In the early 1980s, El Dorado’s downtown occupancy was less than 15%. It was a near slum. My office building, which I bought and renovated at the time, was the only new construction since the ill-conceived Union Square Mall was removed in the mid-1970s.
The small East Arkansas town of Trumann (population 7,332 in the last census), which like so many Delta communities has watched its downtown die, is about to be reinvented — and perhaps serve as a guide to other rural areas — thanks to the 140-acre mixed-use development Steel Creek.
How best can we transform our cities and towns with 21st century design ideals that put community and lifestyle first and cars second? Block, Street & Building put that question to city planners via the Arkansas Times Blog and the Arkansas Municipal League, initiating a competition of ideas to create walkable, livable spaces where commercial and residential needs co-exist, and dozens responded with their ideas.
It takes a village to save a downtown. But first a village needs a generator, a spark. What impact can one person have on the resurrection of a struggling part of a city? Consider the case of Jimmy Moses and the success of Little Rock’s River Market and the entire central business district.
In 2021, local developer Roger Coburn Jr. and co-developer Fletcher Hanson — real estate adviser and principal at Moses Tucker Partners — ushered in a new phase of development in North Little Rock. Their three high-end residential neighborhood projects set into motion a revitalization of a long dormant section northeast of Argenta.
Crow Group Inc. purchased the building long known as the Coca-Cola Building from the city of Morrilton in 2018. The building was originally constructed in 1929 as a Coca-Cola bottling plant and was also the site of the original Morrilton Walmart Number 8 Store in the 1960s. More recently, the building served as Morrilton City Hall and the Morrilton Police Department for 40 years. When the city purchased it in 1978, they installed acoustic tile drop ceilings, golden wood paneling for walls, and linoleum and carpet for the floors. Many areas were divided into smaller office spaces to suit the needs of the city at that time, which also included installing more than 20 jail cells made of concrete and steel.
How do you design an office building that incorporates the biking infrastructure of a community? How do you build a structure that honors the art culture of the city? How do you create a diverse office space that is also accessible to the public? What if you could ride your bike to the door of your fifth-story office? What would a bikeable building look like?
It is fair to say that big box buildings are the American architectural blight of the second half of the 20th century. While an increasingly automobile-centric society needed more expansive places to store goods for a growing population, the big box is less of a store in a traditional human scale and more of a warehouse for direct transactional purposes.
Living in the Delta, it’s not unusual to drive an hour or so for dinner on a Friday or Saturday evening. So many overlooked places and storied locales are known for the restaurants and legendary proprietors who keep them full of regular patrons during daily lunch hours and weekend suppers. Whether leaving city limits for a favorite spot frequented for generations, or driving into town to meet friends over a favorite burger or dessert at the place everyone is talking about, we have a way of planning our days, our weekends and our road trips around the places where we love to eat.
On the list of retail and entertainment developments in Little Rock, few are as ensconced in the surrounding residential neighborhood as Breckenridge Village. Now, a new ownership group is committing multiple millions to bring the former gem into a new era of prominence.