104 Front Street

The place

104 Front Street is what is left of the Gates Mercantile building. A fire in the 1970s took most of it; the easternmost portion survived and has spent the last fifty years cycling through retail and office use, with the second floor abandoned above it.

The work

The long-empty second floor becomes a bright office tenant space. At the street, a new wood storefront — recreated from historic photographs — is installed between the building's original iron columns, which never left. The owner is using both state and federal historic tax credits to carry the project.

Why it matters on this block

Front Street already has momentum. A vacant upper floor and a mismatched storefront read as a gap in the row; filling both puts a working tenant on the block and returns the streetscape to something continuous. Small buildings are where a downtown's tax base actually lives.

Project team

• Design PartnerShine Interior Design Studio, Lonoke, Ark.
• Design PartnerEckerbuilt, Helena, Ark.
• MEP Engineering2 Good Engineering, Little Rock, Ark.
• Historic Tax Credit ConsultantBrantley Snipes, Greenwood, Miss.