ecity3138
-
Posts
360 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Project Database
User Guide
Store
Events
Posts posted by ecity3138
-
-
Construction of Top Golf is coming along nicely. Anybody know when will it officially open to the public?
-
1
-
-
According to Kark, Aldi’s is opening a Little Rock location in the now closed Bed Bath & Beyond space on Chenal Parkway.
-
1
-
-
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.
-
2
-
-
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.
-
On 12/1/2022 at 7:56 PM, Architect said:
The redevelopment of this is a huge deal...and it sounds like they're doing it the right way (installing historically accurate windows, etc).
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.mainevent.com/littlerock/
-
1
-
-
2 hours ago, MDC26 said:
Holy cow, no way all three of these happen. This project is quite ambitious, but looks like it would have the biggest impact. It would still be impressive even without the golf part.
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.
-
On 5/4/2022 at 10:26 PM, MDC26 said:
It’s in that Western most building. They’re empty so I don’t remember if it was Gordman’s, Babies R Us, or Toys R Us.
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.
-
1
-
-
17 minutes ago, Architect said:
I agree it’s probably at Outlets or Little Rock. What is Malys? I hadn’t heard about that.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkMaly’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.
5 minutes ago, dnashobviously said:Are the Outlets within the LR city limits? I thought it was interesting that in the article it mentioned it would be in the city limits.
Yes, the entire Outlet Mall area (Gateway Towne Center) is within the Little Rock city limits.
-
1
-
-
10 minutes ago, dnashobviously said:
Where is it going? In the old Gordmans?
Nice. I hope it’s like the other locations in Texas and across the country.
-
23 minutes ago, Architect said:
Gotcha. I hope you're right! It would be cool to have both if it's financially viable for each of them. I agree that it's also a nice sign of confidence regarding Main Event, etc.
What is iFly? Is that the free-fall simulator?
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
-
1 hour ago, Architect said:
Because my emphasis is on the number two. The entry price is very steep for venues of this scale/complexity…much more than a trampoline park (which given the carnage of previous trampoline ventures in the market, probably isn’t the best example).
I think it would be a strain on both venues if they were both to become a reality, and that wouldn’t be healthy for either of them. I love central Arkansas, but this isn’t a huge market.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkEveryone 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. -
1 hour ago, Architect said:
No, I don't think this market would or could support TWO speciality entertainment venues of this type.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkWhat’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.
-
26 minutes ago, Architect said:
I’d put the odds of BOTH opening to be pretty low. My bet would be with Top Golf.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkWhat 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?
-
On 4/17/2022 at 9:45 PM, dnashobviously said:
Perhaps it’ll fill the old Gordmans building?
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
-
1
-
-
Any updates on what plans are in store for the Wild River Country site?
-
On 7/25/2020 at 7:31 PM, skirby said:
Holiday Inn Express
Rock City Yacht Club. It will be adding a good amount of people living in East Village. The only problem I have is that RCYC does not have direct access to the west except on East 6th thanks to the Clinton Library turning it's back and fencing off the neighborhood to the east.
This building on East 6th is being looked at for redevelopment.
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.
-
1 hour ago, LRretail said:
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.
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.
-
On 1/29/2020 at 10:43 AM, LRretail said:
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.
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.
-
3 hours ago, LRretail said:
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.
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.
The River Market
in Little Rock Metropolitan Area
Posted
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