LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Boyle Building, located on Capitol and Main in downtown Little Rock, is getting a multi-million dollar makeover after being vacant for over 20 years.
"Ultimately, we get all this cleaned up, we'll be able to show it to potential restaurant tours and potential retail vendors," Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said. "They can start to imagine how they could use that space."
The Boyle Building was built in 1909, and Griffin wants to preserve that history in the Natural State while making a few updated changes.
"This is a critical step in reinvigorating and bringing economic activity, private sector, economic activity, restaurants, shops, cafes," Griffin said.
The building consists of 12 floors, each one different from the other. The bottom layer is centered around restaurants, stores, and office space for people to sublease, while the upper floors will be the location for the new attorney general's office.
"Which encourages... helps build a culture of collaboration and cooperation within the AG's office," Griffin said. "When you have walls everywhere, and no one can see anyone else, and they're all shut behind their door, that's not as healthy a collaborative culture."
According to Griffin, developer company Moses Tucker Partners purchased the Boyle Building at $35 million, a cost-efficient strategy to help the state eventually own this building.
"The developer will hold it for five years because under the law, if you use historic tax credits, you have to hold it for a period," Griffin said. "Then, after that period in the sixth year, we will purchase it. We have that written into the contract."
Griffin said renovating the building instead of demolishing it saved taxpayers thousands of dollars.
"It's going to save taxpayers dollars because we're not building something new and wasting resources," Griffin said. "Also, the Office of Attorney General is not going away to a permanent office. When you're in a permanent office for decades, you're renting... basically lighting money on fire and wasting taxpayer dollars. Even before taking office, I wanted to look at other options. We will save millions. I think that we have paid something like $30 million in rent in the last few decades. Not me, but we, the state, have no ownership interest to show for that."
While changes are underway, the biggest takeaway is that Griffin said they have to keep the history inside that made the Boyle Building what it is a century later.
"History is so critical to the culture," Griffin said. "If you tear down all the old stuff and build all strip malls and things with no character, you suffer as a culture."
The completion of the Boyle Building is not set in stone, but Griffin said he plans to move into his new office by next year.