Downtown Little Rock Undergoes Renaissance

Downtown Little Rock has seen a transformation. Where boarded store-fronts used to line the streets of the center city, there are now shops, improved streetscapes, and upscale restaurants and hotels. New real estate has sprung up on the banks of the Arkansas River. The River Market (a farmers market) has found its way from a parking lot to a new pavilion. "Since the River Market opened in 1996, Little Rock and North Little Rock have seen $145.7 million in development. Another $595.7 million is either planned or under way." Anchoring all of this development and re-investment, the Clinton Presidential Library will open near the River Market in 2004. If all that weren't enough, actor Ted Danson and his wife, actress Mary Steenburgen, have bought a condo in town - a vote of confidence that did not go unnoticed in the small urban setting.Says local developer Jimmy Moses: "This has the potential to be the best small urban city in the country."