LRretail

They’ve been working on this for about 5 years. Old summit mall location where Shackleford crossing is now as well as Hwy 10 and N Rodney Parham are a couple of sites. Old Sears location j think may have been considered but previous ownership was prohibitive.

Sorry to have been absent from this thread. Information about Costco was the news that I was going to disclose at some point. The planning commission apparently beat me to it as Costco and the property developers thought to keep it quiet until a little bit further down the path. Things in Chenal looking to get interesting! I welcome it. Although I like Sam's very much, every Costco I've ever been to blows Sam's out of the water.

Yeah can’t go there yet. Might be a few weeks. But it’s definitely big news. Sorry for the suspense.

Dave and Buster originally developed the idea for the business in Little Rock. I can't confirm the story 100% but what I've been told is that they wanted to open the first Dave & Buster's in Little Rock but couldn't due to regulatory issues. In fact Jeremy Hutchinson had to assist in getting a bill passed for Dave & Busters to operate in Arkansas. Similarly, the concept for Federal Express was put together by Little Rock natives who went to the Little Rock Airport looking for support to launch their business specifically dedicated runway space and land for distribution channels. They were told no and went to Memphis where they're often the primary funding source for the airport there. Not to mention all the jobs FedEx has brought to the Memphis MSA. Imagine what Little Rock would be with more companies of that size and success like Stephens Inc. and Dillards.

I agree with that if you're looking at it from an MSA vs. MSA comparison. The behavior of the consumer in the market is at the end of the day the main difference between Central Arkansas and NWA. Sounds about right for Little Rock / North Little Rock. This is basically what I was saying in response to why certain things will never work in Little Rock / North Little Rock is that the things like Top Golf and other brands that are successful in other MSAs the size of ours are not wanted. So it defeats the purpose of bringing things to town when its simply going to fail. Should it work? Perhaps. Will it be successful? Eh maybe. So all of those on these boards that perpetually hope for Joes Crab Shack or Cheesecake Factory or Super Target or the Mayor wanting Top Golf....probably should just give it up.

Even though none of the NWA cities are as big as Little Rock, they are on an aggregate basis. But many brands decide to make their investments away from Little Rock because of the behavior of the consumer in our market. Just as you state above, you couldn't care less about Top Golf and I'm sure that's a shared sentiment among many of the people that live in town. Red Robin decided to locate in Saline County rather than Little Rock. We push national brands away all the time. Quite frankly that's the reason why we don't have things that other cities have because we don't support them. Buy local shop local. I'm sure many people in Little Rock are just fine with that. But to answer your question that's why Top Golf wouldn't be successful in Little Rock or North Little Rock. Top Golf locations are often like Cracker Barrel. Access is often screwed up but they demand visibility from the highway so that's why the NWA Top Golf is located where it is. RE: the population drop point you speak about. I can understand the argument that the population drop might be due to reduction in birth rates. But all the areas that are growing also experience similar and in some cases larger decreases in birth rate. Yet they still grow at significant rates. Faulkner, Saline, Benton, Washington Counties all experienced similar drops in birth rate but all grew at significant paces as compared to Little Rock and North Little Rock that dropped in population in 2016 onward. I think Orian locating to NLR and new apartment construction probably helped it stabilize. In looking at real estate both in commercial and residential, it can be seen that migration away from Little Rock has been occurring at least the last five years. That's simply information that can't be seen in a census report or a news article. Take that for what it's worth.

