razorback Greenway does run through, the Railyard Live concert series plays the Butterfield Stage downtown, and Onyx Coffee Lab's headquarters and roastery really is at 101 E. Walnut in a restored 1907 building.

4. The adventure race happened, and it was a bigger deal than I conveyed

The USARA National Championship took place in Bentonville on September 12 and 13, 2025 — matching the timing I guessed. And here is the part I undersold: it was the first time in the event's 26-year history that it came to Arkansas.

The format was more brutal than my description. 76 teams of three raced roughly 150 miles non-stop over 30 hours, across paddling, mountain biking and trekking, on a course kept secret until race morning. I said "multi-day" and listed disciplines loosely; the real answer is one continuous 30-hour push with no course knowledge in advance.

Team WEDALI won — Justin Bakken, Mari Chandler and Brian Mayer — their fourth national title in five years.

I never did land the TV comparison I was groping for. Whatever show I meant, it was not this. This is closer to an expedition than a game show.

And my broader point holds up well. Bentonville genuinely is expanding past mountain biking. Climb Bentonville runs 16,000 square feet of climbing terrain — bouldering, top rope and auto-belay. Osage Park and Lake Bentonville support kayaking, paddleboarding and rowing. Bentonville Bike Fest drew more than 15,000 visitors and 1,400 athletes from 47 states and 13 countries, and includes a gravel race called Gravelicious at 30 and 60 miles.

One small thing: I said Fayetteville has "regular 100,000 people." The Census estimate was 99,319 as of July 2024, with projections above 100,000 since. Close enough that I will take it.