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Proposed Dickson/Walton Arts Center Deck


OnDickson

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Look for news shortly, perhaps as early as tomorrow morning, on details of a proposed 650+ parking deck that is tentatively planned for the property currently owned by UBC (between Dickson, West and Lafayette, about a block North of Dickson--immediately behind the new Legacy Building). It's still in the very early stages, but apparently, UBC has agreed to enter into negotiations with the City of Fayetteville about selling them the land for this structure (currently their paved and gravel parking is on this lot, as well as their activity center/gym). Meetings are currently under way with the city and Dickson Street merchants and property owners to try and get everyone on board with this project, because it of course comes with a catch: paid parking everywhere on and around Dickson Street.

Here are a few of the details as they stand now:

-Stephens, Inc has told the city that parking revenue (from paid parking in the proposed lot as well as the rest of the Dickson Street area) would entirely pay for construction and operation of such a parking facility

-No new taxes, assessments, etc would be necessary or used for such a structure

-Everything right now hinges on the sale of the property going forward, but both parties seem willing and ready

-An agressive estimate of 18 months for planning, design and construction of such a facility was given (that 18 month time frame would start after the purchase of the property was finalized)

-the facility would be built and paid for entirely through revenues from paid parking in the entire Dickson Street area (including streetside parking as well as the WAC lot)

-Still be determined is how paid parking would be enforced and what type of residential parking program would be needed to make sure that people don't migrate to the surrounding neighborhoods in search of free parking

-Tentatively a cap of $.50 per hour is being tossed around as a cap for parking rates although a sliding scale will most likely be needed to accomodate different uses for daytime and nights

While the WAC lot (corner of West and Dickson) seems the most logical place for such a lot (and one is planned there for the future), the Watson Street lot must be constructed first. It is not feasible to close the WAC lot for up to 2 years for construction until there is enough alternative parking in this new Watson Street lot to allow the WAC and area business to stay in operations during construction of the WAC parking structure.

I believe such a structure is long overdue (actually multiple structures), but it is going to be interesting to see how willing folks in NWA are to go to pay-to-park. Paid parking is a fixture most every large city and certainly in and around every major entertainment district--but it's a definite change for Dickson.

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Thanks for the info. I had been hearing some whisperings of a parking deck that might be coming around soon but hadn't heard that location mentioned. I certainly agree with you on needing to do it first before they consider the parking lot across from the WAC. I do wonder if paid parking might turn off some people. But I wouldn't think it would be too much. I'm not sure where else people would go. But this is where we need to go. As you mentioned many cities have more pay parking than we do. I have to pay for parking even in smaller cities than Fayetteville when I go out west. One of the things holding back Dickson I think is the parking situation. Any ideas how big this parking deck might be? I also hope they put a little thought into when they get around to putting in a parking deck near the WAC. I really like the Dover-Kohl idea of putting retail and such along the street level and hide the parking deck behind it.

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I had been hearing that the city wanted to purchase the Student Activity Center at UBC, but I never believed the church would consider selling it. It would be a perfect location for a parking deck, and I would not mind paying for parking on dickson if the increased parking spaces brings more restaurants, bars, etc. to the area. Thanks for the info.

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As far as the size of the deck, roughly 650 spaces was thrown out. No one specified exactly how tall this structure would be although there was some joking about a 15 story parking garage and blocking the view of Old Main.

About the WAC, their tentative plans call for them to need to double their seating cpacity by 2012 in order to survive. Of course this necessitates substantially more parking. The WAC has made it known they could not (or would not) survive a couple of seasons with all of their parking torn up, so it was decided to focus on the Watson Street structure first. Look for plans for the WAC deck to come about as soon as the Watson Street structure is up and running. Lets just say that the City and the Dickson Street are planning well ahead of the game as far as the WAC is concerned in that they are going to do everything in their power to prevent the WAC from even thinking about relocating elsewhere in NWA in the future, rather than expanding the current location.

I totally agree about the future WAC parking structure should be a mixed used building with retail along the street with the deck hidden behind. That was one of the elements that Dover-Kohl mentioned that I really thought was a great idea because any structure built on that land is going to be very visible in its entirety--and I'd hate to see just a plain ol' parking garage there.

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As far as the size of the deck, roughly 650 spaces was thrown out. No one specified exactly how tall this structure would be although there was some joking about a 15 story parking garage and blocking the view of Old Main.

