Mountain Inn property for sale in downtown Fayetteville

A “for sale” sign stands in front of the Mountain Inn property along College Avenue.

Photo: Todd Gill, Fayetteville Flyer staff

A dilapidated building that stands at the gateway to Fayetteville’s downtown square is finally for sale.

The partially demolished structure and adjacent parking lot, located on College Avenue between Mountain and Center streets, is listed for $1.275 million.

Outline of the site

Staff graphic/Google Maps

Bentonville-based Colliers International is representing property owners Bank of Fayetteville, who paid $1.25 million for the 1-acre site after it was foreclosed upon in October.

The site has an interesting history.

The property was once home to the Mountain Inn, a 95-room hotel at the corner of College and Mountain Street. It was expanded in the 1960s from its original location on Center Street to include retail space and a lobby on the first floor, a six-story parking garage, and a third-floor outdoor swimming pool with views of the Boston Mountains to the southeast.

The hotel was closed in 1998, and sat empty for several years until local developers John Nock and Richard Alexander proposed building an 18-story hotel called Renaissance Tower on the property.

This postcard shows the Mountain Inn in 1960.

Courtesy FayettevilleHistory.com

In 2005, the Fayetteville City Council formed the state’s first TIF (tax-increment financing) district, a taxpayer-backed financing mechanism that borrowed against anticipated property tax growth in the district in order to pay for the demolition of the Mountain Inn. In return, Nock and Alexander were to build the downtown hotel by September 2007.

Once the building was demolished, however, the hotel never got off the ground. A construction crane towered over a gaping, fenced-in hole for about two years before a parking lot was finally built over the site.

The project was ultimately abandoned due to lack of financing, resulting in the developers paying $300,000 in damages to the city for not fulfilling their commitment.

Colliers International is marketing the property, located just a block off the Fayetteville square as “perfect for office, retail, hotel, and mixed-use development.”