UALR presents tech-park plan

It avoids eminent domain

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Chancellor Joel Anderson (left) speaks with board of visitors member Jerry Jones on Tuesday before Anderson’s board presentation on a possible technology park site next to the campus.
University of Arkansas at Little Rock Chancellor Joel Anderson (left) speaks with board of visitors member Jerry Jones on Tuesday before Anderson’s board presentation on a possible technology park site next to the campus.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Chancellor Joel Anderson presented a four phase building plan Tuesday that he said would allow for the gradual construction of a proposed technology park on land adjacent to the campus without the use of eminent domain to acquire the property, which is largely residential.

After Anderson’s presentation, the UALR board of visitors approved the site plan, which was slightly revised from Anderson’s initial proposal in August. The new, phased plan would allow project planners to build over 15 to 20 years as interest in the facilities grows, Anderson said.

If the Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board chooses to locate the park - an effort to commercialize research from the city’s universities and medical institutions - near UALR or the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, it will allow tenants to more fully benefit from the research happening on those campuses, Anderson said. And the location will allow the park to use university resources, such as transportation and maintenance, to save money, he said.

Calling the plan a “tech park” rather than a “research park” has moved the focus from “a successful research park to that of a progressive, urban, mixed-use real estate development heavily populated by the cool and hip, the young and single,” Anderson said.

But the people who build businesses and invent products in Little Rock’s technology park “will be the brainiacs who care more about lab time than happy hour,” he said.

Other sites under consideration are a nearly 12-acre site where Sears sits at the intersection of South University Avenue and Interstate 630, and a proposal from the Downtown Little Rock Partnership that would piece together vacant lots and buildings along Main Street. Supporters of the downtown location have said it will help stir further development in the area and attract workers to the site.

The park is a partnership among Little Rock, UALR, UAMS and Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Each partner agreed to supply $125,000 in startup money, and the city agreed to give $22 million from the 2011 voter-approved sales tax increase that could be used for construction.

UALR’s proposed site is about 20 acres. It includes a parking lot, properties purchased by the university for future use, and owner and renter-occupied houses. The site is bound by 24th Street on the north, 27th Street to the south, Fair Park Boulevard to the east and UALR to the west.

When Anderson initially proposed the site, he said that UALR would sell its portion of land only on the condition that the Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board agreed to use fair-housing relocation standards approved by the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development to acquire the remaining privately owned land.

The UALR board of visitors agreed Tuesday to offer the university as “a facilitator” that would help negotiate land purchases and meet with neighborhood associations throughout the process.

In meetings UALR has already held, only a few landowners along the outer perimeter of the fourth phase have said they aren’t interested in selling their properties, Anderson said. Building that phase last may give the owners a chance to change their minds, he said.If they don’t, the board can revise the outer boundary of phase four to exclude those properties.

Under Anderson’s plan, Phase 1 would be built in the f irst one to f ive years and would include a 150,000-square-foot building and a parking deck.

Phase 2, which would be built within five to 15 years, would include an additional 150,000-square-foot building and a new parking deck.

Phase 3 would be built in 15 to 25 years and would include an additional parking deck and two 200,000-square-foot buildings.

Phase 4, which would be built after more than 25 years, would mirror Phase 3, the proposal said.

Before approving the plan, UALR board member Jerry Jones said he still sees “a lot of advantages and a lot of momentum” surrounding the downtown location.

Jones asked if there was a legal way to ensure that eminent domain would not be used for the UALR site.

“Intentions are one thing, but capability is another,” he said.

Anderson said it would not be constitutionally possible to take the power of eminent domain away from the University of Arkansas board of trustees, which governs UALR. But the group that would acquire the land would be the technology park board, he said, adding that UALR’s conditions on the sale of its portion of the campus-adjacent site should prevent such actions.

Anderson will appear at a meeting of the Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board today at 4 p.m.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/09/2013

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