About the WAC, their tentative plans call for them to need to double their seating cpacity by 2012 in order to survive. Of course this necessitates substantially more parking. The WAC has made it known they could not (or would not) survive a couple of seasons with all of their parking torn up, so it was decided to focus on the Watson Street structure first. Look for plans for the WAC deck to come about as soon as the Watson Street structure is up and running. Lets just say that the City and the Dickson Street are planning well ahead of the game as far as the WAC is concerned in that they are going to do everything in their power to prevent the WAC from even thinking about relocating elsewhere in NWA in the future, rather than expanding the current location.

I totally agree about the future WAC parking structure should be a mixed used building with retail along the street with the deck hidden behind. That was one of the elements that Dover-Kohl mentioned that I really thought was a great idea because any structure built on that land is going to be very visible in its entirety--and I'd hate to see just a plain ol' parking garage there.

Yeah as much as people don't like the idea of taller buildings detracting the 'feel' Dickson St I think a parking deck would be even worse if it's not hidden. I had wondered if the WAC had considered expanding. I can understand building it as small as they did in the beginning but now it would seem a larger facility would be very beneficial. It would be a blow for the city if they did ever leave, but I doubt it will come to that.

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Yeah as much as people don't like the idea of taller buildings detracting the 'feel' Dickson St I think a parking deck would be even worse if it's not hidden. I had wondered if the WAC had considered expanding. I can understand building it as small as they did in the beginning but now it would seem a larger facility would be very beneficial. It would be a blow for the city if they did ever leave, but I doubt it will come to that.

The WAC parking lot is quite large. There is plenty of room for a nice mixed use structure fronting Dickson and a multi story parking structure in the rear.

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Wasn't there talk not too long ago about possibly putting a parking deck NW of the Dickson/West intersection? (sort of near where the old train depot is). If so what is the status of that proposal? Or maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.

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Wasn't there talk not too long ago about possibly putting a parking deck NW of the Dickson/West intersection? (sort of near where the old train depot is). If so what is the status of that proposal? Or maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.

I have heard talk about that before as well. They've made a lot of that area paid parking despite the fact it's just across the street from the WAC parking lot. Although I know they're supposed to have plans over there. Right now they're working on the old Train Station but I thought I had heard that they might end up doing more than just that in the future.

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  • 5 months later...

There have been some interesting developments in this proposal over the summer. This is all still very unofficial as the city wanted to concentrate only on passage of the sales tax issues before proposing any major new developments. All of the info I've received over the past several weeks has been off the record, but has come from people who would definitely have knowledge of such a proposal.

Apparently the City and UBC were/are at odds again (no surprise there) over the property on which this proposed Watson Street parking structure would be located. This lead the city to examine other options and supposedly to scrap the plans for the Watson Street structure all together. Instead they are exploring the possibility of a massive parking/retail/mixed use structure that would be located immediately behind the Walton Arts Center (on the South Side). It would stretch more than a block to the south--taking out the office building and the hill behind the Arts Center, Grubs building and stretch back to the existing small city parking lot south of Spring Street. I'm not sure exactly what would happen to Spring Street, but it sounded to me like this structure would be built over that section of spring street. A really interesting tidbit I thougt was that it is being considered to finance this with paid parking in the downtown area as well as a partnership with private developers (who I'm guessing would be responsible for the retail development).

I'm anxious to hear more details of this project--especially the details of any public/private partnership. I think this is a great location for a project like this--much better than the Watson Street location, IMHO. I would also imagine that the WAC would greatly prefer this location and perhaps it would help to keep the WAC from ever considering a move from Dickson. Now that the sales taxes have all passed, maybe more details will be forthcoming in the near future.

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There have been some interesting developments in this proposal over the summer. This is all still very unofficial as the city wanted to concentrate only on passage of the sales tax issues before proposing any major new developments. All of the info I've received over the past several weeks has been off the record, but has come from people who would definitely have knowledge of such a proposal.

Apparently the City and UBC were/are at odds again (no surprise there) over the property on which this proposed Watson Street parking structure would be located. This lead the city to examine other options and supposedly to scrap the plans for the Watson Street structure all together. Instead they are exploring the possibility of a massive parking/retail/mixed use structure that would be located immediately behind the Walton Arts Center (on the South Side). It would stretch more than a block to the south--taking out the office building and the hill behind the Arts Center, Grubs building and stretch back to the existing small city parking lot south of Spring Street. I'm not sure exactly what would happen to Spring Street, but it sounded to me like this structure would be built over that section of spring street. A really interesting tidbit I thougt was that it is being considered to finance this with paid parking in the downtown area as well as a partnership with private developers (who I'm guessing would be responsible for the retail development).

