I guess LR is having a dowtown condo boom.....
Bank of England owners plan upscale riverfront condos in LR
BY DAVID SMITH ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
The owners of the Bank of England plan to add five floors onto a riverfront building and offer 12 condominiums — including two that are the most expensive in downtown Little Rock.
The Residences at Building 5 plans call for one upper-story, 6,300-square-foot unfinished space to be offered at a pre-construction price of $2.2 million, Brad Canada said Wednesday. Lonoke County bankers, he and his father, Gary Canada, are partners in the project, expected to be complete by next summer.
The Residences is the latest in a growing number of condo projects in downtown. Residential space is considered crucial to revitalizing downtown, which has suffered from lack of investment in recent years.
The building is a little-noticed, redbrick structure next to the Doubletree Hotel. The seven-story building (including two floors underground) was owned by the Arkansas Bar Foundation until the Canadas, under the name Arkansas Riverview Development LLC, bought it last year for $950,000.
The location offers a panoramic view of the Arkansas River. Across the river from the site for the planned baseball field for the Arkansas Travelers, the site has an impressive view of downtown Little Rock to the south.
"You can sit in your condo and see the river on one side and the skyline on the other," Brad Canada said.
All 12 condos will have views of both the river and Little Rock.
The project will have six stories of condominiums, including the top floor of the existing building. The condominiums will range from about 1,350 square feet, with a pre-construction price of $395,000, to the 11 th-floor condo, which will be almost 6,300 square feet.
The top-floor condo will have a swimming pool. It also will have a large study above the 12th floor connected by a stairway, creating what is essentially a small 13th floor. Brad Canada said he does not plan to offer the top-floor condo for sale, but plans to live in it.
"The requirement from the city and the codes calls for a building that tall to have an auxiliary source for the sprinkler system," said Gary Clough of Taggart Foster Currence Gray Architects Inc. in North Little Rock, which designed the building. "So we decided to put in a swimming pool."
The 10 th-floor condo, which covers almost 5,700 square feet, is going for $1.95 million. After that, it’s a big drop to the next largest condos, two that are about 1,960 square feet and priced at $690,000 and $670,000.
"It’s such a unique building," Brad Canada said from the office of England Lending, a mortgage banking affiliate of Bank of England which is in the building. "We’re just basically sitting something on top of what’s already here. The architects did a good job."
Canada declined to disclose the cost of the project.
Each of the condos will feature a 6-foot-by-12-foot outside balcony, Clough said. The underground floors of the building are connected to the Doubletree’s parking garage, giving residents of the condos reserved parking.
Rett Tucker of Moses Tucker Real Estate said he was pleased to hear about plans for the project.
"It’s another validation of downtown housing," Tucker said, adding that "it’s a neat location" with "great views."
Word of the project comes after Tower Investments LLC of Woodland, Calif., revealed its makeover plans on Sept. 19 for buildings in an area whose boundaries are Sixth Street and Capitol Avenue, and Louisiana and Main streets.
Under that mixed-use plan, 94 condos will be developed in the Lafayette, Arkansas, M.M. Cohn, Kahn and Boyle buildings. The project has two phases, with the second phase scheduled to be finished in 2007.
In recent years, Little Rockbased Moses Tucker has been the leader in creating downtown residential offerings, sometimes in mixed-use buildings.
The firm currently is working on 300 Third Tower, an 18-story building scheduled to open in 2007 and have 98 condos at Cumberland and Third streets. Some units in the project will cost more than $1 million, including the finishing of condominium shells. Moses Tucker’s past projects include the 14-story First Security Center, which opened last year on President Clinton Avenue and has 24 condos.
The seven-story Arkansas Capital Commerce Center at Commerce and Third streets opened in 2002 and has 16 condos. Other projects include the Tuf-Nut Lofts, which has 31 apartments, as well as The Rainwater Flats, which has 20 condos.
When the Canadas bought the riverfront building, they planned only to convert the top floor of the existing building into condominiums. But after looking at the original plans for the building, they discovered that it was built with the idea of adding more floors, Brad Canada said.
Building The Residences at Building 5 will not be a simple process, Clough said.
The Doubletree encroaches slightly over the property line of the Canadas’ building. When the five floors of condos are added, the building will be within 12 inches of the Doubletree, Clough said.
The structural design will prevent the two buildings from touching in extremely high winds, Clough said.
The only marketing for The Residences at Building 5 is an eight-page brochure that was mailed to homes in upscale neighborhoods, Brad Canada said.
CBM Construction of North Little Rock will build the project. Metropolitan National Bank is providing the financing. Information for this article was provided by Edward Klump of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.