Arkansas Blog

Just ask the folks in Memphis about this. Bass Pro has been promising to put a store in the Pyramid for the last couple of years......

Just ask the folks in Memphis about this. Bass Pro has been promising to put a store in the Pyramid for the last couple of years......

Dark Hollow has been drained already. I believe it was done originally back in the 60's. Then when warehousing was developed back in the 80's it was more drained (I am not a journalist and the lack of a better term escapes me).

Currently "they" are re-redraining it again. There have been dozers and loaders and shovels deepening and widening the "creek" for the last month.

I am in the area daily and I can't for the life of me see how they can develope access to the sight that is practical.

Approaching the development from Conway, Hazen or Jacksonville one is required to exit I-40 or 67-167 way before the development is visible. Little Rock shoppers are the only ones that could actually see the store before needing to exit the highway.

This is bogus that it would draw from beyond Pulaski County. People from Cabot, Benton, Forrest City, Clinton, etc, etc, etc. HATE driving in Little Rock as it is without the cluster fk interchange that is proposed.

This will destroy the easy flow of traffic in the exchange (this is satire, we all know it sucks already) then the businesses will constanly fail since no-one wants to hassle with access and it will be a seemingly cursed developement that will end up empty.

These corporate shake-down artists have this routine down to a polished routine. Find a mid sized town with a mayor who likes his ego stroked, locate a derelict property and then promise the mayor the moon if he'll just pony up some goodies. It never fails and every time the shake-down artist leaves and the town is left holding some monstrous white elephant building.

And the taxpayers are once again holding the bag. It only took me twice to learn not to go on snipe hunts, why don't our pols ever learn?

Ah Max - I know that Bass Pro brought in a new What-a-burger and seems like there's a gas station there too now. What else could you want?

Now, the real development is across the lake in Rockwall.

Excuse me 70%er, but if were a little better informed you would know that the development group that is building the Bass Pro is the same group that is responsible for redeveloping the Hilton on University, the Peabody downtown as well as other projects around the state. And a little more research would tell you that on both the Hilton & Peabody they got some help from the city of Little Rock like they are from North Little Rock. Have the taxpayers been left holding the bag on those developments? Or would you dare admit that they have actually helped the city by keeping those properties well maintained than they had been previously?

These are not fly-by-night development firms from New York, LA or Tokyo. These are regional players who have a stake in our state and want to see it thrive! Besides the area in Dark Hollow is not a pristine wetland - actually far from it. Do your homework before you speak and don't let Max get you all up in arms. He just has his panties in a wad because NLR is actually attracting the projects that LR believes it should have. Which means he'll have to suck it up and drive across the river if he wants to check it out. Thats fine Max, you can stay on the south side of the river, we don't need your kind over here anyway.

ARK. BLOG: Such hospitality. And to a former resident of your fair city. (217 1/2 E. 18th.)

Justagirl- hope you don't live in one of those NLR neighborhoods with regular shoot-em-ups that folks at your City Council meetings tell the mayor and Aldermen "you'd better do something or somebody is going to get killed".

Re your statement "regional players who have a stake in our state and want to see it thrive"- they want to see their part of it thrive, that's all. It's all about making lots of green no matter who ends up getting run over. Those folks don't give a damn about you or me or anything else but their wallets.

Sound Policy - What does one have to do with the other? Their expertise is real estate development so, somehow they're responsible for troubled neighborhoods? I know you'll make the argument that the TIFs will take away money from the school system which means the class sizes will increase and "at risk" students will get less of the attention that they need. But the problem with that is that the people responsible for the shootings you reference in your post have not yet been impacted by the lack of school funding theorized by your kind.

What about the troubled neighborhoods on the south side of the river? Little Rock is not the Utopia some of you think it is. I'm sure you're committing all of your time to help those who need lots of guidance so that they don't fall into a life of crime becasue you don't care anything about "making lots of green", and if that is the case then I applaud you! But you can't save people from "getting run over" if you're sitting at your computer complaining about others, so go back outside and save the world!

I don't know. This report of a Bass pro in Dallas having failed to deliver is a precedence worth examining. The two situations sound similar. I think the effect of traffic trying to exit and enter the I-40 will make that interchange a nightmare to navigate and without extensive investment in the transportation infrastructure there ( plus it will have to include segregated bicycle paths because the city master plan calls for it ) it will be worse than a nightmare to drive through.

Justagirl, the difference in this project is the amount of construction which will have to be done by the city of NLR to get people in and out of the development. At last count is was $12 million? Generally this amount is doubled before it's all said and done. This money will be paid by the fine citizens of NLR of which I'm one. What do we get out of this bargain? We get another bloated big box covering the wetland which accepts half of the drainage of the city. Last time I checked, asphalt is pretty poor at absorbing storm run-off. Oh yeah, as an added bonus we totally screw up an intersection where 3 freeways meet. Think how awful this area is durning rush hour. It will be this bad and worse most of the time after construction.

