OPINION

From vision to reality

On a recent Thursday night, I went to the Ron Robinson Theater in downtown Little Rock to hear Donald Ritchie, the historian emeritus of the U.S. Senate, talk about the influence of women in the Senate since Arkansas voters elected Hattie Caraway in 1932. Caraway wasn't the first woman to serve in the Senate, but she was the first woman elected to a full Senate term.

Ritchie, who worked in the Senate Historical Office from 1976-2015, signed books afterward. He was in Little Rock as part of the Central Arkansas Library System's Betsey Wright Distinguished Lecture Series, which focuses on politics and public policy of special interest to women. Wright was gubernatorial chief of staff for Bill Clinton for seven years and managed Clinton's successful 1982, 1984 and 1986 campaigns for governor. Wright was in attendance, along with former U.S. Sens. David Pryor and Blanche Lincoln.

After getting a book signed by Ritchie, I walked on busy downtown sidewalks for a late dinner at the Copper Grill. The next day, I parked by a car with Maine license plates and had lunch at Forty Two, the restaurant at the Clinton Presidential Center. The presidential library was filled with energy at the start of a weekend when the city would mark the 60th anniversary of the Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis. The eight surviving members of the Little Rock Nine had just finished a news conference. After lunch, I toured the temporary exhibit that commemorates the life of former South African President Nelson Mandela.

The exhibit, which opened at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, will be in Little Rock until February. Photos by Nelson Mandela Foundation photographer Matthew Willman bring Mandela's journey to life. Visitors can step into a model of the 8-by-7-foot prison cell where Mandela lived for 18 of his 27 years in prison. With dramatic music and other sound effects, it can be an emotional experience. On these two days, downtown Little Rock reminded me of my years in Washington, D.C., when I would mix cultural events with good restaurants.

These experiences came soon after I had enjoyed lunch at Cache in the River Market District with Mark and Merritt Drake, the father-son team behind AXPM and Rock Dental Brands. Their company now occupies the River Market District building that once housed the Clinton Museum Store. Jimmy Moses, one of the godfathers behind downtown's revitalization, believes that companies such as theirs represent the future of the capital city.

"They purchased the property and have relocated their company's corporate offices there," Moses says. "They have almost 70 employees downtown along with a hip new coffee shop on the ground floor. Companies like AXPM, PrivacyStar, Inuvo and Merkle are clustered in the River Market District and are quietly changing the shape of the town. In many ways, these companies and those like them are doing as much to change the face of Little Rock as Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods and J.B. Hunt are reshaping Northwest Arkansas. They're just younger, smaller entities that few people know much about."

Lunch with the Drakes came the same day that Moses' firm--Moses Tucker Real Estate--announced that it's leasing the long-stalled K-Lofts apartments on Main Street under the name Mulberry Flats. The firm also announced that a late-night club on the ground floor of the building will be transformed into an upscale sports bar known as Brewski's Pub & Grub. It's one of three restaurants--along with Ira's and A.W. Lin's--being developed on that side of the 300 block of Main. On the other side of the street, three other restaurants--Samantha's, Bruno's and Soul Fish--do solid business. Soon a block of Main Street that was almost dead not so long ago will have six restaurants.

Mayor Mark Stodola has endured a year of criticism for the increase in violent crime in Little Rock, but he's right when he says "the energy and momentum are evident, which bodes well for all of downtown." Gabe Holmstrom, the executive director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, puts it this way: "More people living downtown has been an important component of the neighborhood's resurgence. It makes a 24-hour community a reality."

These developments give me optimism that the dream of a 24-hour downtown is coming true. As litigation surrounding properties once owned by an out-of-state developer named Scott Reed--whose unfulfilled promises set back the development of downtown Little Rock by years--are settled, things should start to move forward at an even faster pace.

AXPM, which previously had offices in Jonesboro, came to Little Rock in 2011 as a management partner for orthodontic practices. In 2015, Rock Dental Brands was established as a group of doctors who provide care in orthodontics, pediatric dentistry and oral surgery. The firm has 73 practices in Arkansas, Missouri and West Virginia and provides software for additional practices from New Hampshire to Texas.

"It's just a cool place to work," Mark Drake says of his company's decision to place its corporate headquarters downtown. "We have a young company with a lot of young people who are attracted to an urban environment. We felt it would help us hire good people if we had our offices here."

Few shared Jimmy Moses' vision for downtown in the years of the abandoned Metrocentre Mall. Now that vision is becoming a reality.

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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.

Editorial on 09/30/2017

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