What Stores/Restaurants does LR still need?

[Aporkalypse]

Completely agree with the above. On the topic of local, is there ANY chance that the Living Room will re-emerge somewhere in the Hillcrest area again. I don't know who owned it, or whether they were experiencing financial trouble, just that it closed to remodel (so I thought), and SO opened in it's place.

Also, one thing that is desperately lacking from the LR market is a good dessert only restaurant. Memphis has a place called the "Cheesecake Corner" downtown about 5 blocks SW of the Forum on Patterson. The chef/owner offers 20-30 different types of cheesecake each day by the slice, along with gourmet coffee, and I think a new wine bar. Outdoor seating is available. It's outstanding, and I believe a place like this would do really well in either the River Market or Hillcrest/Heights area.

[LRU1967]

Cafe di Roma kind of filled niche for a while when it was open on Kavanaugh near Damgoode's first location. You are right, there is no good dessert-only restaurant/cafe. Community Bakery on Main isn't quite that, but it is a nice place for desserts or for a nice breakfast or sandwich. For some reason everybody forgets it, maybe it's just so old we forget about it.

[Aporkalypse]

Cafe di Roma was a good place for tasty food in a casual atmosphere. The couple that owned it had a dispute with the woman who bought the place over payment. Does anybody know what the resolution was?

Actually Community Bakery is doing good business. It's out of the way for those who don't get downtown often. You won't see the same patrons at Community that you'll see in Sufficient Grounds or Boulevard Bread.

[EJC]

In the category of steakhouses, Jerry B is set to open another restaraunt.

from the ArkBusiness:

Arthur

[theman]

According to Arkansas Business a new restaurant is suppose to be coming to the Highway 10 corridor. I wonder who it will be.

New Eatery for LR

By Arkansas Business Staff

4/16/2007

Look for an official announcement soon regarding yet another new restaurant on Highway 10 in west Little Rock.

This 3,500-SF eatery will be a name new to the Little Rock market.

It represents the first of several restaurants expected to set up shop on an eight-acre site just west of Taylor Loop Road.

[Aporkalypse]

It looks like a lot of the stores people were clamoring for may be setting up shop at the Promenade. Apple and J. Crew were a couple everybody seemed high on and they'll be a nice start. I'm sure when more names are released we'll get more we've been interested in.

[Aporkalypse]

I'm not sure if anyone really wants one but LR's supposed to be getting a Melting Pot, one of the chain of fondue restaurants.

[Architect]

I'm not sure if anyone really wants one but LR's supposed to be getting a Melting Pot, one of the chain of fondue restaurants.

[Aporkalypse]

Cool. Any idea where? MidTowne, or River Market? The one in OKC is in Bricktown.

[hartford]

They haven't announced a site. It would be nice if it ended up in or near the River Market.

[theman]

The Omaha World Herald had an online poll asking its readers which retailers/restaurants they want in Omaha. Some of the responses are the same as what we have mentioned:

Macy's

Saks

Norstrom

Crate & Barrel

Restoration Warehouse

Ruth's Cris

Maggiano's

To name a few.

A few on their list have locations or will soon have locations in Little Rock. A few of these may suprise you:

Guitar Center

On The Border

Container Store

Chic-fil-a

Churches Chicken

Waffle House

Omaha's MSA in 2006 was at 822,549 and ranked 60th in the country. Little Rock's MSA was 652,834 and ranked 79th. If you compare CSA's the cities are ranked closer. Omaha 858,720 and ranked 58th in 2006. Little Rock 829,032 and ranked 60th.

[Architect]

The Omaha World Herald had an online poll asking its readers which retailers/restaurants they want in Omaha. Some of the responses are the same as what we have mentioned:

Macy's

Saks

Norstrom

Crate & Barrel

Restoration Warehouse

Ruth's Cris

Maggiano's

To name a few.

A few on their list have locations or will soon have locations in Little Rock. A few of these may suprise you:

Guitar Center

On The Border

Container Store

Chic-fil-a

Churches Chicken

Waffle House

Omaha's MSA in 2006 was at 822,549 and ranked 60th in the country. Little Rock's MSA was 652,834 and ranked 79th. If you compare CSA's the cities are ranked closer. Omaha 858,720 and ranked 58th in 2006. Little Rock 829,032 and ranked 60th.

[theman]

Very nice. Thanks for the comparison 'the man.' I seldom reference Omaha when comparing to Little Rock. In fact, not that anyone cares, but I tend to always compare the following:

Shreveport, Jackson, Des Moines (these are similar in size, though in many ways, LR tends to trump the first two in most categories)

Tulsa (I've always liked to compare Tulsa as I have family near there, but truthfully, Tulsa is up one notch from LR - sort of a big brother)

Just as an aside, is CSA becoming more common? If so, this tends to favor Little Rock quite a bit since our population distribution is fractured among many municipalities the more you break it down.

