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Park Avenue

skirby

By skirby
in Little Rock Metropolitan Area

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bchris02 Hamlet

bchris02

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Very insightful perspective.

And I agree regarding the "doom and gloom" predictions. The media has basically talked us into a protracting economy (well before even the (very real) mortgage crisis). After all, a recession is primarily a state of mind.

Our media is more interested in further damaging the legacy of George Bush than the good of this country. I am no Bush fan, but I would bet money that if a Democrat was in office under these same economic conditions things wouldn't be portrayed as "doom and gloom" as they are right now.

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Aporkalypse City

Aporkalypse

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Our media is more interested in further damaging the legacy of George Bush than the good of this country. I am no Bush fan, but I would bet money that if a Democrat was in office under these same economic conditions things wouldn't be portrayed as "doom and gloom" as they are right now.

I'm no fan of Dubya either and I bet you are right about that. The media has an agenda and right now it seems to be to elect Obama at all costs.

I think Strode knows what he's doing and I think the demand is there right now. We've had a retail vacuum in Little Rock for 1-2 decades with far less prime retail space than the city should have and the city's second largest retail development was just demolished. New developments have had difficulty luring national chains because they clearly are waiting on the right developments to be built. Strode has already been able to gauge interest from national retailers when he built Midtown, he knows what demand is right now. I am quite confident Park Ave will do very well and he has the best tenants lined up already.

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LRU1967 Whistle-Stop

LRU1967

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Our media is more interested in further damaging the legacy of George Bush than the good of this country. I am no Bush fan, but I would bet money that if a Democrat was in office under these same economic conditions things wouldn't be portrayed as "doom and gloom" as they are right now.

You don't think the Wall Street Journal and Fox News(?) would be giving the Dems hell? The statistics speak for themselves, we're in a recession and how deep it will be remains to be seen.

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turboturtle Hamlet

turboturtle

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You don't think the Wall Street Journal and Fox News(?) would be giving the Dems hell? The statistics speak for themselves, we're in a recession and how deep it will be remains to be seen.

The drop in the value of the dollar in relation to the euro is highly correlated to negative news media about the drop in the value of the dollar in relation to the euro.

Politically motivated negative economic news reports is why Japan's Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Hiroko Ota said,"We have said that worries about the U.S. economic slowdown have been increasing, but risks of the economy slipping into a recession have been increasing as weakening in consumption and employment has become more pronounced," Ota told reporters. "The impact on the Japanese economy depends on how long the U.S. economic slowdown will continue. We are looking (at the U.S. economic slowdown) with great concern," she said.

The 234,685 people whose homes were foreclosed in March did so because the media made them do it and it is an election year. Who cares about the LONG term consequences to their respective financial well-being for having their property foreclosed.

And of course, the vast majority of the 2007 [sic Bankruptcy] filings -- 822,590 of them -- involved individuals. However, business bankruptcy cases also rose, jumping 44 percent to 28,322 filings, the court office said. Damn you Times!

The folks who want to blame the media for the economy sound a lot like the cohort from NWA who want to ignore facts in order to promote their own reality, no matter how false it is.

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Architect Town

Architect

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You don't think the Wall Street Journal and Fox News(?) would be giving the Dems hell? The statistics speak for themselves, we're in a recession and how deep it will be remains to be seen.

The very, very clear point is that the media has been saying we're in a down economy for a full 2 years, including continual hype about a "recession". What a load of crap. There was NO bad economy nor any threat of recession when the full-bore media hype began, which is clearly politically motivated. Most everyone I know recorded (and continue to record) record growth in their industries. It was and is certainly true in the building industry.

A recession is, quite simply, a retraction in the economy, which is a retraction in consumer spending. Consumers quit spending because they eventually get nervous about what is continually shoved down their throats about the (fictitious) poor economy.

I'll give the media fully 1/3 of the credit for this (as yet unseen) mess. The other 1/3 due to the rise in oil prices (a real issue) and 1/3 to the mortgage crisis (a real issue).

Oh yeah...BACK TO THE TOPIC!!! :P

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turboturtle Hamlet

turboturtle

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More will be reveal in and around May 8.

There is a DOG article that spans all 5 of the most discuss retail developments in today's paper. The article references a prepared statement from Strode that is consistent with everything that has already been said. What I found notable was the mention that the Oct 2009 time line is an unusually tight turnaround. This tells me that Strode's plans require that he begin to see a return on his investment ASAP. While the shake economy may effect new tenants to the Little Rock market, as RED Development claims in the article, I don't think it is going to cause significant delay in the Park Avenue development. My guess is we'll see it open in Q1 2010. (Promenade opening is a year later plus than what was originally announced.)

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theman Hamlet

theman

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More will be reveal in and around May 8.

There is a DOG article that spans all 5 of the most discuss retail developments in today's paper. The article references a prepared statement from Strode that is consistent with everything that has already been said. What I found notable was the mention that the Oct 2009 time line is an unusually tight turnaround. This tells me that Strode's plans require that he begin to see a return on his investment ASAP. While the shake economy may effect new tenants to the Little Rock market, as RED Development claims in the article, I don't think it is going to cause significant delay in the Park Avenue development. My guess is we'll see it open in Q1 2010. (Promenade opening is a year later plus than what was originally announced.)

