Looks like Conway hasn't seen too much love on here lately so here's a summary of everything thats been going on.
Lewis Crossing Shopping Center:
Most of the empty buildings seem to have interior work going on, the tenants include T-Mobile, Sprint, Success Vision, Rita's Italian Ice, a Nail Spa, and a few others that don't have signs up.
Three out-parcels have been sold with two currently under construction, these are Red Robin, Hideaway Pizza, and David's Burgers. I believe the picture above will be Red Robin.
Above is where they're doing ground work for the Lewis Ranch out-parcel development across from Lewis Crossing, estimated to be completed within a year and half according to Arkansas Business and will include big box stores and I suspect more car dealerships. (The area is much bigger than the picture shows it's hard to take pictures while on a roundabout)
Dave Ward:
A national brand, Meineke, bought the old H2Oil car service place and spent about a month rebranding the building, it was opened earlier last month.
There are plans to extend the four lanes of road at Lewis Crossing out to the intersection of Dave Ward, Mayor Lane, and East German Lane.
The new Burges turkey place is still under construction between Axciom and Meineke, metal framing has gone up and so have wooden walls.
Above is a new building where Deboard and C2 Powersports have moved, there are about three other buildings in this style I don't think have been covered on here with another one on the way judging by the heavy dirt moving. These are all around the area where the old bus plant used to be making this area look a lot less abandoned.
Daylight Donuts is moving into a location at the strip mall across from Honda World.
This is the new Starbucks across from UCA that opened about a month ago, has stayed pretty busy since. There's a lot to the right of it that had a "sold" sticker added to it a few weeks ago, don't know anything about that yet.
This is the Shoppes at Center Stone strip mall, it was completed a couple months ago, so far the only teneant is Super Cuts. In the picture you can see some tape and a caution cone on the walking trail, this is where the pedestrian bridge is to be constructed. According to the UCA Physical Plant website work on this isn't supposed to start till after January 1st but maybe they're starting early.
Roux's Cajun food recently opened and has replaced The Draft sports bar due to their recent closure for not checking ID's on several occasions.
Ceci's Chicken and Waffles is now open in the space previously occupied by Bleu Flame, driving by it today it looked surprisingly busy.
I've seen construction trucks parked at Axciom along with port a potties so they might be doing some remodeling now that they're the headquarters again.
UCA:
Major construction projects are fully complete including the annex between the two science buildings, and the Chainwheel Bike Shop which opened a month ago inside of Donaghey Hall, this was it's final tenant to be constructed.
Minor projects include replacing all lights with more efficient LED fixtures, waterproofing several buildings including the stadium, a complete replacement of Mashburn Halls roof, replacing old wood and repainting Irby and McAlister halls, a new sidewalk completed a couple of days ago connecting Donaghey Hall to the south, replacing old building signs with new ones including the new logo, and the fountain is having pretty extensive work done to it replacing the underground vault and repairing the four pools.
Inside sources tell me the next two major projects will be a new fine arts building across from Thompson Hall, and phase 2 of greek village which will be the construction of the fraternity houses. Old houses are being sold and moved from the location currently to accommodate this. They are currently waiting for Fall 2017 enrollment numbers before starting either of these projects. They're expecting a record high freshmen class.
Hendrix:
Construction of the new welcome center is coming along and is expected to be open before classes start. In the Hendrix article announcing the building they also stated that they're including the restoration of the pedestrian bridge to make it match the architecture of the other buildings, this has yet to begin.
http://thecabin.net/local/news/2017-04-27/commercial-lots-available-hendrix-village
Above you can see that Hendrix is not done making mixed use retail buildings. The leasing signs for these locations have gone up and when they're completed I think this will make the area look twice as impressive than it already is.
Central Landing!!
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/jul/02/central-landing-still-works-ceo-says/?f=rivervalley
While writing this post I accidentally found this article that went up today. To sum it up as of two weeks ago Dillards is not only still interested, but they're committed!
