Church hopes to give former saloon in downtown Little Rock new life

EPA program funds to transform Miss Kitty’s into nonprofit’s store

Under a constellation of paper lanterns, in front of a discarded platinum blonde wig, Pulaski County administrator Josh Fout showed contractors what a former Little Rock bar could be, eventually.

Fout addressed four men Friday morning inside what used to be Miss Kitty's Saloon at 307 W. Seventh St. in downtown Little Rock.

The squat structure sat vacant for three years. Small piles of shattered glass cluttered the floor. Silhouettes of two dancers, printed on canvas, still stood watch over the vacant stage.

The downtown Little Rock branch of First United Methodist Church, which sits across the street, bought the property in 2014.

Church officials hope to transform the one-story brick building into a new storefront for Recycle Bikes for Kids, a North Little Rock nonprofit that distributes bicycles to children and adults in need.

To help fund the project, the church will use recently approved grant money from the Pulaski County Brownfields Program.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency doles out money to government groups, like Pulaski County, to revitalize old and possibly hazardous properties, called brownfields. With that money, nonprofits and private entities can clean up blighted spaces that are either contaminated or could be.

Reusing castoff buildings discourages urban sprawl and rouses economic growth, Fout said.

Brownfields are like a "community venture capitalist program," he said.

In 2005, the EPA awarded Pulaski County $3 million. Since then, eight brownfields sites have been sanitized, many in downtown Little Rock, including the old Sterling department store.

That first agreement with the EPA is set to expire in December, Fout said. But the county was guaranteed another $820,000 from the agency, which has not yet been touched.

When completed, the Seventh Street project will be the county's ninth brownfields endeavor.

On Friday, the assembled contractors leafed through a packet containing the building plan and site specifics.

Cracked mirrors weren't the main issue on their minds, nor was removing the bar top, surfaced with yellowed sheet music suspended in plastic.

But the traces of asbestos on the roof drew a few questions.

Asbestos and lead paint are common pollutants that infect old structures, Fout said. Unlike other states, Arkansas was never an industrial hotbed, so environmental headaches from that era don't pop up as often, he said.

"What we do have is a lot of buildings built before 1980," Fout said.

That year, and throughout the 1980s, laws were signed regulating hazardous waste and dangerous materials, including asbestos and lead paint. The Seventh Street building was built in 1908.

A Russellville-based company identified the asbestos after conducting an inspection.

If a landowner wants to harness brownfields money, it must complete an environmental inspection first. It also can't have polluted the property it's trying to improve.

An acceptable site will have a real or perceived threat that a hazardous substance has been or will be released. That substance must pose imminent or substantial danger to public health.

Once approved, the county gives money through sub-grants and loans. A private organization can apply for a loan, whereas nonprofits, such as First United Methodist Church, are awarded sub-grants, capped at $200,000.

Church officials won't know how much they're awarded for the Seventh Street project until the contract bid period is over.

Contractors must submit bids by Nov. 28. Two days later, county officials will review them. The lowest bid gets the work, Fout said.

Jim Shenep said he's seen the Miss Kitty's building anchor all types of businesses, including an auto repair shop.

Shenep works at Simmons Bank and serves on the board of trustees at First United Methodist Church.

When deciding how to use the newly acquired property, the congregation, led by senior pastor David Freeman, considered what is among Little Rock's greatest needs, Shenep said.

"One of our missions is to help children thrive in this community," he said.

They landed on Recycle Bikes for Kids. The group collects bikes and bike parts through community and junkyard donations. Volunteers restore the bikes, which are then distributed to children 15 and under.

Anyone 16 and older can obtain a bike by volunteering with the organization. Since its formation in 2008, the group has distributed more than 11,000 bikes, according to its website.

Nathan Keltch, the director, said Recycle Bikes for Kids will maintain its North Little Rock location and expand into the new Little Rock site once the renovation is complete.

For children, a bike is a chance "to go further than you've gone before," Keltch said. For homeless adults, a bike can propel them to job interviews.

"It's this incremental step that can really change your life," he said.

The Seventh Street property is sandwiched between the Methodist church and the Gertrude Remmel Butler Methodist Child Development Center, the church's day care facility.

A community garden with tomatoes, corn, cabbage and kale grows beneath the old bar's windows, providing a food source for transient people who traffic the area.

Contractors on Friday took in the garden, the unwashed windows, the white paint peeling off brick and the glimpse of rooftop observable from the parking lot.

After showing the property, Fout walked back to the front entrance. He pointed toward the now permanently closed Power Ultra Lounge, two blocks away, where 28 people were injured after gunfire broke out inside the club this summer.

Though the July 1 shooting damaged downtown Little Rock's reputation, a lot of progress has been made in the area, Fout said.

Brownfields projects "keep that momentum going," he said, before gathering his things from inside the building, red paper lanterns swaying slightly in the barroom breeze.

Metro on 11/19/2017

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