Pleasant Ridge Town Center

[turboturtle]

Here goes my best effort to relate this tangent back the forum topic...

Two of my best friends in high school were kickers, one and Hall the other at Central. The kicker for Hall lived behind what will soon become the Pleasant Forest Town Center.

What follows is a cut and paste of an article that appeared in Arkansas Business. I found it in Google cache.

***************

Retire the Bell Bowl trophy

One of Arkansas

[Aporkalypse]

Here goes my best effort to relate this tangent back the forum topic...

Two of my best friends in high school were kickers, one and Hall the other at Central. The kicker for Hall lived behind what will soon become the Pleasant Forest Town Center.

What follows is a cut and paste of an article that appeared in Arkansas Business. I found it in Google cache.

***************

Retire the Bell Bowl trophy

One of Arkansas

[Architect]

Catholic used to spray paint the triangle at H St by Hall purple and gold after our victories, and vice versa with losses it became orange and white.

I grew up in Walton Heights when there was no stoplight at Rivercrest and Hwy 10. Crazy how things change.

Hey, me too! 12300 Southridge.

[turboturtle]

I remember the E Z Mart across from the entrance to Walton Heights. When did the traffic signal go up?

[Aporkalypse]

I remember the E Z Mart across from the entrance to Walton Heights. When did the traffic signal go up?

I was in 8th-9th grade or so, so about 15 years ago. I also remember Chenal was finished out around 1994. I used to go mudding in my Jeep on the road before they finished paving it. We used to get our gas at that EZ Mart, I was kind of sad when the whole hillside there was torn down.

Hey, me too! 12300 Southridge.

11500 Rivercrest (to the right on top, on the river side halfway down)

I used to have several friends down on Southridge. Walking back home up that hill would sure make your calves burn.

[Architect]

I was in 8th-9th grade or so, so about 15 years ago. I also remember Chenal was finished out around 1994. I used to go mudding in my Jeep on the road before they finished paving it. We used to get our gas at that EZ Mart, I was kind of sad when the whole hillside there was torn down.

11500 Rivercrest (to the right on top, on the river side halfway down)

I used to have several friends down on Southridge. Walking back home up that hill would sure make your calves burn.

I lived there from 5 years old (1974) until I was 15 years old (1984)....great, great memories. We use to play all of the time down in the "Park" in the valley along the creek. There was a bridge across it that the city built that the local "hoodlum" by the name of Robert Grey (and his cronies) burned down. We use to hike that whole area, ride our bikes as fast as possible down the hill from Rivercrest, sneak into a tree house up the (Rivercrest) side of the hill above the creek, etc. Some of my friends from that era & area: Kirk Babb, Curt Hippensteel, Dal Hippensteel....

[Aporkalypse]

I lived there from 5 years old (1974) until I was 15 years old (1984)....great, great memories. We use to play all of the time down in the "Park" in the valley along the creek. There was a bridge across it that the city built that the local "hoodlum" by the name of Robert Grey (and his cronies) burned down. We use to hike that whole area, ride our bikes as fast as possible down the hill from Rivercrest, sneak into a tree house up the (Rivercrest) side of the hill above the creek, etc. Some of my friends from that era & area: Kirk Babb, Curt Hippensteel, Dal Hippensteel....

I was born in '75 so these people were probably long gone. I had friends on Southridge - Matt Osborn, Greg Zawada, Abram Wylie but they were good bit younger.

Great area to grow up, I'd love to go back. Houses on the top of the hill with river views are going for a big premium these days.

[skirby]

To open in October.

[itk]

^nice pics. I searched back through this thread, and couldn't find any details about this-- it looks somewhat like an upscale lifestyle center-type venue?

[Aporkalypse]

^nice pics. I searched back through this thread, and couldn't find any details about this-- it looks somewhat like an upscale lifestyle center-type venue?

Pretty much. The anchors are a Saks Parisian department store and a gourmet grocery store whose name escapes me. It's designed in the current "town center" trend of shopping development and isn't terribly large - only 300,000 SF. The location's great but basically it had to be carved out of a hillside so there was no more available land to use to develop it.

There are a couple of other "lifestyle centers" going in right now - one is Midtowne at University and Markham and this is considerably larger. The other, which hasn't yet broken ground, is the Promenade at Chenal and supposedly this will be around 700,000 SF. The North Hills development is supposed to break ground pretty soon and will be around a million SF but looks to be largely big box retail along with a movie complex and Bass Pro shops. There are rumors of new shopping developments at the old proposed site of the Summit Mall at Shackleford and I-430 and out on Colonel Glenn and I-430.

