NLR receives grant to extend Sixth Street, build parking lot

A federal economic development grant will assist North Little Rock’s plans to extend Sixth Street downtown and build public parking lots behind the Rock Region Metro trolley barn, Mayor Joe Smith announced.

The city’s grant request for $869,964 approved by the Region 6 Economic Development Administration will cover much of the $1.8 million in public improvements that will include parking, water and sewer lines, street lights, sidewalks and drainage.

The $1.8 million includes $514,197 for street and drainage work for the Sixth Street extension, including $125,000 for a new pedestrian/traffic signal for streetcar operation; $116,371 for sewer and water line connections on Sixth Street; and $1.03 million for more than 100 public parking spaces. Another $138,000 is allowed for engineering and architectural services.

The construction will connect Sixth Street for two blocks between Main and Magnolia streets in order to provide additional access to the city’s $5.36 million Argenta Plaza under construction, the $10 million First Orion office building behind the plaza, a proposed $3.6 million restaurant/residential building and a $4.8 million 600 Main Building that will house the North Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau among other offices. Portions of a $16 million apartment complex have also opened within walking distance of the other developments.

The grant will help to “accommodate and facilitate the job expansion associated with the First Orion corporate headquarters, the 600 Main Building and future Argenta development,” Smith wrote

in a memo he provided city council members at Monday evening’s meeting.

“This is huge,” Smith said. “This is almost $900,000 out of our money that we won’t have to spend. We will take that money and make a really special place down here.”

The city has separate funds of $1.48 million and $2.6 million, as of last month, accumulated from sales of city properties to construct the Argenta Plaza. The plaza is to feature jetted fountains, oxbow lake-shaped berms and a free-standing water

wall. The surrounding public and private developments are designed to complement the plaza that Smith has touted as a gathering place for downtown workers and visitors.

Sixth Street extends west from Main Street and east from Magnolia Street to Cypress Street, but doesn’t connect for the two blocks between Main and Magnolia where tracks lead in and out of the trolley barn. The city-owned Argenta Plaza is at the corner of Fifth and Main streets.

The public parking spaces to be constructed will be off the northwest corner of Sixth and Magnolia on city property behind the trolley barn. The grant

doesn’t include a parking lot behind the First Orion building for both First Orion employees and limited public parking or city parking lots planned off the corner of Main and Bishop Lindsey Avenue (Seventh Street) for the 600 Main Building.