North Little Rock council approves deal for $16M downtown apartment complex

Map showing the location of the Planned apartment development in North Little Rock
Map showing the location of the Planned apartment development in North Little Rock

ERC Holdings LLC entered into an agreement Monday with the North Little Rock City Council to build a $16 million apartment complex named Thrive Argenta that is to fit with the city's vision for creating a more vibrant downtown.

The 162-unit development will be on the former site of the Prime Quality Feeds mill between East Fourth and East Fifth streets and Poplar and Magnolia streets, one block off Main Street. The bottom floor units could be transformed for use as commercial space if necessary.

City aldermen approved in 7-0 votes Monday both the development agreement and the creation of a restricted residential parking district for the apartments' tenants. Alderman Murry Witcher was absent.

The North Little Rock Planning Commission unanimously approved a site-plan review showing the outside of the buildings, landscaping and lot dimensions two weeks ago. Only a planning review of the buildings' interiors is still to come before city officials.

"We're ready to start" once final details are approved, Rob Coleman, ERC Holdings manager, told city aldermen.

The city is still dealing with the abandonment of easements along the property by Sprint Corp. and Union Pacific Corp., city Chief of Staff Danny Bradley told the council.

"By then, that will be the end of it, I hope," Bradley said of the city working for several years to make the site marketable for development.

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Similar Thrive developments in the downtowns of Bentonville and Jenks, Okla., are described by Fort Smith-based ERC real estate company on its website, thriveerc.com, as for the "urban lifestyle experience."

The residences will attract young professionals and young families, a company spokesman has previously said. A one-bedroom unit will rent for between $775 and $950 a month, Coleman said Monday.

The project goes along with Mayor Joe Smith's previously stated vision of creating a dense, residential development to complement a planned town square on Main Street between East Fifth and East Sixth streets, about a block from one corner of the apartment complex. Smith has said he wants new retail businesses and restaurants to border the city-maintained town square that he wants patterned after the larger Sundance Square Plaza in Fort Worth.

City officials have worked with ERC "for a year," Smith said, to come up a project like he had in mind "to look a lot like our downtown does.

"It's a great partnership and a great project," Smith said.

According to the development agreement, the city will extend Fifth Street from Poplar to Magnolia street and finance adding a waterline and sewer mains. The city will pay for 77.1 percent of the cost of those and related improvements to the development, according to the agreement.

Smith told the council that Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde has also agreed to assist the city by having the county Road and Bridge Department work on the one-block extension of Fifth Street.

"There will be a whole lot of partners in this project," Smith said.

The creation of the parking district was necessary to reserve parking for the tenants, according to the legislation, because of its location in the center of downtown and near where parking spaces are at a premium for nearby Verizon Arena and Dickey-Stephens Park events. Development plans shown to the Planning Commission March 14 outlined 86 on-site parking spaces with almost another 70 available as on-street parking.

The designated parking district, within the same parameters as the apartments, will restrict parking to only those with permits to be issued by the North Little Rock Neighborhood Services Department. The city will also install signs and markings after a minimum of 75 units have been issued certificates of occupancy, according to the legislation.

Metro on 03/28/2017

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