I read the article as well. It was good to get an update on all the new development. I'm sure the current economic environment has retailers pulling back from opening new stores, but there are some that want to get into this market and Park Avenue could be the place they land. The article mentioned that the owners of Chili's were opening 125 restaurants per year a few years ago but are only opening 25 per year now. It will be interesting to see what retailers Strode can pull into this project.

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theman Hamlet

theman

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The Midtown Redevelopment Advisory Board is not completely sold on the latest Park Avenue site plan according to Saturday's Arkansas Dem Gaz. The main problem is the latest design has parking taking up more of the development. The guidelines of the overlay district state that no more than 50 parking spaces can be grouped together.

A couple of other changes in the current plan include eliminating the medical office space and possibly replacing the hotel component with apartments.

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turboturtle Hamlet

turboturtle

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The Midtown Redevelopment Advisory Board is not completely sold on the latest Park Avenue site plan according to Saturday's Arkansas Dem Gaz. The main problem is the latest design has parking taking up more of the development. The guidelines of the overlay district state that no more than 50 parking spaces can be grouped together.

The design criteria is there to prevent it from looking like WLR retail. I agree with the reduced parking.

This will make the planning commission meeting (May 8) interesting.

A couple of other changes in the current plan include eliminating the medical office space and possibly replacing the hotel component with apartments.

So far, a hotel has not been announced, only apartments. Is is possible that what you read said, replacing apartment components with a hotel? I would like to see an additional hotel in the area, but not at the expense of inhabitants (property owners or renters).

Reducing office space (medical or otherwise) seems like a mistake to me. The demand is there. It would seem to be one of the easier uses to turn a dime on.

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theman Hamlet

theman

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So far, a hotel has not been announced, only apartments. Is is possible that what you read said, replacing apartment components with a hotel? I would like to see an additional hotel in the area, but not at the expense of inhabitants (property owners or renters).

Reducing office space (medical or otherwise) seems like a mistake to me. The demand is there. It would seem to be one of the easier uses to turn a dime on.

There are going to be apartments above the retail, but the design in the paper had a hotel/apartment component at the northwest portion of the development in a seperate building.

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turboturtle Hamlet

turboturtle

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There are going to be apartments above the retail, but the design in the paper had a hotel/apartment component at the northwest portion of the development in a seperate building.

The northwest corner of Park Avenue is a tough location. It was the City's fleet services shop. There is no visibility from Markham or University due to the topography. The location is obscured from Markham due to the steep grade to Markham and the Shell gas station at McKinley and Markham. When everything is constructed there will not be a view from University either. There are restrictions on sign height in the design overlay that prevent Strode from mitigating these problems with the location. To increase visibility, the only solution is to go up. It would take four stories, maybe five, to rise above the Shell gas station. Whether Strode would fair better developing apartments or a hotel up to Strode. Personally, I'd prefer apartment or condo dwellers to hotel dwellers. But, it is not a very big negative for it to become a hotel since there is demand related to the hospitals in the area. It depends on how well it is executed.

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ArkansasTraveler Whistle-Stop

ArkansasTraveler

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Good point about that portion of the future Park Avenue site. It's somewhat linked to the thoughts I had toward the end of the mall with regard to JCPenney, which once had that auto shop for its own auto services department. While it was a huge store, JCPenney still suffered a bit being at the back side of the mall, in my opinion. Then again, it was SO big relative to Montgomery Ward and MM Cohn, there likely may not have been a better configuration.

Strangely, the same thing is now happening with the JCPenney store down in El Dorado, which is both remarkably small and also at the back of its respective mall

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Architect Town

Architect

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For what its worth, I think the addition of a hotel to the project is a GREAT idea...it further "mixes" the use and brings in visitors who often shop while traveling. A recent trip to Branson Landing also reinforced this idea in my mind, where it is applied quite successfully (acknowledging that the markets and projects are not great comparisons).

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Aporkalypse City

Aporkalypse

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For what its worth, I think the addition of a hotel to the project is a GREAT idea...it further "mixes" the use and brings in visitors who often shop while traveling. A recent trip to Branson Landing also reinforced this idea in my mind, where it is applied quite successfully (acknowledging that the markets and projects are not great comparisons).

I agree with this, though I don't see much similarity to Branson Landing (I stayed at the Hilton across the street a few months ago) aside from the conveniencesc.

There are a lot of patients and families who like to be close to UAMS (and St Vincent's to a lesser degree) and options are very limited aside from the Guesthouse and Hilton (La Quinta is a bit marginal). A hotel in that area would do well and ability to walk to shops and restaurants for out of town families that are taking shuttles to UAMS would be a nice boon. I think midtown needs more hotels anyway. When I stay out of town if I don't stay in a downtown I usually look for places with an easy walk to shops and restaurants. That's one thing that always bums me out about NWA, downtown hotel options in Fayetteville are limited and I usually get stuck in a little business hotel in Benton Co.

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