The Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma has doubled its land holdings in the vicinity of the Port of Little Rock. The tribe has bought 80 acres immediately south of the 80 acres it bought in December.
Plans?
They’re the same, says John Berrey, chairman of the Quapaw Business Committee.
This land is very important to the tribe .… A lot of Quapaws lived in this area,” Berrey said.
Echoing what he said after the initial land purchase, Berrey said the tribe, which is based in Quapaw, Okla., has no plans for the land except to preserve it and do an archaeological exploration for possible “funerary sites” where members of the tribe were buried.
The tribe paid $597,000 to the Thibault Land Agreement for the latest acquisition, compared with $775,000 for the same size plot in 2012, according to Pulaski County land records.
The tribe runs a successful resort and casino in Oklahoma, but Berrey said there are no plans to establish anything in Pulaski County.
Approval from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs would be necessary for that. Calls to that agency last week were not returned.
The Quapaws had settled on the land that is now Arkansas long before French explorer Jean-Baptiste Benard de La Harpe arrived in 1722 at what would be eventually the site for Little Rock.
But war and disease decimated the tribe. The smattering of land owned by the modern-day tribe is a remnant of the millions of acres that were given up in treaties with the U.S. government.
You might call it “close but no hotel.” Or, what’s in a name?
A hotel is in the works for the Shackleford Crossings shopping center, a 97-acre site at Interstate 430 and Shackleford Road.
Another hotel is to be built at Shackleford and Kanis roads.
Rajesh Mehta, managing partner of Shackleford Crossings Investments LLC, says he is looking for just the right brand, but that’s a ways off.
“We’re def initely going to build [a hotel] there at Shackleford Crossings,” Mehta said. “But we haven’t locked down a franchise yet.”
Meantime, Raju Vyas willbuild a Hilton Garden Inn at Shackleford and Kanis, construction of which will take about a year, according toDawn Ray, public relations director for the Memphis division of the hotel company. Itwill have 133 rooms and fullservice bar and restaurant, she said.
Initially, Ray said the hotel was to be built at Shackleford Crossings, mistaking that project for the one at the Shackleford-Kanis intersection. The open-air mall is a bit south of that intersection.
The Retail Connection and Invesco Real Estate, both of Dallas, which own the openair mall, bought it for $42 million in 2011 out of Chapter 7 bankruptcy filed by developerRoger Stephen Clary.
The number of lawsuits filed in federal courts accusing Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies across the country of antitrust violations and consolidated in the U.S. District Court for Northern Alabama remain at about 40, as reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette nearly two months ago.
But there are hurdles to clear before Judge R. David Proctor will decide whether to grant class status for the plaintiffs, which include two Arkansans.
A “master complaint” has not been formulated, according to a source close to the litigation. That and other issues will likely take another 30 to 60 days.
The suits filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Arkansas in March portray the 38 Blue Cross companies as operating in collusion and exercising market control in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, which is also named as defendant in the suits, maintains that the litigation is without merit.
If you have a tip, call Jack Weatherly at (501) 378-3518 or e-mail him at [email protected]
Business, Pages 67 on 05/26/2013