It’s mid-July as I write, and COVID-19 cases have been rising precipitously across Arkansas for weeks. On top of the fear and stress about the virus, thousands of Arkansans remain unemployed and uncertain about when they might return to work, or if their previous employer will reopen at all. The city of Little Rock won’t have a true reckoning of the financial impact of all of this for months, but we have already reduced the 2020 budget by $5 million in response.
Things are a mess, but many great business people believe that there is opportunity in chaos, maybe none more so than property developers. During these past few months, the Little Rock market has been hot as developers have moved to do what they do, which is to take advantage of fluctuations in markets that allow them, ultimately, to wring another point or two of margin out of a project. In June alone, the city issued 21 single-family housing permits, 51 units of multifamily housing and more than 10,000 square feet of commercial space, all of which align with annual averages.
I’m not as surprised as some are by the activity. Little Rock has seen growth in every ward of the city every year since the end of the Great Recession. Obviously, some wards have seen quite a lot more investment than others, but the city’s growth has been ticking upward for close to a decade now. And while I’m grateful, I’m unsatisfied with the rate and reach of our growth.
Since we took office in January 2019, we have added 2,513 jobs to Little Rock’s economy, and we’ll continue to work with all of our partners to ensure that we are competing to attract the best companies from around the world. Helping existing businesses, particularly small businesses, grow is another area where we want to work with partners to bolster our results, and in August we plan to unveil a new portal on the littlerock.gov website dedicated to small-business information. I’m proud of our record of job creation so far, but again, we must do more.
In an environment where many workers have increasing power over where they live and work, cities such as Little Rock have to have abundant housing choices, strong neighborhoods and great amenities in order to compete. To move that way, our focus in 2020 has been the creation of a better, faster, stronger development cycle in the city of Little Rock.
In May our City Board approved an ordinance making the first comprehensive revisions to zoning, infrastructure and development laws since the 1980s. The changes streamline cumbersome processes by removing outdated steps and implementing new technology. These revisions also open the door to allowing developers and neighborhoods to petition for zoning changes that will allow new approaches and designs, such as tiny houses or different lot configurations, where previous zoning prevented it.
These changes will impact developers across every facet of the industry, working in every corner of the city. I’m particularly interested in the impact on redevelopment projects in neighborhoods in our city’s core. We have strong developers working in the neighborhoods south of Interstate 630. We want more, and our Little Rock Opportunity Zone Task Force is just one way we’re working to identify both potential projects and partners.
We are exploring redevelopment and revitalization projects across the city, talking with both public and private partners, big and small about ways we can collaborate to create neighborhoods whose residents enjoy better outcomes across health, education and economic indicators.
I am energized by all of these conversations and eager to get to work, but there is still one piece missing. There are some projects and some neighborhoods that I don’t think we will help in my lifetime without an incentive program. Tax increment financing (TIF) programs are used successfully in cities around the country, but our school financing formula makes that approach problematic in Arkansas.
We need something different that is targeted very tightly to make abuse difficult; that prioritizes school funding, yet mitigates what is going to be tremendous risk for developers on some projects. I know that many of my peers around the state are looking at these same issues, and I anticipate some interesting conversations in the months ahead.
A beautiful city that provides a place for everyone to pursue their dreams in safety and good health — these are modest goals, but it will take residents from across our city, uniting to work together, to bring them to reality.
Frank Scott Jr. is the mayor of Little Rock.

Things are a mess, but many great business people believe that there is opportunity in chaos, maybe none more so than property developers.