[Architect]

Those are the cities I compare Little Rock to along with Wichita, KS and Huntsville, AL.

In some circles CSA is more important and in others its MSA. I agree that CSA favors Little Rock.

[theman]

I can see Wichita, but Huntsville? Mobile and Birmingham come to mind as more comparable in size, scale, etc.

[Architect]

My brother lives there and I've visited a couple of times. Huntsville and Little Rock have similar populations. They have some things on Little Rock's wish list that we don't have, SuperTarget to name one. Like Little Rock they have an urban university, University of Alabama Huntsville and NASA has a huge presence there. Their downtown doesn't have the verticality of Little Rock's and is not as dense. Huntsville is a nice city.

[Aporkalypse]

Yes, don't get me wrong...I know that its grown rapidly around NASA/High Tech, and that it is known as a great place to live. From a scale, density and population standpoint though, again, it just doesn't come across on my own radar.

[Architect]

Huntsville's MSA is a lot smaller (366k vs 665k for LR) - actually smaller than NWA and Springfield. Still, I would say Springfield is a good comparitor for Huntsville. LR is a notch or two up. Demographically, though, as you said it's pretty similar, there's a lot of technology there and it's growing.

Traditionally Jackson, Mobile and Shreveport were always used to compare with LR. They haven't really grown much and have smaller MSAs but have a lot of regional draw. People drive in from a large radius to dine, shop, see physicians and lawyers, etc. I think Des Moines, Omaha, and Tulsa are comparable as well though they are larger MSAs.

BTW, the rumor's pretty rampant that The Promenade at Chenal is getting a Macy's. I don't know if it's all coming from the same source but it seems like everyone is talking about it.

[ajholman33]

As someone who used to work for one of the developers you all often refer to, I would be happy to clarify a few things for all of the curious minds! First, Macy's is NOT going into the Promenade at Chenal. That will be a true lifestyle center with no department store. Secondly, Buffalo Wild Wings is far down the line in signing at least one lease here in the Little Rock area (I can't disclose where, sorry!). Also, Lowe's would like another location here, preferably in the West Little Rock area near Home Depot, but there aren't any areas of interest to them that have enough land for them to build on. Lacoste is a BIG stretch for Little Rock - getting Coach to even look at this market was like pulling teeth, but it looks like they will have a store here in the next two years or so. I agree that JCrew belongs here, but they are on the fence as to whether or not our market holds the volume to support a store when they can still make money off of the online/catalog shoppers without a brick-and-mortar store.

Most of the chain restaurants that you have discussed will open up locations in Fayetteville/Rogers before Little Rock because of the growth and the presence of WalMart, Tyson, JB Hunt, etc. The daytime and midweek population up there is so much stronger because of all of the people traveling there for those companies, not to mention the University. If they decide to enter the state, I would be shocked if Cheesecake Factory, Cantina Laredo, etc. looked at Little Rock for their first location. Ruth Chris did mention that they need to get back and tour the market (their Real Estate guy hasn't been here for 3 years), but don't believe the rumors you might here about them already having a deal done here. Not true...not yet, at least!

That's my two cents on all of this!

[turboturtle]

That's my two cents on all of this!

[Architect]

As someone who used to work for one of the developers you all often refer to, I would be happy to clarify a few things for all of the curious minds! First, Macy's is NOT going into the Promenade at Chenal. That will be a true lifestyle center with no department store. Secondly, Buffalo Wild Wings is far down the line in signing at least one lease here in the Little Rock area (I can't disclose where, sorry!). Also, Lowe's would like another location here, preferably in the West Little Rock area near Home Depot, but there aren't any areas of interest to them that have enough land for them to build on. Lacoste is a BIG stretch for Little Rock - getting Coach to even look at this market was like pulling teeth, but it looks like they will have a store here in the next two years or so. I agree that JCrew belongs here, but they are on the fence as to whether or not our market holds the volume to support a store when they can still make money off of the online/catalog shoppers without a brick-and-mortar store.

Most of the chain restaurants that you have discussed will open up locations in Fayetteville/Rogers before Little Rock because of the growth and the presence of WalMart, Tyson, JB Hunt, etc. The daytime and midweek population up there is so much stronger because of all of the people traveling there for those companies, not to mention the University. If they decide to enter the state, I would be shocked if Cheesecake Factory, Cantina Laredo, etc. looked at Little Rock for their first location. Ruth Chris did mention that they need to get back and tour the market (their Real Estate guy hasn't been here for 3 years), but don't believe the rumors you might here about them already having a deal done here. Not true...not yet, at least!

