Clinton library shows a Midas touch

Restaurants, hotels, towers have sprouted in its shadow

Developers have invested about $250 million in more than 10 major construction projects in the River Market District since the November 2004 opening of the Clinton Presidential Center.
Developers have invested about $250 million in more than 10 major construction projects in the River Market District since the November 2004 opening of the Clinton Presidential Center.

A measure of the importance of the Clinton Presidential Center, which celebrates its 10th anniversary Tuesday, should reach beyond the investment of dollars and cents, Little Rock leaders say.

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A map showing development in the Clinton Presidential Center area since 2004.

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Developers say the decision to build the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock east of Interstate 30 led to several new hotels, condo towers and retail space in the city’s River Market District seen here Wednesday

The construction cost of commercial projects in downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock since 1997 — when President Bill Clinton announced the library would be on the Arkansas River east of Interstate 30 — is $2.5 billion, according to an analysis released today by Boyette Strategic Advisors.

The firm did not estimate the overall economic impact of the center, which would be several times more, said Del Boyette, chief executive officer.

“While we can capture some numbers [for the economic impact], we will never capture, in my opinion, the true total impact that [the center] has had,” said Jay Chesshir, president of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, which commissioned the study. Chesshir declined Friday to say how much the chamber paid for the study.

The presidential center has been instrumental in bringing conventions to Little Rock, said Sharon Priest, executive director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership.

“And while [tourists] are walking from the hotels to the Clinton center, they see other things and of course that makes a big difference,” Priest said.

“[Hotels] and additional restaurants, clearly it has been a big impact. I don’t think you can credit any one thing, but the [Clinton] library was certainly a catalyst.”

The presidential library set Little Rock apart from other cities, said Gretchen Hall, president and chief executive officer of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“It put Little Rock on the map as a tourism destination,” Hall said.

More than 3 million tourists have visited the center since it opened in 2004, the Boyette study said. Almost half were from out of state.

Excluding visitors from the Little Rock metropolitan area, tourists visiting the center have spent $691 million since 2005, Boyette said, based on statistics from the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.

Spending by visitors to Pulaski County increased 68 percent from 2003 through 2013, from $990 million to $1.7 billion, based on figures from the Arkansas Parks and Tourism Department, the Boyette report said. Boyette Strategic Advisors has offices in Little Rock, Atlanta and Orlando.

Many businesses now in the River Market District wouldn’t have moved downtown if not for the center, which was built for $165 million, Hall said. This includes nonprofit Heifer International, Acxiom Corp. and several hotels.

When the Clinton center site was chosen, city leaders approached Acxiom executives about locating their new building in the River Market District, said Jimmy Moses, chairman of Moses Tucker Real Estate.

“There was definitely a synergy there,” said Charles Morgan, Acxiom’s chairman and CEO at the time.

“We didn’t want to be isolated downtown with the River Market. And I think the two of us being there helped make the decision easier for Heifer to be there.”

Chesshir speculated that the Heifer world headquarters may not have been built in Little Rock if it weren’t for the Clinton Presidential Center.

“I think you can find a lot of people who were engaged in that decision-making process who would tell you, ‘No, it wouldn’t.’ That’s a global impact,” Chesshir said.

LIBRARY FILLS HOTELS

In the past 10 years, developers have invested about $250 million in more than 10 major construction projects in the River Market District.

There is no official boundary for the River Market District, Moses said, but he suggested that one outline would be from the Clinton Presidential Center west to Cumberland Street and from the Arkansas River south to Capitol Avenue.

Since 2004, Moses said, the neighborhood has seen the construction of the $60 million, 20-story River Market Tower; the $47 million, 18-story 300 Third Tower; the $25 million, 14-story First Security Center, including a Courtyard by Marriott hotel; the $17 million Heifer International headquarters; the $17 million Arcade Building; the $13 million, eight-story Hampton Inn & Suites; the $13 million, six-story Residence Inn hotel; and the $6.5 million River Market parking deck.

The growth is ongoing. Under construction are two Moses Tucker projects — the $21 million, six-story Hilton Homewood Suites and the $8 million, three-story MacArthur Commons apartment complex. Construction is scheduled to begin soon on a $16 million, seven-story Hilton Garden Inn near Third Street and Cumberland Avenue, the fifth newly built hotel in the River Market District.

