McAuley Place Opens in Bentonville, Bringing 160 New Workforce Housing Units to the Community
Excellerate Housing and community partners celebrate completion of development; first residents begin moving in October 1.
Bentonville, Arkansas – September 25, 2026 — Excellerate Foundation and its partners today celebrated the grand opening of McAuley Place, a new 160-unit workforce housing community in Bentonville designed to help local workers live closer to the communities they serve.
McAuley Place is a flagship development of Excellerate Housing LLC and includes 120 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and 40 two-bedroom cottages. The apartments provide below-market housing for income-qualified residents, while the cottages are primarily available to qualifying Bentonville Schools employees for up to five years.
“McAuley Place is what it looks like when a community decides to tackle a difficult problem together,” said Brad Sikorski, President / CEO of Excellerate Foundation. “No single organization could have made this happen. It took partners from across Northwest Arkansas bringing land, funding, expertise, and a shared commitment to creating more housing options for the people who make this region work. We’re incredibly proud to see families begin calling McAuley Place home.”
The development also introduces the HOMES Program, which helps eligible Bentonville Schools employees build toward homeownership while living in an affordable home today. A portion of each monthly rent payment is set aside in a dedicated savings account and returned to the resident when they leave the program. Participants may also be eligible for additional down payment assistance from Excellerate Foundation to help purchase a home.
For Bentonville Schools, the project addresses a challenge that has increasingly affected the district’s ability to recruit and retain employees: finding attainable housing in the community where they work.
“We have seen firsthand how the cost of housing can affect a teacher’s decision to come to Bentonville or remain here,” said Dr. Debbie Jones, Superintendent of Bentonville Schools. “Our educators invest so much in our students and our community. McAuley Place gives us another way to invest in them and gives more of our employees an opportunity to live close to the schools and families they serve.”
McAuley Place also includes McAuley House, an approximately 6,000 square-foot early learning center that will provide infant/ toddler and Pre-K programming through Bentonville Schools, along with additional programming for adult residents in the evening and weekend hours. McAuley House is expected to begin operations in early 2027.
The development’s location places residents within walking distance of the Bentonville Community Center and near healthcare, grocery stores, restaurants, public transportation, and the Razorback Greenway.
McAuley Place is named for Catherine Elizabeth McAuley, who founded the Sisters of Mercy in 1831. The Northwest Arkansas Sisters of Mercy envisioned Mercy-owned land being used for the good of the community, and Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas later became a key partner in making the land available for the development. The name honors Catherine McAuley, the Sisters who carried her work forward, and Mercy’s role in helping bring the project to life.
McAuley Place represents the work of a broad coalition of public, private, nonprofit, and philanthropic partners who came together around one of Northwest Arkansas’ most pressing challenges: ensuring the people who work in the region can afford to live here.
