Three Rs for Hot Springs

Downtown Hot Springs was crowded as I walked along Central Avenue on a Friday, Saturday and Monday earlier this month. March is always a busy time for the Spa City with thoroughbred races at Oaklawn Park, basketball tournaments at Summit Arena, and the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

That Friday, four state high school championship games were played at Summit Arena, and a crowd of more than 9,100 was at Oaklawn. The dining room of the venerable Arlington Hotel was packed with people enjoying the Friday seafood buffet, an Arlington tradition. Hot Springs was even busier the next day as more than 30,000 people showed up at Oaklawn for the Rebel Stakes while the arena played host to six high school championship games. The following Monday, thousands crowded along Bridge Street for the St. Patrick’s Day parade, which has received national media attention in recent years.

On the surface, it appeared that the city is thriving. Underneath, however, is a smoldering debate about the fate of historic downtown buildings that have been allowed to deteriorate. A handful of landlords serve mainly as rent collectors, refusing to make improvements or sell those buildings to developers who will. People across the state have focused on the future of downtown Hot Springs since the massive fire that destroyed the oldest section of the Majestic Hotel. They’ve learned that the local brand of politics there can be brutal. Tensions burst into public view last Friday with a front page story in the Sentinel-Record.

“A heated email exchange between City Manager David Watkins and Mayor Ruth Carney over downtown property issues ensued late Wednesday night with Watkins saying that he ‘will not have my character and ethics impugned’ by Carney,” the newspaper reported. Watkins is well-known among municipal administrators, having led city governments in the college towns of Bryan, Texas, and Auburn, Ala., during periods of great growth. In one email to the mayor, Watkins wrote: “I have encountered vicious and personal attacks against my employees since my arrival. I will not tolerate this anymore.”

Things are about to get even more interesting. The new Downtown Development Strategy Task Force will hold four public meetings to gather ideas for downtown. The hearings will begin at 5:30 p.m. on four consecutive Mondays at Hot Springs City Hall beginning March 31. The first hearing will review current activities downtown. The second hearing will evaluate challenges faced by downtown property owners. The third will examine what’s worked in other communities. The final hearing on April 21 will see the nine-member task force release recommendations.

“A lot of people have been wringing their hands and fretting over the future of our historic downtown,” says Jim Fram, the president of the Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce. “I believe we can help real projects get traction rather quickly through these public hearings.”

As someone who has spent a lifetime enjoying what downtown Hot Springs has to offer, while also becoming increasingly angry that its most iconic structures are being allowed to rot, let me offer a strategy. We’ll call it “the three Rs for downtown Hot Springs.” Those would be residents, restaurants and rooms. Anyone involved in downtown development projects will tell you that a residential base is now a key component of any successful downtown. Hot Springs has done an admirable job of attracting art galleries and retailers to the ground floors of some downtown structures. What hasn’t happened is development of the upper floors into condominiums and loft apartments.

Look above the first-floor shops in the buildings across the street from Bathhouse Row. Imagine the potential. There also are large structures that are empty elsewhere downtown. These projects would need investors with deep pockets, but the potential is enormous.

Young, talented people want to live in urban settings where they can walk to restaurants, bars, galleries and entertainment venues. Downtown Hot Springs could become a hipster enclave, a smaller version of Austin, Brooklyn or Portland. Wealthy retirees now are more attracted to walkable urban settings than to retirement communities such as Hot Springs Village. As baby boomers reach retirement, they want something different than sprawling homes on golf courses. The downtown mix of spas and art could be what many of them are searching for if there were quality places to live.

Downtown Hot Springs has restaurants, but there’s room for more. The addition of a microbrewery in the Superior Bathhouse is the kind of thing that can draw people downtown. With the craft beer and classic cocktail scene exploding nationwide, Hot Springs seems ripe for establishments that would complement existing businesses. What if developers were to bring back popular restaurants of the past-think Coy’s, Mrs. Miller’s and Mollie’s-and place them downtown? Hot Springs could become a city for foodies along the lines of Asheville and Santa Fe.

As for rooms, additional high-quality hotel rooms are much needed downtown. A developer could buy an existing hotel or take an empty property and transform it. Regardless, everyone must put politics aside and understand that the clock is ticking for downtown buildings that continue to deteriorate.

The window of opportunity is smaller than you might think.

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Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.

Editorial, Pages 17 on 03/26/2014

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