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I think it is a Fresh Market going into Pleasant Ridge. There is one in Memphis and one in Germantown.

I have only been in Wild Oats and Whole Foods around the US. Anytime I travel for work I try to locate Whole Foods. I can always count on good healthy eats and there usually located in interesting parts of the City. With the UAMS med school dorms being built for 700, all the UAMS and St. Vincent Hospital visitors and the neighborhoods, it seems like such a sure thing. Maybe we should start a new chain called Wild Fresh Whole Things?

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I am EXTREMELY hopeful that Midtowne lands a Whole Foods Store!!! Being so close to the Medical corridor and several neighborhoods (Hillcrest, Heights, Midtown, Briarwood), I bet it would work well. An Eatzi's (Dallas-based) would be welcome too.

Little Rock needs an alternative to Wild Oats. Man! WO has run the LR store into the ground. I went from being a weekly shopper to only two or three times a year. I do everything possible to avoid going there. The Kroger stores have been pretty good about getting in items when I've requested them.

Is it just wishful thinking on your part that Midtowne gets a Whole Foods Store, or is there reason for your hope? That would be an awesome area for one. An Eatzi's would be a huge coup for Little Rock, but Little Rock is an unlikely market. They have locations in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Rockville, MD, and Chicago. I really enjoyed the one in Dallas.

I don't regularly go to Wild Oats, but I have noticed a decline.

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Is it just wishful thinking on your part that Midtowne gets a Whole Foods Store, or is there reason for your hope? That would be an awesome area for one. An Eatzi's would be a huge coup for Little Rock, but Little Rock is an unlikely market. They have locations in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Rockville, MD, and Chicago. I really enjoyed the one in Dallas.

I don't regularly go to Wild Oats, but I have noticed a decline.

Wishful thinking, unfortunately...

I've emailed Whole Foods... Ha! a lot of good that really did. I've thought about sending them my annual 1999-2003 expenses at Wild Oats from quicken.

Edited by turboturtle
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Wishful thinking, unfortunately...

I've emailed Whole Foods... Ha! a lot of good that really did. I've thought about sending them my annual 1999-2003 expenses at Wild Oats from quicken.

There's a place down here called Central Market that makes Whole Foods look like a 7-11. It's a very upscale grocery that's as large as a Sam's Club. It's based in San Antonio and is owned by HEB Grocery but they are about to open up their 5th location in DFW, all in upscale neighborhoods. I'd love to see one of those in LR but again I don't think the market can support it. I think LR would do just fine with a Whole Foods.

I would like to see War Memorial Park redone as well, preferably with a major zoo expansion/renovation. I think the chances of that happening anytime soon are slim and none but I always thought it could happen as part of a midtown redevelopment project and TIF.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I saw the discussion about a pedestrian walk bridge to connect the Park Plaza and Midtowne in the Park Plaza sub-forum. The idea never seems to get much traction from developers.

What is in progress on the Midtowne side of University is the opening and realignment of C street. This will create a four-way intersection at University and C St with a traffic signal. Currently, it is a three way with a signal. Cars travelling east on C St must turn left or right on to University. There is no where for a pedestrian to go except north or south on University.

Opening C St will not only allow cars to cross University to go between Midtowne and Park Plaza, it will also allow pedestrians a place to cross if it done correctly with adequate crossing time. I agree that a pedestrian bridge would be safer, but it is not planned. A neighbor to the south, UALR, could use a pedestrian walkbridge. I work there and seems like a couple of people get hit every year.

I drove by the Midtowne sight around 10 p.m. last night and a crew was working on the second slab. Whatever tenets are going in there are going to have some AMAZING visibility.

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I saw the discussion about a pedestrian walk bridge to connect the Park Plaza and Midtowne in the Park Plaza sub-forum. The idea never seems to get much traction from developers.

What is in progress on the Midtowne side of University is the opening and realignment of C street. This will create a four-way intersection at University and C St with a traffic signal. Currently, it is a three way with a signal. Cars travelling east on C St must turn left or right on to University. There is no where for a pedestrian to go except north or south on University.

Opening C St will not only allow cars to cross University to go between Midtowne and Park Plaza, it will also allow pedestrians a place to cross if it done correctly with adequate crossing time. I agree that a pedestrian bridge would be safer, but it is not planned. A neighbor to the south, UALR, could use a pedestrian walkbridge. I work there and seems like a couple of people get hit every year.

I drove by the Midtowne sight around 10 p.m. last night and a crew was working on the second slab. Whatever tenets are going in there are going to have some AMAZING visibility.

That realignment makes a lot of sense. At least it will allow for a good pedestrian crossing and better flow onto University.

