Downtown Little Rock’s River Market is nearing its 30th birthday, and plans are forming to deliver an overdue update to its Ottenheimer Market Hall and twin pavilions.
Expectations are that a design team will be hired in the coming weeks to reimagine the city-owned, half-block development at 400 President Clinton Ave.
“We have not signed a contract,” said Dean Kumpuris, city director and long-time River Market booster. “We’re doing some due diligence. We don’t have a concept yet to move forward with redesigning the River Market.”
A leading candidate for creating a blueprint for a River Market revamp is the Lawrence Group of St. Louis. The architecture firm produced the transformative plans for its hometown City Foundry STL project, a 15-acre mixed-use redevelopment of the former Federal-Mogul foundry in the Cortex Innovation District.
Completed in 2021, the first phase of City Foundry included a food hall with a menu of 17 restaurants operated by local chefs. At 33,000 SF, the St. Louis food hall is twice the size of the Ottenheimer Market Hall and provides a shiny example of the Lawrence Group’s adaptive reuse vision.
A template for what a remaking of the River Market hall and pavilions might incorporate began taking shape as part of a 2019 study commissioned by the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau, which manages the River Market project.
Among the recommendations of that $39,725 study were food offerings prepared by up-and-coming chefs and the addition of a second-floor mezzanine area for events.
As part of the study, a focus group of young professionals listed a mix of current and new items of importance for the Market Hall. A bar and later hours were among the new considerations with a continued emphasis on local businesses, international cuisine and a farmers market.
The River Market pavilions have hosted a downtown farmers market on Saturdays (May through August this year) since its launch 28 years ago.
Counting the Cost
In its 2019 presentation to the Little Rock Advertising & Promotion Commission, consulting firm Market Ventures Inc. of Portland, Maine, placed an estimated $3.6 million price tag on remaking the River Market project.
Renovating the River Market hall is a $3 million line item in the proposed 10-year, 0.625% sales tax increase championed by Mayor Frank Scott.
Kumpuris said the River Market makeover is not contingent on passage of that $650 million tax package, which includes a permanent 0.375% tax increase for city operations.
“It’s going to get done one way or another,” he said. “The easiest way to get it done is through the sales tax. But if that doesn’t happen, it will still get done.”
Sales tax approval or not, Kumpuris expects the effort will be another public-private partnership as was the original funding formula that backed the River Market development 28 years ago.
The $3.5 million River Market complex was developed through a mix of federal, state and city funds along with $1 million from private sources. The project blended new construction with the historic three-story Dickinson Hardware Building.
In 2011, the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau took over management of the River Market project, originally managed by the Downtown Partnership.
“Right now, we’re trying to keep leases short-term, anticipating a potential transition in the near future,” said Chris Phillips, senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Monthly lease rates have bounced here and yon over the years with Arkansas Business archives capturing a range of $17 per SF in 2003 to $3 per SF in 2011. While some slots are available for lease, maintaining the status quo is the order of the day with an eye toward a full-blown renovation.
“I hope we get to the point where we need to close the whole place so it will be reimagined, big and exciting,” Kumpuris said.
Officially opened on July 5, 1996, with a grand opening on Aug. 5, the River Market hall featured an original roster of retail-heavy tenants that included a butcher, a baker but no candlestick maker.
“When we first started, it was going to be more like a market,” Kumpuris said. “Over time, it’s turned into more of a mall food court. We want to create a place where people come back for dinner.”
That would entail bigger footprints for tenants capable of delivering pricier menu items to draw patrons to the River Market. The possibility of enclosing pavilion space is on the table as well.
Once envisioned as an incubator for merchants and restaurants, the River Market hall has served as a foodie magnet for out-of-towners and locals alike. Perhaps that’s the lasting legacy of a trailblazing project that helped bring new life to a dormant part of downtown and help create today’s River Market District.
“I think it’s been a great experiment,” Kumpuris said. “It’s been good for the city.
“If there’s anything we wish, it’s that we would’ve contemplated making changes sooner.”
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