83 replies to this topic

[thewizard16]

skirby, on 07 March 2012 - 04:36 PM, said:

I agree that this in one of the better buildings in downtown.  The Arkansas Times post on this has something very interesting. The main tenent will be Arkansas Child Support Enforcement division which is now located in the old Arkla building, which is owned by MT. The post says that MT should release development plans for the Arkla building within the next six to eight months and therefore will not be looking for new tenents for the building.

I did forget to mention that. My post was getting longer and longer as I read the different articles so I just quit adding to it. I'm curious as to what they'll have in store for the Arkla building since it's a bit outside of the immediate area they've so far chosen to work in. What's even more interesting is that they're pursuing these projects immediately while the Arcade project appears to still be somewhat on hold. I have to think that must be because the financing sources for the Blass project are much more immediately obtainable than funding for a new project in the River Market, but I hope it's still somewhere close to the top of their stack of projects. Ideally this Blass project will spur more interest in the buildings very close to it though and help get things moving on Main St. since the K-Lofts have stalled and that developer's ambitions for the other buildings on Main aren't likely to happen in the short term.

[skirby]

thewizard16, on 07 March 2012 - 05:15 PM, said:

I did forget to mention that. My post was getting longer and longer as I read the different articles so I just quit adding to it. I'm curious as to what they'll have in store for the Arkla building since it's a bit outside of the immediate area they've so far chosen to work in. What's even more interesting is that they're pursuing these projects immediately while the Arcade project appears to still be somewhat on hold. I have to think that must be because the financing sources for the Blass project are much more immediately obtainable than funding for a new project in the River Market, but I hope it's still somewhere close to the top of their stack of projects. Ideally this Blass project will spur more interest in the buildings very close to it though and help get things moving on Main St. since the K-Lofts have stalled and that developer's ambitions for the other buildings on Main aren't likely to happen in the short term.

I think the Arcade  develpment is waiting on the bond election this coming  Tuesday. If approved the funding for the auditorium/theater part of the development will be in place. As for the Arkla building it is located between the River Market Tower and the Rainwater Lofts building, which MT is redeveloping into 12 apartments.

Edited by skirby, 08 March 2012 - 11:27 AM.

[skirby]

In today's Democrat Gazette the article about the redevelopment of the Blass building also says that a $30 million mixed use project for Main Street is in the works or as the DG says "in the offing" according to an unnammed local developer.

[thewizard16]

It's been quiet on here lately... but there's more good news for Main Street! This project has been in progress for a bit but there hasn't been a lot of information on it that I've seen so far. The Exchange Bank Building (423 Main Street is the address I believe) is undergoing a renovation to office space. Not mixed use or anything, but more people working on Main each day is great news when it comes to encouraging other businesses to locate there. This is close to the Blass Building project and near the Porter's/K-Lofts project (when it gets moving again), so there's a little bit of momentum developing there now. Now if that lot across from it and Blass would just get a nice big project underway...

Article: http://www.arkansaso...f=news-arkansas