LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) – In the 90's and early 2000's, downtown Little Rock was not necessarily the most desirable place to live.
The area was filled with vacant and run down homes. But fast forward to today and you will see those same properties rehabilitated into apartments and single family homes.
"The housing stock is really marvelous. A lot of unique resources. It's not cookie cutter. It's a lot of individual unique properties,” Patricia Blick said.
Blick, with the Quapaw Quarter Association, said more and more people are choosing to make downtown Little Rock home.
"You get a lot more house for your money versus other historic neighborhoods like Hillcrest or the Heights,” she said.
But it's not necessarily brand new homes people are moving into.
"There are many opportunities for somebody looking for properties to rehabilitate,” Blick said.
Blick said they are buying old houses and making them new again.
"There are also people who are rehabilitating houses for their own personal dwellings. You have a combination of both. People who are working on these homes for investment purposes and people who are fixing up these homes to live in,” Blick said.
Blick said the recent spike in people moving downtown is thanks to a few pioneers.
"My husband and I visited about 15 years ago and stayed in the historic district in the bed and breakfast. Fell in love with it,” Jill Judy said.
Pioneers like Jill Judy of Downtown Dwellings, who saw potential in downtown Little Rock.
"My husband and I loved the historic districts and the housing stock. It's beautiful,” Judy said.
Judy and her husband renovated properties that were vacant for over 40 years and they now rent out over 200 apartment units in SoMa and the River Market District.
"When we first started renting apartments, the only the people that would rent were from out of state. Now people from Arkansas are renting from us because downtown is no traffic, great restaurants, walkable beautiful,” she said.
But with new renovated luxury apartments and homes going in, is it causing prices to go up for people who have already lived in the area for years?
"That's a possibility and that's a fear,” Blick said.
Blick said the Quapaw Quarter Association wants to keep its oldest tenants around.
"There are people who have been living downtown in historic neighborhoods for many years, and they're not necessarily interested or have the capacity to spend a lot of money like someone who is coming in and flipping a property,” Blick said.
So, she said she is working to get the $25,000 rehabilitation tax credit lowered.
"If they need a new roof or they need a new HVAC system, they're not going to spend that $25,000 threshold to start to qualify for tax credits,” she said. “We would like to see that legislation revised so that even if you spend $5,000, then you would also be able to pursue the tax credit."
But despite the growth, there is still plenty more property to be renovated in downtown Little Rock.
"When we got here, very few people. There weren't a lot of people buying foreclosure properties that had been vacant...and now people in their young 30's see it as a great opportunity,” Judy said.
Blick said the Quapaw Quarter Association is presenting the lowering of the rehabilitation tax credit during the 2019 legislative session.