arky

- US Pizza opening a new location in WLR - Three Fold owners redeveloping the old building across from Tropical Smoothie in Riverdale for new restraurant - Bones steakhouse out of Hot Springs opening 2nd location in old Arthur's spot - Big Boy Ramen opened in the Heights - Burger place in old gas station in Hillcrest coming in next year - Grubs set to open in former Chili's on Rodney Parham in next couple months I know some lament the lack of large chains locating in LR, but the activity among local and localish chains continues to be strong.

I actually think this shopping center has accidentally positioned itself really well for the future. More and more of these development are going to be restaurant and activity heavy. The foot traffic is incredible even on weeknights due to the collection of restaurants and the theater. I think they should work hard to add things like gyms, etc, and move all the way towards a lifestyle center with a smaller retail presence. Any word on what's going into the old Tavern location? They always seemed busy and there's a need in the market for that kind of restaurant - decent food but a great place to gather.

I've been spending a lot of time downtown lately. I actually feel like it's better positioned than ever before despite the slow down in development. The AC hotel's undoubted success will begin to pull more activity out of the RiverMarket / Main Street corridors. The Lafayette building's conversion will only continue to serve these purposes. That said, I'm perplexed with all the surface parking. There's little doubt there's more demand for apartments, new office products, etc - but I'm assuming the revenue from surface parking makes it uneconomical to convert at this point? Or are these owners just content to collect parking revenue while expecting a big price for their land? A price big enough that makes it not make sense to develop it? It's just a little odd to me. MosesTucker and others see 90% occupancy on new apartments which is a clear indicator the market would support more of a good product. What's the hold back?

Agree with you on the pizza place sentiment, but this helps fill a more important hole: places to grab a beer on a nice patio and watch a game. Their food is fine, nothing special (to me), but it's always a nice casual place to gather. We need more of those in WLR.

I tend to agree with both perspectives: service levels have definitely increased with more mainline aircraft, but it's well past time for LIT to start seeing better direct service. I tend to be an optimist but even I've been shocked by the level of growth in boardings at the airport over the last 18 months. 2018's growth was double that seen nationally and 2019 is 4x what is being seen nationally year to date. We need to see NYC daily service added. It's been available in the past, we can support it, but the hub strategy is killing us in this regard. Hopefully we'll see it added soon. I have little doubt a seasonal route somewhere to the panhandle of FL would have high traffic, though it doesn't seem to fit into the strategy of any of the larger players. Outside of NYC, what are the other potential routes that might make sense?

Pretty incredible numbers, really. Bodes well not just for LIT but the region as a whole. It'd be huge to get back a NYC direct as well as something to SF or LA. With continued growth like this I'd think we'd be seeing more directs sooner rather than later.

It would be great if this was built as rendered, was a huge success, and showed people that LR is ripe for these types of developments. Chenal and mid-town both could improve livability and become much more desirable over the next decade for outsiders if developers would hop on this train.

Not sure both of them would even do it. Costco's are typically ~15 acres, the center that had Chili's and Dixie Cafe is ~9 acres, the center next door less than half that.

Agree.

Unfortunately this part of town doesn't seem to be able to hold it's own as development continues to move further west (and also back east in midtown / downtown). I don't have high hopes.

Is the opposition just to the style of architecture? Surely it's not opposed to the use of the land itself.

I'm beginning to think some chains are starting to outsource their real estate efforts to Chick-fil-a - i.e., simply following them wherever they go knowing it is a good location that will be extremely high-traffic. I've noticed many chains seem to congregate around CFA. I know this one's been there for a while but wouldn't be surprised if that entered the calculus when Chilis was evaluating real estate in the area, especially with that lot being vacant right across the street.

This should really help bring some more life to that block during the day. That building was mostly vacant and should now have over 300 people coming to work there everyday. With the continued growth of that bank, that number should only continue to increase.

Has anyone seen occupancy or rate numbers for Little Rock lately? I was under the impression after the spurt of hotel openings in recent years that occupancy was a bit lower than what would drive new development. Are we at risk of becoming saturated, or does the downtown sub-market outperform the market in general?

I bank with BofA and will be moving away from them soon for decisions like this. All of their branches are understaffed in this areaand lines are ridiculous - I rarely go into branches and when I do it's a 20+ minute wait. No exaggeration. It's clear they are cutting costs and doing it at their retail branches. I think this is more of an opportunity for this block than anything - bank branches are terrible, only open 40 hours a week, dead on nights / weekends. They should convert that lobby to restaurant or something creative.