2017: Projects to be completed, new starts and whatever

[skirby]

Broadway Bridge: Construction has passed the halfway point for closure with traffic scheduled to return in March.

Main Street: Tech Park to open Phase I in March. Will a time be given for the start of Phase II ?

                     Street construction in the 6 and 7 hundred blocks.

                     Questions. Will construction start again on the aLoft project or will it be declared dead?

                                        Will someone take over Scott Reed's property on Main and finish these projects?

Scott Street: Scott Street Flats will be completed and open.

                     Will anything be announced for one or both of the canceled Vib Hotel property and the vacant/parking lot located at Capitol and Scott? I believe MT has interest in both of these           properties.

River Market: Hilton Garden Inn will open and will the developer provide any further information on their purposed Holiday Inn Express to be located on the same block?

                      Acxiom Building: Will it be sold and will any plans be announced for the block located to the west of it?

                       Will this be the year that LaHarpe's Office Furniture relocates providing space for new businesses in the River Market?

                      

East Village: The Paint Factory will open towards the end of the year.

                     Will eStem start construction on their new school and will Rock Town Distillery relocate or stay where it is now?

Arkansas Arts Center: Renderings for the expansion and rehab should be made public.

Argenta: Argenta Flats' last units will be completed and open.

              Will plans be announced for the purposed public plaza located on Main?

              Will plans be announced and  construction start on the property near the trolley barn? There is a developer in talks with the city for the property at this time.

Whatever or things I would like to see come about:

               A really good Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant or both for the downtown area.

               The development of a brewery incubator in East Village.

               A winter festival running from Thanksgiving to the end of January. Bring back the ice rink in the River Market and bring in a Ferris Wheel. Link all downtown activities at this time together. Designate a space for a New Years Eve event that would feature the dropping or rolling a rock or a slide for the rock from the Main Street bridge  into the river.  Before the main event during the day hold races where people or teams compete rolling big plastic rocks down the streets. Make it fun where people would enjoy themselves being fools on the last day of the year. Throw in some street bands and  street magicians  and before you know it you got a great big hoop-to-do going on.

 

[Smith]

For your tex-mex: Cotija's in on Louisiana and is fairly tasty.

[SangreRaVen]

they could always do a big razorback being lowered for the countdown if they want to drop ppl though a big rock would work to

 

-R

[adman0468]

2 hours ago, Smith said:

For your tex-mex: Cotija's in on Louisiana and is fairly tasty.

I thought at one time there was talk of a Local Lime downtown (I don't think they ever said where exactly), but haven't heard anything lately.

[SangreRaVen]

I really do hope that  LaHarpe's Office Furniture moves somewhere else so that some new cafe or pub can move into that space. It would be a great spot for something new and interesting in the river market

 

-R

[skirby]

3 hours ago, SangreRaVen said:

they could always do a big razorback being lowered for the countdown if they want to drop ppl though a big rock would work to

 

-R

I think NWA would lay claim to any pig dropping but after the beat down in the Belk Bowl the pig might not like being dropped on New Year. I thought the rock would be a good play on Little Rock's name and if it was rolled before it was  dropped that might be even better. It could be the  Rock and Roll Drop or turn it around and drop it first then it would be the Drop, Rock and Roll.

[Architect]

Interesting link the DemGaz created/published today regarding upcoming development projects in the LR metro for 2017:

http://www.arkansasonline.com/galleries/22369/album/

[ArkansasTraveler]

16 hours ago, skirby said:

I think NWA would lay claim to any pig dropping but after the beat down in the Belk Bowl the pig might not like being dropped on New Year. I thought the rock would be a good play on Little Rock's name and if it was rolled before it was  dropped that might be even better. It could be the  Rock and Roll Drop or turn it around and drop it first then it would be the Drop, Rock and Roll.

Count me in on the sentiment of letting Fayetteville have the hog as their idea. Little Rock may still be a considerable recruiting base for UA academic and athletic programs, but the state's capital city could really do well to promote what's unique about central Arkansas. A winter festival sounds like a great effort to rally around, and something that eventually may be organized similarly to Riverfest in the summer.

[Smith]

18 hours ago, adman0468 said:

I thought at one time there was talk of a Local Lime downtown (I don't think they ever said where exactly), but haven't heard anything lately.

Don't recall hearing that but Local Lime would do well over with the new East Village area. Also, would be near their sister store Lost 40. I could also see it doing well in SoMa.

[adman0468]

21 minutes ago, Smith said:

Don't recall hearing that but Local Lime would do well over with the new East Village area. Also, would be near their sister store Lost 40. I could also see it doing well in SoMa.

Found this article from 2015. It sounded very preliminary and may have either died or been put on hold. But if they do it, those locations you mentioned would all work. And be far enough from the current location to keep from hurting it.

http://www.littlerocksoiree.com/post/105281/another-local-lime-to-open-downtown

[LR_Nomad]

16 hours ago, Architect said:

Interesting link the DemGaz created/published today regarding upcoming development projects in the LR metro for 2017:

http://www.arkansasonline.com/galleries/22369/album/

That is a lot of potentially exciting developments and current developments.  Will be fun to see which ones come to fruition over the next year.

[SangreRaVen]

Hmmm maybe since the Diamond is on the tags for the state we could do a big (fake obviously) diamond dropping

 

-R

[Smith]

2 hours ago, adman0468 said:

Found this article from 2015. It sounded very preliminary and may have either died or been put on hold. But if they do it, those locations you mentioned would all work. And be far enough from the current location to keep from hurting it.

http://www.littlerocksoiree.com/post/105281/another-local-lime-to-open-downtown

Either the new mixed use building planned for SoMa (1424 Main) or the new proposed building in East Village (Artisan on Collins) could potentially house any yellow rocket concept and do a very good business.

