Steaks and hotels
Downtown Hot Springs was back in the news recently as business and civic leaders there continue to market the site of the former Majestic Hotel at the north end of Central Avenue.
“I feel good about it,” Gary Troutman told the Hot Springs Board of Directors. “We seem to build momentum every single month.”
Troutman heads the Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce and a related economic development organization known as the Hot Springs Metro Partnership. The partnership is marketing the site for the city. The wait for something to happen has been a long one. As I walk south down Central Avenue, however, it’s evident that others aren’t waiting to invest.
Following a record summer for tourism, the downtown market is hot. Considering all that’s going on, it’s safe to say the neighborhood is booming.
On one end of the Hot Springs Convention Center, new owner Keith Holland is investing big bucks in the Hotel Hot Springs. Diners across the state are abuzz with the news that Coy’s, once Arkansas’ most beloved steakhouse, is coming back next year inside the hotel. Coy’s was founded in 1945 by Coy Theobalt Sr.
After returning from World War II, he went to work for Myers Bakery in Hot Springs. He began experimenting with various seasonings and discovered he enjoyed cooking. Theobalt came up with the recipes for the restaurant’s steak seasoning and its creamy garlic dressing.
“My parents wanted to create the best restaurant in the world,” Coy Theobalt Jr. once told an interviewer. “My dad was a master with food, and my mom was a master with people. No one on the staff ever left. People worked there for more than 30 years. … Their children would step in and take over when they were ready to retire. Everyone knew everyone else, and customers would request staff by name.”
In 1972, Theobalt sold the restaurant to a group of investors led by Jim Manning. A Little Rock location operated from 1976-93. In 2009, the day before the thoroughbred racing meet began at Oaklawn, Coy’s in Hot Springs burned.
In addition to Coy’s, Holland is bringing back a Hot Springs version of Satellite Cafe, which he once owned at the intersection of Kavanaugh and University in Little Rock’s Heights neighborhood. It was among the capital city’s favorite breakfast spots. Satellite also will be inside the hotel.
On the other end of the convention center, the Embassy Suites Hotel plans a major renovation in 2024. The convention center, meanwhile, is constantly upgraded under the direction of Steve Arrison of Visit Hot Springs. I’ve long believed that Arrison is one of the best in the country at what he does.
I walk from the Hotel Hot Springs, where I’m spending the night, back to Central Avenue. I’m co-hosting a live podcast from Deluca’s, the state’s most famous pizza establishment, and the subject is downtown development. I notice a sign on an empty lot across the street from Deluca’s. It announces that a Hampton Inn will be built there in 2024.
Once the podcast begins, we’re joined by Scott Larsen, president of operations for Sky Capital, which owns the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa. The Arlington is undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation. Larsen says that when Sky Capital purchased the hotel in 2017, there were 250 of its 478 rooms out of service.
“I can now sell 430 rooms on a busy weekend,” he says. “We’re working on the others. We have new curtains in all rooms. About 220 rooms have new paint, and the other rooms will be painted next year. There are four construction crews working on the hotel at any given time.”
Outside, the time-consuming job of replacing the stucco and cleaning tiles by hand continues. All 960 windows are being replaced. Almost 500 new windows already have been installed. Larsen would like to have as much work as possible completed by the time the building reaches its 100th birthday on Nov. 28, 2024.
“We’re about to work on the plumbing, which is a massive project,” Larsen says. “Our sales staff has been busy. You will see a lot more conventions at the hotel in 2024. In the spring, there will be more food and drink service on the veranda. People love to sit out there.”
Another guest on the podcast is Parth Patel, whose family purchased the Medical Arts Building across the street from the Arlington. There hasn’t been much work going on in recent months, but Patel says he’s finalizing a financing package that will transform what was once the state’s tallest building into an Aloft Hotel. The Patel family already owns six hotels in Hot Springs.
“We’ve done the interior demolition work,” Patel says. “Asbestos has been removed, and we’re 70 percent complete on the elevator work we have to do.”
People came from across Arkansas to view the Medical Arts Building when it opened in 1930. At 16 stories, it was the tallest building in the state and retained that title until a group of investors led by Winthrop Rockefeller constructed the Tower Building in downtown Little Rock in the 1950s.
Investors from Little Rock and New Orleans purchased the Hot Springs site, which had been occupied by the Rector Bath House, from the Rector estate of St. Louis. The Rector family had obtained the property from the federal government in 1893. The skyscraper was designed by the Little Rock architectural firm Almand & Struck, which designed Little Rock’s iconic Central High School.
That’s five hotels—Hotel Hot Springs, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, Arlington and Aloft—being constructed, renovated or planned for Hot Springs. Next year will be a busy one for construction crews downtown.