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Posts posted by Architect
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1 hour ago, MDC26 said:
I was told that they were looking at another site outside of LR, but in Central Arkansas. Maybe Maumelle or NLR.
I was also told very recently that they're still trying to negotiate the originally envisioned site in the River Market. Let's hope it lands somewhere downtown...a suburban campus would be such a huge, missed opportunity.
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On 3/21/2024 at 12:23 PM, MDC26 said:
I don't believe NWA is part of a CSA. CSA combine two separate Metropolitan areas or a metropolitan area with a micropolitan area. Fayetteville doesn't have a micropolitan area nearby to combine with.
This. You beat me to it. There are no close, other metros near NWA to qualify for a CSA. Fort Smith is too large and too far away to be considered.
The Little Rock CSA includes Searcy and Pine Bluff (but not Hot Springs).
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The U.S. Census Bureau released county and MSA population estimates for 2023:
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Central Arkansas (LR-NLR-Conway MSA)
- 2020 - 748,038
- 2022 - 764,045 (up 2.14%) - net gain of over 16,000
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NWA
- 2020 - 546,725
- 2023 - 576,967 (up 7.98%) - net gain of over 43,000
It will be interesting to see Metroplan's estimates through 2023, which tend to be higher (and more accurate) that US Census Bureau. I believe they release their estimates later in the year.
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Central Arkansas (LR-NLR-Conway MSA)
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57 minutes ago, skirby said:
The permitting process is in the works to renovate the closed Hotel Frederica on Capitol Ave, into a Fairfield Inn.
Good news. "Fairfield Inn" doesn't give me warm and fuzzies, but it's certainly better than a boarded up building as it sits now.
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4 hours ago, MDC26 said:
Beautiful lobby, and great news. Has this building been empty? Would make a nice apartment/condo building too if the hotel thing doesn't work out.
No, it's not empty. I know the upper floors are condos. I believe the hotel is planned on the lower 4-5 floors, though I'm not sure what currently occupies that space.
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On 1/6/2024 at 2:01 AM, theman said:
Who’s doing the redevelopment? That what be a great addition to Main St. Wonder if the Boyle Building redevelopment helped push this along?
Good point about Boyle being a catalyst for moving forward.
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6 hours ago, skirby said:
Looks like this project might be moving forward. The redevelopment will include an 80 room Tapestry Collection by Hilton hotel, a cafe, and restaurant A plumbing permit has been applied for.
A January 1st, 1947 menu item from the Coffee Bar at the Lafayette Hotel:
SHOPPERS SPECIAL - Baked Diced Sugar Cured Ham and Macaroni with Cheese Sauce, Two Vegetables, Blackberry Cobbler and Coffee. .50. You could also add an Ice Cold Premium Beer for .27.
That evening you could get 2 Lamb Chops with fried bananas, a fresh shrimp or oyster cocktail, two veggies, pie or cake or ice cream and coffee or tea for $2.00.
EXCELLENT news!!! I was fearful since it had been so long since its announcement, that it wasn't going to happen. This is going to make for a fantastic hotel! More great news for Main Street.
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On 12/21/2023 at 4:19 PM, skirby said:
I agree it would be a shame to waste the location but it wouldn't be the first time for the riverfront area. Architect, is there a way to design a building where it is part hotel and part apartments so if the hotel part is very successful the apartment part can be converted at a reasonable cost?
Absolutely, that's doable from an architectural standpoint. But options like that are driven by market demand and developer goals.
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On 12/18/2023 at 3:36 PM, MDC26 said:
Downtown Little Rock Master Plan Survey. Within the survey, lists some of the ideas for downtown to rank.
I provided this comment in the initial DTLRMP survey...and I fully acknowledge that this project is funded by the city of Little Rock...but what a travesty that this isn't a combined LR-NLR downtown master plan! What a lost opportunity for collaborative planning, development, way finding graphics, etc....
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On 12/13/2023 at 2:40 PM, skirby said:
The developer for the old Greyhound property was before the city board this week and talked more about this project. It will be 8 to 9 floors plus rooftop amenities. The brand will be a Tempo by Hilton. He said the plans are to open in 2025.
Sounds like a nice hotel flag, but pretty disappointing it's not going to land at the ±14 floors originally planned. NLR really needs one or two 10+ story buildings to create a bit of mass and height.
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4 hours ago, theman said:
I thought I read somewhere previously that the new ownership was going to update the lighting in each window so they could be lit like the old Christmas tree and other things. I guess we will see if that comes to fruition.
I hope that's true! It's pretty ironic really that the least heralded (and shortest) high-rise downtown is the building with the most lighting - color changing LED on the 21-story Union Plaza building.
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7 hours ago, theman said:
Noticed that the 200 West sign is now atop the former Bank of America building.
I noticed that last weekend. It is color changing. However, I REALLY WISH the new owners would go back and restore the original strips that used to alight every window around the building. It could be done even more efficiently with LED and of course now could be programmed to create images (like the traditional Christmas Tree) rather than physically wrapping fluorescent tubes with colored shrouds.
p.s. A little birdie told me that there is a new lighting scheme planned to adorn the top of the Simmons Bank Tower.
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20 hours ago, skirby said:
As of now this project is dead at the Heifer location.
Yes, such a strange development. How could both parties get that far in planning for it to fall apart?! One interview I read said that Lyon still hoped to work it out (that Heifer is still their preferred site), but that they are committed to East Village and are looking at other properties in that area. Who knows, maybe they'll work it out.