“There have been hundreds of millions of dollars of development that was spawned in significant measure because of the Clinton library,” Moses said.

McKibbon Hotel Group developed the Courtyard by Marriott, the Hampton Inn, the Residence Inn and the Homewood Suites.

“We’ve certainly very much benefited from that,” said Randy Hassen, president of McKibbon Hotel Management in Tampa, Fla.

The development is directly related to the Clinton center, Hall said.

“We’re continuing to see that momentum that began because of the library,” Hall said.

In 2002, Larry Carpenter, owner of the Holiday Inn Presidential Conference Center at Sixth Street and I-30, moved to Little Rock from Missouri to buy the former Best Western InnTowne. He had been considering real estate possibilities in Florida and Texas.

He paid almost $3 million for the hotel and spent another $7 million on renovations.

He purposely designed the hotel with a presidential theme, Carpenter said.

“My goal was to position it as the anchor hotel for the Clinton Presidential Center,” Carpenter said.

His investment in the hotel was worth it, Carpenter said.

“And it still is,” he said.

THE FRINGES BENEFIT

The Clinton center’s influence has spread beyond the River Market District.

The current revitalization of Little Rock’s Main Street can be attributed to the library, Hall said.

“We can absolutely say it was the catalyst that began the ball rolling,” Hall said.

Officials with the Little Rock Technology Park, designed to help startup companies and entrepreneurs, are working to secure property to build a campus on Main Street.

“I have a personal vision of what the Tech Park could be [with a connection] to the Clinton center,” said Boyette, who served as the executive director of what is now the Arkansas Economic Development Commission in the 1990s. “It’s an unbelievable opportunity.”

North Little Rock has seen growth in its downtown Argenta District and construction of Dickey-Stephens Ballpark, the home of the Arkansas Travelers.

The Downtown Riverside RV Park, just across the river from the Clinton center and adjacent to a bridge for pedestrians, has attracted more than 18,000 recreational vehicles since it opened six years ago. About 72 percent of the visitors staying a night in the park were from outside Arkansas.

The Clinton School of Public Service Speaker Series series has also drawn ambassadors, authors, Pulitzer Prize winners and Nobel Prize winners to Little Rock for presentations to students and the public, the study said.

“The Clinton center truly internationalized the city,” Boyette said.

‘MURKY BOTTOMS’

The day in November 1997 when Clinton chose the east Little Rock site for the center, Skip Rutherford, dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, went alone to the location.

He said he couldn’t get to what is now the pedestrian bridge over the Arkansas River because of a fence and the vines that had grown up around the closed railroad bridge.

“Goodness gracious, it was an old warehouse district,” said Rutherford, who was the local planning coordinator for the center at the time.

One newspaper columnist scornfully called the location “murky bottoms.”

“I thought, ‘Where do we go from here? What do I do first? What are the possibilities?” Rutherford said. “All those questions went through my mind.’”

In August, Rutherford returned to the same spot where he stood in November 1997.

“From an economic development perspective, [the center] has certainly exceeded my expectations,” Rutherford said. “I saw a new Little Rock skyline, none of which was there [in 1997]. The parking deck. The Holiday Inn. The condominium complexes. I could see Verizon Arena and Dickey-Stephens [Ballpark]. I could see up Clinton Avenue, where the restaurants and bars and museums are.”

Clinton had the vision for the center’s location, Rutherford said.

“He could have put this library anywhere,” Rutherford said. “He could have put it in a field somewhere, built a nice facility and had it as a standalone entity. He was willing to invest in downtown and it worked.”

It is difficult to imagine what the next 10 years will bring, Rutherford said.

“My sense is that we’re going to see Main Street thrive,” Rutherford said. “It looks like it is ready to explode with excitement. And if the Aloft [hotel at Main Street and Capitol Avenue] works and you make your way up Capitol Avenue, then I think anything is possible.”

Moses noted that the River Market District started out as only a few blocks of East Markham Street, before the name of that stretch was changed to President Clinton Avenue.

“Now I can see that the River Market District someday soon will simply be the east side of downtown Little Rock,” Moses said.

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