County to double Metroplan’s rent

Pulaski County is doubling the rent it charges Metroplan to house its offices in a county-owned building at Broadway and West Markham Street in Little Rock.

It is probably about time. Metroplan, the long-range transportation planning agency for central Arkansas, has been paying $34,998.75 per year for their 4,250 square feet of office space in the Jeffrey Hawkins Building at 501 W. Markham St. for more than 25 years.

The sum equates to $8.235 per square foot, which agency staff concedes has been a good deal.

“Obviously, market rate leases in this area have gone up in the intervening years,” the Metroplan staff said in a memo to the agency board.

The rent is going from $34,998.75 annually to $68,000 a year. The new rate is equal to $16 per square foot, which “is in the market range for this area,” according to staff.

The monthly lease payments, as a result, will go from $2,916.56 to $5,666.67.

Staff members also proposed changing the lease term to one year with four annual renewals for a total of five years. Previous lease agreements have been for five years, but the staff memo said that “binding agreements on fu- ture quorum courts is legally suspect.”

Metroplan’s maintenance and operation accounts are funded by dues paid by city and county members based on population.

Little Rock, for instance, pays $74,185 a year. It is the largest member of the 32 cities and counties which pay dues. The Faulkner County community of Mount Vernon, as the smallest member of the board, pays $133 annually.

The Metroplan board, which includes Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde as a member, approved the rent increase in a voice vote with no dissent and no discussion.