That's my two cents on all of this!

[ajholman33]

I think I got my money's worth. How is daytime and midweek population measured? How does geographic area play into it? 100K in a square mile versus 100k in 10 square miles?

When a "Real Estate guy" comes to town where do you take him/her what do you show them? What do they want to see?

[ajholman33]

Thanks for the insight. I am of the belief that most of the "first" stuff in NWA is riding the hype wave...there will be lots of false starts and failures I'm sure with the massive onslaught of retail and restaurant options. Its also widely acknowleded that the growth is leveling off. Remember that the NWA market is still only have the size of LR, so again, I have a hard time believing this will be sustained. Also, what's with the "daytime" population issue? NWA doesn't draw nearly as much as LR - there is little population outside of Washington & Benton Counties to consider, and there aren't THAT many daytime business travelers - the airport only handles so many. I realize it is a unique market, and that "growth" is often a factor as much as size, which elevates its competitiveness with LR and other larger markets.

BTW, it was published that an investment group in Tulsa bought the rights for Ruth's Chris for Tulsa, LR and NWA and they announced that they were going to start with NWA, which I understand is under construction. So...I had understood this to be in the wings for LR. Any changes there?

[Cru Jones]

As someone who used to work for one of the developers you all often refer to, I would be happy to clarify a few things for all of the curious minds! First, Macy's is NOT going into the Promenade at Chenal. That will be a true lifestyle center with no department store. Secondly, Buffalo Wild Wings is far down the line in signing at least one lease here in the Little Rock area (I can't disclose where, sorry!). Also, Lowe's would like another location here, preferably in the West Little Rock area near Home Depot, but there aren't any areas of interest to them that have enough land for them to build on. Lacoste is a BIG stretch for Little Rock - getting Coach to even look at this market was like pulling teeth, but it looks like they will have a store here in the next two years or so. I agree that JCrew belongs here, but they are on the fence as to whether or not our market holds the volume to support a store when they can still make money off of the online/catalog shoppers without a brick-and-mortar store.

Most of the chain restaurants that you have discussed will open up locations in Fayetteville/Rogers before Little Rock because of the growth and the presence of WalMart, Tyson, JB Hunt, etc. The daytime and midweek population up there is so much stronger because of all of the people traveling there for those companies, not to mention the University. If they decide to enter the state, I would be shocked if Cheesecake Factory, Cantina Laredo, etc. looked at Little Rock for their first location. Ruth Chris did mention that they need to get back and tour the market (their Real Estate guy hasn't been here for 3 years), but don't believe the rumors you might here about them already having a deal done here. Not true...not yet, at least!

That's my two cents on all of this!

[Architect]

I don't necessarily disagree with you on the NWA hype being just that, but if General Growth (one of the largest and most successful developers in the country) decided there was more of an opportunity there than in Little Rock, retailers and restaurants take note of that. I will say that not all of those stores are performing as well as they thought, but on the flip side, many of them are far exceeding their original sales projections.

From my many conversations with restaurants that have said they would go North before Little Rock, their attitude is that WalMart is there to stay, as is Tyson, the University and the other noteworthy companies. WalMart requires that every single company that sells ANYTHING in their stores must have a representative in Fayetteville. Period. That is in addition to the hundreds of people that fly in every single week, many on a regular basis, for WalMart alone. Combine this with the largest University in the State and a higher level of growth, and it makes it difficult for restaurants to pull away from their plan of going there first. There have been at least 5 restaurants I have personally spoke with that have said they will open first in NWA, and if they do well there, head to Little Rock. I can't tell you what an impact college towns have on casual restaurant's real estate decisions as well.

The bottom line is that in the mind of the retailers and restaurants, Little Rock is stagnant and NWA is growing and has a sustainable population in the groups I have mentioned above. Again, I don't necessarily agree with that mindset all of the time, but these companies spend thousands of dollars doing market research, run comps to other markets they are already in, etc. - they know their customer and typically know where to find them. Mistakes will be made, of course, but that is a given in any market.

From what I know the Ruth Chris rumor you mentioned is true. When I spoke with the RE guy a few weeks ago, he reiterated their intention to push the franchise owner to head North, that he hadn't been to Little Rock market in a few years, and probably wouldn't get back for at least 4-6 months. That means at least 1 1/2-2 years plus before Little Rock would see one, as he has to ok any site that those guys want. And, Little Rock getting a Ruth Chris is with the assumption that the NWA location does well. If it doesn't, we may never see one.