In the article you can see the progress on the overpass, the picture looks to be about three days old.
Here's 6th street, last week they finished paving the other side of the road. It's almost identical to the layout of Prince Street, four lanes divided in the middle with three roundabouts and the signature Conway street lights going up.
Much of the road work seems to have shifted to connecting this to the overpass (pictured above) and major ground work is going on at the road which will connect Bruce Street to this street. Existing Bruce Street road seems to be getting ready for a complete reconstruction expanding the amount of lanes, adding a median and other decorations to try to make it not look like the most run down part of Conway anymore.
Medical Park:
Above is the nearly completed Baptist Health office building. It's expected to be open later this month.
I'm not sure if it's been said on here but the main health center has been fully completed including the women's center which puts on a neat LED light show at night.
Near this, behind Superior Dodge, they're constructing a what according to theCabin.net will be a 120 bed nursing home. Foundation work is currently being done on this.
Interstate Improvements:
The Conway loop is officially complete. Grand opening was a couple of weeks ago and is now exit 132 named Baker-Willis Parkway.
Above is the exit 124 extension going to Greenbrier expected to be complete within the first week of August. This satellite image is a few months old but you can kind of tell what it will look like.
Salem:
Site work is underway for an 84 unit apartment complex beside the Conway Regional Health and Fitness Center and behind Slim Chickens. With it being next to the walking trail, fitness centers, Kroger, other places on Salem and Prince, and the High School, this seems like a perfect place for an apartment complex.
A roundabout is expected to go in at the intersection of Salem and College Ave. Theres a lot of work being done in this area with replacing old electrical posts with fewer and nicer metal ones so I assume they'll start after thats complete.
The car wash in Kroger's parking lot recently got a major revamp making it look completely different and it now has a striking red and blue color scheme. I remember reading somewhere that they were going to revamp the car wash next to McDonalds on Dave Ward as well.
Oak Street & Downtown:
According to theCabin.net, foundation work has begun downtown on J Lofts, the four story 21 two bedroom apartment building with a parking garage on the first floor. I still haven't been able to find this but I read its somewhere where Spencer and Smith St. are which were recently reconstructed to accommodate this.
John Daly's Steakhouse is set to be completed within two weeks.
Replacing the old bank at the intersection of Oak and Harkrider will be a PrimeCare pharmacy and care center. They used the old bank building but have torn most the walls down, reconstruction parts and expanded it so much I think the only part left from the old building is the foundation.
Pictured here is the Outback Steakhouse next to the Chipotle and the recently completed Verizon store building.
The Dive is a southern food restaurant next to Taco Bell that replaced what I think was a Chinese restaurant that closed a couple of years ago. This opened early last month.
Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robins are being replaced by a Capitan Hook's Fish and Chicken. The outside of this building was repainted a month ago but I haven't really seen anything else done to it.
Miscellaneous:
Stoby's is set to reopen later this month. Work on the parking lot is currently underway.
Not sure if its been mentioned on here but the ConwayCorp building is complete.
I haven't done any research on this but I'm assuming this is going to be St. Josephs new high school building.Work is still underway for the Acadia Behavioral Health center near the technology park.
Several improvements to our trails have been made such as the addition of this pedestrian light.
Above is one of our new bike sharing stations powered by Zagster. There are five of these, the one pictured above next to the Chamber of Commerce building, Simon Park, the walking trail at Salem, the walking trail at Tyler St., and another I forget the location of. These appeared about three weeks ago and this is apparently the first bike sharing program in Arkansas. So far they've been very successful, they're usually all gone when I want to try one out.
A few other things, the Trampoline park at the Towne Centre shopping center is set for a ribbon cutting this week, Hampton is looking at building a hotel behind Walmart where the old Ruby Tuesdays was, and the Conway Expo Center has received funding so it can be completed. Not everything is good though, Rocket Fizz closed last week due to lack of business and parking.. rip, but the Hot Springs location is still open.
