Downtown Hot Springs has a parking problem. And that's a good thing.
During a meeting last month of the Hot Springs Board of Directors, Mark Fleischner said: "Parking at some point was the least of our problems because we didn't have anybody coming down there. But now we have this great problem, and the situation needs to be remedied rather rapidly."
Fleischner, whose family has long been in business downtown, is a member of the Downtown Business District Parking Advisory Committee. Dozens of Arkansas cities wish they had a need for just such a committee.
Hot Springs was once in the same boat as those other struggling downtowns. Six years ago this month, I wrote the most-read post in the 11-year history of my Southern Fried blog. It was headlined "The Shame of Hot Springs." I wrote the piece after a message from Mark Gregory, the editor of the Sentinel-Record. He informed me that workers had nailed plywood over the windows of the Majestic Hotel.
I wrote: "Yes, the Majestic has been closed since 2006, so the decay of that complex isn't exactly news. Yes, the three buildings that make up the complex have been deteriorating for years. But symbolism is a powerful thing, and that plywood is symbolic. It sends the wrong message about our state and its business leadership. It sends the wrong message about our priorities. This is a city that once fancied itself as the Saratoga of the South. Is it becoming the Detroit of the South, at least downtown? It's not just the Majestic. It's the adjacent Velda Rose Hotel. It's the Medical Arts Building, which for many years was Arkansas' tallest structure. It's the Howe Hotel. It's the other historic buildings that have been empty for years. Rather than being charming relics, they've become eyesores. They send the message that this once-great American resort is in a tailspin that can't be reversed."
A few days after I penned those words, part of the Majestic burned. Six years later, the city of Hot Springs is just now issuing a request for proposals for perhaps the most high-profile piece of vacant property in the state. The wheels of government grind slowly in the Spa City. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Velda Rose Hotel, Medical Arts Building and Howe Hotel are still empty. Plenty of work remains to be done downtown. It's not time to declare victory just yet.
"I grew up in this area, and I've watched downtown Hot Springs wilt for more than 40 years now as investment occurred south of downtown," I wrote in 2014. "I've watched the quality of hotel rooms decline, the quirky auction houses depart and the demographic of downtown visitors change. This is not to be elitist. I'm simply stating a fact: Downtown Hot Springs no longer has the critical mass of nice hotel rooms, spas, fine dining establishments and live entertainment needed to attract the type of high-dollar, out-of-state visitors one can now find in downtown Bentonville.
"That stretch of Central Avenue--from its intersection with Grand Avenue north to where Central runs into the decaying Majestic Hotel--is the most important stretch of urban street in Arkansas and among the most iconic stretches in the South. It's our Bourbon Street, our Beale Street, our San Antonio Riverwalk. It's the place a lot of people from surrounding states associate with Arkansas. It's important. That's why the plywood that went up this week on the windows of the Majestic sent such a horrible message to the rest of the world."
It's as if the fire sounded the alarm for the people of Hot Springs. Just as Hurricane Katrina did in New Orleans in 2005, it reminded complacent residents that they were about to lose something special. According to the Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, there have been 144 new, relocated or expanded businesses downtown since the 2014 Majestic fire. There are 122 of them that are still open.
In 2019, 32 businesses opened in or relocated to downtown Hot Springs. Fifteen commercial properties sold in the downtown district with a sales value of more than $12 million. About $14.5 million was invested last year in downtown properties. The investments included the renovation of an empty bathhouse into the Hotel Hale, the opening of a rooftop bar at the Waters Hotel, and the establishment of the Crystal Ridge Distillery.
We're seeing more and more upscale businesses come downtown. These include the two boutique hotels, high-dollar restaurants and high-end retailers. Upscale businesses, you see, attract the type of tourists who spend more--the steak crowd as opposed to the hamburger crowd.
In 2018, there were 23 new businesses downtown, 16 commercial real estate sales for a total sales value of more than $8 million, and $12 million in capital investment. Since the 2014 fire, there have been 103 commercial property sales representing a total sales value of $56 million, with more than $100 million in capital investment.
As far as the parking problem, there's now talk of building a parking facility where Hill Wheatley Plaza stands. It would add several hundred parking spaces to the 235 spaces now available in Exchange Street Parking Plaza on the other side of Central Avenue. Future parking garages could be built where there are now surface lots across the street from the Majestic site and the Embassy Suites Hotel.
In other words, it should be full speed ahead for Hot Springs civic and business leaders in their efforts to recruit developers who will take on the renovation of the empty buildings that still scar the face of downtown.
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 02/15/2020