Huntington Square properties in Jonesboro get a big rebrand

Heather Walker-Clark and her husband, Mat Clark, have created a buzzworthy block in downtown Jonesboro. On Huntington Avenue, just west of Madison Street, the entrepreneurial couple have purchased properties and created office space, a boutique hotel, indoor and outdoor events space and food and beverage facilities, such as The Glass Factory and PorchThirty.

Recently, they revealed plans to rebrand the whole block of businesses and properties into the Hotel at Huntington Square, the Porch at Huntington Square and the Lounge at Huntington Square. The effort is aimed at unifying a lot of the offerings.

Walker-Clark caught up with NEA Talk Business & Politics Editor-in-Chief Roby Brock for a conversation.

Roby Brock: Let’s talk about some changes that are going on in your block of downtown Jonesboro. Tell me a little bit about what you have rebranded.

Heather Walker-Clark: As you know, we have a few businesses on the property, and we had what I felt like were great names for each of them and super fun. But as we were changing the focus on one of our businesses at the Glass Factory, we decided to make the property and the development in order to make it feel like all one development. We thought we maybe should rebrand.

So Intersect 311 became the Hotel at Huntington Square, and we turned the indoor area at the food truck park into a bar. We’re calling that the Porch at Huntington Square to give some honor to its original name, which was Porch Thirty, if you remember. And then of course, the Glass Factory is no longer. We decided to step away from the wedding business. We are rebranding and we’ve done reconstruction and turned it into the Lounge at Huntington Square, which is a speakeasy, loungy restaurant where Ciao will be joining us when we open. Their food is so amazing, and we really couldn’t think of anybody better to partner with in terms of who would do our food. We knew that we needed food that matched the new ambiance, and so we’re going to handle everything on the front side and they’re going to handle the food, so we’re super stoked about being in business with them.

Brock: What’s the target audience for the Lounge at Huntington Square? What type of business are you trying to develop there?

Walker-Clark: We’ll be open to the public Thursday through Saturday and eventually Sundays also, but we’re trying to target people that want a high-end place to hang out. It’s very art deco in decoration and sophisticated, and it’s got a lot of Prohibition-era feel to it, and it’s low-light. So it will be for people that want to have a nice place to go on Friday, Saturday night or business owners that want to entertain clients or put their employees at the Hotel at Huntington Square and allow them to have a nice place to eat dinner.

We’ll still rent it out for corporate events, especially on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We set the space up as a hybrid space with a stage and a full AV system. So we’re really excited about that because we’re still going to be doing some Christmas parties and corporate events and seminars, which were events that we always really enjoyed, but we’re also going to be open to the public where people can come grab high-end cocktails, craft beers, really, really great food by Ciao and just enjoy their night and not feel like they have to hurry up and eat their meal and leave. This will be a space where you can hang out all night.

Brock: And we are, of course, looking forward to bringing our annual Northeast Arkansas Women in Business Awards up there in about a month or so. Thank you for being our host for that.

Walker-Clark: We’re super stoked about doing that again, too. We appreciate that.

Brock: Tell me a little bit about the Porch at Huntington Square. Is the focus of what you do there with the food trucks and the outdoor entertainment and relaxation, is that going to change?

Walker-Clark: We are refocusing our attention to the inside area. We’ve got an entirely new menu. We’ll be changing out the menu for every season. The original idea was that we would build an indoor area for the outdoor area so that when it was hot or raining or cold, people could still come inside and eat and get out of the elements. But what has organically happened is the indoor area kind of turned into a hot spot for downtown. So we’re taking advantage of that. I guess you could say we’re letting the market drive what we’re doing. That’s what our customers wanted and so we’re shifting our focus to the inside area. We’re calling it the Porch, and we still have the outdoor area with some food trucks that are always available, but the focus now will be the Porch.

Brock: Finally, let’s talk a little bit about the hotel industry. You have a boutique hotel in your space there, and obviously you’re rebranding it as well. How’s the market for the boutique hotel business right now? What type of clients are you attracting?

Walker-Clark: 2023 was a great year. The beginning of this year was a little bit lower in numbers. I think because of we’re starting to really feel the full effects of inflation, but it also kind of feels like there’s an uptick happening now. I don’t know if it’s connected to the election, I’m not sure, but it doesn’t matter to me. The numbers are looking good. We host a lot of families coming in for soccer tournaments, baseball tournaments, softball tournaments, people coming to a state for events, business travelers that are coming in for work, doctors, nurses that are coming in for the hospitals. And then sometimes families just put their family at our place because they either don’t have enough room at their house or their guests want to have a little bit of space. It’s just a plethora of different types of customers.

Brock: Last question for you. This rebranding and everything that you’re doing here, it’s a huge undertaking, and I’m going to tell you something you already know. It’s a big risk. How nervous were you to jump off of that diving board into the deep end and really make that swim?

Walker-Clark: Pretty nervous, I would say, but we also felt like we had to do it. Cari White, who was with the Jonesboro Chamber for a long time, once told me in my early years in Jonesboro, if you’re a business owner and you’re not evolving and changing, then you’re dying. I never forgot that. Mat and I really work hard to constantly evaluate, and we constantly ask our customers for feedback, and we try really hard to listen to them. Our employees have strong opinions also, and they’re super smart, and they tell us what they hear and give us feedback. So we try to listen to them too.

But we really felt like we didn’t have a choice. We also were kind of excited about it because Mat and I like creating new things, and this felt like a new thing within an existing thing. So yeah, I’m nervous, but I’m nervous every time we do anything. But it feels exciting at the same time.