[itk]

Aha, thanks for the info. I've driven by this many times but couldn't get an idea what it would be since it is up the hillside from Cantrell. It'll be interesting to see how much worse traffic operates in that stretch west of the I-430 interchange-- those closely-spaced signals weren't the most hot idea.

[Aporkalypse]

Aha, thanks for the info. I've driven by this many times but couldn't get an idea what it would be since it is up the hillside from Cantrell. It'll be interesting to see how much worse traffic operates in that stretch west of the I-430 interchange-- those closely-spaced signals weren't the most hot idea.

The other issue out that way that's been a problem is the widening of Rodney Parham between Cantrell and the Hinson/Green Mtn intersection. It was supposed to be 4-laned a couple of years ago but the city caved to homeowners and held off. That really needs to be a 4-lane road. Little Rock has way too many 2-lane roads serving where 4 lane roads should be.

[Architect]

The other issue out that way that's been a problem is the widening of Rodney Parham between Cantrell and the Hinson/Green Mtn intersection. It was supposed to be 4-laned a couple of years ago but the city caved to homeowners and held off. That really needs to be a 4-lane road. Little Rock has way too many 2-lane roads serving where 4 lane roads should be.

The only saving grace to that TOTAL cave-in by the city (which is inexcusable in my opinion) is that they redirected the funds to the streetcar system. Now its time to take care of business and widen that arterial.

[itk]

The other issue out that way that's been a problem is the widening of Rodney Parham between Cantrell and the Hinson/Green Mtn intersection. It was supposed to be 4-laned a couple of years ago but the city caved to homeowners and held off. That really needs to be a 4-lane road. Little Rock has way too many 2-lane roads serving where 4 lane roads should be.

You know, I've noticed that a lot about LR since I moved there last year. There seems to be no shortage of streets which have 3 or 4 thru lanes... then all of a sudden have a lane drop at an odd location (no less thrilled to see happen when I'm in heavy traffic).

[Architect]

Anybody heard of "Imagines" restaurant? It just showed up today for plumbing review at the health department for Pleasant Ridge Town Center.

[hartford]

has anyone seen the article in shoppingcenterbusiness's website that talks about the pleasant ridge shopping center? It has a lot of information on it and lists quite a few potential tenants. For restaurants it lists Imagine Restaurant, Ben and Jerrys, Camille's Sidewalk Cafe, Harry's Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab, Crew Restaurant, Moe's, and Red Robin. As far as retail it lists Talbots, Victoria Secret, Anne Taylor, White House Black Market, J Jill, American Eagle, and Pacific Sunwear. It lists as potential tenants as Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Indigo. Does anybody have any more info???

[Aporkalypse]

has anyone seen the article in shoppingcenterbusiness's website that talks about the pleasant ridge shopping center? It has a lot of information on it and lists quite a few potential tenants. For restaurants it lists Imagine Restaurant, Ben and Jerrys, Camille's Sidewalk Cafe, Harry's Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab, Crew Restaurant, Moe's, and Red Robin. As far as retail it lists Talbots, Victoria Secret, Anne Taylor, White House Black Market, J Jill, American Eagle, and Pacific Sunwear. It lists as potential tenants as Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Indigo. Does anybody have any more info???

It seems like a smallish shopping center for all of that but it is in an upscale area. The anchors are a Saks Parisian Dept Store and some type of gourmet grocery. They can't expand it or add a second phase because they had to blast into a hill to make room for the shopping center as is. Glad to hear some stores like that mentioned. I'm a huge fan of Urban Outfitters despite the high prices.

I know a couple of the stores mentioned are going into the Midtowne Center which is in a prime location near the area's upscale mall, Park Plaza, and it's supposed to get stores like Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, Pei Wei, Cantina Laredo, White House/Black Market, J Jill, Chico's, etc.

As far as info, what do you want to know?

[hartford]

if you type "pleasant ridge town center schickel" into yahoo the first link to come up is the article I mentioned about possible tenants. as far as info I was just wondering if anyone has heard confirmation for any of the stores/restaurants.

