FAYETTEVILLE -- A more than 100-year-old building downtown can serve a variety of functions, but for now Fayetteville city administrators want to take care of the roof and outside walls.
The City Council included $400,000 in this year's budget to stabilize the former Porter Produce building at 200 N. West Ave. The brick building looks like it's part of Grub's Bar & Grille but is a separate structure on the same parcel. Estimated market value of the land and both buildings is $877,150, according to Washington County property records.
The city and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville own the space and lease it to the Walton Arts Center. The university and city also own and lease the space for Grub's, Nadine Baum Studios and the Walton Arts Center. The lease is in place until 2039.
The 3,850-square-foot Porter Produce building largely has been used for storage and offices for construction of the Walton Arts Center expansion and the TheatreSquared building in the past few years.
Walton Arts Center officials and some council members have had ideas on what to do with it in the future, but nothing has been decided.
Most of the work to be paid from the $400,000 will restore the bricks and mortar and stabilize the roof framing, said Wade Abernathy, city facilities manager.
"There's been some remedial stuff done to it, just to keep it decent," he said. "These efforts will be for permanent stabilization."
The city will hire an architect, and any agreements with contractors will go before the City Council, Abernathy said.
A preliminary assessment from the city identified about $1 million in work to get the building fully functional, Abernathy said. That would include everything from getting it up to standards required by the federal Americans with Disability Act to replacing the windows.
The building isn't in immediate danger of falling down, but it needs some tender loving care, said Matthew Cabe, city building safety director.
Administrators will work with the university and Walton Arts Center to determine the building's use, said Susan Norton, city spokeswoman.
"You can expect that conversation to ensue prior to the time that item to hire an architect comes to the council for approval," she said.
The building, constructed in the early 1900s, largely served as a food warehouse until 1990, according to information from local historian Jerry Hogan. It opened as an apple warehouse and served as a produce warehouse under different names. It was known as the Porter Produce House for three decades starting in 1960.
Construction of the Walton Arts Center began in 1990, and the lease was signed in 1991.
Hogan said he believes the Porter Produce building should be on the National Register of Historic Places. The designation would have no regulatory teeth associated with it, but property on the list can receive federal or state grants for preservation efforts, or income-generating buildings can be eligible for tax incentives, according to the National Park Service, which oversees the program.
"I would get a renovation architect involved as early as possible if it was my call," Hogan said. "It will be a great example of saving more public history of Fayetteville."
The Walton Arts Center has had plans to use the building as additional theater space. The center has done some touch-up work on the building, but turning the structure into a functional arts space would require a significant investment, said Jennifer Wilson, the center's public relations director.
"It's one of those things that is out there for a goal, but not something we've been able to accomplish just yet," she said.
City Attorney Kit Williams said he believes the lease requires the center to maintain the building, including structurally. The lease doesn't name the Porter Produce building specifically, but it doesn't exclude it, he said.
The city spending the money is more of a policy decision than a legal one, Williams said.
"We always have a legal right to invest money on our own land. It's still our land even though we have it leased," he said. "But I think from a practical point of view, without further assurances from the Walton Arts Center about the use of it, I would question that."
Council Member Sarah Marsh said the building's use should mesh with the cultural arts corridor downtown. The arts corridor, with its construction approved by voters in April, will have the parking lot west of the Walton Arts Center turned into a gathering space. It also will have the Fay Jones woods west of the library become a nature attraction, with improvements to West Avenue and the Razorback Greenway.
The Porter building could serve as a sort of backstage for artists and events setting up at the corridor, Marsh said. It could also potentially serve as gallery or museum space, or as a winter farmers market, she said.
Marsh said that if the Walton Arts Center wants to keep the Porter building included on the lease, it should partner with the city and university on a plan to revitalize it.
"We just don't have a plan. I am very uncomfortable with the fact that there's not a plan," she said. "But we can't let the building fall down, and we do need to preserve it."
Marsh has voiced a preference for the parking deck associated with the arts corridor to be built at the Nadine Baum Studios site across the street. She suggested the Community Creative Center could temporarily move to the Porter building while the city builds a mixed-use parking structure.
Barb Putman, executive director of Community Creative Center, said the building would be too small. The center operates out of about 5,000 square feet at Baum Studios and needs accommodations for kilns and studios to fit up to 80 children and 40 adults at a time, she said.
"It just wouldn't make sense," Putman said.
Mike Johnson, associate vice chancellor of facilities at the university, who also serves as chairman of the Walton Arts Center board, said he hasn't spoken with arts center administrators about the future of the building.
Metro on 01/02/2020