The Arkansas Department of Transportation has its eye on 54 acres in southwest Little Rock to use as the site for its new District 6 headquarters.
The undeveloped property off West Baseline Road is on the market for $1.2 million.
But it is hardly a done deal. The department only got approval Wednesday from the Arkansas Highway Commission to make an offer on the property.
What is finished is the usefulness of the District 6 headquarters off Mabelvale Pike, in the shadow of the department's statewide headquarters at 10324 Interstate 30.
The 9-acre site is too small to meet the needs of a modern agency district and is too old -- it was built in 1963 -- to meet the equipment and technology needs of the district's staff, said Steve Frisbee, the department's assistant chief engineer for operations.
The district is one of 10 that the department has around the state. They provide supervision of the maintenance and construction projects in their counties.
District 6's area of responsibility includes Garland, Hot Spring, Lonoke, Prairie and Saline counties, in addition to Pulaski County.
Each district has a district engineer, a construction engineer and a maintenance engineer, in addition to bridge repair, sealing and maintenance crews and mechanics to keep the equipment running.
District 6's headquarters is too small to house its sealing and maintenance crews, which are dispersed at other locations.
The aging headquarters site has several problems.
It has mold issues, the roof leaks, the shop doesn't have a lift, and there isn't enough space to store equipment out of the elements, Frisbee said. And the heating and cooling systems lack the efficiency of modern versions.
"You do what you can afford to do, but at some point it's more costly to renovate -- as the minute order says, it's exceeded its service life," Frisbee said. "It's in poor condition. It's more efficient in the long term for us, for taxpayers, to have a facility that will be more energy-efficient, be [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliant."
The department has had a hard time letting go of its facilities.
The last district headquarters to be replaced was District 4 in Fort Smith, which was four years older than the District 6 headquarters. The new District 4 headquarters opened in 2013 on a 40-acre site at Chaffee Crossing at a cost of $13.5 million.
District 6 "is next on the list," Frisbee said. "And being in Little Rock and in our largest metropolitan area, it's clearly a very important district to maintain and become efficient."
Should the department purchase the property, it would add to the acreage the agency has acquired in and around its department headquarters.
Its state headquarters and district headquarters comprise approximately 25 acres near Baseline Road and I-30. The department also has its maintenance division housed on a 51-acre site on West Baseline Road, not far from where the 54-acre site is for sale.
In 2019, the department purchased a 3-acre site for $1.4 million on the frontage road near I-30 and Baseline Road. The site once housed a Harley-Davidson dealership and is adjacent to the department's state headquarters.