[schwilj]

Not sure if this was mentioned yet, but looks like Pleasant Ridge is getting a Cingular. Cause we need more of those.

http://www.healthyarkansas.com/eng/planrev...PLUMB/58883.htm

I'm pulling for Urban Outfitters, but not sure if we will get it. LR or Conway would be a good location what with the draw of college kids from UALR, UCA, Hendrix, and even ATU (plus others I didn't list in the area)

[Aporkalypse]

Not sure if this was mentioned yet, but looks like Pleasant Ridge is getting a Cingular. Cause we need more of those.

http://www.healthyarkansas.com/eng/planrev...PLUMB/58883.htm

I'm pulling for Urban Outfitters, but not sure if we will get it. LR or Conway would be a good location what with the draw of college kids from UALR, UCA, Hendrix, and even ATU (plus others I didn't list in the area)

Hartford, thanks for the link.

I can't see Urban Outfitters in Conway. They used to opt more for trendy areas and I would've thought they'd fit in more in the River Market or Hillcrest at one point but they've taken to malls of late and I could see Park Plaza or the Midtowne shopping center as the best place for one of those.

There are some nice restaurant selections in that article, at least better than I thought we would see. The center will also either get a Barnes and Noble or Books a Million based on the size of the bookstore's slot.

[masons_dad1]

Pleasant Ridge Town Center will be anchored by a 2-story, 120,000 sq. ft. Parisain department store and The Fresh Market, upscale grocer.

Other features:

[Architect]

Hartford, thanks for the link.

I can't see Urban Outfitters in Conway. They used to opt more for trendy areas and I would've thought they'd fit in more in the River Market or Hillcrest at one point but they've taken to malls of late and I could see Park Plaza or the Midtowne shopping center as the best place for one of those.

There are some nice restaurant selections in that article, at least better than I thought we would see. The center will also either get a Barnes and Noble or Books a Million based on the size of the bookstore's slot.

Speaking of bookstores, the word on the street is that about a year ago, Borders came to investigate the market. Midtowne was REALLY pushing hard, but for some reason they opted not to locate there (purportedly because they were afraid of B&N...are you KIDDING ME!!!! Half of B&N's traffic is from people in the Heights/Hillcrest!) - though it would have been perfect. So they searched for another location, and couldn't figure out the market (i.e. there were a bunch of medium grade, mid-sized developments with no standout) so they decided to skip LR altogether. That is SO lame.

Who knows, maybe they'll pop up somewhere, but if there was ANY location with a high density of their "customers" that was physically remote from the competition, it would have been Midtowne. Of course, there was that rumor about 5 years ago that Border's was going into the Rivermarket, which wouldn't have been right then, and may not be now....but who knows.

[Aporkalypse]

Speaking of bookstores, the word on the street is that about a year ago, Borders came to investigate the market. Midtowne was REALLY pushing hard, but for some reason they opted not to locate there (purportedly because they were afraid of B&N...are you KIDDING ME!!!! Half of B&N's traffic is from people in the Heights/Hillcrest!) - though it would have been perfect. So they searched for another location, and couldn't figure out the market (i.e. there were a bunch of medium grade, mid-sized developments with no standout) so they decided to skip LR altogether. That is SO lame.

Who knows, maybe they'll pop up somewhere, but if there was ANY location with a high density of their "customers" that was physically remote from the competition, it would have been Midtowne. Of course, there was that rumor about 5 years ago that Border's was going into the Rivermarket, which wouldn't have been right then, and may not be now....but who knows.

Well, I was assuming Borders wouldn't come in because it's not already in the market but knowing this you would have to think it's definitely a possibility. Putting a bookstore in Midtowne, near not only the Heights/Hillcrest but also in reasonable proximity to UALR and UAMS, would've been a slam-dunk. That would be the best location for one in LR, considerably better than the Financial Centre Barnes and Noble.

[hartford]

does anyone think J Crew will ever enter the market? I have not seen them mentioned in the midtowne mall or pleasant ridge. It seems to me that midtowne would be a good fit.

[Aporkalypse]

does anyone think J Crew will ever enter the market? I have not seen them mentioned in the midtowne mall or pleasant ridge. It seems to me that midtowne would be a good fit.

Either of these would be a good fit. Whatever retailers don't opt for Pleasant Ridge or Midtowne will have a couple more chances. The most concrete would be the Promenade at Chenal which is supposed to be 400,000 SF and will be nicer than both of the other developments. Last I checked there was some clearing of land that way but they weren't close to starting construction yet.

There are rumors of major shopping developments at Colonel Glenn near the Rave Theater and at Shackleford at the originally proposed Summit Mall site. JC Penney's is wanting to get back in the LR area out there. Anyone have any info on the status of those projects?