I've long expected the expansion at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort to lead to additional development along that part of Central Avenue in Hot Springs. Oaklawn recently spent more than $100 million constructing a hotel, spa, fine-dining venue and conference center.
All of the Oaklawn additions are upscale, the kind of amenities that will bring more deep-pocketed visitors to Hot Springs. Nearby developments to serve those folks with money to spend were inevitable.
Across the street from the track, a bed-and-breakfast inn and event venue will open in August in the Brown Mansion. The business, known as The Reserve, is owned by Mark and Rhonda McMurry. The mansion at 2330 Central Avenue has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1986.
"We want it to still feel period, but at the same time you have to have modern conveniences," Mark McMurry says. "You want people to feel comfortable when they come here."
David Showers wrote in The Sentinel-Record at Hot Springs: "The couple also bought the adjacent property Dr. Frank Burton owned. Now called Legacy House, the five-bedroom home will be a satellite property of The Reserve. The Arkansas natives returned home after living in Puerto Rico for more than a decade. They were looking for a new challenge after selling their business, Independent Pharmacy Management Services, in 2019.
"It wasn't long before they acquired the Brown Mansion from their friend Rick Williams' real estate company, Summit Properties. Williams remains involved, serving as the McMurrys' 'visionary partner.' They're also partners in the Best Court Cottages, a boutique hotel on Ouachita Avenue. The McMurrys reopened the adjacent Best Cafe & Bar earlier this year."
W.C. Brown converted a Queen Anne-style home to a Classical Revival-style mansion when the lumber baron moved to Hot Springs. The remodeling was completed in 1919 after Brown moved from Stamps, where he was vice president of Bodcaw Lumber Co. Williams acquired the property from First Baptist Church in 2015.
The McMurrys hired interior designer Julie Nichols to find antiques and replicas for the house.
"We didn't know where any of this stuff was going to fit," Mark McMurry says. "We just gathered it all up, and Julie is great at placing. She knows how to place things so you don't get claustrophobic. She really captured what we had in mind."
A former carriage house on the property will have a kitchen on the first floor. Chef Josh Garland, who also will serve as innkeeper, will live on the second floor.
"Garland and the culinary team he recruited from south Florida, Las Vegas and other metropolises will bring their talents to The Reserve when Best Cafe closes at 2 p.m.," Showers wrote. "For an additional charge, Garland will cook dinner for guests who want to have their evening meal at the property."
"Josh goes back a long way with our family," Mark McMurry says. "He hung out at our house. He and my son Nathan played football in high school. He's like our son. He's a very talented chef. The cafe has taken off and become a real success. We're going to be very responsive to what the client wants. It's going to have the warmth of an inn, but it's going to feel like a high-end hotel."
A barn behind the carriage house is being converted into a honeymoon suite known as The Enclave.
Williams had earlier told the Hot Springs Board of Directors: "This bed-and-breakfast is probably going to be one of the top ones in the country."
While Spa City hotels attract most of the attention, the area already has some of the best bed-and-breakfast inns in the South. Just north of downtown on Park Avenue is Hilltop Manor. It's an 1890s Craftsman-style home that has five working fireplaces. The dining-room chandelier was purchased by owners Mose and Billie Klyman on their Asian honeymoon almost a century ago.
Along the shores of Lake Hamilton, Lookout Point Lakeside Inn was built in 2003 and has since won a number of national awards.
I expect additional upscale developments within walking distance of Oaklawn. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if a developer soon buys the former Royale Vista Inn on Central Avenue. The 80-unit, 10-story hotel was among Hot Springs' premier places to stay in the 1960s. It's empty now, but once had a 90-seat restaurant, gift shop, lounge and 36-seat coffee shop. There's also a pool and hot tub. The detached Derby Theatre and Lounge covers 13,966 square feet.
Downtown, meanwhile, Dr. Vijay Patel of Chicago and his son Parth of Hot Springs spoke last month to the National Park Rotary Club about their plans to transform the 16-story Medical Arts Building into an Aloft Hotel. Vijay Patel is a vascular surgeon who practiced in Chicago from 1980-2017 before retiring. His wife is an anesthesiologist.
Vijay Patel came to this country from India in 1978. He lived in New York for two years before moving to Chicago. He had long wanted to invest in the hotel industry and did so in 1980 when he purchased the 18-room Fern Park Motel in Orlando, Fla. He built his first hotel from the ground up in 1989, a Super 8 in Rockford, Ill.
The family's VIPA Hospitality later would own more than 30 hotels. It operates six in Hot Springs. The company first entered the Hot Springs market in 1994, and Parth Patel moved there in 2005.
The Patels view the Medical Arts renovation as the most exciting project in the history of the company. Without a doubt, it's near the top of the list of planned developments in an old resort city that's now on a hot streak after decades of decline.
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.