I'm anxious to hear more details of this project--especially the details of any public/private partnership. I think this is a great location for a project like this--much better than the Watson Street location, IMHO. I would also imagine that the WAC would greatly prefer this location and perhaps it would help to keep the WAC from ever considering a move from Dickson. Now that the sales taxes have all passed, maybe more details will be forthcoming in the near future.

This sounds like a much better project than the possible parking gargae by UBC. I like the mixed use/parking garage idea. It is a much better use of valuable space plus it hides the garage portion. Keep us posted OnDickson and thanks for the info.

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There have been some interesting developments in this proposal over the summer. This is all still very unofficial as the city wanted to concentrate only on passage of the sales tax issues before proposing any major new developments. All of the info I've received over the past several weeks has been off the record, but has come from people who would definitely have knowledge of such a proposal.

Apparently the City and UBC were/are at odds again (no surprise there) over the property on which this proposed Watson Street parking structure would be located. This lead the city to examine other options and supposedly to scrap the plans for the Watson Street structure all together. Instead they are exploring the possibility of a massive parking/retail/mixed use structure that would be located immediately behind the Walton Arts Center (on the South Side). It would stretch more than a block to the south--taking out the office building and the hill behind the Arts Center, Grubs building and stretch back to the existing small city parking lot south of Spring Street. I'm not sure exactly what would happen to Spring Street, but it sounded to me like this structure would be built over that section of spring street. A really interesting tidbit I thougt was that it is being considered to finance this with paid parking in the downtown area as well as a partnership with private developers (who I'm guessing would be responsible for the retail development).

I'm anxious to hear more details of this project--especially the details of any public/private partnership. I think this is a great location for a project like this--much better than the Watson Street location, IMHO. I would also imagine that the WAC would greatly prefer this location and perhaps it would help to keep the WAC from ever considering a move from Dickson. Now that the sales taxes have all passed, maybe more details will be forthcoming in the near future.

I also think this would be a better location for a parking deck. Although I wonder if they would really need to have it start where Grubs is. Seems like it would be cheaper to start it at the southeast corner of Spring and West. I'm assuming this would go down to Meadow St. I admit though I would have liked to seem a museum, like the proposed science museum go in this spot. Then you could have a cultural district running from the WAC down to the Library. All that would be left is to hopefully relocate Hillcrest Towers. But a parking deck is needed and this is a good spot. As others have pointed out it's possible the the WAC might eventually move so it can have more room so it might be at the current location for a long amount of time. I'm like strmchsr77, I hope they do it like was suggested by Dover-Kohl and have some retail and restaurants along the street and the parking garage behind them so it's not really visible from the street.

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  • 2 months later...

Finally details are starting to emerge about this project(although I guess this thread would now be better titled the proposed Dickson Street/WAC Parking deck). According to the NWA Times this morning, the city will be taking proposals from private developers through the end of January for a massive mixed use parking structure to be located immediately behind the WAC. The structure would be bound by the WAC, West Ave, School Ave and Meadow Street (although 1 row of houses between the structure and Meadow Street will remain). Spring Street will actually be routed through the lower level of the garage and will still connect to West Ave. An enclosed walkway will link the structure to the WAC. All new parking, as well as the existing WAC lot will become pay parking to help finance the structure.

Apparently the city's part of the partnership will come in the form of land--which is all currently owned by either the city or the WAC. The Grubs building and the WAC administrative building will both have to be removed entirely (Grubs currently leases their building from the city). The city expects a lot of interest from developers for this project and they are accepting proposals from regional and national firms, as well as locals. Depending on the proposal selected, the structure could contain retail, entertainment, residential and WAC offices as well as a minimum of 500 parking spaces.

Right now they're saying that construction could start as early as a year from now with construction taking 12-18 months. Definitely exciting news!

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I'm curious to find out how tall this parking deck will be. It will probably only be something like three stories. But it could have some nice views of Dickson St. Another interesting not about it is that it will go over Spring St. So you'll get an interesting tunnel effect for that block of Spring St.

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Yeah I certainly wouldn't mind if Fayetteville or Dickson St would be a little more internet savvy and put out a website. I know Fayetteville does have one but I think it could be laid out for easier use and could certainly use an overhaul to make it look more appealing.

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I don't think this was mentioned but the current WAC parking lot will be turned into a pay lot. I don't know if it's officially been announced but I'm assuming the future parking deck will also be. While I understand that just because this new parking deck is being built it doesn't mean you can tear up all the current parking lots in the area. But I'd still like to see some of the parking space around the Dickson/North intersection being used for something else. I think just allowing some development along the street and leaving the rest of the lots further in would be a nice feature. Maybe a bit like the parking lot between Hoghaus and the Legacy Building.

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