Parcel in core of LR choice for tech park

In proposal, most buildings to be razed, one preserved

Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board members Tom Butler (from left), Dickson Flake and C.J. Duvall discuss a proposed tech park site in downtown Little Rock at a meeting Wednesday.
Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board members Tom Butler (from left), Dickson Flake and C.J. Duvall discuss a proposed tech park site in downtown Little Rock at a meeting Wednesday.

Correction: Under the technology park site proposal approved by the Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board on Wednesday, the buildings that would be demolished are KATV’s studio and parking garage and a vacant building that once housed Stephens Inc. The Exchange Bank building, its annex and the Mays, Byrd and Associates law firm building would be renovated under the plan. This article incorrectly stated that the plan called for the law office building to be demolished as well.

The Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board voted Wednesday to pursue property located in and adjacent to a downtown city block between Main and Scott streets off Capitol Avenue to become the home of the future tech park.

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A map showing the proposed tech park site and plan.

The site includes KATV's studio and parking garage, the vacant building often referred to as the old Stephens building, the Exchange Bank building and its annex, the Mays, Byrd and Associates law firm, and five parking lots.

The board unanimously voted to pursue negotiations with the site's four property owners after real estate consultant Jeff Yates of ARK Commercial presented the proposal at Wednesday's regular monthly meeting.

Yates had been working for months to identify viable property along an eight-block section of Main Street. He said Wednesday that the four property owners in the suggested site -- Stephens Inc., the Mays law firm, KATV and the Rose Law Firm -- have not all fully agreed to sell their land and buildings. The authority board has power of eminent domain but would rather not use that option, Chairman Mary Good said.

"This, of course, is conditioned and contingent upon not only being able to reach agreements with all the owners, but also being able to use the property with the purposes you have in mind, whatever that end plan ends up being," Yates told the board.

Those conditions include getting approval for any required zoning changes and permits for demolition and construction of skywalks.

There's also the matter of the occupants. The Arkansas Department of Higher Education has the Exchange Bank building under a 15-year lease. That lease would have to be amended to do away with the purchase option if the authority board were to move forward with buying the property, board member Dickson Flake said.

KATV has plans to relocate and is being acquired by another company, subject to federal approval, Yates said. The current owners and future owners are bound by federal regulations as to what they can disclose about that agreement, he said, but "there is an opportunity" to buy the property.

The other occupant is the Mays law firm.

Stephens Inc. owns the vacant building, the Exchange Bank building and four of the parking lots in the plan. The Rose Law Firm owns the fifth parking lot.

Yates' suggested plan, which he and the board noted could change as progress is made, calls for the demolition of all the buildings except the Exchange Bank building, which went up in 1921 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The properties along Scott Street from Capitol Avenue to Fourth Street -- the vacant building, a parking lot and the KATV parking deck-- are proposed to be razed and transformed into a 1,000-car parking garage. This would serve as an income generator for the tech park, as would rent from the Higher Education Department, Yates said.

The plan also calls for the demolition of the KATV studio, the Mays law firm and the parking lot between the two buildings to construct a six-story building that would be about 147,000 square feet. Across the street, the parking lot at Fourth and Main, currently owned by the Rose Law Firm, would be the site of a six-story, 71,400-square-foot building. A skywalk is suggested to connect those two.

A third six-story building of approximately 231,000 square feet is planned for the half-block parking lot on Main Street that spans from Capitol to Fourth. A second skywalk would connect that building to the first.

The existing bank building is 89,000 square feet, which would take the proposed tech park campus to a size of 538,400 square feet -- above the goal of 500,000 square feet established previously.

The multibuilding tech park would be completed in phases and current ownership and tenant occupancy would dictate what the first phase would be, Flake said.

The board spent little time during the meeting discussing a timeline for moving into the first building. Board member Jay Chesshir previously has said that he expects move-in availability of a first permanent building by time the board's two-year lease of temporary space at Block 2 Lofts is up.

Charles Dilks, an out-of-town consultant who has been working with the board for years on the tech park plans, said at Wednesday's meeting that there are still challenges to be overcome before the tech park can be successful. One is the distance the park is from its sponsor universities -- the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Arkansas Children's Hospital and Little Rock also are sponsors.

All four institutions must commit to the park not only financially, Dilks said, but also with resources. Tech park tenants will need to be able to access the libraries, gyms, research facilities, internship programs and other amenities, and that's "critical or there will not be a research park," he said.

Dilks also said the board had to figure out a way to create a sense of place, which he noted the architect would have to address.

The project also needs more sources of financing, he said.

Little Rock has dedicated $22 million in capital costs for the construction of the tech park. The money is accruing from the three-eighths percent portion of the sales-tax increase approved by voters in 2011 that is dedicated to infrastructure improvements. The money is set to accrue over 10 years. About $4.4 million is available now.

Other sources such as state and federal grants, federal tax incentives and private funding need to be sought, Dilks said.

An estimate on what acquisition of the suggested site and construction will cost has not been calculated yet.

The board overwhelmingly accepted the proposed site, which Yates referred to as a basket that offered several attractive qualities. He said Capitol and Main was the intersection of entertainment and commerce.

"I think it gives us phenomenal options," board member Kevin Zaffaroni said. "It's a nice selection."

Mayor Mark Stodola said after the meeting that he's happy with the location, which he said is where he expected the park to go all along because of the site's flexibility.

The board authorized recently hired Technology Park Director Brent Birch to spend up to $7,500 on preliminary renderings of the proposed campus.

"I think they're moving in the right direction," Stodola said.

A section on 07/10/2014

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