Financial Quarter organizers are working to implement phase one of a three-phase plan, beginning with a possible event in March that builds on the Little Rock Marathon.
Creating the Financial Quarter is an effort led by StudioMAIN and a volunteer committee, who aim to improve and revitalize the area stretching from Sixth Street to the Arkansas River between Broadway and Main Street in downtown Little Rock.
The project began in May 2014, with the goal of drawing people out of their offices and on to the streets. According to Glen Woodruff, director of business development for Wittenberg Delony & Davidson Architects of Little Rock and the StudioMAIN coordinator for the project, employees go into the parking decks, take the elevator to their offices and leave when 5 p.m. comes around.
"They never come out in the street, they never engage the retail opportunities that are downtown and in the River Market and as a result, what we're calling the Financial Quarter sort of dried up over the years," Woodruff told Arkansas Business in August. "That used to be the center of town, and it’s not any more."
The area includes 20 city blocks plus the riverfront and houses 43 office buildings and four hotels.
Phase one of the Financial Quarter includes three main objectives: to plan a "pop-up" event, add street furniture and make use of "pop-up" kiosks.
Inaugural Event
At a regular committee meeting on Tuesday, the group discussed hosting a happy-hour event on March 3, the Thursday before the Little Rock Marathon. The marathon’s final mile will go through part of the Financial Quarter.
"The whole idea of the Financial Quarter is that there is already a population in this part of town," Woodruff said.
Now the goal is to keep that population there longer. According to data from studioMAIN, the office towers in the area alone contain about 6,000 employees there every day.
Tentative plans for a pre-marathon event revolve around the goal of keeping people in the downtown area after work instead of heading straight from the office to home. The event would focus on food and revolve around food trucks and various local restaruants. Everything discussed at the meeting was tentative and nothing has been set or decided.
Branding the Financial Quarter
The group is also working to devise branding for the area with the help of volunteer committee member Gwen Canfield, a graphic designer and the owner of Creative Instinct. In a Facebook poll hosted from the Financial Quarter’s Facebook page, Canfield asked for feedback on three Financial Quarter logo options.
The winner, a simple four-square design with one square or "quarter" of the image highlighted, received 53 percent of 138 votes. Canfield is collecting pricing information for banners that could be hung from light poles in the area and said they would likely need 42 banners, which would cost around $3,000.
According to Woodruff, funding for the Financial Quarter has come from donations from property owners in the area. The committee has not yet addressed where future funding might come from.
Future Plans
Phase two of the plan includes a continuation of adding street furniture as well as a redesign of the area's plaza and lobbies.
Six blank lobbies exist on Capitol Avenue, designed mainly during the 1970s and 1980s. With more modern banking taking place online, organizers says those lobbies are underused.
StudioMAIN proposes that "the lobbies be redesigned in a manner that provides for retail space and eating establishments."
The Financial Quarter also includes seven plazas and wide streetscapes that the committee believes should be enhanced and redesigned.
In the third and final phase of the project entails creating high-rise housing, updating the street design and increasing parking.