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It seems like there is a media blackout on tenant announcements. It seems like there is a race between Midtowne and Pleasant Ridge developments, whichever development is in the dry first gets the fence-sitting tenants. Irwin Properties still has there news release that says Midtowne Little Rock is supposed to open early Spring 2006.

It seems unlikely that the site will be ready that soon. The last DOG article I saw about the development, said that the developer planned to complete two of the three buildings in the development that are located on the west side, backing up to University, first. It looks like they have 80 percent of the infrastructure for utilities. The remaining work is on the east side of the property. There are two large slabs completed. They look ready for vertical progess. I have no idea how long it will take CDI to construct those two buildings (30ish foot height restriction).

Anyone care to speculate on how long it might take to build these buildings?

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It seems like there is a media blackout on tenant announcements. It seems like there is a race between Midtowne and Pleasant Ridge developments, whichever development is in the dry first gets the fence-sitting tenants. Irwin Properties still has there news release that says Midtowne Little Rock is supposed to open early Spring 2006.

It seems unlikely that the site will be ready that soon. The last DOG article I saw about the development, said that the developer planned to complete two of the three buildings in the development that are located on the west side, backing up to University, first. It looks like they have 80 percent of the infrastructure for utilities. The remaining work is on the east side of the property. There are two large slabs completed. They look ready for vertical progess. I have no idea how long it will take CDI to construct those two buildings (30ish foot height restriction).

Anyone care to speculate on how long it might take to build these buildings?

From now....considering site prep is well along, I'd give them 6 months to have some portion ready for opening.

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I have been told, by somone in the know, that Wild Oats is actually moving to a new location inside the Midtowne Project. They want to bring the Little Rock store up to its national standards, and their demographics showed them a majority of their customers were from the zip codes around Midtowne. While this is good news for some, it does seem to indicate that Whole Foods has decided to concentrate on their urban store developments, and saturate those markets instead of coming into smaller markets where the competition is already entrenched.

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I have been told, by somone in the know, that Wild Oats is actually moving to a new location inside the Midtowne Project. They want to bring the Little Rock store up to its national standards, and their demographics showed them a majority of their customers were from the zip codes around Midtowne. While this is good news for some, it does seem to indicate that Whole Foods has decided to concentrate on their urban store developments, and saturate those markets instead of coming into smaller markets where the competition is already entrenched.

Bring Wild Oats up national standards? It's the biggest store in the chain and unfortunately the quality really fell off when Wild Oats bought Beans, Grains, and Things.

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Some of the tenents listed for the center are: Pottery Barn, William Sonoma, White House Black Market, Chicos, Ann Taylor Lofts, Jos. A Banks, Pier I, Pei Wei and Cantina Laredo.

My wife and I really like Pei Wei. It's informal so you can go there with your kid but the food's high quality and reasonably priced. They have a good selection of a variety of different Asian foods. I like that pad thai. Cantina Laredo is nice but pricy.

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My wife and I really like Pei Wei. It's informal so you can go there with your kid but the food's high quality and reasonably priced. They have a good selection of a variety of different Asian foods. I like that pad thai. Cantina Laredo is nice but pricy.

Pei Wei is basically confirmed. My wife and family were eating at P.F. Changs on Saturday, and I pulled a manager aside to ask if they were putting any Pei Wei diners in town. Without me leading the person on, they said "...one will be opening at a new shopping center across from the mall..."

Cool.

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I've been able to confirm all the tenants for the Midtowne Center mentioned in this forum, except Cantina Laredo, Pier 1, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and Wild Oats independent of this forum. Restoration Hardware is also a speculative tenant.

Across the street...

Progress on the University Mall is stalled. The potential for redevelopment is tied to a lawsuit. The conclusion of the lawsuit should bring to a head a battle between the property owners and Simon Properties. Unfortunately, the lawsuit is delayed because of the Judge. I heard it is because the Judge is ill. Can anyone confirm this? It seems like this will put a resolution for the University Mall site on hold for several years. My guess is that JC Penney and most of the other tenants will be long gone before the lawsuit is complete.

When the re-purposing of the University Mall site does unfold, the post-Mall entity to control that piece of property should be fortunate. I am guessing the site will be converted to Medical Offices and/or related facilities. In the past there has been interest in a mega-Movie theater. Now that the movie industry is in decline, it is hard to see this happening.

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I've been able to confirm all the tenants for the Midtowne Center mentioned in this forum, except Cantina Laredo, Pier 1, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and Wild Oats independent of this forum. Restoration Hardware is also a speculative tenant.

Across the street...

