LR Tech Park’s first phase advances, former Acxiom exec named new chair

The Little Rock Technology Park Authority on Wednesday moved into a new stage of development with the appointment of former Acxiom Corp. executive Kevin Zaffaroni as chairman, coupled with several actions taken by the seven-board board aimed at generating income and marketing the city’s first startup incubator and village.

At last month’s meeting, longtime and sometimes controversial Tech Park Chair Mary Good announced her resignation and officially ended her tenure at Wednesday’s meeting as an appointee of the University of Little Rock.

Good told the board that UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson has not selected a new appointee to the seven-person board to date, and offered to continue serving the authority until one is chosen. “The chancellor has not found a replacement, but I understand he is working on it,” said the former dean of UALR’s Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology.

Zaffaroni, a former senior vice president of information services at Acxiom, serves on the Tech Park board as an appointee of the University of Arkansas for Medical Services. In January, he was as reappointed by Dr. Dan Rahn to serve another five-year term. Nancy Gray, director of UAMS Bioventures, was also appoint by Rahn to serve on the board at that time, replacing retired UAMS Vice Chancellor Tom Butler.

Before Zaffaroni was unanimously selected by the board to his new post, Tech Park Executive Director Brent Birch providing a detailed listing of completed and pending action items that will help the authority move forward from concept stage to being fully operational.

That included offering the authority an opportunity to choose a new logo that will serve as the brand and marketing tool for city’s effort to attract startups, innovative entrepreneurs and high-growth tech firms to the downtown area. The two logos, provided by Little Rock’s Cranford Co., included one that represented a “digital tree” with the words “Little Rock Tech Park” below it. The other selection was a three-dimension digital cube with the authority’s name underneath.

NEW TECH PARK LOGO BACK ON THE DRAWING BOARD
Jay Cranford, chief creative officer of the downtown Little Rock advertising firm, said his agency studied several Tech Park logos across the country and came up with at least five designs before settling on the two that were presented to the board.

“We wanted something that fit in with the family of Tech Parks across the country, but had its own unique identity that represented Little Rock,” Cranford said.

After considerable discussion concerning the tree-like version of the new Tech Park logo, Good and other board members sent Birch and Cranford literally back to the drawing board to bring them new designs to consider.

“If you look at the really neat logos, they are integrated – this one is not,” Good said. “I want the graphic and the (Little Rock) title to be … tied together more.”

Later in the meeting, the board took another step that will move to the downtown development closer bringing in new revenue by unanimously approving a $144,700 contract with East Harding Construction to begin demolition of the “Old Stephens Building” at 114 E. Capitol in downtown Little Rock.

“Once we get the permits, we plan to knock that building down in a couple weeks,” Birch told the board. The demolition will include razing of the building and skywalk and removal and capping of all utilities, he said, and would take up to four weeks to finish. Once completed, the remaining lot will be leveled and make ready for future parking lot construction.

Birch also updated the board on beginning phase one of the downtown Tech Park village, which is expected to begin on April 4. In a bidding and construction schedule Birch presented to the board, the initial phase of the development would be completed by late January 2017.

The first phase of the downtown technology park will include 40,000 square feet of startup, office and co-working space at 417 S. Main St. Birch told the board that he has talked to numerous prospective tenants and should have a list of those who plan to sign leases at the next meeting.

Last month, the Tech Park board unanimously passed a resolution to formally authorize a $17.1 million loan to fund phase one of the downtown tech village with funding from a local bank consortium. That financing arrangement was closed in mid-February and the authority has already received the $9.6 million tax-exempt portion of that loan, Birch said.

In other business, the authority also approved a recommendation for Birch to negotiate a deal with Little Rock parking operator Best Parks to handle maintenance of the Tech Park’s growing parking lot portfolio.

Separately, the authority’s year-to-date profit-and-loss statement shows the Tech Park is operating with a negative net income of $3.4 million through February. Birch and Zaffaroni both said the taxpayer-sponsored authority’s financial picture is not complete because all the rent income from property the Tech Park now owns is not accounted for, and certain capital payments from the city and sponsors is not yet on the balance sheet.

“Our (financial) books will look a lot better as we move forward and our revenue stream grows,” Birch said.