LITTLE ROCK — After acquiring several properties in downtown Little Rock in 2004 and 2005 and revitalizing one of its aging buildings into condominiums, a California investment company is now selling four buildings in hopes of shifting its focus elsewhere.
Tower Investments LLC of Woodland, Calif., has put the Boyle, Arkansas, M.M. Cohn and YMCA buildings up for sale through Little Rock’s Flake & Kelley commercial real estate firm.
“They don’t see it as in their best interests to develop them,” said Henry Kelley, the firm’s chief executive officer. “Their preference is to focus on their investments they have in other markets.”
Tower Investments did complete one of their proposed plans in Little Rock. The group renovated and reopened the Lafayette Building, leasing 30 condo units and 40,000 square feet of office space, according to its online listing. The former hotel is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Kelley said the four properties for sale have been on the market for about six months, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it took another six months to sell them.
“In the commercial real estate business, things don’t happen as quickly as they do in housing,” he said.
Kelley said the firm has had “a lot of interested parties” come forward to talk about the buildings and some have been given tours. However, he said there has not been a “bona fide acceptable offer.”
By comparison, the firm sold a parking lot owned by Tower Investments at Sixth Street and Broadway, across from the former YMCA, “fairly quickly,” Kelley said. A sales deed marks the date of the transaction as May 28.
The lot was sold to Buckhead Investments LLC of Atlanta but Best Park LLC will continue to operate the property as a parking lot, Kelley said.
A representative for Buckhead Investments LLC could not be reached for comment Monday.
The four buildings for sale will require a little more attention than most, given their age and the fact that the YMCA building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, requiring the owner to preserve the building’s historic features.
“The properties have been promoted and put out there, although they’re the kinds of properties that require more time to look at and inspect,” Kelley said.
The city purchased the 76-year-old YMCA building at 524 S. Broadway in 1996 for $200,000, after the location was closed because of declining membership.
Tower Investments bought the 41,000-square-foot building for the same amount in 2004 after the city accepted its plan to convert it into a combined condo, retail and office space. The company bought the 100,000-square-foot Boyle Building, built in 1909, around the same time.
In April 2005, the company acquired the 84, 000-squarefoot Arkansas Building, the 55,000-square-foot M.M. Cohn Building and the 85,000-square-foot Lafayette Building, but did not release the amount they paid for the properties. All three buildings, dating to 1910, 1941 and 1925, respectively, sit between Capitol Avenue and Sixth Street to the north and south, and Louisiana and Main streets to the east and west.
Kelley said he would not be surprised if all three of the buildings went to the same buyer so they “could control half a block in the Metro area.” However, he said it would require more work to get the buildings ready to host office or residential space, which Tower Investments chose to abandon.
Alex Marks, who manages Tower Investment’s Nashville, Tenn., office, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 06/22/2010