Go Forward Pine Bluff broke ground on a project for the second time this week with Wednesday’s start of construction on The Flats on Sixth.
The 124-unit, mixed-use apartment complex will be located at the southeast corner of Sixth Avenue and Georgia Street and is tagged as a gateway for housing in the heart of Pine Bluff with easy access to the downtown art district and the Convention Center.
“It’s a true, public-private partnership, which is what we needed,” said David L. Willis, managing partner and CEO of Dallas-based Cedar Crest Development, which developed the complex along with KEE Concrete and Construction. The firms had been working on The Flats on Sixth for a year, he said.
“I hope you see that this is a bridging of yesterday to today, bringing modern, fresh approach to quality of life downtown within walking distance of all of these amenities,” KEE Construction Managing Partner Kelley Eubanks said. “Not only can I sell it, but I can live it, and we all can live it.”
The complex, which Willis estimated at $8.5 million, will be upscale and “ready to grow Pine Bluff,” he added. Go Forward CEO Ryan Watley said Cedar Crest and KEE have committed $20 million to the project.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“This is a very momentous occasion,” Willis said. “Years ago when I was born … it was 12 of us, we grew up poor, but we had a vision. We had a dream. Mine was one in which we rebuild areas that have been underserved and underprivileged. Right now, coming to Pine Bluff is an honor for me.”
EJ Smith Construction, co-founded by Dallas Cowboys great Emmitt Smith and Eugene Walker Jr., was selected as the general contracting firm for The Flats on Sixth. A pre-recorded video of Smith was released just before the groundbreaking.
“The EJ Smith team is actively reaching out to the local contractor community to acquire as much local participation as possible,” Smith said. “We are committed to being that team partner with the communities of contractors and suppliers.”
Go Forward officials sense a momentum in the week that’s been so far. The public-private tax initiative started construction Monday on three single-family houses on 33rd Avenue and Plum Street as part of a partnership with Home Again Pine Bluff.
Construction is also underway on the Sixth Avenue District, a food and retail center near Main Street scheduled to open next May.
“We have a ‘Relive Downtown’ plan that talks about creating density in the heart of downtown Pine Bluff to relive and populate,” Watley said. “Fundamentally, you need people to spur development in terms of retail, restaurants and other things people like to see. That comes with, as the mayor said, quality, affordable housing in the area.”
Until affordable housing is built, a community can’t grow, Mayor Shirley Washington said.
“Mornings like this are really exciting to me, as well as all of us in city government and citizens alike who work so hard to develop, to grow this beloved community, Pine Bluff, Arkansas,” she said. “As we develop this community to bring in businesses, there’s nothing we can do more important than building homes.”
The developments also come less than a month before Pine Bluff citizens go to the polls to either renew or reject the five-eighths-cent Go Forward sales tax for general use and either add or reject a three-eighths-cent tax to support police and fire departments. The measures narrowly failed during a special election in May. The five-eighths-cent tax was approved by voters in 2017, with a sunset date of Sept. 30, 2024.
“We’re giving you a 1,600% return on investment,” Watley said. “If I asked you to do that with your personal money, how many of you would say yes? … Thus far, we’ve gotten private investments, grants, philosophy, etc., exceeding 31 million dollars to date.”