Mixed-use project set for lot on LR’s Main

A new mixed-use development project planned for a lot on Main Street in downtown Little Rock has three times the number of residences than a previous project that was abandoned after financing for the $4.4 million development failed to materialize.

Construction on the two-story brick building with glass-and-metal storefronts on the ground level at 1424 Main St. is expected to begin later this spring and take about a year to complete. A price tag on the latest development was unavailable Friday.

The site is home to a shuttered coin laundry,

● which the new property owners are expected to demolish to make way for the development, which will feature 16 apartments and a shared balcony on the second floor with five retail spaces on the ground floor, according to AMR Architects Inc. of Little Rock, which designed the project.

The project is the second mixed-use development in less than two years that the Capitol Zoning District Commission has approved for the site.

Matt Foster, a developer who specializes in restoring historic properties, proposed a similar mixed-use development for the site in November 2016. He purchased the property two months earlier for $500,000.

His proposal featured five condominiums, rooftop patios, residential balconies and an eight-vehicle garage. It had room for seven businesses. Estimated construction costs totaled about $4 million.

Less than a year after Foster made the announcement, he sold the property for $575,000 after he said he was unable to work out the financing for his project.

The buyer, Broadway Park LLC, led by Brett Pitts, chief executive officer of Beach Abstract and Guaranty Co. in Little Rock, in turn quickly sold the property for $650,000 to Tusk Holdings, a limited liability corporation led by David Thompson of Hot Springs.

The contractor for the project is Hy Road Construction Inc. of Little Rock, led by Doug Story.

The Miracle Wash coin laundry operated at the site since 2003. Before that, the property was home to a Kentucky Fried Chicken, which the commission approved in 1982.