The original delay was essentially having to change the plan for the development after having to acquiesce to every tom dick and harry that had an opinion about how to develop. The plan must have seen at least six iterations and by the time everybody picked at the plan, there was none of it left. You're right, there IS a huge parking issue. The first iterations of the development plan had multi-level parking areas without as much multi-family. The increase in apartments came as a way to try to salvage the cost of site acquisition and infrastructure. The City of Little Rock has this wonderful custom of putting the cost of infrastructure on the backs of the developers rather than allowing them to invest in the city by actually developing a meaningful and successful vision. As you say, this town shoots itself in the foot all the time. Newks is busy sometimes. But not at the expense of the other two in the same building. Instead of having a successful tenant in one field and another in a different restaurant segment, now you have 3 that take turns struggling. It's not a recipe for success for anyone of them. I couldn't agree more with these statements. The new mayor would like to bring Top Golf to Little Rock. Good freakin' luck!! I'd love to see it too but it'll never happen. Just like FedEx went to Memphis. Just like Dave & Busters went away for 20 years before coming back...only to do mediocre business after being open for roughly a year. The drop in Little Rock population should only understood better by seeing how many now former LR residents are enrolling their kids in Bryant schools and moving to Saline County. They work in Little Rock, but live in Benton/Bryant or move to Faulkner County to live in Conway. Because the Little Rock School District does not work no matter how much money you throw at it despite having one of the highest pay rates for educators in the country. I for one wish the new mayor much success but raising taxes isn't the way. Giving companies that deserve our favor some tax breaks to bring their high paying tech based jobs here is. Stop ostracizing those in our communities that are trying to create progress is another way. I wish all these things for our city.

Franchised sushi operation... this ought to be interesting.

Technically you're right but look at it this way. Panera signed on at least 2 years before their space even started construction. Waited patiently for that whole time. Was told by the developer "oh why would I do that? I want to see everybody succeed. We'd never put a competing business in next to you". Did it anyways. Now that Newks and Potbelly have both moved in the Panera franchisee is struggling and wants to sell as quickly as they can? Sales are at nearly 50% where they were when they first opened and they're struggling to turn a profit. Newks and Potbelly are like drunks being led around with a bottle of vodka. Of course they are going to drink it. Just not the honest way to do business but hey what do I know.

Newks, Potbelly, and Panera all three constitute essentially the same type of business. 50% or more (the majority) of sales come from sandwiches or the same product. Typically landlords grant exclusivity for restaurant tenants protecting them against internal competition to ensure their survival at least from competing brands in the same shopping center. When Strode filled the space, they allowed for all 3 brands to take up residency in the SAME BUILDING much less the same center. That's absolutely irresponsible to do. But the developers took the money instead of protecting the tenants.

Confirmed stories today of upper market retailer Lush locating to the Promenade. This is good news for a center that is on a bit of life support. However, I will disclose that the entire Chenal area is about to get very interesting with a bit of awesome news coming down the horizon over the next few months. Although I'm uncertain of how this will fill the no less than four strips currently under construction along the westbound (home) side of Chenal. There's some developers with some big balls betting huge on Chenal. Only time will tell. Lastly, I will say that if you're in the market to buy a home in the $350,000+ range and you don't buy one in Chenal or in WLR from Bowman on west you're just flat out making a bad mistake.

You're correct. The NW corner was supposed to be a hotel. The additional apartments there were purely a filler after they couldn't get a hotel developer to take root. The price of site acquisition here was RIDICULOUS. From what I understood 160 room property would have had to be constructed in order to make financial sense but the risk was too great at the time so the site sat empty forever. Then the apartment developer made Strode an offer that was accepted as a last minute deal as they exited the project. Park Avenue has had an EXTREMELY hard time getting filled. The tenants on the first floor of the apartment building to the east is a testament to this point. Panera, Newks and Potbelly all in the same building much less in the same center. I don't know another landlord that would do that to their tenants. In commercial real estate that is simply irresponsible and unethical. But that's also my $0.02 for what it's worth.

Perhaps Chili's might have a better time being on the other side of the street but Chick-Fil-A and that whole mess with the gas station next to it is just some real kind of mess. I think perhaps you were talking about your perception of accessibility versus visibility in your previous post. We will have to agree to disagree about whether access had to do with closure as much as support for the concept. In speaking with the owners the la Madeleine brand is going through many internal changes itself that ultimately drove them to close the location. Actions by the franchisor in simply not providing support or doing what they said they were going to do forced the closure. It also forced the timing of the closure which was sudden and unplanned but primarily caused by corporate individuals at la Madeleine. I would expect to see an announcement by the owners of better things to come with their property.

