Bentonville Adult Recreation Center Sets May Grand Opening, Pickleball Courts Included

Bentonville's $22 million Adult Recreation Center at 215 SW A Street is days away from its first milestone: a soft opening for premiere members on April 30, followed by a public grand opening event on May 30 and full community access beginning June 1.

The two-story, 45,000-square-foot facility transforms what was an 8,300-square-foot Downtown Activity Center into a full-service wellness complex built specifically for residents 50 and older. The climate-controlled gymnasium supports pickleball alongside basketball and other court sports, making year-round play and consistent league scheduling possible regardless of Northwest Arkansas weather. A warm-water therapy pool designed for aqua aerobics, an indoor walking track, fitness areas, and a café fill out the rest of the building.

The first 750 to enroll as premiere members gain access from April 30, a full month ahead of the general public. Membership is priced at $15 per month for Bentonville residents and $19 for non-residents, with the center open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon.

Programming covers the full active-adult spectrum: yoga, Zumba, spin and aqua aerobics on the fitness side, pickleball and basketball on the court side, and book clubs, arts and crafts and card games rounding out the social calendar. Bentonville Parks and Recreation administrative offices have already moved into the building and are open to the public now.

David Wright, director of Bentonville Parks and Recreation, has been the public face of the project through its two-year construction run. The 30-day gap between the premiere member soft opening and June 1 public access is designed to let staff tune scheduling, court reservations and membership systems before general-volume crowds arrive.

The project was three years in the making from community input to city council approval of the construction contract. With the ARC opening, Bentonville joins Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers as Northwest Arkansas cities operating dedicated wellness centers for older adults. The May 30 grand opening event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; league sign-ups and court reservation details for pickleball are expected to be announced in the surrounding weeks.