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According to Arkansas Times, a Mexican restaurant name La Chingada is coming to the former Library Kitchen and Lounge space in the Rivermarket District. While the name sounds odd, I think it’s interesting to see a Mexican restaurant across from another Mexican restaurant, Diablos Tacos & Mezcaleria. I was hoping another business would open in that spot that would be a big draw to the area rather than another typical Mexican restaurant that would hardly draw any visitors or locals to the area. https://arktimes.com/eat-arkansas/2023/08/21/la-chingada-opening-in-the-river-market-in-former-space-occupied-by-the-library-kitchen-lounge?fbclid=IwAR2v6OICq7YjEUsGEJ9Ou8rwvmgkeWy0lYwOui28RJoUJHEiHGO7VwH89rs_aem_AdhNDdY5RCXJOHDvhf1En8dXxgGGkJUIpNEOq5h3OgpYnsxk9xPyJyGw6_JD_ZoHRp8

Construction of Top Golf is coming along nicely. Anybody know when will it officially open to the public?

According to Kark, Aldi’s is opening a Little Rock location in the now closed Bed Bath & Beyond space on Chenal Parkway. https://www.kark.com/news/business/aldi-usa-buys-location-of-former-little-rock-bed-bath--beyond-report-claims-grocer-putting-in-storefront/

Here is an interesting article from Arkansas Money and Politics regarding the new owners plan for redevelopment of Park Plaza. It would be interesting to see what plans they have to turn Park Plaza around. Hopefully, they will add much needed restaurants and entertainment options such as an small aquarium (ex: Sealife Aquarium https://www.visitsealife.com/) or 3D thrill theater to the mall in addition to traditional shopping. https://armoneyandpolitics.com/?s=Park+plaza

According to THV11, the Library Kitchen and Lounge has close its doors at the River Market due to financial strains from the pandemic and other factors such as parking issues at the River Market. https://www.thv11.com/article/money/business/river-market-restaurant-closes/91-a0ce5c00-703b-4a80-854c-c9cbce3a83a1

While I’m glad to see the former VA Hospital finally getting a redevelopment, I just can’t see people living at the building once it being converted into apartments . The developers of this project first needs to remove all the asbestos (in the pipes) in the building which will be very expensive to remove. This was one of the reasons the former VA Hospital shut down and relocated to the current facility on I-630 next to UAMS. Also, there has been rumors of the building being haunted especially at night with weird noises heard throughout the building. Despite that, I’m glad the building is finally getting a facelift instead of just sitting there deteriorating.

According to THV11, Main Event will open on January 27, 2023 in the space previously occupied by Gordman’s Department store in Shackleford Crossing. The company lists a Little Rock location as coming soon on their official website (see website below) and are currently hiring for multiple positions for the entertainment venue. This is a great addition to the City of Little Rock that lacks in true family entertainment options besides Chuck E Cheese, Big Rock Amusement Center, and a few trampoline parks. https://www.thv11.com/article/money/business/main-event-little-rock-opening/91-b51f7aee-a6c9-4837-8829-b11466cf58ab https://www.mainevent.com/littlerock/

Honestly, they can omit the tech driven golf venue for this development and focused on more family fun destination such as an indoor theme park in its place. There are two proposed high tech golf range venue coming to both North Little Rock (Maly's Entertainment) and the actually Top Golf planned for Little Rock city limit. We need a true family fun entertainment center such as a dome shaped indoor theme park that featured rides, carnival games, and carnival foods such as the ones seen at the fair (ex: popcorn, corn dog, funnel cakes, pizza, etc). I prefer something like this as the main attraction rather than another trampoline based park and a third planned high tech golf venue around the metro area.

Arkansas Times reports that Soul Fish Cafe on Main Street will be closing on August 7 due to not agreeing on lease renewal of the space. I’m surprised to see them shut down as the place has always been pretty busy the times I passed the place. Source: https://arktimes.com/eat-arkansas/2022/07/24/soul-fish-cafe-to-close-in-august

Did Shorty Smalls close on Rodney Paraham in LR? I drove by there the other day and notice no cars in the parking lot in the middle of a Saturday afternoon.

It will be located in the former Gordman’s space. Main Event typically requires at least 50,000 square feet of space so the former Babies R Us space is too small for a Main Event location.

Maly’s Family Entertainment Center is the propose high tech golf venue and entertainment center in North Little Rock where the former Wild River Country once occupied. Yes, the entire Outlet Mall area (Gateway Towne Center) is within the Little Rock city limits.