I think at this point representatives from the four neighborhood associations that protested the plans laid forth by Strode Development during the procurement of Park Avenue are largely gone. If they are still around or live in the area they will likely have forgotten or fail to admit if they do remember that Park Avenue was supposed to have been something very grand. With double the number of apartments and retail areas in a multi-story indoor structure that would have rivaled Park Plaza in size. But ultimately enough compromises were made to kill any hopes of the original vision for the development. So many concessions were made by Strode to please the neighbors in fact that certain elements were no longer functional. Then the costs started exploding. In order to recoup the costs of site acquisition, the rents per SF became some of the highest in the city. That ultimately drove away many potential tenants. Target and LA fitness (who uses the parking deck the most) got the best deals as traffic drivers to attract other tenants. So to answer your question I think the parking deck was ultimately left as part of an original plan that never quite went to plan because of the deal getting chopped up by the desires of the neighbors. That's probably not what a lot of people want to hear but invariably in my opinion is the truth.

I would agree with you that a lot of restaurants have closed in a short amount of time. There's a saturation point with restaurants in Little Rock and I think we reached that point a long time ago. It's great that we have options in town. But we don't really support that many of them if we're honest with ourselves. We can always say stuff like "hey that place is great but I can't remember the last time I went" or "I should go more often" but we really don't. Just in this area, we've seen six restaurants close in the last year. After talking to a few folks, we will see two more. Restaurant owners in general are being hit from multiple directions. Our new mayor has proposed that we raise sales and use taxes in Little Rock to 10%, which would make it the second highest tax rate in the country. Outdone only by Chicago and Long Beach, CA (10.25%). New Orleans, Montgomery, Baton Rouge, and Birmingham all share a 10% tax rate. Combined with the 2% advertising and promotion tax means that restaurant goers would have to pay 12% tax on their food purchases. That's just stupid. The last part of the punch that hits restaurant owners is the increase in wages. From $8.50 to $11.00 per hour means a 29% increase in minimum wage. Most restaurant employees already make more than that but the wage hikes mean higher food costs and higher expenses in general passed down by vendors. So unfortunately a lot of this means that many restaurants will close their doors in 2020 and 2021. I'll have to disagree with you on the location of la Madeleine. There's a Chick-Fil-A doing $5M in sales next door to the site...and Chili's across the street. How is it not a visible site? In all fairness, the Mimi's site wasn't available to the developers of la Madeleine when they were opening the store and it sits up on a hillside that does not have any visibility whatsoever. Maybe it's me but I'm not sure I get your comparison.

The short answer to your question here is that the price point for acquisition of the property was too high for a single use big box retailer. Only the development of a center would appeal to financial backers of the development. Unfortunately for Park Plaza, I think the success of this development will mean certain trouble for Park Avenue and Park Plaza alike. You're right. Traditional retail is suffering huge and will continue a downward trend for the foreseeable future. Unless Simon Malls or someone reinvests a TON of money into Park Plaza, you will unfortunately see it deteriorate. This Midtown project will not garner all of the retail businesses and so we will witness further fracture in the retail centers of the city. The Raising Cane's is going either in Lot 2 or Lot 4 of the site plan as can be seen in this link. Lastly, ecity I'm not entirely sure who you spoke to at the developer but they either don't want to disclose who they have or...maybe something else happened. Not sure. I'm not at liberty to disclose brands but they do have sincere interest if not a fully developed deal for a 104 room hotel property on the NW corner of the development site. They also have two restaurant deals done. If you'll look at their flyer they are mainly after a mass of restaurant deals. Which no less than 6 drive thrus shown on the map. It will remain to be seen if the City of Little Rock will grant that many. It will also depend on what the neighbors say since Briarwood and other Midtown voices are always heard so loud. Keep in mind how big Park Avenue was scheduled to be until the POAs started protesting.