Progress on the University Mall is stalled. The potential for redevelopment is tied to a lawsuit. The conclusion of the lawsuit should bring to a head a battle between the property owners and Simon Properties. Unfortunately, the lawsuit is delayed because of the Judge. I heard it is because the Judge is ill. Can anyone confirm this? It seems like this will put a resolution for the University Mall site on hold for several years. My guess is that JC Penney and most of the other tenants will be long gone before the lawsuit is complete.

When the re-purposing of the University Mall site does unfold, the post-Mall entity to control that piece of property should be fortunate. I am guessing the site will be converted to Medical Offices and/or related facilities. In the past there has been interest in a mega-Movie theater. Now that the movie industry is in decline, it is hard to see this happening.

TurboTurtle,

So you are saying that you have confirmed everyone EXCEPT Cantina Laredo, Pier 1, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Wild Oats & Restoration Hardware? Isn't that pretty much all of the tenants expected? Which ones have you confirmed?

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I found a site via google (www.healthyarkansas.com/eng/planreview/PLUMB/Pulaski.htm) that referenced plumbing being done for the following entities at the Midtowne Center, White House Black Market, Chicos, Ann Taylor Lofts, Jos. A Banks. I consider it independent confirmation of a tenant coming to the site. No other tenants were mention by name. There is one tenant location that requires a grease trap. I have no reason to believe that the ones I mentioned previously are not going to be tenants at the site.

The entire development is supposed to house somewhere around 30 tenants. There is ample room for more speculation about tenants, like a coffee shop.

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Some of the tenents listed for the center are: Pottery Barn, William Sonoma, White House Black Market, Chicos, Ann Taylor Lofts, Jos. A Banks, Pier I, Pei Wei and Cantina Laredo.

Some of the above tenents were listed on Moses Tucker's website and the others on the website of United Commercial Realty of Dallas. A local store will be opening up this fall in the center by the name of Impulse.

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I found a site via google (www.healthyarkansas.com/eng/planreview/PLUMB/Pulaski.htm) that referenced plumbing being done for the following entities at the Midtowne Center, White House Black Market, Chicos, Ann Taylor Lofts, Jos. A Banks. I consider it independent confirmation of a tenant coming to the site. No other tenants were mention by name. There is one tenant location that requires a grease trap. I have no reason to believe that the ones I mentioned previously are not going to be tenants at the site.

The entire development is supposed to house somewhere around 30 tenants. There is ample room for more speculation about tenants, like a coffee shop.

Guess what. This site now lists Williams-Sonoma! I'm an architect (imagine that), and am very familiar with the plumbing review process, and it never occurred to me to check this as a resource for upcoming retailers. Of course, this is a "relatively" new concept of this information being so readily available over the web.

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You all found my secret stash, damn! I check that website daily and actually came to post that Williams Sonoma submitted plans today. All the stores mentioned' above have submitted plumbing plans for Midtown specifically, so there is no question these tenants are tenants....corporations don't complete construction documents until leases are signed.

Wild Oats is definite- I know a design firm working on it, although they wouldn't confirm exact location. However the manager admitted it when I asked her, well told her I knew about it, and as I posted here before, they want to bring it up to national standards.

I know someone here debated that issue but if you have ever been to other locations, everything from the graphics to the merchandise mix is not up to the level of the other stores. It might have the square footage, but that doesn't mean much in regards to how the place functions. I worked for Whole Foods for a number of years, and it is a world of difference between that and Wild Oats in WLR. Most new store layout and designs are more like a traditional grocery stores and less like health food stores. Check out this link and see what I mean.

http://www.wildoats.com/u/find/

Edited by nandle
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You all found my secret stash, damn! I check that website daily and actually came to post that Williams Sonoma submitted plans today. All the stores mentioned' above have submitted plumbing plans for Midtown specifically, so there is no question these tenants are tenants....corporations don't complete construction documents until leases are signed.

Wild Oats is definite- I know a design firm working on it, although they wouldn't confirm exact location. However the manager admitted it when I asked her, well told her I knew about it, and as I posted here before, they want to bring it up to national standards.

I know someone here debated that issue but if you have ever been to other locations, everything from the graphics to the merchandise mix is not up to the level of the other stores. It might have the square footage, but that doesn't mean much in regards to how the place functions. I worked for Whole Foods for a number of years, and it is a world of difference between that and Wild Oats in WLR. Most new store layout and designs are more like a traditional grocery stores and less like health food stores. Check out this link and see what I mean.

http://www.wildoats.com/u/find/

Nandle,

So you did find confirmation on the State Health plumbing review site for Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, etc?

Now the plumbing review site is out there for all of us to monitor. Lets hope it stays that way.

This is all public record, so no, this resource shouldn't be retracted.

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