People living in a downtown setting draw businesses to the area. But people don’t want to move to a place where there’s not much business.
So, to paraphrase an old adage, what comes first: the residents or the businesses?
“When you do urban redevelopment there are a lot of things that come into play,” said Robert Lees, a developer. “You need to create a vision and have someone take a chance.”
Lees is working on a project he hopes will help downtown Rogers become a desired place to live.
He is working with Julie Winn, owner of Aelous Property Management, on turning the former city hall building at 214 W. Elm St., into the City Hall Lofts, a 12-unit apartment complex. It will also feature a coffee and wine bar.
Renovation is slated to begin in December and should be completed in nine months, Lees said.
SIDER:
Rogers City Hall Lofts
Staff Report
The planned redevelopment of Rogers former city hall building calls for a 12-apartment complex called the City Hall Lofts. Work is scheduled to begin in December and last nine months.
The apartment mix will include studio, one- and two-bedroom units ranging in size from 570 square feet to 1,400 square feet. Rents will range from $700 to $1,200 and be all-inclusive.
Developers plan on removing dropped ceilings to expose the building’s 14-foot ceilings. Julie Winn, owner of Aelous Property Management, said the apartments will be modern while holding on to the historical charm.
The complex will also contain a coffee and wine bar.
Winn said having the right businesses downtown is key to the project’s, and the city’s, success.
“We need to give people a reason to come and stay downtown,” she said. “The more people that live down here the more businesses that will open, and vice versa.”
Lees said there’s more to creating an active, walkable downtown drawing in more people. It takes businesses catering to the needs of residents, including places such as a pharmacy and a dry cleaner. And the businesses need to be open when people can get to them.
“Downtown is dead at night. Businesses need to open later,” he said. “Main Street Rogers has done a good job to get downtown business owners to stay open later one night a month, but it needs to extend beyond that.”
Main Street Rogers holds events on the third Friday of each month that change each month but include a mix of live music, activities geared toward children, food and local artists and vendors. Many businesses remain open until 9 p.m.
“The key is staying with it and making it a habit to stay open later,” Lee said. “People need to get over their fear of doing something different.”
Each of the area’s four largest towns has focused on the downtown area in one way or another over the past decade, and are at different places in the process of creating a walkable areas people want to live.
Rogers is still in an early stage of creating residential growth downtown as old buildings find new life. Winn estimates there are about 30 apartments in the immediate downtown area; she manages 15.
Winn said she quickly fills vacancies in her downtown apartments.
“There are places, but just not enough,” she said. “There are a whole lot more places out there that could be turned into loft apartments.”
Apartment dwellers aren’t the only people who would benefit from a more diverse business mix downtown, she said.
“There are a lot of single-family homes around the downtown core that could take advantage of being able to walk more places,” Winn said. “That includes me because I’ve lived in downtown Rogers since 1989. I like the quaintness of downtown.”
One project Winn and Lees are finishing up she said keeps the historic feel but is updated is the transformation of the former home of George’s Flowers at 425 W. Walnut St. into a furniture store set to open in January.
John Mack, owner of JKJ Architect, is working on the former Opera House at 106 and 108 W. Walnut St. He’s renovating the first-floor retail spaces and turning the upper levels into offices.
Winn said many of the downtown area’s second floor space is vacant.
“Some owners have talked about putting in offices, but many are better suited for apartments,” she said.
Brian Donahue, senior associate at commercial real estate brokerage firm C.B. Richard Ellis, said downtown businesses benefit from heavier foot traffic created by more densely populated areas.
Moving back into a city’s downtown started catching on in larger metropolitan areas several years ago, and the idea has slowly seeped into more rural areas such as Arkansas, he said.
“In the last five years or so it has been trending that way locally,” he said.
Fayetteville was first area town to go down the path of downtown residential revitalization. The opening of the Walton Arts Center in 1992 was an early step. Next came the Downtown/Dickson Enhancement Project that ran from 1997 to 2003. The Fayetteville Public Library’s 2004 opening at 401 W. Mountain St. was another milestone in the town’s downtown transformation.
“When we moved downtown in 2001, it was a real leap of faith,” said Cathy Bass, co-chair of the Dickson Street Neighborhood Association. “It has really changed in the last 10 years.”
