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BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart officials said work on a new corporate campus is set to begin here in July. Walmart expects to relocate employees in stages, beginning next year and ending around 2024, when work on the company’s “dream home” is completed.
First up is demolition, infrastructure and utility construction at the 350-acre site, which is just a few blocks from the company’s current headquarters, said Dan Bartlett, executive vice president, corporate affairs and the lead executive overseeing the new corporate campus project.
“A dream home is about more than just the layout or the amenities. It’s a space that reflects who you are and enables you to become your best self,” Bartlett wrote this week on the company’s website. “We’ve spent the past couple of years imagining what Walmart’s ‘dream home’ might look like. We’ve thought a lot about how we want to work together as our company grows and changes. With our associates and the community in mind, we’ve landed on a design that reflects our values, honors our history and enables our potential.”
The vision is more of a college campus than a walled-off corporate headquarters, according to Bartlett, who said company officials want it to be accessible. As part of their planning process, Walmart executives visited corporate campuses, including Apple and McDonald’s, as well as universities including Stanford, the University of Texas and the University of Arkansas.
Walmart’s new campus will be made up of four quads linked by walking and bike paths. The grounds will include a “massive” public park, Bartlett said. “The new Walmart campus will showcase thousands of trees, shrubs and grasses to provide habitat for wildlife, shade paths and bike trails, and reconnect associates with nature,” he said. “We’ve been working for years to be a more sustainable company, and we want our new home to reflect that.”
Some of the 21 buildings housing Walmart’s current headquarters are nearly 50 years old. Bartlett said a more up-to-date corporate headquarters will help Walmart broaden its appeal to future employees.
Amenities will include interfacing technology, smart parking, on-site health clinics and retail services on or near the campus. “The community will start to see in the next few months the beginning of an exciting chapter in Walmart’s history,” Bartlett said. “The new home office will enable us to work together in new ways, accelerate our digital transformation and set us on a path for future success.”
