[The River Market]

There is suppose to be a new club coming to the River Market. It is to be located where LaHarpe's Furniture is now. The club will be called Shotz. It will be there second location, the first in Fayetteville. Their main drinks to serve are shots in ice made shot glasses. We definitely need more downtown for nightlife.

 

Shotz is awesome! That's great that there's one coming to Little Rock!

[McCain Mall]

They have completed enough of the main sign "renovation" to get a little more information from what will be coming next. Most importantly, we now know that the movie theater will be a Regal Cinemas theater. On the Regal website, it says this theater will be opening in 2012, It will feature 12 screens, stadium seating, and will feature an RPX theater (Regal Premium Experience), which is the same thing as the large screen at the new Conway theater. This will be a VAST improvement on Lakewood 8 which appears to have its days numbered.

[Maumelle]

Target announced yesterday that they will be shutting down the distribution center on Carnahan by the end of the year. Scholastic departed and now this...it's sad.

This one hits home for me, because my mother has worked there for over 25 years (since it was opened), and come April, she won't have a job.

[North Little Rock Development]

Dickson Theaters, who developed the Chenal 9 & IMAX, will take over the Lakewood 8 on June 27th. In the fall a major remodel, including stadium seating and digital projectors, will take place. This according to the Democrat Gazette.

This is from the Dickinson Theatres website:

Dickinson Theatres to take over the Lakewood 8 Theatre on June 27th, 2008

Monday, June 16, 2008

[Little Rock Projects List]

According to Arkansas Business, the Doubletree Hotel will undergo a $9-12 million renovation in order to be able to better compete with the Peabody and Capitol hotels.

[Southern Photos of the Day]

Here is a little bit of Little Rock, enjoy:

The Arkansas Capitol Building

The Clinton Presidential Library

The Peabody, Little Rock

Little Rock Central High School

Dickey-Stephens Park in downtown North Little Rock

The Trolley and Rivermarket in the background

I can't take credit for any of these pictures, but I just thought y'all might be interested

[The South's next rising star(s)]

Ok, a couple of things. Places like Raleigh, Orlando, Austin, etc., they're already stars in and of themselves. I believe that the next rising stars are the cities that are currently most poised for growth and expansion. Little Rock/ Norht Little Rock is one of those places. Central Arkansas is steadily growing, and Little Rock has a very diversified ecconomy, not realying on just a couple of big companies, though Alltel, Dillard's, Acxiom, and Stephen's Inc. are all big money companies headquartered in Little Rock, and they do employ a lot of people, but Little Rock also employs a lot of political jobs, and is world-reknown for its medical centers. There are a lot of banks here as well, in fact, most every downtown LR skyscraper carries the name of a bank. A lot of development is occuring on both sides of the river, the Rivermarket, a new trolley system, brand new $40 million ballpark, Clinton Presidential Library, USS Razorback Submarine and inland maritime museum, riverfront park, and lots of condo and apartment complexes. It's really quite exciting to live in a city with so much potential. If you've never visited, I would strongly encourage you to come give us a try.

[Little Rock Projects List]

The population of both downtowns is pretty small, just a couple of thousand and Riverdale theatre is just as close to downtown LR. North Hills is a 2-3 min drive. Of course a nice downtown or midtown theatre would kill Riverdale. Riverdale would make a much better location for an art theatre than Market St, so I'm not all against that. A downtown art theatre would be even better, and Argenta would be a good locale for it.

NLR needs a state of the art stadium seating theater in a bad way. If I were going to build another theatre after North Hills, though, I'd build it in midtown LR. That's a huge market compared to downtown and there are a couple of obvious sites.

The obvious, though, is that Argenta Town Centre's land parcel won't have room for a major theatre. Maybe a small fourplex but not much more. Certainly not a multiplex and IMAX if it's going to include much else besides this.

I'm not speaking exclusively of the rivermarket district, or Argenta, but back even across 630 into the Quapaw quarter. I don't think that the theater in Argenta will be a big multi-plex, but I think that it will be a great addition to dowtown offering more to do. And the population in both downtowns is increasing almost by the day.

[Little Rock Projects List]

Nice to have you here. Welcome.

I would bet the IMAX is destined for North Hills. I expect whichever one of these is built will keep the other one from being built and North Hills is considerably further along. If North Hills is as large as, say the Rave in West LR, I would bet that it puts Lakewood out of business or knocks it down to dollar-theater land.

It's a shame the area south of Bass Pro is so ghetto. There's a way to but through there but NLR won't want people going that way. There's a big housing project there (Eastgate?).

I thank you for your welcome, I love this kind of stuff. Progress and development just fascinates me, and what a perfect city/ region in which to live for that. I don't believe that the "theatre at North Hills" will cancel out the Argenta Town Center Theater. They're going to draw from two different "audiences", even though they're so close. Shoppes will draw everyone from NLR north of the interstate and everyone from Sherwood to Jacksonville, Cabot, etc. because of not only the IMAX (which I would be a LOT of money on it going there), but also because it'll be like what the Rave is to citizens in NLR now. And I think that the Argenta Town Center theater will draw from both downtowns who have to go all the way out to Rave or Brekenridge to see a new movie, when all they'll have to do is just go right across the Main St. Bridge.

[Little Rock Projects List]

Hi, I'm new, but am a long-time reader. As far as the new Imax goes, in all of my research into developments going up in the greater Little Rock area, there are only two multiplex theaters currently on the table, and both are to be located in North Little Rock (in the Argenta Town Center and the Shoppes at North Hills). This only applies, of course, if the Imax is indeed placed in a multiplex theater. And both fit the timeline, being complete around 2009.