Office space in Mann on Main (nee Blass) almost full

LITTLE ROCK — The Mann on Main is filling up. The seven-story, historic structure at Fourth and Main streets in Little Rock has commitments for nearly all of its 75,000 square feet of office space.

Normally, that’s a dry piece of information.

But in this case it is an indication that the former location of the Blass Department Stores flagship is moving toward viability as a piece of the puzzle that has been Main Street for decades.

The puzzle: what to do with what had the been the heart of the city’s business district.

First called The Blass, developers later changed the project to The Mann on Main for architect George Mann who left his style on the city in so many ways.

Office space is one of the three elements of The Mann and adjacent annex. The others are retail and living space.

Moses Tucker Real Estate is dealing from a position of strength on the project. It’s the company’s latest — no, wait, that would be the Arcade Building in the heart of the River Market District — as it pursues what Jimmy Moses calls “building our city.”

When Moses Tucker and Doyle Rogers Co. announced plans for The Blass (Mann) in March, they revealed that the state Office of Child Support Enforcement signed a 15-year lease for 58,000 square feet at $18 per square foot. That meant more than threefourths of the office space was accounted for with income right off the bat.

Now Anne Laidlaw, director of the Arkansas Building Authority, said that the state Pharmacy Board will move its approximately 15 employees from the former MainStreet Mall at Capitol Avenue and Main Street to accommodate expansion. Also the Arkansas Crime Information Center, located in the Multi-Agency Complex, commonly called Big MAC, with 70 employees, is negotiating a lease.

The Child Support Enforcement agency is in the former Arkla Gas building at 400 E. Capitol Ave.

Moses Tucker is planning to raze the building and put up yet another mixed-use building.

Moses said that plans for that project are not ready to be revealed.

If you have a tip, call Jack Weatherly at (501) 378-3518 or e-mail him at

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