Downtown LR outside the River Market area

[Arkanzin]

18 hours ago, Architect said:

p.s.  Anyone else remember when Chick-fil-a had a WALKUP storefront location downtown right on Capitol Avenue?

I forgot to add, the Chick-Fil-A will have a walk-up window and an area for outside dining.  I believe that's what I was told.  

[skirby]

Baker's Alley

After Hollywood comes to town.

Pictures from Downtown Little Rock Partnership.

[Architect]

1 hour ago, skirby said:

Baker's Alley

 

After Hollywood comes to town.

 

Pictures from Downtown Little Rock Partnership.

Those are photos of one of two movies currently under production downtown (one staring John Cusack)...very cool.

[Smith]

The Hall is opening in an old warehouse space on W. 9th. Going to be a music and event center. Looks to be similar to other mid size music venues in other cities. Comparable in my mind to places like Canton Hall  in Dallas.

https://armoneyandpolitics.com/historic-music-venue-planned-for-ninth-street-in-downtown-little-rock/

https://littlerockhall.com/

Several construction pics on their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/LittleRockHall

Edited August 13, 2021 by Smith

[bigbank10x]

 

The Regions building on Capitol & Broadway is being sold due to several bankruptcies from lease holders within the building. 

https://www.thv11.com/article/money/business/regions-center-downtown-little-rock-up-for-sale/91-7b5c2bf6-951f-48d8-b9eb-b3b5f5c0b8a4

 

[Arkanzin]

Plumbing permit issued for Circle K at 109 Chester Street.  Location of now-closed Bank of Ozarks location.  

[Architect]

On 5/20/2021 at 9:15 AM, Arkanzin said:

I forgot to add, the Chick-Fil-A will have a walk-up window and an area for outside dining.  I believe that's what I was told.  

I mean, I'm all for added business (and I like Chick-fil-a), but the real rub for a lot of people with this development is that it is take-out only, no dine in...YET...they mowed down a half block of street edge retail (former Ciao's, as one tenant) so that they could include FORTY (40) parking spaces.  Who needs 40 parking spaces for a drive-through/walk-up development?!!  All of this in the Urban Use (UU) zone.  This city too often just rolls over on its own regulations.  [sigh]

[MDC26]

23 hours ago, Architect said:

I mean, I'm all for added business (and I like Chick-fil-a), but the real rub for a lot of people with this development is that it is take-out only, no dine in...YET...they mowed down a half block of street edge retail (former Ciao's, as one tenant) so that they could include FORTY (40) parking spaces.  Who needs 40 parking spaces for a drive-through/walk-up development?!!  All of this in the Urban Use (UU) zone.  This city too often just rolls over on its own regulations.  [sigh]

That's sad.  Stephens also wiped out more than that a couple years ago to build a parking lot.  They took out these cool looking 100-year old buildings that were ornamented with playing card suites and the building next door.

Downtown has so many surface lots.  Just going to be one big parking lot.  

[bigbank10x]

On 2/17/2022 at 2:03 PM, MDC26 said:

That's sad.  Stephens also wiped out more than that a couple years ago to build a parking lot.  They took out these cool looking 100-year old buildings that were ornamented with playing card suites and the building next door.

Downtown has so many surface lots.  Just going to be one big parking lot.  

 

On 2/17/2022 at 2:03 PM, MDC26 said:

That's sad.  Stephens also wiped out more than that a couple years ago to build a parking lot.  They took out these cool looking 100-year old buildings that were ornamented with playing card suites and the building next door.

Downtown has so many surface lots.  Just going to be one big parking lot.  

Fully agreed.  Living downtown since 2011, & learning how the grid looked in the mid / late 1900s, 2011, then an aerial of today's landscape , a sad tone plays in my head & I realize downtown Little Rock has been getting slowly erased away and I feel has hit a point of no return.   Butler Center of CALS in the River Market will show you how everything looked over the years.   

I would obsess over new construction and when some of these surface lots had a possibility of being filled in, then the polar opposite when something was slated for demo, even it it's the last building on an entire square block.  

Vanessa Carlton sings it perfectly, they've paved what I feel was a paradise and turned  it into what eventually will be just a giant parking lot & I keep forseeing this in the future... (Big Yellow Taxi)

That crater from Spring to eStem is so nasty.  When VCC (HA!  Excellence in Construction (DESTRUCTION) & law office / annexes were removed across from Stephens, it really irked a nerve, adding to what's already a big gaping hole near the middle of the CBD.   The sadness I feel may really anger and rage masquerading as sadness.    I now agree with the fellow bchris12 or whatshisname that was crapting on LR on either here or City Data maybe 10 years ago for being so backward and podunk.  He was right. 

My hopes won't completely fade, but there;s just something about watching the area around you fizzle away.  I can only imagine the sentiment of  those much older that have lived down here since the 60s or 70s watching buildings get deleted as if someone was playing Sim City & wanted to start over.

[Architect]

8 hours ago, bigbank10x said:

 

Fully agreed.  Living downtown since 2011, & learning how the grid looked in the mid / late 1900s, 2011, then an aerial of today's landscape , a sad tone plays in my head & I realize downtown Little Rock has been getting slowly erased away and I feel has hit a point of no return.   Butler Center of CALS in the River Market will show you how everything looked over the years.   

