An Immanuel Baptist Church construction project that includes work to make the former Kroger grocery store at 315 N. Shackleford Road a multiuse "South Campus" will cost more than $7.8 million, a city building permit issued last week said.
The church bought the adjacent Kroger property for $3.65 million in August 2015, seven months after the chain closed the store, which had operated at the site for 31 years.
Immanuel's plans now call for the 47,000-square-foot building on 4.8 acres to include an 800-seat auditorium to be used for classrooms and conferences, a food pantry that will be open once a week and a dental clinic that will offer services monthly. The church also will use it on Sundays.
The Little Rock Planning Commission approved the project in January as well as a 21,500-square-foot addition to the church's main building. The plans also include additional parking. City planning called the project a "quality redevelopment for this commercial property."
Baldwin & Shell, a Little Rock construction firm, is the project's contractor.
-- Noel Oman
Zips acquires 15 new carwashes in 5 states
Little Rock-based Zips Car Wash has acquired 15 new locations, according to a company release Tuesday.
The new sites are in Oklahoma, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Kentucky. Zips founder and owner Brett Overman said in a statement through the acquisition the company is focusing on markets where it already has locations with great potential for growth. The terms of the deal were not released.
The acquisitions include five locations in North Carolina from American Pride Xpress Car Wash, bringing the company's stores in the state to 11. In Missouri, Zips purchased four stores from Martin Car Wash and three stores from Westport Car Wash, all stores in the St. Louis area. Zips also bought single car-washes in Oklahoma, Kentucky and in South Carolina.
With the acquisition, the company owns and operates 154 locations in 15 states including Arkansas.
-- John Magsam
State index off 3.75; four stocks drop 2%
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 3.75 to 417.18 Tuesday.
Four stocks -- ArcBest, Dillard's, Murphy Oil and Uniti Group -- fell more than 2 percent.
"The Dow Jones industrial average was dragged down for the first time in four days by Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. after lower pharmacy reimbursements hurt earnings at the drugstore chain," said Chris Harkins, managing director with Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
Total volume for the index was 17.5 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 04/03/2019