Cigar bar set to open on LR's Main Street

LITTLE ROCK — A cigar bar and lounge is slated to open next month on Main Street in downtown Little Rock, marking the second club to move into the largely shuttered corridor in less than a year.

Michael Peace, owner of the Maduro Bar and Lounge, said he is hopeful his investment will help an ongoing effort to revitalize Main Street, which was once lined with businesses but is now largely vacant.

Maduro sits at 109 Main Street just south of Markham Street and about two blocks north of Porter's Jazz Cafe, which opened in September in a building at Main and Fourth Street that once housed a department store warehouse. Development is ongoing to turn the rest of that 110-year-old structure into apartments and Moses Tucker real estate has said it is hoping to develop the former Gus Blass Department Store building across the street.

Peace, an IT consultant who has long contemplated bringing a cigar bar to the central Arkansas market, said he is encouraged by the other nearby investments.

"It's starting to (turn around) and there's still a lot of work to be done," he said during a recent interview inside his new business. "But I think Main Street is a great area. We have some great buildings here. There's a lot of opportunities here for all different kinds of business."

Sharon Priest, executive director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, said she couldn't divulge anything specific, but said there is significant talk and "a lot of interest" from other developers eyeing Main Street space.

Maduro and others at the northern end of the street could play important roles because they will help connect the nearby River Market to the rest of the corridor.

"If people have to walk past too many empty blocks to get somewhere, the walkability factor is not good," Priest said.

She likened the Main Street development process to one in the River Market, which gradually turned a defunct area into a thriving entertainment district. There are risks in any business venture, but Peace's concept is a good one, Priest said.

"I think he is a good businessman and I sincerely hope he succeeds," she said. "We'll do what we can to help him out."

Peace said Maduro will likely open in early-to-mid February. A recent walk-through the renovated lounge, which formerly housed a Sims Bar-B-Q, revealed a large, low-lit space with red-painted walls, leather couches and seats, a walk-in humidor, a handful of flat-screen televisions and a newly built bar.

Peace said seeing the space come together brings to fruition a plan hatched as a teen and pursued in earnest for several years. If its success brings more development to Main Street, that will be an added bonus, he said.

"It's going to take a few businesses - kind of like Maduro Cigar Bar and Lounge and Porter's - to come down here and not be afraid to start their business on Main Street," he said. "I'm hoping it becomes not just a trend. I'm hoping it comes and stays on Main Street for a long time."