The Central Arkansas Library System is entering a partnership with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to build meeting and event space on the first floor of the system's parking garage in downtown Little Rock.
The parking deck next to the library system's Main Branch in the River Market District opened about a year ago. The five-story deck with 160 parking spots has an unfinished ground floor. The thought had always been that the deck's first level wasn't suitable for parking and would need an alternative use.
UALR Chancellor Andrew Rogerson wants to use the space for alumni events, lectures, fundraisers, workshops and as a daytime office to raise the university's visibility downtown.
"The new UA Little Rock Downtown Center will be ideal for what we're trying to accomplish as a metropolitan university," the chancellor said through a spokesman Friday. "First, the location will provide another pathway for potential students and the community to connect with the university. Access is one of two of our top goals, and the other one is affordability."
By day, the center will be open for people to stop by and ask about enrollment or class offerings. Academic advisers will be there on certain days to help with registration, scholarships and financial aid questions.
Undergraduate projects such as research, art, history and music will be showcased there, and lectures or discussions will be hosted during lunch hours. In the evenings, the venue will host various receptions and events. The library also will be able to book the space for some of its afternoon programming.
Rogerson "envisions that the space would be ideal for attracting prospective students to UA Little Rock by emphasizing the university's uniquely urban setting, conducting classes for the community and university students," an explanation of the collaboration signed by Rogerson and library system Executive Director Nate Coulter says.
To draw people into the space, the university wants to display a 44-by-8-foot mural painted by Depression-era artist Joe Jones. The university has restored the painting, which was saved 30 years ago in Polk County.
Jones was commissioned to do the painting, which depicts Southern sharecroppers, in 1935 at Commonwealth College in Mena. The university has to get a cost estimate on installing the large artwork before making a decision on moving it downtown.
"Since the center is on the Arkansas Heritage Trail, this could be another destination for visitors," Rogerson said.
The library system got permission last week from the Little Rock Board of Directors to use leftover bond revenue to finish out the first floor of the parking deck to fit the university's use.
The bond language originally said the money was for a parking deck. While development of a parking deck for city bond purposes can legally include some construction other than parking spaces, the city and library system wanted to clarify that with a resolution expressly making that statement, a legal memorandum to the board said.
Finishing out the 4,500 square feet of street-level space is estimated to cost about $570,000. The university has plans to lease the space at market value for 10 years. The library will pay about 80 percent of the construction cost, with the university paying the other 20 percent, Coulter said.
The current parking deck cost the library $4,725,000 to build. It was paid for with part of the $18.5 million generated by bonds approved by voters in 2012.
The library is drafting a lease and anticipates the university will pay $80,000 a year for at least 10 years to rent the new center. Construction is estimated to take 12-16 weeks. It's unknown when the center will be open to the public.
"The library believes that this use of the space fits squarely within the educational mission of the library and helps promote library purposes," Coulter said. "The library could assist with university programming in the classroom space and otherwise benefit from the university's intended uses of the space."
Metro on 09/10/2017