Ouch! Burn.... but I agree with you at the same time. Not sure who is going to end up occupying that space. But it seems a bit odd to build all three buildings with not a single occupant. But hey what do I know. Cane's is going up at one of the outparcel on the north end of the development site.

Look for one more restaurant to close in the Chenal/Markham/Bowman area. Another will form up in the former Zoe’s Kitchen location. Also another will form up back closer along Markham.

I would say that the pushing dirt around and a few drainage bits is probably pretty important. The site was originally meant for one main building and an outparcel. But now going to several buildings with several outparcels. So getting the site work done right is a good thing for sure. From what I understand the developer is having a bit of a tougher go trying to fill up the center. The center buildings with apartments above at Park Avenue were incredibly difficult to fill for the original developer. So I’m sure there’s a bit of work there in midtown. However Raisin’ Canes going up is a good sign of things to come but I wouldn’t expect anything to come out of this center to form quickly.

It was foolish to go up against Taziki's at a location so close. Taziki's is a brand that already has full market penetration and is established with many fans. A lot of the Zoe's Kitchen menu doesn't appeal to me and I would say that is true for many of us in town. Look for a new concept to take hold at Zoe's closed location. Also new sushi operation (do we need another?) taking shape in the strip center next door close to Coldstone. In the center next to la Madeleine a second location for Lulu's seafood kitchen opening next to Jimmy Johns.

Quite frankly, the Dillards have bigger issues to face than the demise of Park Plaza. Macy's and other competitors of Dillards are already having vast issues. The demise in total of the department store (JCPenney, Sears, Macy's, etc) business model depends highly on a mall presence. With malls in general getting kicked while they're down I think at this point a more worrisome issue is the health of their business and not so much where they're going in Little Rock. I don't see Dillard's moving away from Park Plaza. They will do everything they can to keep the viability of the location going. Whether or not that will help or be enough remains to be seen.

Part of the tax will expire in 2021 and 2024. The remainder is set to expire in 2028. Nike will be closing some time this year. Gearhead Outfitters is an outstanding store. They will expand into a small portion of the existing Nike store space. As much as it pains to say this, I can easily see Park Plaza falling into receivership and eventually becoming fairly empty as the Northwest Mall in Fayetteville has become. Victoria's Secret and Bath Body Works are the next tenants evaluating a close.

In the portion of Chenal where the Promenade exists a special district was set up in order to fund the development infrastructure necessary to build the Promenade and other areas surrounding it. The cost is paid back over a long term period of time in the form of a special tax assessed on the property by the county. This cost is passed down to the tenants as a common area maintenance charge based on their occupancy as a proportion of the total SF of the Promenade which is an average of $11/sf per year. So a tenant that occupies 3000sf would pay $2750 in special taxes each month before paying a dime of rent to the owners of the Promenade. Gross rents in Promenade including special taxes are running $46/sf which means a tenant occupying 3000sf is paying at least $11,500 per month in rent. Using a 10% rent vs revenue factor, a retail business occupying 3000sf has to be generating $115k per month in order to break even leasing space at Promenade.

It’s actually a combination of things. Park Plaza has continued to live on well past its life cycle primarily due to redevelopment efforts in the past. But similar to how NW Mall has died in Fayetteville and tenants have dispersed, Park Plaza has now started to go the way of so many indoor malls. Tenants are not going to Promenade sadly as many are on their way out. The special taxes to be at Promenade is over $11 per SF on top of rent that is the most expensive in Little Rock. AW Lins, Nike, Victoria’s Secret, Bath Body Works are all on their way out. We see some growth in tenant mix at the Outlet Mall but a more overlying trend is seeing tenants exit the market entirely either by market or nationwide.

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/jan/26/value-of-three-malls-in-lr-sees-steep-f/?business-technology&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_Arkansas_Democrat-Gazette_/_ArkansasOnline.com