The Capital Hotel is scheduled to re-open and begin taking reservations on Monday, 14 months after the downtown Little Rock landmark closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Concord Hospitality Enterprises, a hotel management and development company that operates the hotel for the Stephens family, announced the re-opening in a news release Tuesday.
"As a hotel featuring 145 years of character complemented by the comfort and efficiency of a modern luxury hotel, we look forward to showing new and returning guests all that downtown Little Rock has to offer following a year of unprecedented events," Ashley Ewing, the hotel's sales and marketing director, said in the release.
The 95-room luxury hotel's Capital Bar & Grill restaurant also is scheduled to re-open the same day for lunch and dinner. Breakfast will be served daily beginning Tuesday.
The hotel's haute cuisine restaurant, One Eleven at the Capital, remains closed.
Concord also is still looking to fill positions at the hotel, according to the company's website. The website listed openings for typical positions needed to run a hotel and restaurant, including bellpersons, cooks, housekeepers, laundry attendant, restaurant attendant-bussers, cook, prep cook and bartenders.
Other positions were management and clerical: restaurant manager, accounting manager, sales manager, accounting clerk and restaurant supervisor.
The Capital Hotel has been closed in the past. It re-opened in 2007 after closing two years earlier to undergo what was reported to be a $24 million renovation. In preparation for its re-opening, it advertised 150 positions.
News of the opening was greeted with a mixture of relief and happiness, given the rumors that had circulated about the future of the storied hotel.
"It's certainly a welcome sign that the front porch of Little Rock is resuming business as normal," said Gabe Holmstrom, executive director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership.
The re-opening comes little more than a month after the Stephens family reconfigured the hotel ownership.
The hotel was "sold" on April 6 to an entity called the Capital Hotel Holdings LLC. Papers for the limited liability company were filed with the secretary of state's office on Jan. 6.
Jackson Farrow Jr. is listed as the incorporator/organizer of Capital Hotel Holdings LLC. Kathy R. Bryant is listed as its managing member.
Farrow and Bryant are part of the team that manages the Stephens' family personal capital, an entity called Stephens Capital Partners. Farrow is general counsel and managing director while Bryant is the chief financial officer. Warren Stephens is the chairman, president and chief executive officer.
Information for this article was contributed by Eric Harrison of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.