[skirby]

5 minutes ago, SangreRaVen said:

Hmmm maybe since the Diamond is on the tags for the state we could do a big (fake obviously) diamond dropping

 

-R

I thought about a diamond but it might be too close to the look of the ball in Times Square. Maybe they could get Diamond Bear Brewing to sponsor the event and use their logo. The could produce a Platinum Blonde for the winter like the have a Strawberry Blonde for the summer, with her riding the diamond.  Picture of the Southern Blonde:

They could even hold a contest to pick out a Platinum Blonde girl each year to oversee the drop.

[SangreRaVen]

Could be fun

 

-R

[skirby]

One additional development that might come about in 2017 is the Smarthouse Way property in Argenta. This is a 5.8 acre property located just west of the Broadway Bridge along the river. The representatives for the developer have ask for an extension from the city until Feb. 2 to close on the property. 

[skirby]

On 1/5/2017 at 9:41 AM, skirby said:

One additional development that might come about in 2017 is the Smarthouse Way property in Argenta. This is a 5.8 acre property located just west of the Broadway Bridge along the river. The representatives for the developer have ask for an extension from the city until Feb. 2 to close on the property. 

The city has sold the property. See the Argenta topic for more information.

[skirby]

On 1/2/2017 at 11:37 AM, skirby said:

Broadway Bridge: Construction has passed the halfway point for closure with traffic scheduled to return in March.

Main Street: Tech Park to open Phase I in March. Will a time be given for the start of Phase II ?

                     Street construction in the 6 and 7 hundred blocks.

                     Questions. Will construction start again on the aLoft project or will it be declared dead?

                                        Will someone take over Scott Reed's property on Main and finish these projects?

Scott Street: Scott Street Flats will be completed and open.

                     Will anything be announced for one or both of the canceled Vib Hotel property and the vacant/parking lot located at Capitol and Scott? I believe MT has interest in both of these           properties.

River Market: Hilton Garden Inn will open and will the developer provide any further information on their purposed Holiday Inn Express to be located on the same block?

                      Acxiom Building: Will it be sold and will any plans be announced for the block located to the west of it?

                       Will this be the year that LaHarpe's Office Furniture relocates providing space for new businesses in the River Market?

                      

East Village: The Paint Factory will open towards the end of the year.

                     Will eStem start construction on their new school and will Rock Town Distillery relocate or stay where it is now?

Arkansas Arts Center: Renderings for the expansion and rehab should be made public.

Argenta: Argenta Flats' last units will be completed and open.

              Will plans be announced for the purposed public plaza located on Main?

              Will plans be announced and  construction start on the property near the trolley barn? There is a developer in talks with the city for the property at this time.

Whatever or things I would like to see come about:

               A really good Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant or both for the downtown area.

               The development of a brewery incubator in East Village.

               A winter festival running from Thanksgiving to the end of January. Bring back the ice rink in the River Market and bring in a Ferris Wheel. Link all downtown activities at this time together. Designate a space for a New Years Eve event that would feature the dropping or rolling a rock or a slide for the rock from the Main Street bridge  into the river.  Before the main event during the day hold races where people or teams compete rolling big plastic rocks down the streets. Make it fun where people would enjoy themselves being fools on the last day of the year. Throw in some street bands and  street magicians  and before you know it you got a great big hoop-to-do going on.

 

Update on the above.

Broadway Bridge is open to traffic and has been dedicated.

Main Street:

       Tech Park is open along with Blue Sail Coffee.

        Bids go out next month for 6th and 7th redo.

        One of Scott Reed's properties, K-Lofts, has been taken over and should be completed within 60 days.

River Market:

       The Acxiom building has been sold and Acxiom has taken up some office space on Main Street.

East Village:

       eStem has started construction on their building.

Argenta:

      The last phase of Argenta Flats is now open. Another apartment development, The Thrive, should be under construction soon.

A report from Arkansas Business states that vacancy rate for office space in the downtown LR area for the 4th quarter of 2016 was 6.3 percent. The downtown area available office space is lower than midtown and WLR. I wonder if this rate will encourage anyone to consider adding  office space in the downtown area?

 

 

 

[adman0468]

Simmons moving to the Acxiom building will create some empty space at the old Simmons Tower. I assume the somewhat empty Acxiom building didn't count in the vacancy since it wasn't leasable, but owned.

[Cotton Mouth]

8 hours ago, skirby said:

Update on the above.

Broadway Bridge is open to traffic and has been dedicated.

Main Street:

       Tech Park is open along with Blue Sail Coffee.

        Bids go out next month for 6th and 7th redo.

        One of Scott Reed's properties, K-Lofts, has been taken over and should be completed within 60 days.

River Market:

       The Acxiom building has been sold and Acxiom has taken up some office space on Main Street.

East Village:

       eStem has started construction on their building.

Argenta:

      The last phase of Argenta Flats is now open. Another apartment development, The Thrive, should be under construction soon.

A report from Arkansas Business states that vacancy rate for office space in the downtown LR area for the 4th quarter of 2016 was 6.3 percent. The downtown area available office space is lower than midtown and WLR. I wonder if this rate will encourage anyone to consider adding  office space in the downtown area?

 

 

 

Also the Broadway bridge doesn't have lights. Two steps forward, three steps back...

[skirby]

On 4/11/2017 at 3:52 PM, adman0468 said:

Simmons moving to the Acxiom building will create some empty space at the old Simmons Tower. I assume the somewhat empty Acxiom building didn't count in the vacancy since it wasn't leasable, but owned.

It is my understanding that Simmons occupied less that four complete floors in the building so it might not take too long to lease out. Maybe Bear State Bank could move in and put their logo bear on top.