Arkansas Business

In 1999, the city first announced the Peabody's decision to buy 51 percent of the Excelsior from Green Stamp, renovate it and call it the Peabody Little Rock.

The project gave the hotel a dramatic new look, as workers replaced marble floors, added new carpet, enclosed the plaza, built a new car port and refurbished every guest and public space.

Two other Peabody Hotels operate in Memphis and Orlando, Fla. The hotels are famous for their marching ducks, which reside on the roof of the hotel and are escorted down the elevator and into the fountain in the lobby of the hotel by a “duck master” twice a day.

(Kate Knable contributed to this report.)