On those rumblings in Faulkner County

Sunday, November 3, 2013

There are again rumblings in Faulkner County, and they’re not those little earthquakes that have become common.

A sizable number of Faulkner County physicians want an alternative to Conway Regional Health System.

A change in federal law addressing hospital ownership by physicians stymied a group of 35 doctors in 2008, even after ground was broken on a $50 million hospital in Conway.

The doctors would’ve had controlling interest and thus been in a position for possible conflict of interest claims under the new law.

Conway Regional President and Chief Executive Jim Lambert suspects that there’s a connection between the earlier group and the current group of doctors.

This time, the physicians would not be investors, but they are talking with Baptist Health, which has expressed interest in expanding into Conway.

A 212, 000-square-footbuilding that had been part of the Alltel Corp. campus in the Riverdale area has been bought by investors led by Colliers International for $12 million.

The purchase brings to Colliers’ portfolio four of the five buildings in the former headquarters of Alltel, a national telecommunications services company that was sold to Verizon Wireless for $28.1 billion in January 2009.

And the plans for the vacant building? “Leasing the heck out of it,” said Isaac Smith, a principal in Colliers.

Colliers now manages and leases about 400,000 square feet of the former Alltel buildings, Smith said.

Level, the former Montego Cafe, opened Halloween night at 315 Main St. in Little Rock to a capacity crowd of nearly 500, said club owner Brad Mc-Cray.

“It was hugely successful. We were running out of product,” a bleary-eyed McCray said Friday morning after the post-2 a.m. cleanup and clear out.

Level, you know, is the glitzy replacement for the Jamaican-themed Montego, which McCray shut down in September.

As it happens, Thursday (Halloween) was the firsttime that the aborning Main Street had night life going on in more than one place. Across the street, Bruno’s Little Italy was serving up its famed Neapolitan cuisine in its new restaurant.

Lindsey’s Pools and Spashas moved out of Bowman Curve I, the troubled shopping center on Bowman Road in Little Rock.

The last straw was the closing of Buffalo Grill on July 31, said Lindsey’s general manager, Jessica Rodney. The large restaurant, whose specialty was hamburgers, left a void in the invaluable foot traffic that shopping centers rely on.

Rodney said Lindsey’s has meanwhile consolidated its business at its Bryant store and is considering opening another in the Gateway Town Center at the junction of Interstates 30 and 430 where Bass Pro Shops, which is to open in mid-November, will serve as anchor.

Cooper Realty Investments of Rogers, which manages Bowman Curve I and Bowman Curve II, is in negotiations with two restaurants about leasing the Buffalo Grill space, Jim Keith, vice president for leasing and development, said Friday.

Also, since Buffalo Grill’s departure, Keith notes, the center has added two shops: Mid-State Appliances and Painting With a Twist, which offers art lessons to children and adults and “step-by-step instruction with our experienced and enthusiastic local artists.”

Business, Pages 71 on 11/03/2013