The goal of the ARIES compact stellarator is to define and assess a stellarator-based fusion power plant to provide electrical power as competitively as possible by balancing performance, cost, and plant availability. The traditional stellarator concepts are as compact as possible to reduce the plant capital costs, which are driven by the power core volume, weight, and cost. Different coil configurations are defined and assessed, trading plasma performance, power core design, access between the coils, and overall capital cost. Maintenance options are assessed and the port maintenance of first-wall/blanket and divertor modules is selected as the most feasible approach. Maintenance access is very important because the plasma-facing components have a limited lifetime. The available port access areas between the coils determine the maximum module envelope. With the maintenance approach selected, the frequency of maintenance determined, and module size defined, features of the maintenance approach are developed to maximize the power plant availability. After the preliminary maintenance approach, details for the power core components and facilities are finalized and a maintenance assessment is developed by analyzing the nominal times to conduct the maintenance actions. It is estimated that the ARIES-CS plant availability could reasonably be in the range of 85%.