Bass said Dickson Street wasn’t a place you wanted to be after dark in the 1970s and early 1980s.
“People used to ask why we would ever want to live downtown, but now people say how lucky we are because we live downtown,” she said.
Sheree Alt, principal broker and president of Downtown Properties Real Estate Group in Fayetteville, said the business manages more than 250 units in the downtown area.
“Apartments range from a one-bedroom to higher-end condos that cater to the professional market. We run the gamut,” she said.
Young professionals and empty-nesters are two demographics that often like being close to the action a vibrant downtown can provide, Lees said.
Fayetteville’s most active downtown apartment construction is catered to the area’s built-in customer base: University of Arkansas students.
Fayetteville-based Specialized Real Estate Group opened part of the Sterling Frisco apartments at Lafayette Street and West Avenue in August and plans to open the remaining units after the first of the year. The apartments are geared to university students and operate on a rent-by-the-bedroom philosophy.
The company is also working on two more downtown complexes geared to students: The Cardinal at West Center, set to open next year, and a yet unnamed project set to open in 2015.
Another project by Rael Development out of Newport Beach, Calif., is in the development stages across from the Dickson Street post office.
“We deal in a different market that those new projects and hopefully there will be enough need to support all the rental properties in the area,” Alt said.
Springdale is at the other end of the spectrum in downtown revitalization. The city recently formed the Downtown Springdale Alliance. The city approved a revitalization plan July 9.
Ed Clifford, chief executive officer of the Jones Trust and an alliance board member, said downtown housing now is a preliminary part of the revitalization plan.
“We need to build the infrastructure so people have all the things they need downtown,” he said, adding that includes such amenities as a grocery store, a dry cleaner and a pharmacy. “We also need a variety of restaurants so people have places to eat. If the basic services are downtown, residents can walk to them.”
Clifford was president and chief executive officer of the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce for 11 years before taking the Jones Trust job last year.
“Housing has been a part of the conversation in Bentonville for the past three years, but the discussion started about 10 years ago,” he said. “We don’t have that kind of time. We need to make some things happen and not wait for them to happen.”
The Springdale downtown area has already seen some improvement including a $1.1 million renovation at the Arts Center of the Ozarks and $12 million renovation at Northwest Medical Center.
Clifford said the Razorback Regional Greenway cutting through downtown will also give the city a boost. The 36-mile trail will run from north Bentonville to south Fayetteville and is scheduled to be complete by the end of the year.
Part of the trail plans in Springdale call for a park-like atmosphere at a trail head downtown. The trail follows Spring Creek.
“We have a lot of positive buzz going in Springdale right now,” he said.
Clifford said the alliance is talking with Daniel Hintz about doing some contract work for the city. Hintz is executive director of Downtown Bentonville and is stepping down later this year to focus on contract work. He also worked for Fayetteville Downtown Partners.
“It takes an entire community, not just one developer or one entity, to change and energize a downtown,” Hintz said. “You have to believe in it and stick with it to make it happen.”
Bentonville created a downtown plan in 2006 to help address the city’s changing face. The town’s population nearly doubled between 2000 and 2012, growing from 19,730 to 38,284.
Hintz said downtown has a 3 percent vacancy rate for residential and commercial properties.
“We can’t absorb any more and need to build,” he said.
Bentonville’s downtown area is an expansive 1,765 acres. Hintz said the first five years of the downtown plan focused on the four-block area around the square and connecting the square to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Other areas of downtown are now focal points including Thrive, the town’s new arts district. Hintz said an apartment building is working its way through the planning process.
“There are still a lot of opportunities for investors in the downtown area. It’s a dynamic mix,” he said. “The demand is far outpacing the supply and that has not always happened in downtown Bentonville.”
The opening of Crystal Bridges in 2011 helped Bentonville’s cultural scene. The planned opening of the Children’s Museum of Northwest Arkansas in 2015 will be another draw to downtown.
Lees hopes his work in Rogers will follow the same path.
“You need to create a vibrant mixture of retail and culture. It’s a lifestyle,” Lees said. “There is no reason that can’t be done here as well as in Bentonville.”