NLR to use contest to solicit names for new plaza
Saying that North Little Rock’s planned downtown plaza “belongs to all of us,” Mayor Joe Smith finalized contest guidelines for a plaza-naming contest open to all current residents, starting today.
The plaza is to be on vacant city property on Main Street between Fifth and Sixth streets in the city’s downtown Argenta Historic District. It is to feature jetted fountains, a large video screen behind a stage, oxbow-shaped berms and a freestanding water wall, according to architectural renderings available on the city’s website, nlr.ar.gov.
The naming contest will be held the website, with rules and guidelines for entries posted there. Copyrighted names and inappropriate suggestions will be voided, according to the guidelines.
The person who submits the winning name will receive a pass for two individuals for free admission to all public events in the plaza during its first year of operation.
“I hope to get at least 100 entries,” Smith said Friday.
The naming contest will go through a couple of stages. In the first stage, submissions will be accepted from today through Dec. 1.
“All submissions will come to me first,” before being seen publicly on the website, said city Communications Director Nathan Hamilton, who will oversee the contest. “We will take out any expletives or highly inappropriate names.”
From those ideas, a selection committee — with Smith and Hamilton among its members — will choose five submissions for a public vote online Jan. 8-22. The name with the highest social media vote won’t be binding, Hamilton said, but will be influential in the selection committee’s recommendation to the City Council.
The final name selection rests with the mayor and council. A decision is to be announced Feb. 12.
Smith unveiled the plaza’s conceptual design at last Monday’s City Council meeting. His goal is to break ground early next year and have the plaza completed before the end of next year, he said.
What he wants now is a catchy, fitting name, he said.
“No. 1 is the originality of the name,” Smith said of what he’ll be considering. “No. 2, what will be easiest to market.
“I got a lot of comments [Thursday] night,” Smith said, referring to a North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce event. “And I’ve had some comments since Mon-
day night, too.”
City employees who live within the city limits are eligible to enter the contest, Smith said. There was some discussion about whether to allow employees to submit entries, because it’s common that organizations disallow members to participate in contests they sponsor, but Smith said many have already made suggestions.
“A lot of our employees are excited about it,” Smith said. “We don’t want to take away that excitement.”
Opening up bids for selling the naming rights to the plaza also was considered, Smith said, but he preferred the process to be public.
“So many people have been involved in making this idea work, I think it’s only fitting that we get that same kind of input and partnership in the naming,” he said.
Selling rights to name the plaza could help pay the city’s cost to build it. Smith has previously estimated the cost to be about $3 million. Costs based on the design plan received last week are still being calculated, he said Friday.
The city has an account containing revenue from city real estate sales over the past five years that will be used for the plaza. That account has less than $2 million in it now, according to a listing of previous property sales, but three properties adjacent to or near the plaza still haven’t been sold.
“I think we will be able to pay for it without selling naming rights on it,” Smith said. “I thought [the contest] was the most appropriate thing to do. It belongs to all of us.”
The plaza’s conceptual design incorporates the patterns of the oxbow lakes created by the Arkansas River. Both the jetted fountains and the grassy berms will be in that shape. The water wall is to be 50 feet long and 20 feet high.
Another unique concept is a shaded “front porch” area, complete with porch swings, that plays on the theme of downtown being the city’s “front porch” to welcome visitors.
“Argenta is unique in that it doesn’t belong to just people in Argenta, but it belongs to the whole city,” Hamilton said. “Argenta determines the curb appeal for our entire city.”