NORTH LITTLE ROCK (KTHV) - It's certainly not boating weather right now, but construction is still plowing ahead for a marina serving the downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock Riverfront.
The developer of the Rockwater Marina said the first phase of this project should be ready for boaters in mid-April with more than 60 boat slips. In advance of that right now, workers are busy piecing the docks together.
Another piece of a future marina gets pulled from the stacks this week as crews piece together the future Rockwater Marina.
"This is our staging area, this is where we bring our entire product and bolt it together," Carl Brown said.
Carl Brown is part of the crew that's assembling the docks near the Interstate 30 bridge. Using the boat ramp there, the entire docks get put together in the water. A barge then pulls the docks a mile and half up river to the marina site.
"It's very exciting to see these guys working out here and hear them and watching them put things together," Jim Jackson said.
Marina Developer Jim Jackson said the roughly $4 million project should complete phase one by mid-April and there will be 66 boats slips by then.
"We have leases and we're about 20 percent leased up already," Jackson said.
The first dock to arrive at the marina this week will house fuel and sewer pumping stations. In the coming months, workers will clear out all the brush leading down to the docks and build slip covers and railings.
Back at the staging area, workers like Brown were laying concrete over the docks.
"It will set up here on top of this, so I will be up here like this," Brown said with a demonstration on the dock.
It will ultimately create the downtown riverfront area's only marina and add somewhere else to park "your ride" on the river.
Jackson said one other amenity coming with this marina is a concierge service where staff will get folks food or even road transportation somewhere.
If you're interested leasing a slip, there are still several available in the first phase.
This project will have a total of 134 boat slips and they will include house boats. There's no official word yet on when final completion will happen.