LITTLE ROCK — North Little Rock aldermen agreed in the year’s last City Council meeting to exchange the former site of the infamous Checkmate Club for a spot on Main Street that the city is to someday turn into a town square.
The swap of property that came Thursday night will exchange the now-vacant, 0.48-acre Checkmate site that the city owned for the 0.66-acre vacant site at 510 Main St.
The owner of the Main Street site is listed as Argenta LLC in the legislation, though Hays said that philanthropist Harold Tenenbaum is the owner.
Aldermen voted 6-2 for approval, with Aldermen Debi Ross and Bruce Foutch voting against the deal.
The Checkmate property, former site of raucous nightlife and criminal activity in the 1980s-1990s, has the higher market value, according to separate appraisals, both dated Feb. 13. The Checkmate is appraised at $400,000 while the Main Street property is appraised at $315,000.
The $85,000 difference to be gained by the city will be used to develop the Main Street site as a public meeting area, or town square, but with no set time frame, according to the legislation.
The city bought the former Checkmate Club building at Fourth and Poplar streets, a block off Main Street, for $330,000 in 2010, after the city had purchased an adjoining strip used for parking for $42,670 in 2007. This year, the City Council agreed to pay $4,583 to have asbestos removed from the 63-year-old building and another $116,800 for its demolition.
Mayor Patrick Hays acknowledged that though the amount received in the land swap is $94,053 less than the city had put into the property, “this is a great opportunity for us to enhance property already in use” by residents and visitors to the downtown Argenta area.
The town square is part of a downtown master plan that the city paid $85,000 for in 2010 as a financial partner in the project. Hays said in an interview that a few developers had considered buying the Checkmate building from the city but that rehabilitating the building was too big of an obstacle. He also said that developing a town square on the Main Street property would help “prime the pump” to encourage development around it.
Donna Hardcastle, executive director of the Argenta Downtown Council and the Argenta Arts Foundation, and John Crow, chairman of the Downtown Council’s board, told the City Council that the vacant Main Street site is already used for a farmers market and other public activities that draw visitors to the city’s downtown.
The Arts Program will handle scheduling for events on the site and the Downtown Council will maintain the property, Hardcastle said. Improvements the city would help pay for would include roofing, benches and restrooms, Crow said.
Ross asked what the Checkmate property would be used for, but Hardcastle said she didn’t know what development plans would show.
“The Checkmate is much more convenient property for parking at Verizon Arena,” Ross said. “I don’t see a reason to get rid of it.”
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 12/30/2012