Sense of momentum
The room was filled on a Wednesday morning last month at downtown Little Rock’s Museum of Discovery. The occasion was a board meeting of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership.
I’ve spent a large part of my career broadcasting and writing about sports events, and a word that’s overused in sport journalism is “momentum.” But it’s the best word I can think of right now when discussing downtown in our state’s biggest city. There’s a clear sense of momentum. In an era when the downtowns of so many cities the size of Little Rock and larger are struggling, it was exciting to see lots of young business leaders at this meeting. They’re engaged, optimistic and committed to downtown.
I can’t help but wonder what other cities in the region such as Shreveport, La., and Jackson, Miss., would give for downtown momentum like this.
The purpose of the board meeting was to kick off the first downtown master plan. The Little Rock Board of Directors earlier approved spending $745,000 in federal American Rescue Plan funds for the plan. It will serve as a blueprint for commercial development, residential development and the proper utilization of available property.
Work on the plan is being done by Sasaki, a worldwide leader in urban planning and design, architecture, landscape architecture and civil engineering. The company has done work in places such as downtown Chicago. That Wednesday evening, another big crowd showed up for a public meeting at the nearby Mosaic Templars Cultural Center to meet with Sasaki consultants.
Sasaki’s Josh Brooks told those in attendance: “What we want this to be isn’t this beautiful grand plan that sits on a shelf, but really a number of tactical ideas that can start today.”
A Sasaki consultant described downtown Little Rock as “the epicenter of the state from a cultural perspective” due to the number of museums and other cultural institutions within walking distance of each other. He said the firm will take ideas from what were described as “benchmark cities” such as Greenville, S.C.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Richmond, Va.; Raleigh, N.C.; Des Moines, Iowa; and Birmingham, Ala.
The area being studied covers 2.5 square miles. It has about 4,300 residents. The consultants said they recognize that the Arkansas River is an underutilized asset. At the same time, however, they expressed amazement at just how much is happening downtown.
From my office window at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette building at the corner of Capitol and Scott streets, I can look one way and see construction fencing up for the expansion of the Little Rock Technology Park. I can look another way and see construction fencing up around the historic Boyle Building as it undergoes a $35 million renovation.
At the Museum of Discovery, millions of dollars have been spent on exhibits that opened to the public this week. Just down the street in the River Market District, the main branch of the Central Arkansas Library System is undergoing a $20 million overhaul.
Gabe Holmstrom, executive director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, said the things the organization has been advocating for are coming to fruition. In addition to the start of work on the master plan, the city and the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau contributed funds to reinstate the downtown ambassador program. The so-called ambassadors showed back up on the streets of downtown this week.
Ambassadors will walk the streets to provide assistance to visitors and residents. They’ll make sure trash is picked up, graffiti is removed and plants are watered. They’ll alert the Little Rock Police Department to problems. They’ll walk people to their cars on these days when the sun sets early, and give directions to visitors. Their return represents a huge step forward in making people feel comfortable downtown at all hours.
“Between the ambassadors and the master plan, that’s well over $1 million invested in the future of downtown,” Holmstrom says.
The meeting (which was more like a pep rally) at the Museum of Discovery came just two days after Lyon College of Batesville released site plans for its School of Veterinary Medicine on the Heifer International campus downtown. It later was reported that the sale hasn’t been completed, but Lyon has identified a nearby site if negotiations with Heifer International don’t resume.
There will be multiple structures on the campus. One will be for the School of Veterinary Medicine, one for the School of Oral Health and Dental Medicine, one for an auditorium and retail space, and two will be for parking decks. One of those parking decks will have retail space on the ground floor.
If the existing Heifer campus is ultimately used, there will be faculty offices and deans’ suites on the first and second floors. Heifer could maintain its headquarters on the upper floors. The existing Murphy Keller Education Building will see the addition of a student center, bookstore and spirit shop. If the nearby location is used, these elements will represent new construction.
The all-star team behind the campus consists of OneHealth (Lyon’s private-sector partner for the two schools), Cromwell Architects Engineers (the firm behind the growth of what’s now known as East Village) and downtown real estate stalwart Moses Tucker Partners.
“These plans are the result of months of research and consultation with our founding deans and other industry leaders,” said Melissa Taverner, the Lyon president. “They’re carefully designed to serve the unique needs of the first dental and vet schools in Arkansas. The momentum is building.”