Nice. I hope it’s like the other locations in Texas and across the country.

iFly is a skydiving simulator center in which guests can experience a simulated version of skydiving in the sky. They have locations in Dallas and other major cities. It would be a great addition to include them in the mix of entertainment options that’s sprawling around the Central Arkansas market. Website: https://www.iflyworld.com

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, however, I tend to disagree on the fact the market can’t handle two. Some people may not like a venue that just centered around golf and prefer more varieties such as bowling or laser tag. There’s some that could careless about bowling, arcades, and laser tag and just want to play simulated golf. At Shackleford Crossing, there’s two steakhouse restaurant right next to each other that are doing perfectly fine. Same goes for Trader Joe’s vs Whole Foods along with Costco vs Sam’s. Both of these business are performing exceptionally well despite the competition. Competition is good because it forced other competitors to upgrade the quality of their customer service, products, and reasonable price. Just look at the price of Sam’s gas station when Costco opened their gas station in the same area. T- Shotz and Top Golf are both in Kansas City metro area and while Kansas City metro area is much bigger than Little Rock metro they still have to compete against each other to survive such as great customer service, great value for families, atmosphere, and quality food. I love Central Arkansas as well and is very impressed that entertainment venues like Top Golf, Main Event, and Maly’s Entertainment Center express interest in the Central Arkansas market. I am confident that these venues will perform well if they decide to open locations around the Little Rock metro area and hope many more entertainment venues (ex: iFly would be a great addition to the market) would soon land in the Central Arkansas market in the future.

What’s up with you yelling, “TWO”, on your post. The market could possibly support two similar entertainment venues if they offered different amenities. The proposal for the one in North Little Rock calls for a bowling alley, laser tag, and arcade in addition to high tech golf. Top Golf typically don’t have laser tag or bowling alley at their facility. Same thing with Urban Air Trampoline park on Bowman Rd and Defy Trampoline park on Colenel Glenn in West Little Rock. Both trampoline parks are similar in concept but offered different amenities. There’s room for two of these concepts in the area because everybody have different preferences on what type of amenities both concepts would offer.

What do you mean, “I’d put the odds of BOTH opening to be pretty low.” You don’t think there’s a market for both venues to locate in the Little Rock metro area?

Any additional information on this as to when they plan on opening?

Top Golf is finally coming to Little Rock. This news came right after a similar venue, proposed Maly’s Entertainment Center, announced plans to locate at the former Wild River Country site. It will be interesting to see which one would be successful once both entertainment venues open in the Little Rock metro area. Source: https://press.topgolf.com/2022-05-04-TOPGOLF-TARGETS-LITTLE-ROCK-FOR-EXPANSION-IN-ARKANSAS

Any updates on what plans are in store for the Wild River Country site?

The original plans also calls for a floating restaurant at the marina. I’ve wonder if there’s plan for the floating restaurant despite the Covid-19 outbreak?

Looks like construction of an unnamed fast food outlet is going along the property facing University Ave.

Top Golf, while not a fan of the chain, chose Northwest Arkansas over Little Rock as their first Arkansas location due to high visibility from a major intersection as well as high volume of request and interests from the community . The Rogers Regional Chamber of Commerce tries very hard to lure future national chains and investors to develop future developments unique to the region (I know some interesting developments for the future in the Northwest Arkansas that cannot be shared at this time) by offering incentives to potential investors such as property tax breaks. The new mayor tries to bring business unique to the market such as Top Golf to the region but there’s no way he can convince real estate investors to open a location in the market giving the lack of interest from the community along with high property tax. I agree with you regarding the lack of city’s support of chains (La Madeline is a prime example) in favor of local chains and mom and pop business though I don’t see anything wrong with that. Lack of support of national chains will prevent other chains currently not present in the market (Joe’s Crab Shack, Cheesecake Factory, Pappadeaux, etc) from locating here. Also, the former Mimi’s Cafe and Macaroni Grill buildings has been vacate for awhile now with no interest of any restaurants chain taking over the space as of now. That says it all about the Little Rock restaurant market.

One of the bigger problems Park Plaza face is the lack of entertainment and restaurant options in favor of strictly retail. They failed to realize that the retail industry has changed to online shopping or shopping at off price retailers such as TJMaxx, Marshall’s, or Ross Stores. People don’t go to the mall anymore to just shop but will go if they have some sort of unique entertainment options such as bowling alley, billiards, movie theater and a full service restaurants that are new to the area. A lot of people states that crime was the main factor of the demise of Park Plaza, however, crime is no worse than other shopping areas of Little Rock. Bad business decision and lack of unique entertainment or restaurants options is the real reason why Park Plaza is struggling. I’m predicting this mall will either close within two years or be redevelop into a mixed use center such as office space, condos, restaurants, and a small number of retail options in the future.

I do agree that the recent proposal of 10 percent sales tax increase and the rise of labor cost are the main contributor to restaurant closures rather than lack of business or the market itself. Restaurants and retailers have to find ways to cut down on labor costs by either raising menu prices, cutting down on number of hours an employee works, laying off employees, or closing the business entirely which eliminates jobs causing unemployment rates to go up. This definitely hurts local restaurateur who are unable to keep up with the labor cost. This affecting restaurants, whether chain or local restaurants, nationwide rather than just Little Rock especially in places like Seattle, WA and California where many restaurants has closed down due to increase in labor costs. Chick Fi La and Chili’s both have easy access to and from the site whereas La Madeleine does not have easy access from a major intersection. I have always had a hard time accessing La Madeleine site from W. Markham which could lead to the major factor of them closing. They would have done better locating at Park Avenue center facing University Ave or at the Gateway Town Center. Their sales would definitely be up and business would still be in operation had they done a more research on the site plan and access to a major intersection.