A potential buyer has plans to give the former Job Corps building on Vance Street in Little Rock new life.
A pending-sale sign was posted recently on the side of the eight-story building, which has sat vacant since 2008, and a Texas nonprofitorganization has made several pitches to city officials and Pettaway Park residents over the past month regarding what the nonprofit wants to do with the building.
Paradise Victory Cathedral World Ministries hopes to turn the building into the Ida B. Wells Home for Pregnant Girls, according to a written proposal submitted to the Pettaway Neighborhood Association in February. Julius J. Larry III, a spokesman for the company, did not return phone calls seeking comment Friday.
A formal plan had not been submitted to the Little Rock Planning Departmentas of Friday, and staff members said the deadline for the next Planning Commission meeting cycle was Monday at 5 p.m. The proposal would not be heard until early May if it is submitted after that deadline.
Planning Department Director Tony Bozyinski said he had a brief conversation with the potential buyers and said staff members suggested that the nonprofit file a request to have the zoning changed to that of a planned development district.
The written proposal submitted to the neighborhood association includes building a commercial kitchen and cafeteria, and administrative offices on the first floor.The nonprofit hopes to attract law offices and a beauty salon, as well as build classrooms, a nondenominational chapel and an office for The Little Rock Sun Community Newspaper on the second floor.
The third through seventh floors would be converted into dormitory-style housing and bathroom facilities. Under the preliminary plan, each of those floors would have a medical office for prenatal emergency needs.
The eighth floor would be used for a boardroom, banquet hall and space for a community radio station.
It was unclear in the written plan whether any such businesses have signed on to lease space or be a part of the architectural process. No businesses aside from the newspaper were mentioned by name.
A search of the Arkansas secretary of state’s business license records showed that Larry registered the newspaper company on Jan. 14, listing an address on 12th Street.
The preliminary plan includes a gated security system for the building, and lists about $1.5 million to renovate and conduct environmental remediation on the property.
When the city was considering the property as a location for its day-resource center for the homeless, lead-based paint and floor and ceiling tiles containing asbestos were found in the building. No cost estimates were available Friday on the needed cleanup.
The community has been rallying to have the building cleaned up or torn down because with broken windows, trash and weeds in the parking areas, and squatters using the building for various purposes, it has become an eyesore that towers over the eastern corner of the Pettaway neighborhood along Interstate 30.
Carol Tabron, president of the Pettaway Neighborhood Association, did not return messages left at her home phone number Friday. Ward 1 Director Erma Hendrix also did not return phone calls at her home Friday.
There was no official vote of support taken at informational meetings with Larry, according to information on the association’s website.
The neighborhood association lobbied Hendrix to ask the city to tear down the building last year. In turn, Hendrix asked the city Board of Directors for help allocating funds or putting pressure on the owner to tear it down.
City staff members said an estimate for demolition of the building, including the asbestos removal, was about $350,000.
Built in the 1970s, the building at 2020 Vance St. was originally a Red Carpet Inn. It housed the offices of Job Corps, a federal training program for young people, from 1981 until about three years ago, when the Job Corps center moved to its current location on Scott Hamilton Drive.
In 2010, the General Services Administration sold the Job Corps building to Remi Enterprises Inc. of San Antonio.
The idea of a home for pregnant teens is not new to Arkansas. A half-dozen licensed organizations operate homes for pregnant teens around the state.
In Little Rock, Promise House Maternity Home assists girls ages 12-17. The home’s services include parenting classes, programs for prenatal care and mandatory enrollment in Hamilton Academy, an alternative school in the Little Rock School District.
About nine girls live in the house at any given time, and the average stay is about six months, said Program Director Jennifer Cloyde. “There used to be a home where you went to deliver your baby then gave it up for adoption, and that just is not the case anymore. Most of those kinds of facilities have closed,” Cloyde said.
“We wanted to give the choice of learning to parent or adoption, and a lot of times families are very involved in the teens’ lives but for some reason or another need the help. Some girls come to us on court orders, and others don’t have the resources, or have issues with truancy or educational problems. Some come to us from foster care and don’t have that support system.”
Cloyde said the modern portrait of homes for pregnant teens often involves parenting classes and counseling, as well as programs to help them acclimate to being working mothers or student mothers once they leave.
“I don’t know what their plan is, but there is definitely room for more organizations that take on different niches,” she said. “There is a need for a home that takes girls who already have children, and a need for homes for young women who are over 18.
“Some people view other homes as competition, but most of us view new organizations that want to help and follow the regulations and licensing as a benefit. There’s a niche and a need for every group.”
According to the written plan, the Ida B. Wells Home would serve teenagers and preteens as young as 12. The services offered would include prenatal care, obstetrics, general medical care, counseling, dental care, General Educational Development preparation, parenting classes, life-skills classes, programs to teach personal responsibility and basic finances, internship programs, college-entry preparation, job-placement assistance and family reintegration programs.
The home would be faith-based, according to the working plan. The plan also notes that the Paradise Group LLC is a “majority black-owned investment group.”
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 03/10/2013