Parks agency seeks takeover of facility on North Little Rock riverfront; rental for events proposed

North Little Rock Parks and Recreation will take over this building on the riverfront to renovate and rent out for events and meetings, if the City Council approves the proposal.
North Little Rock Parks and Recreation will take over this building on the riverfront to renovate and rent out for events and meetings, if the City Council approves the proposal.

A run-down, city-owned building on North Little Rock's downtown riverfront is to become a hospitality house managed by the city's Parks and Recreation Department and made available for rentals, according to a proposal under City Council consideration.

The 2,100-square-foot building at 140 S. Olive St., behind the city's flood wall, was last rented by the city to a private bicycle-rental business, Parks Director Terry Hartwick said last week. The building has been empty for about three years and has fallen into disrepair, he said.

About $70,000 in renovations, including a new roof, will be needed, Hartwick told the North Little Rock Parks and Recreation Commission last week.

"Right now, it's trashed," Hartwick told commissioners.

The Parks Commission approved taking on the building, but the agreement also requires approval by the City Council, which will consider it at today's 6 p.m. meeting.

The Parks Commission also approved setting fees of $215 for daytime rentals, $250 for evening rentals and $430 for day-evening rentals. The building would be named the Riverfront Hospitality House.

It is on the Arkansas River, near the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum, which would be able to use it for classroom instruction for school groups touring the museum and for military reunions, city officials said. The museum features the Pearl Harbor-surviving Hoga tugboat and the World War II-era Razorback submarine.

The Parks Department on Jan. 1 began managing the operation of the maritime museum, which previously was a stand-alone nonprofit.

The building also could be a prime spot for parties wanting to watch fireworks over the river on July 4 and for other events on the river, Hartwick said.

"It's a building we should be using," Hartwick said. "I think it will be popular. I think it'll pay us back within a year and a half.

"I want the [rental] proceeds to filter back to [the maritime museum], to offset some of the expenses there," Hartwick said. "We'd like to try to have the city not have to put so much money into [the museum]. That's the ultimate goal."

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The city budgets $150,000 annually toward the maritime museum's expenses.

Other uses for the building were considered, including having the North Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau manage the building for rentals, said Bob Major, executive director of the city's Advertising and Promotion Commission, which oversees the Visitors Bureau.

The Convention and Visitors Bureau manages events on another portion of the riverfront known as Northshore Park.

"I actually looked at it for our office to take it over and do the remodeling," Major said. "But I really felt like Terry was in a better position to handle the rental of another property like that, because they've got the [Burns Park] Hospitality House and Stone Links [Club House] they rent, and now they've got this building.

"It gives him the opportunity where he could quickly cross-sell another one of his buildings to rent if another isn't available," Major said. "I see so many uses for that building."

Moving the city-owned property's management to the Parks Department "shall not constitute a parks designation," according to the ordinance to go before the City Council today. Also, the "grant of any outdoor recreational easements prohibiting or hindering the future development" of the property is prohibited under the legislation.

The City Council has used similar language when turning over management to the Parks Department of the maritime museum and the Stone Links Club House on the former Stone Links Golf Course, to reserve more flexibility in their use and any future development of the properties, city officials have previously said.

Metro on 01/23/2017

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