Hoteliers Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson talk with Bentonville Mayor Bob McCaslin. In a role reversal, Wilson presented McCaslin with a "key to the hotel."

The Walton family, heirs to Wal-Mart Stores' late founder Sam Walton, plan to finance an art-themed hotel in downtown Bentonville near Wal-Mart headquarters and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, currently under construction.

According to a press release from 21c Museum Hotels (a brand of properties that combines a boutique hotel and contemporary art museum), its newest property, to be built in downtown Bentonville, is an estimated $28 million project that will be based on the core concept created for the award-winning 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Ky., which was voted the No. 1 hotel in the U.S. and No. 6 in the world in the Conde Nast Traveler's 2009 Readers' Choice awards.

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