265 replies to this topic

[tim2462]

This area is definitely a hot spot.  For the longest, it's been a lot of empty land between developments on either end.   There are several office buildings on technology drive that have been there for a while, along with a shopping center and a bank, and a post office.   But, nothing has really happened in quite a while until recently.  Axciom, Euronet Worldwide, and Nuvell have big office buildings there, each 5-6 stories.  Another one about that size has just been completed, not sure what it's going to be.  Across Chenal from this area, GMAC has a big operations center.  

Across from this area, and along Chenal up to Rahling Road is where the Promenade at Chenal is going to be built that we've heard so much about.  It's going to be an elegant, huge lifestyle center with a downtown type theme.  RIght next to this, at the corner of Rahling and Chenal, Bank of the Ozarks has purchased a big piece of property to build their new headquarters.  The one they have is already pretty big, complete with a parking garage under the building.  It is currently at the corner of Marham and Chenal.  Not sure why
they want to move a few miles down the road.   I'm sure they are going to build something much bigger.  They just in the last few months put up a redlight at this intersection.

There are quite a few residential areas and apartments out off of Rahling Road, but most of the property along Rahling Road has been empty for quite some time, with the exception of 1 really nice apartment complex.  A few years ago, they built  a decent-sized office park with several small offices, a library branch, and a few restaurants.  This is where Goucho's Grill is.

A huge apartment complex has just been completed called The Palacades at Chenal Valley.
It is one of the biggest apartment complexes in West Little Rock.  Between these apts and the area where
the library is, The Bank of Little Rock has recently placed a coming soon sign. Between the two apt complexes, a new strip center is being built.  No word on what is going to be in it just yet.  

Rahling Road turns into Taylor Loop, that connects you over to Hwy. 10.
There's are many many developments happening over there on Hwy. 10.
Where Taylor Loop intersects with Hwy. 10, there are two banks, one on either side of Taylor Loop.
Across Hwy. 10, there's a Walgreen's that was built a few years back, and a Catfish City built last year.
Behind those two is a big strip center being built.

Of course, we know the new Wal-Mart SuperCenter was built out there and is attracting development.
So far, only a Metropolitan National Bank has been built by the Wal-Mart, but several other things are in
the works.  I know Chili's just bought a piece of property out there.  Just up from there, there are several
big office buildings, mostly call centers..  There's a Cingular call center and some kind of christian book call center.  Right next to those, they are construcing a big First Security Bank and a Capitol Bank.  On the other side of the call centers, there's a nice shopping center that has a japanese restaurant, a Mcalister's Deli, and several other nice retail stores.  A new high-end apartment complex was completed last year off of Ranch Drive, behind the call centers.  I think it's called Stonebrook at the Ranch.

There's a big strip center that was built just up the road, toward Taylor Loop with nothing in it so far but a Jim's Razorback Pizza.  There are also numerous banks in between.  They've just completed another huge apartment complex up in the side of the mtn, to the side of kroger and sonic.  It's called Highland Pointe, they're really nice apartments managed by ERC.  They also have a Highland Pointe in Maumelle.

On up the road, toward I-430, there are several big banks completed within the last year.  A Johnny Corino's was completed last year in the shopping center on Pleasant Valley, facing Hwy. 10.
This is right next to the Pleasant Ridge development.  It will of course have the Saks Parisian, a Books-A-Million, and several stores not seen in the area.  Then, just past this area, at the jct of I-430 is where a big office park is where alltel has a call center.  Ok, I've tried to catch up on everything that has happened thus far.  I'm hoping I didn't leave anything out.  There are many things to come for this area, I'll try to keep up-to-date on them.

Edited by tim2462, 05 April 2006 - 08:56 AM.

[Aporkalypse]

I remember when they finished connecting Chenal to Hwy 10 around 1994 or so I thought that area was the boondocks.  The only reason to go out there was to get to Pinnacle.  I used to eat at the Breadbasket, which is now La Palapa, and it was the only building out there aside from a couple of gas stations, now most of that property along Hwy 10 has planned development and much of it has already been built up.  

You have to wonder when stronger pushes to develop the Lake Maumelle area will finally be successful.   You also have to wonder when Eastern Perry County's growth will really take off.