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4 hours ago, skirby said:
I wish it would have been Tex-Mex along the lines of Mi Cocina in the Dallas area or Cafe Del Rio in Lufkin, TX.
Yeah, not super excited about this...
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On 8/31/2023 at 1:09 PM, skirby said:
Why was 2nd Street rebuilt the way it was when all those involved knew the south side would be a park and the block before I-30 would be a park on both sides? Below are pictures of 2nd Street east of Cumberland and west of Cumberland.
East is made up of four lanes of traffic plus parking or a left turn lane.
West is made up of two lanes of traffic .
What blocks would you rather walk down?
That is pretty confounding, given the city's effort to put walkable areas on a "road diet" like what was recently announced for Markham/Kavanaugh at Stifft Station.
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4 hours ago, MDC26 said:
Hopefully someone will come and convert the Donaghey Building to residential
About 6-7 years ago, the prior (current?) owner had developed a full set of construction documents for the entire renovation of Donaghey. I've seen them...pretty impressive. At the last minute, they bailed. I have no idea why not. Beautiful building and potential.
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2 hours ago, MDC26 said:
I don't mind it not being a hotel, but I think residential with ground floor retail would have been more beneficial, as now it's just going to create office vacancy in the Tower Building. However, it's an overall net positive.
Agreed...I wasn't advocating for a hotel as much as I was lamenting it was office space, which is already oversaturated AND won't add any life after hours to Main Street. If it were apartments, it would have accomplished that goal, perhaps better than a hotel.
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On 8/11/2023 at 10:39 AM, MDC26 said:
Yes, I read that in one of the articles. It was around 2017. They started the demo, then stopped all of a sudden as something fell through.
Yeah, it had to do with some (short sighted) agreement that the hotel would NOT proceed until if/when the whole rest of the block was developed. Seemed like a strange requirement, and when the developer either couldn't or didn't proceed with renovating the south half of the block, the hotel didn't proceed. Really unfortunate...I would almost have preferred that site be a hip hotel as to another office property that is competing with already strained office towers downtown.
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On 5/4/2023 at 11:28 AM, skirby said:
Patio being built for newly opened Sterling Market.
That's a really cool "folded" canopy.
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Holy cow...I'm just glad someone finally commented in the NWA forum!
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16 hours ago, bigbank10x said:
Deeply saddened that this part of downtown has become a suburb. Was hoping when development did eventually hit that area that it would be urban/street fronts, not another tiny building like the McD on 6th, pushed away from the street, in the middle of the parking lot...in the middle of an area that could greatly benefit from urban developments. Hate that so much of the grid is being wasted. There is so much potential.
I expect that the upcoming downtown master plan will call out the city for this shortsighted methodology. Here's hoping that the city will then comply with its own master plan guidelines.
On 6/23/2023 at 12:33 AM, MDC26 said:It was horrible to let Stephens tear down 4 buildings in the heart of downtown to put in a surface lot, then I thought it was bad to let Chick-fil-a tear down a whole block of store fronts.
That block is planned for an 8-level parking deck I believe.
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On 6/19/2023 at 2:07 PM, MDC26 said:
Broadway has turned into a total drive-thru centric street in the middle of downtown. There's Sonic, Simmons Bank, Starbucks, Popeye's, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Rally's, Centennial Bank, Jimmy John's, Chick-fil-a, McDonalds, and Tropical Smoothie.
The gas station actually has a decent urban design.
I cannot believe how the city has completely abdicated their own Urban Use (UU) zoning requirements for Broadway. I mean, I get it farther south towards Broadway to an extent, but that Tropical Smoothie is just an absolute travesty. It looks like an outparcel in Maumelle. Entirely inappropriate, to ruin the long-term urban fabric of the center of the city in exchange for a few near-term tax revenue dollars. Ridiculous.
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1 hour ago, MDC26 said:
Nice article. Sad that that all those workers bolted for Riverdale and West Little Rock. Now they have the difficult task of refilling all the space. The new OZK HQ is very nice, but imagine if they would have built a new tower downtown. I think the next things that need to be done as soon as possible is to renovate the Boyle and Donaghey buildings for residential.
I totally agree with all of that...the Bank OZK location was a complete missed opportunity to contribute something meaningful to downtown rather than just another suburban office building in an area that did NOT need it, and of course Boyle and Donaghey are cued up to be something special when the right developer comes along. Those are really the only two major properties left of scale for redevelopment (and both will REALLY help Main Street when they happen).
The TOTAL head scratcher was the state deciding to take the Alltel building "off line" for future economic development pursuits when the Raytheon deal fell through after the merger with United Technologies. So not only does the state now NOT have a huge building that could have been a lure, but they drained downtown of valuable lease space. Lose-lose situation...typical for this state. Ugh.
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18 minutes ago, MDC26 said:
Here's an article from Rock City Eats discussing possible reasons
https://www.rock.city/what-is-really-going-on-with-the-river-market-restaurant-scene/
Two out-of-sync venues catering to a non-existent college demographic with sub-par service close, and all of a sudden we have an existential crisis about the River Market. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but I do agree that the RM has to mature over time and find its footing given the change in the market over the past 25+ years. When it opened, it didn't have SOMA, or Main, or Argenta or East Village as competition!
Moses Tucker has already leased the Library space for what I believe they stated was an exciting new concept. We'll see.
East Village
in Little Rock Metropolitan Area
Posted
Whether or not it locates in Cabot, I don't agree with your sentiment here...LR officials are pushing pretty hard behind the scenes from what I've been told. Why would they not?