Surveys and other community engagement methods are ongoing for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock as it seeks to attract new businesses to the University Plaza shopping center site at the southern edge of campus, Chancellor Christina Drale said Thursday.
"What the students want is dining and entertainment. They want more opportunities in that area," Drale said at a meeting of the University of Arkansas board of trustees. "The neighborhood associations also want that. They also want to see something like a green grocer, or perhaps a local clinic."
Drale told trustees that UALR is considering a public-private partnership to put new life into the shopping center site that's been owned by UALR since 2004.
Last year, she joined Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. in announcing plans for the Asher Avenue corridor and the shopping center site.
Drale, in a letter to trustees, said UALR finance staffers are drafting preliminary bid documents to select a developer to lead the project. Such a request for proposals is expected to be published early next year.
Focus groups are being held with members of the campus community as well as neighborhood groups, according to Drale.
"We have several objectives here. One objective is to maintain control of the southern gateway into our campus. Another objective is to rehabilitate that sector as an anchor institution," Drale told trustees.
Drale said the university's Arkansas Economic Development Institute is doing a marketing study to see what kinds of businesses might be "most viable" for the area.
"The buildings that are there now are pretty much" at the end of their life cycle, she said. "And so we're not interested in investing a lot of money and trying to rehabilitate the buildings that are there. I'd like to start over with a whole new design and really meet the needs of the campus community and the business community all together."