[tim2462]

Aporkalypse, on Apr 5 2006, 09:58 AM, said:

I remember when they finished connecting Chenal to Hwy 10 around 1994 or so I thought that area was the boondocks.  The only reason to go out there was to get to Pinnacle.  I used to eat at the Breadbasket, which is now La Palapa, and it was the only building out there aside from a couple of gas stations, now most of that property along Hwy 10 has planned development and much of it has already been built up.  

You have to wonder when stronger pushes to develop the Lake Maumelle area will finally be successful.   You also have to wonder when Eastern Perry County's growth will really take off.

There are still several things in the works for Hwy. 10.  A lot of the homeowners are selling, making room for even more.  I was driving out by Lake Maumelle last week. It is easy to picture all kinds of development out there.  It's a very beautiful setting.  Residential is spreading like wildfire, it isn't far from the Lake now.  It's only a matter of time before more residential and commercial follow.  But that won't come without a lot of fight.  I just wonder if it will be part of Little Rock.  I can see the people in that area trying to incorporate as a new city.  While I'd like to see it be part of Little Rock, it's so far out, it may not be feasable.  It'd be nice to have another suburb out there.  I'm surprised that the people of Chenal Valley have never made a push to incorporate.  Chenal Valley, AR...has a nice ring to it.

[Aporkalypse]

tim2462, on Apr 5 2006, 11:25 AM, said:

There are still several things in the works for Hwy. 10.  A lot of the homeowners are selling, making room for even more.  I was driving out by Lake Maumelle last week. It is easy to picture all kinds of development out there.  It's a very beautiful setting.  Residential is spreading like wildfire, it isn't far from the Lake now.  It's only a matter of time before more residential and commercial follow.  But that won't come without a lot of fight.  I just wonder if it will be part of Little Rock.  I can see the people in that area trying to incorporate as a new city.  While I'd like to see it be part of Little Rock, it's so far out, it may not be feasable.  It'd be nice to have another suburb out there.  I'm surprised that the people of Chenal Valley have never made a push to incorporate.  Chenal Valley, AR...has a nice ring to it.

No, it'll all be part of Little Rock.  Roland and/or Ferndale could incorporate but really haven't show interest in it though neither wants to be swallowed up by the city.

[Architect]

tim2462, on Apr 5 2006, 10:25 AM, said:

There are still several things in the works for Hwy. 10.  A lot of the homeowners are selling, making room for even more.  I was driving out by Lake Maumelle last week. It is easy to picture all kinds of development out there.  It's a very beautiful setting.  Residential is spreading like wildfire, it isn't far from the Lake now.  It's only a matter of time before more residential and commercial follow.  But that won't come without a lot of fight.  I just wonder if it will be part of Little Rock.  I can see the people in that area trying to incorporate as a new city.  While I'd like to see it be part of Little Rock, it's so far out, it may not be feasable.  It'd be nice to have another suburb out there.  I'm surprised that the people of Chenal Valley have never made a push to incorporate.  Chenal Valley, AR...has a nice ring to it.

Chenal Valley is already incorporated into Little Rock.  There is no benefit whatsoever to fracture "community" with multiple municipalities.  There are already too many in Pulaski County as it is.

[tim2462]

Architect, on Apr 5 2006, 04:34 PM, said:

Chenal Valley is already incorporated into Little Rock.  There is no benefit whatsoever to fracture "community" with multiple municipalities.  There are already too many in Pulaski County as it is.

Yes, too many in our eyes...but it really isn't that many compared to other cities.

[Architect]

tim2462, on Apr 5 2006, 05:20 PM, said:

Yes, too many in our eyes...but it really isn't that many compared to other cities.

True.  In Pulaski County's case however, its not so much the "number" of municipalities as it is the allocation between them.  North Little Rock is of substantial size compared to Little Rock (fact be known that it was originally part of Little Rock).  And, comparing Little Rock's population proper of less than 200,000 to the 620,000 total in the MSA reveals a relative lack of density.  Tulsa, for instance, represents approximately half of the total MSA of 800,000 plus (compared to Little Rock's 1/3).  Memphis is also about half of the total MSA, etc.

[Aporkalypse]

Architect, on Apr 5 2006, 09:13 PM, said:

True.  In Pulaski County's case however, its not so much the "number" of municipalities as it is the allocation between them.  North Little Rock is of substantial size compared to Little Rock (fact be known that it was originally part of Little Rock).  And, comparing Little Rock's population proper of less than 200,000 to the 620,000 total in the MSA reveals a relative lack of density.  Tulsa, for instance, represents approximately half of the total MSA of 800,000 plus (compared to Little Rock's 1/3).  Memphis is also about half of the total MSA, etc.

