News is bubbling up in Hot Springs, where Mayor Pat McCabe and his wife, Ellen, are planning a boutique hotel in the Hale Bathhouse and the city is brainstorming on what to do with the site of the old Majestic Hotel.
McCabe, who is the subject of this week’s Executive Q&A, told Whispers that he and Ellen have a deal with the National Park Service, which owns Bathhouse Row as part of Hot Springs National Park, to develop seven rooms and two suites on the second level of the Hale structure and two eateries on the first level.
The bathhouse, completed in 1893 and extensively renovated over the years, closed as a spa in 1978. “The main level will consist of two public restaurants,” McCabe said in an email. “Casual dining in the foyer will consist of approximately 73 chairs. The back dining area will be upscale casual and serve as a restaurant and lounge area as well as special occasion dining,” with 160 seats.
The McCabes responded to a Park Service request for proposals to make use of the bathhouse, the oldest structure on Bathhouse Row, more than three years ago. Their project got the green light in July 2014. “Since that date, we have been working to satisfy all the requirements,” McCabe said.
Contractor bid packets were to be distributed Friday, and once bids are reviewed, “we will be able to proceed to lease signing and loan closing,” said McCabe, who expects construction work to take about five months.
More Hot Water
Down the road at the intersection of Central and Park avenues — the site of the 1892 Majestic Hotel, which burned spectacularly in 2014 and was demolished last fall — test wells are being drilled to determine the feasibility of building outdoor thermal pools. The pools might be modeled on successful outdoor pools in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, that charge $20 and more for admission, according to Bill Solleder, marketing director of Visit Hot Springs.
The city’s goals for the site include economic development, improving the quality of life for residents while enhancing the “visitor experience” and celebrating “the natural wonder of our thermal water” while respecting the art, history and culture of the city.
One complication for planners is lingering environmental concerns about a laundry facility, a petroleum storage bunker and residue from asbestos-tainted rubble. All were once present at the site.
“The redevelopment planning activities are moving along,” said Lance Spicer, the assistant city manager. In an email, Spicer said the city is getting advice from Kansas State University’s Technical Assistance to Brownfields program and the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture & Design. Meetings and a public input session are planned later this summer.
Woods and Wheels
Hot Springs is also working with the International Mountain Bicycling Association to establish trails through a development known as the Northwoods Urban Forest, on 2,000 acres of pristine city-owned land just northeast of downtown that holds several lakes the city has used as its water source.
Though plans for a 65-mile biking and hiking trail between Central High School in Little Rock and Hot Springs National Park hit a roadblock in late June when the Pulaski County Quorum Court balked at a funding proposal to facilitate federal matching money, Hot Springs remains committed to bicycling.
City leaders see the sport as “the new golf,” a tourism draw and an attractor for millennial residents. Pulaski, Saline and Garland counties were being asked to provide 20 percent of the cost, about $520,000, while the federal government would pick up the $2.6 million bulk of the tab.
Despite the Pulaski County setback, Hot Springs will continue to focus on bicycling. “The people who participate in the sport have some money,” Solleder said. “Those mountain bikes don’t cost $200; they cost $8,000, and bicyclists are great for us. They’ll come to town, they’ll park their car, they’ll get their hotel, get their bike out and hit all the trails. Then they’ll eat and they’ll drink and have a good time.”
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