Copyright Arkansas Online
The North Little Rock City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Monday night, creating its third entertainment district in five years and the second in the Park Hill area. The ordinance, sponsored by council members Debi Ross and Nathan Hamilton, designates the Lakehill Shopping Center on John F. Kennedy Boulevard as the Lakehill Entertainment District, effective immediately. The "entertainment district" designation allows customers of establishments that serve alcohol to consume it outdoors in covered cups from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The shopping center, located at 4000 John F. Kennedy Blvd., has two bars and one Mexican restaurant. They include the North Bar, the Mexican restaurant Mariscos Tierra Caliente and the recently opened Pizza Pub. The designation for Lakehill comes just over a year after the property of Hogg's Meat Market, located across from Lakehill at 3901 John F. Kennedy Blvd., was designated the Park Hill Entertainment District. The first was the Argenta district, which was established in 2020 to help businesses during the covid-19 pandemic. The Pizza Pub is co-owned by Conan Robinson, owner of Four Quarter Bar in Argenta, and Jess McMullen, who co-owns Brood & Barley. McMullen addressed the city council before the vote was taken and acknowledged the last time he was in the council chambers was to thank them for creating the Argenta entertainment district. "The reason I want to speak to you tonight is we're not quite facing the same thing in the restaurant business that we did during covid," McMullen said. "But I will tell you that a lot of my friends in the business are struggling." McMullen said the prospect of Lakehill parking lot being established as an entertainment district is an "opportunity" for the establishments located there. When he and Robinson were presented with idea of purchasing the spot where Pizza Pub is located, McMullen said he "didn't know a lot about Park Hill" because of his focus on his Argenta businesses. "Then went to do my research and found out there were 3,500 homes in Lakeland Heights and Lakewood and Park Hill altogether, it was a no brainer," McMullen said. "I just wanted to ask you to support (the ordinance). We definitely know what we're doing. We will keep it under control." Robinson, who has been a resident of the Park Hill area for 20 years, said most of the events they'd plan -- about five a year -- would be on Sunday afternoons. "We're going to invite the community, as far as other businesses that they want to set up ... setting up a booth for guitar lessons, or any of the places down there," Robinson said. "We want it to be a community center type thing. People could bring stuff they made. Just want to make it cool for everyone. It's not just, 'hey, let's go drink in the parking lot.'" "That's only a small part of it," McMullen said with a laugh. In other developments at Monday night's meetings, the council voted to approve commission appointments by Mayor Terry Hartwick. Stephen Bentley was approved to join the city's Parks and Recreation Commission for a term that would end on April 26, 2026. The council also voted for approval for the mayor's office and the city clerk to enter into an agreement between the city and Mainstream Technologies Inc. for sponsor and naming rights of the NLR Event Center meeting rooms. The agreement is for $100,000 over the course of five years. There will be a Power Cost Adjustment for customers of North Little Rock Electric in November. Ryan Wilson, the general manager of NLR Electric, informed the city clerk's office on Oct. 17 that the Energy Risk Management Committee had approved a rate of $0.0128 per kilowatt hour for bills during the month.
