Taggart Architects of North Little Rock, the Arkansas Automobile Dealers Association and the North Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau held a groundbreaking Tuesday for their $10 million, 25,000-SF office building at 600 Main St. in the Argenta Historic District of North Little Rock.
They expect the building to be finished in less than a year’s time, and that budget covers every cost, including furniture.
“This is a big day for Taggart Architects,” CEO Bill Gray said. “Taggart Architects has been a lifelong member of the North Little Rock business community for 45 years, and we’ve been trying to relocate down in the Argenta District for seven years.
“We’ve designed several different buildings down here, but for some reason or another, a deal hadn’t come through. Last year, everything fell into place.”
The firm, which will be housed on the third floor, had originally planned to build a one-story building for just its offices. But that changed when the AADA and NLRCVB approached the firm to join the project, Gray said.
“This building represents a new chapter in the AADA’s history, and we could not be more proud to break the ground on this site in honor of all current and past auto dealers of Arkansas,” said Gan Nunnally, board chairman of the AADA and executive director of George Nunnally Chevrolet in Bentonville.
The AADA represents 225 automobile dealers in Arkansas and an industry that accounts for almost 22,000 jobs and $8 billion in total sales. Its offices will be on the second floor.
The NLRCVB will occupy the first floor. President and CEO Bob Major called Argenta the city’s “front porch” and Burns Park, where the bureau has been for years, its “backyard.”
“Rest assured that, although we’re in North Little Rock’s downtown, we’re promoting all of North Little Rock and feel like we could do a much better job from here,” he said.
The bureau will have a retail store and a glass-encased visitors center in the new building.
Also planned for the area: the $10 million, six-story global headquarters for First Orion Corp. of Little Rock at 520 Main St. and the $4.4 million Argenta Plaza, which will be a public space on Main Street between Fifth and Sixth streets.
Plans for the plaza include a free-standing water wall, fountains, an audiovisual screen wall and a “front porch” with porch swings.
Both projects are expected to be completed this summer.