The Museum Center building in Little Rock's River Market District will be getting four new tenants this year, and they all have one thing in common: technology.
Little Rock's growing list of downtown amenities -- new restaurants, shops and hotels -- and of programs that foster startup businesses could make the city a new hub for tech companies, executives and officials said.
"Central Arkansas -- whether it's in Conway or Little Rock or North Little Rock -- is a place where the jobs of the future can mature and grow and prosper," said Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola during a news conference Thursday. "We've got a real great opportunity to create that vibrancy."
Inuvo Inc. and PrivacyStar officially announced Thursday that their headquarters will move from their current home in downtown Conway to the Museum Center building by October. Also moving into the building this year are two other tech firms -- SpotRight and The Iron Yard.
Merkle, a data-marketing firm, and Hewlett-Packard have offices in the Museum Center building. By the end of the year, there will be six technology companies and their 300 employees working in the building.
"What we are seeing is Little Rock has done a good job at creating an environment ... to attract tech" businesses, said John Martin, vice president of commercial real estate for Moses Tucker Real Estate, which manages and leases space in the Museum Center for Little Rock Newspapers Inc., which owns the building. Little Rock Newspapers Inc. is owned by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's parent company, WEHCO Media Inc.
Inuvo, an Internet marketing and technology company, moved its headquarters to Conway from New York City in 2013.
"Our business is our people," said Richard Howe, Inuvo chairman and chief executive officer, during the joint news conference with PrivacyStar on Thursday. "We knew when we would move this company [from New York] that we would lose almost everyone. We knew if we moved to Arkansas, we would have a talent base that would be receptive to a business like ours."
Howe said that with the location of the company's new office and the amenities available, "it just all seemed to come together for us in a way that made Little Rock a good choice for our expansion today."
For Inuvo, which signed a five-year lease for office space at the Museum Center building, the move will double its office space to almost 13,000 square feet, the company said in a news release.
The more than 200,000-square-foot building also houses the Arkansas Museum of Discovery and restaurants Damgoode Pies and Sonny William's Steak Room. It was the former location of the printing press for the Arkansas Democrat before being converted into office space.
Together Inuvo and PrivacyStar employ more than 100 workers, most of which will work from the companies' new offices.
PrivacyStar offers a smartphone application for Android and iPhone devices that can be used to block unwanted calls and to find out who called through a reverse directory search.
PrivacyStar Chairman and CEO Charles Morgan said the building that the two companies shared in Conway had become too small.
The new space is larger and puts employees in an area with other tech companies, Morgan said.
"That's the kind of environment we want to put our people in," he said.
Executives and officials said that by moving to Little Rock, companies are better able to attract and retain employees.
"We need good technology workers," Morgan said during the news conference. "The kind of people we've been able to find in Arkansas have done a fabulous job."
But Little Rock's gain is Conway's loss.
"We've been working with them for several months to find a solution that would keep them in Conway," said Brad Lacy, president and CEO of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce.
Lacy, who said he found out about Inuvo and PrivacyStar's move about a month ago, said the question of the companies' staying in Conway came down to space.
"We are in a position right now where our downtown area is filling up," he said. "If they would have stayed here, they would have wanted to be downtown -- there just weren't a lot of options."
Lacy said Conway remains an attractive location for tech companies.
"Luckily for us there's a tremendous amount of interest from tech companies," he said. "We're working with several right now. I'm confident we will fill the space that they will vacate."
Business on 04/10/2015