Metro Little Rock
Openings, closings, development projects, and changes across the metro. Neighborhood-level updates, not press releases.
Enjoy Shawarma opened its second Arkansas location Monday at 14524 Cantrell Road in West Little Rock, in the Pinnacle Station strip center. The Bryant-based concept serves chicken and beef shawarma, falafel, gyros, and hummus. The Cantrell Road opening brings a sit-down Mediterranean option to a stretch of road that has depended mostly on chains.
Loca Luna at 3519 Old Cantrell Road in Riverdale is running invitation-only soft opening lunches and dinners this week after a near-complete renovation of its interior and exterior. The Remolinos Group, which acquired the restaurant from longtime owner Mark Abernathy in August 2024, closed the space in September 2025 for the overhaul. The official public reopening date has not been announced and will depend on how the soft openings perform.
CEP USA, an Italy-based prefabricated electrical substation manufacturer, formally opened its first U.S. production facility in North Little Rock on May 19. The facility will assemble medium-voltage power stations in partnership with SMA Solar Technology and is expected to create about 27 jobs over the next five years.
Wright's Barbecue has filed a building permit for a second Little Rock location at 800 Rahling Road near the Promenade at Chenal, with a roughly 5,000-square-foot standalone building and exterior smokehouse. The owner is targeting an October or November 2026 opening.
1916 Chop House & Spirits has opened in the former SŌ Restaurant & Bar space on Kavanaugh Boulevard, bringing a steakhouse menu anchored by game meats, an upstairs full bar, and a downstairs speakeasy. Owner Michael Shelton named the concept for 1916 — the year Little Rock annexed Pulaski Heights.
Beyond the Divide, a temporary marketplace of more than 20 Black-owned businesses operating from shipping containers at 724 W. Ninth Street, has been extended through June 20 after drawing strong foot traffic since its April opening. The project, funded partly by a $45,000 Smart Growth America grant, aims to revive a commercial corridor that was fractured when the city built I-630 in the early 1960s.
Small Shoppes Marketplace is set to open at 15400 Chenal Parkway in late May, replacing Painted Tree Boutiques, which closed all of its national locations on April 13 after filing for bankruptcy. Former Painted Tree general manager Jessica Meece secured the building lease and launched the new concept within weeks of the closure, with roughly 70 percent of vendors from the old location returning.
The Little Rock Farmers Market kicks off its 52nd season on Saturday, May 16, at the River Market pavilions in downtown Little Rock. The market runs every Saturday from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. through August 1, offering fresh produce, handmade goods, and local vendors.
Providence Park, a new residential community designed to house people experiencing homelessness, has opened in the wooded terrain of southern Pulaski County. The facility represents an unconventional model for addressing homelessness in the Little Rock metro area. Its location, set back in brushy woods, keeps it out of plain sight but not out of service.
A Little Rock-based developer has announced plans to convert a vacant commercial building on Main Street in Argenta into a multi-vendor food hall, with eight to ten vendor stalls, a central bar, and a rooftop terrace. The project targets a first-quarter 2027 opening.
A neighborhood wine bar concept that gained traction through pop-up events and private dinners in the Heights is signing a lease for a permanent location on the Kavanaugh corridor, expected to open this summer with a focused natural wine list and small plates.
The Little Rock City Board approved funding for a renovation of the River Market District pavilion structure, with construction expected to begin in June and run through early fall. The project addresses deferred maintenance, upgrades vendor stalls, and improves the outdoor event space between the pavilion and the riverfront.
Conway's planning commission approved a 200-unit mixed-use residential and retail development on Harkrider Street near Hendrix College, a project that would be the largest new housing addition to the college-town corridor in over a decade.
The Argenta Community Theater has announced a $1.2 million capital renovation campaign that will expand the lobby, upgrade acoustic and lighting systems, and add a 75-seat black box performance space — the theater's first physical expansion since opening in the Argenta Arts District.
Three Fold Noodles + Dumpling Co. — the hand-pulled noodle shop that has been one of downtown Little Rock's most acclaimed restaurants since it opened — is expanding with a second location on Kavanaugh Boulevard, bringing the Heights neighborhood its first dedicated noodle operation.
A $4.2 million trail expansion project in Chenal Valley broke ground in late February, adding 8 miles of paved multi-use trail that will eventually connect the neighborhood's residential corridors to the Pinnacle Mountain State Park boundary.
Little Rock's planning commission has approved a five-story mixed-use development for a parking lot site on South Main Street that will add 80 residential units and 12,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space to the South Main Creative Corridor.
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