Core city population has little or nothing to do with density.  Look at Texas cities like San Antonio, El Paso, and Ft Worth with huge land areas and low density but significant populations (SA is larger than Dallas).  Miami and Ft Lauderdale are very small pieces of their metro but are very dense.  San Jose is much larger than San Francisco but which has the much greater density?  I don't see that argument.

[Architect]

Aporkalypse, on Apr 5 2006, 10:21 PM, said:

Core city population has little or nothing to do with density.  Look at Texas cities like San Antonio, El Paso, and Ft Worth with huge land areas and low density but significant populations (SA is larger than Dallas).  Miami and Ft Lauderdale are very small pieces of their metro but are very dense.  San Jose is much larger than San Francisco but which has the much greater density?  I don't see that argument.

You are absolutely correct.  I misused the term "density" - I was not talking about the number of people within any given area.  Rather, I was merely referring to the "ratio" or "allocation" (as used in my original post) of population between the core city and the total MSA.  Again, in this regard, Little Rock's MSA is relatively fragmented between municipalities.

As an aside, Little Rock is not very "dense" in the physcial sense either.

[tim2462]

Architect, on Apr 7 2006, 07:04 AM, said:

You are absolutely correct.  I misused the term "density" - I was not talking about the number of people within any given area.  Rather, I was merely referring to the "ratio" or "allocation" (as used in my original post) of population between the core city and the total MSA.  Again, in this regard, Little Rock's MSA is relatively fragmented between municipalities.

As an aside, Little Rock is not very "dense" in the physcial sense either.

Salt Lake City has a population less than Little Rock, yet their metro is over 1,000.000.
Orlando is about the same size as Little Rock, yet their metro is around 2,000,000.
Atlanta has a population of less than 500,000...yet their metro is almost 6,000,000.

Those are just a few examples of metros that are off balance compared to their core city.

Also as far as Little Rock not being very dense...Many larger cities have about the same density
as Little Rock.  Nashville, TN for one.  Also, Oklahoma City has much less density than Little Rock, but has a much larger population.

[mcheiss]

tim2462, on Apr 8 2006, 05:02 AM, said:

Also as far as Little Rock not being very dense...Many larger cities have about the same density
as Little Rock.  Nashville, TN for one.  Also, Oklahoma City has much less density than Little Rock, but has a much larger population.

A few more cities with densities less than Little Rocks but much larger pop. are San Antonio and Phoenix.

[Aporkalypse]

mcheiss, on Apr 8 2006, 03:47 PM, said:

A few more cities with densities less than Little Rocks but much larger pop. are San Antonio and Phoenix.

In Texas, San Antonio, El Paso, and Ft Worth all have huge amounts of undeveloped land in city limits.

[Architect]

tim2462, on Apr 8 2006, 04:02 AM, said:

Salt Lake City has a population less than Little Rock, yet their metro is over 1,000.000.
Orlando is about the same size as Little Rock, yet their metro is around 2,000,000.
Atlanta has a population of less than 500,000...yet their metro is almost 6,000,000.

Those are just a few examples of metros that are off balance compared to their core city.

Also as far as Little Rock not being very dense...Many larger cities have about the same density
as Little Rock.  Nashville, TN for one.  Also, Oklahoma City has much less density than Little Rock, but has a much larger population.

Yes, those are other good examples.  I wasn't implying that Little Rock was necessarily unique in that regard.

BTW, Atlanta's MSA is estimated at 4.9M as of 2005 (you were off by two Little Rocks).

Edited by Architect, 08 April 2006 - 07:34 PM.

[tim2462]

Architect, on Apr 8 2006, 07:33 PM, said:

Yes, those are other good examples.  I wasn't implying that Little Rock was necessarily unique in that regard.

BTW, Atlanta's MSA is estimated at 4.9M as of 2005 (you were off by two Little Rocks).

Well, not quite off by two Little Rock's.  Little Rock metro is about 646,000 (2005 estimate)

[vbfl85]

Quote

You also have to wonder when Eastern Perry County's growth will really take off.

Would that growth be occuring because of the Lake or because Conway's growth would spill over across the river into Perry County?

[Aporkalypse]

vbfl85, on Apr 12 2006, 05:34 PM, said:

Would that growth be occuring because of the Lake or because Conway's growth would spill over across the river into Perry County?

