LRretail

I understand your statement better. Hopefully in 10-15 years they've evolved a little bit. I've seen some of the newer locations in Central Texas and they look pretty good. I'm not a fan of the food. But the stores look nice. From what I've seen, one of the local groups will probably beat them to the punch and open something similar. So that may keep Panda Express from opening if they have established competition. But you never know. There's that national vs. local thing again.

Yes. It's the same chain.

There was one there many years ago in the parking lot of the mall but it's long since been torn down.

They've had a hard time finding real estate they like in LR/NLR. They've looked several times over the last 6-7 years.

In so many words, yes. I'm not exactly sure what the allure of a "chain" dental office is.

It's going to be a new construction building that will house a national dental office of some sort (Delta Dental, Aspen Dental, something like that). There's a small 1400SF space left over in the new construction that the landlord is trying to get leased. Pretty small for a restaurant but maybe a good retail user will go in there. Rent is pretty high from what I'm being told.

Pei Wei numbers are mid-pack compared to system average. Like many brands similar to them, they fear cannibalization. The demographics tell them that three stores can be placed but once store #1 goes up they don't see enough support to justify #2, until now. From what I understand, there's some fear in the decision to place #2 because the day time in Chenal isn't as strong. PF Chang numbers are severely under par and they are considering shuttering that store. The Zaxby's franchise arrangement is different from most others. They demand that each store be owned 25% by the manager operating it. So it takes a more specific franchisee to make that happen. The franchisee for our market has spoken many times that finding suitable real estate (suitable to them) is hard to find in Little Rock. They've built out all their other stores and the LR ones are the last. They are scouting hard and I think they will be opening somewhere in LR soon (next 1-2 years). I agree with you. I think we have a ton of restaurants. But that goes back to the fact that our local restaurant operators are serious. They are doing just as good of a job as the bigger national guys. As a whole, I think we've reached market saturation in our MSA but there are lots of areas in the restaurant scene that are underserved. So that's where you see many of the successes.

It's definitely not indicative of our economic health. I think we are all very proud of Little Rock and Central Arkansas in general. We should be. But I do find from the information that I've seen that brands you would expect to do very well in markets across the country do not fare as well here. Like I stated earlier, I don't like that. BUT it is what it is. The behavior of many in our market is to strongly support local brands and options. There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever. Yellow Rocket, David's, Chi's, South on Main, Cache, etc. (like you said the list goes on and on) - we should be out there giving them our business. But that in turn will drive away some brands that look at coming to town and it also means less support for the bigger brands that have already made an investment to be in our market. Sometimes they leave sometimes they stick it out. In my opinion Chick-Fil-A does exceptionally well here but there's one or two stores where they question "what happened?". But such brands like Pei Wei, they will have had several stores in market for as long as they've been at Midtown but are just now getting around to doing their second location. They've been worrying about growth for a long time.

With all due respect, my point was to say that many concepts when brought to Little Rock don't do as well as they do in other markets. You asked for examples, I gave you some. The truth is that brands like PF Changs and Chipotle experiences sales figures that are on the lower end of their range. Having said that, I agree with you that most in Little Rock and Central Arkansas support local brands over national. Is that a bad thing? It depends on which side of the coin you're on. I don't view it as a bad thing. But it does drive away some national brands. I'm taking from your viewpoint that local is end all be all and to hell with the national brands. But that's not the point of my statement. Your point is that our local brands make Little Rock a foodie jewel. I don't disagree with that. We should be proud of South on Main, Southern Gourmasian, etc. Those are good operators and they are good people. I know them all. But my point is that this mentality drives away support for things that are brought to town (which are usually national and do better in other markets. And that's just the way it is. To second what ecity was saying, you have to present a good value proposition with high quality product in order to be successful in our market. Not all national brands do that. Not all local brands do either.

