LITTLE ROCK — Three sites have been identified as potential locations for Little Rock’s future technology park, which will be partly funded by the city’s new sales tax.
Two of the sites fall within areas suggested by consultants several years ago while a third site is a few blocks east, away from property the city is interested in buying for an expanded War Memorial Park.
All three locations are in residential areas south of Interstate 630 and east of University Avenue, and will be part of the conversation today that the Little Rock Technology Park Authority board has planned with residents at a 4 p.m. “community briefing.”
The meeting, at Entergy Arkansas offices at 900 S. Louisiana St. in downtown, is supposed to explain the research park’s purpose. The authority was created last year and is a partnership between Little Rock, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the Chamber of Commerce. Board members had their first meeting last month and are moving forward with a long-planned effort to build the research park, the aim of which is to attract startup companies interested in turning university research into practical applications.
Some residents had an early look Tuesday at a request for a proposal the authority is putting out for an engineering consultant who will evaluate the three sites and recommend a final site.
Ron Copeland, director of the University District Partnership, saw that the house that the district’s nonprofit housing corporation renovated and sold last year falls into one of the proposed sites, as does two more the district is renovating.
That site encompasses 38.7 acres between Tyler and Jackson streets, and West 18th Street to the south and 13th Street to the north. The boundaries fall just outside of Franklin Elementary School and Madison Heights, a public housing apartment complex.
“I’m not sure how long it will take them to make a decision but I don’t see us stopping unless maybe early in this process they may have some early indication that would cause us to stop,” Copeland said.
Because the area was identified in the 2009 consultant’s report commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce, Copeland said he knew the authority would one day consider property in the University District.
The next largest option at 59.6 acres includes property from South University Avenue east to Taylor Street, and stretches from Coleman Creek north to West 19th Street. The Pop A Top liquor store is the only property not included in the block of land, which does take in the Methodist Children’s Home. The site also falls within the University District.
The largest of the three sites runs along the south side of Interstate 630 and includes dozens of homes east of the new children’s library under construction on Jonesboro Drive. The 65-acre site extends from Monroe Street east to South Elm Street and south to West 11th Street.
Residents in the area have had some inkling that the research park was looking at land in their neighborhoods but didn’t know many of the details.
“There is some interest, and there is some fear also,” said Brian Kennerly, president of the Fair Park Residents Association that encompasses neighborhoods of the first two sites and also falls within the University District. “What we’re trying to do is reassure people [that] if they do condemn properties, it is a fair rate.”
Kennerly said the neighborhood association has been cautioning people against becoming too alarmed in recent months because the locations hadn’t been better identified.
“It’s a double-sided blade. There’s both good and bad,” he said. The authority wants to locate within five minutes of the two universities and hospital.
“I don’t think discontent will really begin until a site is chosen, if there is discontent,” Kennerly said.
Although the consultant’s report from 2009 suggested a 30-acre park, the request for proposal for a civil engineering consultant expanded the boundaries to offset possible topographical issues.
Beyond acquiring land, the authority anticipates starting small with one building. Constructing roads and the first 100,000-square-foot office and laboratory space will cost an estimated $50 million. Part of the recent city sales tax initiative that voters approved in September will raise an estimated $22 million for construction. The other partners, meanwhile, agreed to contribute $125,000 over three years as seed money. The remaining funds haven’t been identified.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 12/14/2011