I would obsess over new construction and when some of these surface lots had a possibility of being filled in, then the polar opposite when something was slated for demo, even it it's the last building on an entire square block.  

Vanessa Carlton sings it perfectly, they've paved what I feel was a paradise and turned  it into what eventually will be just a giant parking lot & I keep forseeing this in the future... (Big Yellow Taxi)

That crater from Spring to eStem is so nasty.  When VCC (HA!  Excellence in Construction (DESTRUCTION) & law office / annexes were removed across from Stephens, it really irked a nerve, adding to what's already a big gaping hole near the middle of the CBD.   The sadness I feel may really anger and rage masquerading as sadness.    I now agree with the fellow bchris12 or whatshisname that was crapting on LR on either here or City Data maybe 10 years ago for being so backward and podunk.  He was right. 

My hopes won't completely fade, but there;s just something about watching the area around you fizzle away.  I can only imagine the sentiment of  those much older that have lived down here since the 60s or 70s watching buildings get deleted as if someone was playing Sim City & wanted to start over.

I don't disagree with you in principle, but I don't think the last ten years of (relatively) minor demo is the issue...it was more what happened 50 years ago.  There's also more potential and recent work in the past 10 years of infill happening downtown than in the 30 years prior, so from a macro perspective (the recent Chick-fil-a fiasco being an exception), I suspect there's been a net GAIN in infill over the past 10 years when you consider all of the new condo towers, hotels, and office infill (in SOMA as an example).

[bigbank10x]

The land that was razed by Stephens, Inc. on 2nd & Louisiana in 2019 was purchased by the City, to construct a 600 space parking deck on the east half of the block bounded by 2nd, 3rd, Louisiana and Center Streets.  

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2022/03/14/little-rock-plans-to-buy-land-razed-by-stephens-affiliate-for-600-space-parking-deck?utm_campaign=daily_update&utm_source=arktimes_email&utm_medium=email&vgo_ee=TCb2QORJe%2FJNKX9uKqL4pDpxdzkQNl9LgdxZ9pnzLRY%3D

 

[Arkanzin]

2 hours ago, bigbank10x said:

The land that was razed by Stephens, Inc. on 2nd & Louisiana in 2019 was purchased by the City, to construct a 600 space parking deck on the east half of the block bounded by 2nd, 3rd, Louisiana and Center Streets.  

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2022/03/14/little-rock-plans-to-buy-land-razed-by-stephens-affiliate-for-600-space-parking-deck?utm_campaign=daily_update&utm_source=arktimes_email&utm_medium=email&vgo_ee=TCb2QORJe%2FJNKX9uKqL4pDpxdzkQNl9LgdxZ9pnzLRY%3D

 

Little Rock.  Come see our parking decks!  

Park a night in each of our 34 parking decks!  

Enjoy the views from our parking decks!

Don't step in the pee.  Don't mind the homeless. Visit the stairwells of our big parking decks.  

I'm Big on Little Rock (Parking Decks)!

[theman]

Well. According to the Arkansas Times the Little Rock Board decided not to move forward with the new parking deck.

[Architect]

On 3/15/2022 at 11:39 PM, theman said:

Well. According to the Arkansas Times the Little Rock Board decided not to move forward with the new parking deck.

Don't hold your breath that it won't happen...probably just a temporary pause until there's an agreement on a reasonable market price for the land.  Also, parking decks are solid infill projects, when done well.

[MDC26]

Here is a map with parking we have downtown.  Blue is surface lots.  Pink is parking decks.  Some of the parking decks may have minimal mixed use in them.  The Yellow is the lot that was cleared by Stephens.  The S is Stephens Tower.  

[bigbank10x]

Can't help to imagine what this part of downtown looked like when all of those lots were street-front properties.  Picture the density & true urban center feel.

[Walls99]

The vacant lots that plague downtown are simultaneously an eyesore and a travesty. Downtown Little Rock, while seeing dramatic improvements in crime rate in the last 20-30 years, still has a long way to go with regard to living up to its potential. The River Market and South Main districts are a start, but they seem to only be active and vibrant at nights and on weekends. Downtown Little Rock just seems sort of dead elsewhere even during the week. I recently took a trip to Knoxville (comparable in size to Little Rock and with a downtown along a major river), and I was blown away with how active and lively their downtown was on a Thursday night! Now Knoxville does have other factors going for it like the fact that it is a college town, but I never saw a single vacant lot anywhere in their downtown area. Every lot was used with a purpose whether a parking deck, mixed use buildings, offices, apartments, hotels, and parks/green spaces. I want that so badly for Little Rock, but I am not sure how or if we will ever get our downtown back. It seems as though many in the metro are too willing to stay out in Chenal, Maumelle, Sherwood, Conway, Cabot, and Saline County, than invest in having a booming central business district. For so long, the culture of the city was to avoid downtown that despite the efforts to revive parts of it, it might be too late.

