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Arkansas Times

February 08, 2012 News » The Insider

Still a downtown devotee

Scott Reed, the developer of K Lofts on 315 Main St., is still interested in purchasing buildings along Main Street — the Boyle Building, the M.M. Cohn Building, the Arkansas Building and an annex — for redevelopment as artists spaces and residences, he told the Times Tuesday.

Reed was the subject of an online article Feb. 7 in Arkansas Business that reported that thousands of dollars in liens have been filed against his company for the K Lofts project and residential construction in downtown Little Rock. "We've spent a couple million of our own dollars [on renovations downtown] and then I get a front-page story on $70,000 in invoices we're disputing. It's shocking to me that that's the story," Reed said.

The story also reported that Reed, who was both developer and contractor for the K Lofts project, is seeking to evict Porter's Jazz Cafe, the sole tenant at 315 Main, for failure to pay rent. Owners of the jazz club did not return calls to the Times.

Reed and family have returned to Portland, where Reed Realty has an office, but Reed said he is still working in Little Rock.

Reed once offered to match a $150,000 Our Town grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts to the city last summer for a proposed "cultural corridor" between Third and Seventh streets along Main. He withdrew that support, he said, because he had a different vision for development. The grant was reduced to $75,000, with the city providing an in-kind match. The University of Arkansas's Community Development Center and architect Marlon Blackwell are drawing up schematics for the "cultural corridor," where the city hopes investors will restore historic buildings to offer space for performing and visual artists and affordable housing for artists.

Tower Investments owns the buildings that Reed says he is interested in buying.

        
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