Apartments, restaurant planned for downtown Fort Smith building

A Fort Smith-based company that develops and manages apartment complexes around the state will invest “at least $1 million” in renovating the former Davis Furniture building in downtown Fort Smith.

Joseph Meadows and his father, Jim, purchased the three-story, 24,000-square-foot building Aug. 31, and have plans to develop loft apartments on the top two floors and placing a restaurant-bar on the first floor.

“It’s a naked shell on the inside as of now,” Joseph said Wednesday afternoon.

The Meadows’ will soon meet with architects and engineers to plan the renovation specifics. The work should begin in “a few months,” with completion of the entire project expected no later than the end of 2010, Joseph said.

Joseph said he hopes to get at least 10 loft apartments into the top two floors. He would not say whether the restaurant-bar would be self operated or leased to a tenant.

“I think you might be surprised by what we do with that,” Joseph said with a teasing laugh.

There are no plans for the basement space, Joseph said.

“This is something new for us, to keep it interesting. Downtown has come alive recently, and it’s just a good time to get into the downtown,” Joseph said.

The Meadow’s operate Southwest Resource Group, which owns five complexes in the Fort Smith area and is building a 256-unit complex in Searcy. They recently sold all their out-of-state holdings, Joseph said.

With years of apartment experience under their belt, the Meadows’ said their research and understanding of the market has them convinced good demand soon will exist for loft apartment space in downtown Fort Smith. He said the $2.1 million Arvest Bank branch at 816 Garrison Ave., the more the $500,000 expansion of Bill Neumeier’s Rib Room at 817 Garrison, the potential for University of Arkansas at Fort Smith student housing in the downtown area and other recent development activities in the area bode well for his project.

“Hopefully we’ll get more people down on the eastern end of the avenue,” Joseph said. “The Rib Room and the other deals, they will be awesome … they will be great for the downtown. We think this will be a neat place to live in a few years.”

The Davis Furniture building became vacant in April 2005 when Jerry Davis closed the family-owned furniture business that opened in 1952.