[Architect]

1 hour ago, Walls99 said:

The vacant lots that plague downtown are simultaneously an eyesore and a travesty. Downtown Little Rock, while seeing dramatic improvements in crime rate in the last 20-30 years, still has a long way to go with regard to living up to its potential. The River Market and South Main districts are a start, but they seem to only be active and vibrant at nights and on weekends. Downtown Little Rock just seems sort of dead elsewhere even during the week. I recently took a trip to Knoxville (comparable in size to Little Rock and with a downtown along a major river), and I was blown away with how active and lively their downtown was on a Thursday night! Now Knoxville does have other factors going for it like the fact that it is a college town, but I never saw a single vacant lot anywhere in their downtown area. Every lot was used with a purpose whether a parking deck, mixed use buildings, offices, apartments, hotels, and parks/green spaces. I want that so badly for Little Rock, but I am not sure how or if we will ever get our downtown back. It seems as though many in the metro are too willing to stay out in Chenal, Maumelle, Sherwood, Conway, Cabot, and Saline County, than invest in having a booming central business district. For so long, the culture of the city was to avoid downtown that despite the efforts to revive parts of it, it might be too late.

I've been to Knoxville recently and really loved it, and totally concur with your observations.  However, I noticed one HUGE difference between the two downtowns...the physical area of Little Rock's "downtown core" is MUCH larger than Knoxville's (and this isn't even including NLR/Argenta).  Theirs is so much smaller in area, which translates into much higher density.  It's also not very "tall" (they don't have many high-rises).

[theman]

On 3/17/2022 at 10:43 AM, Architect said:

Don't hold your breath that it won't happen...probably just a temporary pause until there's an agreement on a reasonable market price for the land.  Also, parking decks are solid infill projects, when done well.

You were right. The Arkansas Times is reporting that the parking deck will be back up for discussion with the city board.

[MDC26]

Proposal for 3-block "lid" over I-30 to create a park

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2022/05/02/proposal-surfaces-for-three-block-park-over-a-stretch-of-i-30-downtown

 

[bigbank10x]

First Security Bank takes over the Bank of America building / plaza 

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/may/04/first-security-bank-takes-over-downtown-little/?business&fbclid=IwAR3ZE_69yBa9hvZMfjVAou2xETwG6bO9Dj8G6WLPtMHyQV0NSuNOWX3RpmQ#.YnLqQpfDKLY.twitter

[schwilj]

Has anyone ever visited the Crosstown Concourse building in Memphis? I was just there the other day, and man it would be great to have some kind of re-purposed building like that in the LR area.  I don't know of a candidate, but it would be great nonetheless.

 

https://crosstownconcourse.com/

[Architect]

7 minutes ago, schwilj said:

Has anyone ever visited the Crosstown Concourse building in Memphis? I was just there the other day, and man it would be great to have some kind of re-purposed building like that in the LR area.  I don't know of a candidate, but it would be great nonetheless.

 

https://crosstownconcourse.com/

I've never been in it, but I've read about it and have driven by it.  Apparently it was built early in the 20th century as a huge Sears store or distribution center.  The building is absolutely MASSIVE and there's really not anything comparable to it in Little Rock.  It's a beautifully well-done adaptive reuse.

p.s.  Now that I think about it, the old VA hospital is comparable in age and scale, and it is slated for a complete retrofit for multi-family housing.

[MDC26]

5 hours ago, schwilj said:

Has anyone ever visited the Crosstown Concourse building in Memphis? I was just there the other day, and man it would be great to have some kind of re-purposed building like that in the LR area.  I don't know of a candidate, but it would be great nonetheless.

 

https://crosstownconcourse.com/

Yes. I was just there last week. It’s an amazing building. Sears built 10 of these around the Nation (Seattle/LA/Minneapolis/Chicago/KC/Dallas/Boston/Memphis/Philadelphia/Atlanta) with a smaller version in Oakland. The ones in Philly and KC were torn down. Portions of the Chicago one were torn down, but it was the biggest and a multi building complex. All of the remaining ones have been developed except the LA one.  The Seattle one is the HQ for Starbucks. 
https://99percentinvisible.org/article/ghost-plants-reusing-huge-abandoned-sears-buildings-across-urban-america/

5 hours ago, Architect said:

I've never been in it, but I've read about it and have driven by it.  Apparently it was built early in the 20th century as a huge Sears store or distribution center.  The building is absolutely MASSIVE and there's really not anything comparable to it in Little Rock.  It's a beautifully well-done adaptive reuse.

p.s.  Now that I think about it, the old VA hospital is comparable in age and scale, and it is slated for a complete retrofit for multi-family housing.

Yes, the old VA hospital is the only thing remotely comparable, but it’s a third of the size as the Crosstown building. The old VA building was purchased and there is plans to redevelop it, just haven’t heard anything new recently. 
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/dec/23/lr-sites-attract-notice-of-developer/

Another building that should be redeveloped in similar fashion is the old Army-Navy Hospital in Hot Springs. 

Edited May 6, 2022 by MDC26

[theman]

According to Arkansas Business the Bank of America tower has a new owner. The plan is to invest around $2 million in the building for upgrading the mechanicals and general spruce up to get it back to class A office space then rebrand and start leasing space in the building.