If the NLR taxpayers are going to subsidize one sporting goods store, they should subsidize them all.

This is corporate welfare, pure and simple.

The icing on the cake is that 99% of these real estate developers are Republicans who say they oppose governmental interference in the free market.

And they say it with their mouths full of taxpayer money.

Justagirl,

Perhaps an adult explanation of the function of wetlands is in order. And, if you can't at least admit that this is a horrible place to develop, regardless of the "positive" economic impact, then you're just demagoguing.

http://www.geotimes.org/aug07/article.html?id=feature_wetland.html

Pristine-ness of a wetland is about as important as pristine-ness of my car's muffler.

Perhaps I read it on ArkTimes first, but Gander Mountain actually spends its own money to fight giveaways to other outdoor retail outlets. If you're interested in a clearinghouse site for this topic, here it is: http://www.sayno2outdoorsretailsubsidies.com/index.html

Just a girl,

Who claims little rock is an Utopia?

I haven't seen anyone do that in a while.

I live in LR.

My office for 18 years in NLR.

I don't care which gets what.

For "going outside and save the world", I am in many civic minded organizations. My proudest is that I am in my 10th year as a Big Brothers Big Sisters voluteer. 2005 Big Brother of the year for the whole state of Arkansas. My "Little" (fatherless boy whose parents divorced before he was born) is currently making college plans after planning to graduate in the class of 2010.

I run a manufacturing business (in Dark Hollow) for a national company that is adding jobs in North Little Rock, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago while our competition is going overseas.

I STRONGLY disagree with government giving a subsidy to 1 business while disadvantaging other currnet tax paying direct competitors.

There will be NO NEW JOBS ADDED in cnetral Arkansas if Bass Pro opens with subsidies and others such as Fort Thompson, Gander Mountain, Academy Sports, Sports Authority etc either cut back or close.

GET GOVERNMENT OFF OUR BACKS AND OUT OF OUR BUSINESSES!!!!! Isn't that what Republicans desire?

justagirl - the type of government handout (TIF) Bass Pro will receive for planting a store in Dark Hollow is much different from what Belz Burrow received for rennovating the old Excelsior. I applaud BB for the work on the Peabody and Hilton but their fine work on those two projects doesn't justify spoiling a wetland and giving a sporting goods store corporate welfare. BB should find a more suitable location and build the shopping center without tax payer money.

just a girl, if you read the suggested article it will give you a good idea of the function of wetlands. in lr the fourche creek system is a good example. 25 years ago the development in west and north parts or little rock had caused silt filling up the fourche creek system which drained downstream into southwest little rock. this was through a series of city parks which had been designated as drainage areas, war memorial, the baseball fields at rodney parham and the interstate, ect. when storms hit these areas whould flood. by allowing settling they would alleviate flooding in sw little rock. when they silted up they would flood sw lr. when this got too bad tragedy happened and there was loss of life and major property damage many times. we lived on a hill on fair park and once got stranded because opf flooding in the area, that is a lot of water. by easing this by cleaing the system the city has stopped the flooding and solved the majority of the problem in sw lr. it seems like runoff in the cantrell area wouldn't effect swlr but it does. this same thing happens everywhere.

well the same thing will happen in nlr. you don't create wetlands. they occur naturally and do much of their work underground and you cannot create that. nlr is asking for very expensive and long term trouble and they refused to listen to people.

Hey Girl - you don't even have a clue about what you are talking about!

My first career was spent in the retail business. Had the good fortune to manage the number one retail property in Arkansas. Now, that being said, I learned the old saying "location, location, location".

The property to which you refer is probably the biggest piece of shit I have ever seen. Been driving the road from Little Rock to Fort Worth for 31 years.

Now, let's drop down in that article and notice that it was a distressed property in the '80's. Big time. A chain link fence around that property for probably 10 years. $350,000.00 Condos on that slab in the '80's and not one of them sold.

Guess what, little brother who is a penny pincher bought a repo on the golf course in Fort Worth and then went and dismantled one of those condos on Lake Ray Hubbard. 10 cents on the dollar. Do the math, $350,000 for $3,500.

Now that being said, I stopped there on my way to Fort Worth for Thanksgiving. The parking lot was one quarter full and when I entered the store, I could have shot bows, arrows, muskets and even cannon balls and not hit a soul. It was the same on my trip back home on Sunday and that should have been one of the bigger days of the year.

Now, I can't remember if it was Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day that I picked up the Star Telegram and Fort Worth is talking about it's Bass Pro Shop and it's woes with TIF financing. Now I'm sorry, but a Bass Pro Shop in North Fort Worth? I can see The Stockyards, Billy Bob's and Joe T. Garcia but a Bass Pro Shop?

Let's go back to the old addage, location, location, location.