From a restaurant standpoint often times places that open LR stores are on the low end of sales par: Chipotle, every Darden restaurant, BJ's, Cracker Barrel, PF Changs, Starbucks, etc. Mooyah is an example of stores closing that would otherwise do better in a different market. Other stores like Melting Pot, Ruth Chris, Torchy's Tacos, etc can't find a suitable location with solid demographics so they don't open in our market. Much of this is also due to the fact that most customers favor local brands such as David's Burgers, Larry's Pizza, Chi's, etc. over franchise or national brands. From a retail standpoint, every store that has opened and closed in Chenab Promenade, Shackleford Crossing, or Park Plaza. Often times, there's not enough business to keep the doors open. I'll add also that the Del Frisco's in Chenal is not doing well and they would be doing very well in another market.

I concur with this. Often times when something is brought to the Central Arkansas market and it does gangbusters in other markets, it performs mediocre or doesn't do well and closes. I wish it weren't this way but it's the truth. At least that's my $0.02. To each his own, because I'm sure there's lots of folks that would disagree with me or get defensive about that statement but so be it.

I get what you're saying. But I would tend to disagree with you about Main Street in general. There is too much going on along Main Street for the Aloft not to do well. But to each his own. I do think that the Sixth St. property is likely to have problems more so than others because of decreased exposure to the Main Street corridor and the brand's unproven track record.

I know the Mini dealership will likely soon be for sale. It's losing massive amounts of money every month from what I hear. There's been discussion of Audi joining with Porsche to move into the building where Mini is now and relocating Mini to where Audi is now in Breckenridge. I know they run out of room at the Lexus dealership quite frequently. So I would assume this plan is to expand Lexus. I don't believe that Parker has the Porsche rights. Parker, Crain, and Landers were all competing to acquire the rights two years ago with Crain and Parker attempting to partner together for Audi/Porsche/Mini at the current Mini dealership site. But that didn't work and Parker gave everyone the middle finger and went on by himself with Mini.

I am hearing from reliable sources that Chi Hotel Group's bid to acquire the MM Cohn property on Main Street has failed.

I spoke to someone close to the Aloft project and they have recently restarted the project. CHG is doing its best to acquire the MM Cohn Building next door to look at constructing another Starwood hotel brand. But Scott Reed has been doing his best to mess things up as he likes to do and has been blocking the sale of the MM Cohn Building to Chi. That family has said repeatedly that they are ready to go with the Aloft project but moving forward has always depended on their ability to acquire the MM Cohn. I wonder why Mr. Reed feels like he needs to continue to mess with Main Street.

Construction is set to begin in March. Not sure why it's off of the Starwood website.

It looks like they are getting the MMCohn Building ready to sell. I saw several people walking in and out of the front door yesterday while on Main Street yesterday. I also saw Scott Reed walking around the block in construction garb. So perhaps this is a good sign that some work will get done on this part of Main. I also hear that the Bruno family is going to be doing a deli type concept next door to Bruno's next to the Mann Building. There's also talk that there's a new restaurant going into the vacant building at 319 2nd Street across from the county courthouse.

All their potential tenants were taken by other developments. Being further out towards the Haskell exit hurt their ability to attract enough tenants. This is what I hear. I'm not 100% certain.

http://m.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/sep/02/deal-called-near-mm-cohn-site/ This was in today's Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Interesting read.

The River Market and Downtown LR in general is its own animal. I highly doubt that Gateway will have a strong affect on it. I've seen the Joes Crab Shack deal myself. I believe they are getting plans together. I'm hearing they are very close. The Cheesecake Factory land acquisition is available to some. I believe from what I saw that the land deal is done. I don't have any info on plans or what the time table is for opening.

I can confirm that Joe's Crab Shack is a done deal. Dave & Buster's applied for a building permit so that's a done deal. Cheesecake Factory has secured their land. All three are scheduled to be at Gateway Town Center for certain.

Somebody broke ground today at this location between Chick Fil A and Metro Wine on W. Markham near Chenal.

I'll have to agree with you as well. Underwhelming is about the best PC word for it.

The Belz Family tried to tear down the existing building where the Hilton was and build a 12 story building but local opposition (as I remember) forced them to remodel the existing building into the Hilton instead. I don't recall when this was. Maybe 2004 I think but perhaps someone else on here remembers better.

That's a huge win! I'm glad they got a deal done on that property. I was losing hope.