CONWAY -- The University of Central Arkansas board of trustees voted Friday to lease part of a mixed-use development under construction on campus to a restaurant that plans to seek a private-club permit to sell alcoholic beverages.
UCA President Tom Courtway said the five-year lease with Mosaique Bistro and Grill will be for 3,522 square feet in Donaghey Hall, a four-story, two-building development being built at Donaghey Avenue and Bruce Street. The area is part of what UCA envisions as the Donaghey Corridor, a multiuse neighborhood of restaurants, shops and residences.
The vote was 6-1, with Trustee Kay Hinkle voting against it. Hinkle said after the meeting that she opposed the plan "because we have a policy in place that we don't serve liquor on campus," and this will be on campus.
"I think it has the possibility of opening up some problems for us. Hopefully, it won't," she said.
Other Donaghey Hall tenants will include the Blue Sail Coffee shop, Uncle T's Deli-Market and Grocery, and Textbook Brokers Inc.
The university expects construction on Donaghey Hall to be complete by fall 2016, spokesman Fredricka Sharkey said.
The top three floors of Donaghey Hall will provide housing for UCA students who are sophomores and above, spokesman Christina Madsen said.
The decision to seek a state liquor license will fall to the restaurant, which Courtway described as "upscale," and is not prohibited by the lease, Courtway said.
"This is certainly not an attempt to promote alcohol" on campus, he said.
The restaurant will offer what it describes as a full-service bar where a "strict [identification] policy will be adhered to and enforced at all times."
Courtway noted alcohol is served in a restaurant setting at a hotel on the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville campus.
The only person to speak against allowing alcohol sales in the restaurant was James Davis, a retired minister living in Conway.
Faulkner County is "the wettest dry county" in Arkansas, Davis said, referencing the dozens of restaurants licensed as private clubs, which allow them to sell alcoholic beverages in the county.
"Do we need another bar? Do we need a place where [students] can have access to alcohol?" Davis asked. "If this bar opens, we can be as sure as we can be that the UCA police force will have to be increased to handle problems."
Courtway said having a nice restaurant in addition to the fast-food eateries already on campus would complement the university and be aimed at adults in the community.
The UCA alcohol policy now allows alcoholic beverages at the UCA-owned president's home, Buffalo Alumni Hall, a limited amount of wine during religious services at Ferguson Chapel and at "other university venues and/or events as the president may from time-to-time, designate in writing."
Courtway and UCA's general counsel, Warren Readnour, said by leasing the space, the restaurant -- not UCA -- will serve alcoholic beverages. Courtway acknowledged in response to a question from Hinkle that the restaurant plan is an exception to the university's existing policy.
Across town, the private, Methodist-affiliated Hendrix College has expanded its campus to include a similar multiuse development known as Hendrix Village. At least one restaurant there serves alcoholic beverages.
Mosaique Bistro's base rent will be an annual amount of $15 per square foot, which at the planned 3,522 square feet would cost $52,830 a year. It also will pay a proportionate share of the costs of the common-area maintenance, which includes taxes assessed on the building and utilities allocated to the common area.
The restaurant will pay its own utilities and taxes, according to the agenda for Friday's board meeting.
State Desk on 08/22/2015