Not because of Conway, because of West LR.  Land in Western Pulaski Co is fairly high - the westernmost census tract has a median home price of more than $350k which is in large part due to some nice estates out that way in Ferndale.  Land is much cheaper in Perry Co in towns like Little Italy, Houston, and Bigelow which are closer to the intersection of Hwy 10 and Chenal than downtown LR is.  These towns are experiencing breakneck growth but we're talking about very small towns to begin with.  I expect at some point Eastern Perry Co will start to become an extension of West LR.  It has the same beautiful terrain - Wye Mountain is gorgeous.

[LIT uPP]

It appears that Dillards is no longer part of the Promenade At Chenal.  In June, RED Development submitted a revised site plan that depicted no space for the department store.  This week’s Little Rock planning agenda contains an item (number 12) for yet another revised site plan that again shows no major department store.

The latest information from RED’s website describes the complex as having 340,000 square feet of retail space, but the link that listed future tenants has been removed.  The only tenant previously listed was Dillards.  RED’s site plan has been updated to show the same one that appears on the planning commission’s agenda.  The parcel of land at the corner of LaGrande and Rahling has been left open for future development.  Perhaps, this space could become the site for a future department store.

Regardless, it appears that RED still plans to develop the Promenade, albeit, in altered form.

In other West Little Rock planning/development news:
This week’s Planning Commission agenda contains an item (number 15) for two-to-three “mid-rise” condo towers to be located on the north side of Highway 10, just west of the entrance to Walton Heights and the Delta Trust and Bank.  The towers will hold approximately 200 units and will have no more than six livable floors in each building with perhaps a floor or two of parking underneath.  The site plan shows that they will be constructed closer to Highway 10 (at the bottom of the hill), which will leave room for “extensive lighted walkways” in the greenbelt areas, moving up the hill.

[Architect]

LIT uPP, on Sep 11 2006, 08:55 PM, said:

It appears that Dillards is no longer part of the Promenade At Chenal.  In June, RED Development submitted a revised site plan that depicted no space for the department store.  This week’s Little Rock planning agenda contains an item (number 12) for yet another revised site plan that again shows no major department store.

The latest information from RED’s website describes the complex as having 340,000 square feet of retail space, but the link that listed future tenants has been removed.  The only tenant previously listed was Dillards.  RED’s site plan has been updated to show the same one that appears on the planning commission’s agenda.  The parcel of land at the corner of LaGrande and Rahling has been left open for future development.  Perhaps, this space could become the site for a future department store.

Regardless, it appears that RED still plans to develop the Promenade, albeit, in altered form.

In other West Little Rock planning/development news:
This week’s Planning Commission agenda contains an item (number 15) for two-to-three “mid-rise” condo towers to be located on the north side of Highway 10, just west of the entrance to Walton Heights and the Delta Trust and Bank.  The towers will hold approximately 200 units and will have no more than six livable floors in each building with perhaps a floor or two of parking underneath.  The site plan shows that they will be constructed closer to Highway 10 (at the bottom of the hill), which will leave room for “extensive lighted walkways” in the greenbelt areas, moving up the hill.

This project is on life support at best friends in the know tell me....it is a victim of its remote location and slow start.  What tenants could this attract that aren't already going to Midtowne or Pleasant Ridge - besides Dillard's which is apparently now out of the picture?

[Aporkalypse]

RED's website has been updated with a new sketch labeled 8/8/2006 and with the square footage dropped to 340,000 from the original 450,000 SF as LIT stated.  The new completion date is listed as summer 2008.

I think this is obviously timed with the other announcements in the immediate area including Fellowship's new campus.  It's obvious density there is about to go way up.  That will be a high traffic area by 2010.

It is a little concerning they failed to find an anchor department store.  I still think there must be something to it or they wouldn't be pushing it so hard again.  There are plenty of tenants that aren't in West Little Rock (or Pulaski Co at all) that are in places like Benton Co.  It looks like this will be tailored more to traditional mall tenants than Pleasant Ridge and Midtowne.  I think it could work fine but I'd rather see it with an anchor like Dillard's, Macy's or Foley's.

[Aporkalypse]

I didn't comment on the residential condo project at the base of Walton Heights but that was interesting. Obviously density out there is picking up but it was a bit surprising for a site.  It won't have the river view or hilltop views it might at a different location nearby.  Is Schickel developing this as well?