Our View

Our View

New apartment complex a boon for West Memphis’ east side

There’s a lot of excitement going on in West Memphis with all the changes being made and a lot of ideas floating around about bringing this county’s largest municipality back to what it once was.

One of the biggest concerns from city planners is a lack of somewhat upscale, middle class apartments and condos that would be attractive to young professionals as well as career-minded couples not interested in purchasing a home. There was a time long ago when West Memphis did have upscale apartments and townhouses. For instance, middle class couples and singles filled the apartments on Danner just off Missouri as well as the nearby townhouses. Then there were the highly attractive middle-class apartments on South Avalon but over the years all of those properties turned into government subsidized rental units that fell victim to abuse and neglect. Today many of these apartments are occupied by low-income families and locations for drug activity, shootings and other crimes.

And, lets not fail to mention the old Mayfair Apartments on Barton that have since been demolished. They too were attractive to local couples and singles but over the years turned into low-income, government subsidized housing that attracted drugs and criminal activity.

Now there is renewed optimism over plans for a new apartment complex on the old site that local visionaries say promises a return to what West Memphis had to offer decades ago.

It will be called The Park at Barton, cost $6.4 million and take up four and a half acres, offering 64 new three-bedroom two-bath apartments.

Private investors that also own and manage the gated Riverside Park Apartments east of MLK say their new project will also be gated.

Admittedly, the Riverside Park Apartments, which are a mix of market priced rentals as well as government subsidized housing, have been proven to be an asset to that end of West Memphis, are well kept and maintained.

We’re told the newly planned apartments will also be a mix of market priced rentals and Section 8 government subsidized housing.

Whether that would discourage certain young and upcoming professionals to move into these apartments would depend upon how management handles the government subsidized renters and its policy pertaining to the number of people allowed in any one unit, the number of vehicles allowed per rental unit and other rules and restrictions.

We remember well the discussions regarding the difficulty the city is having attracting young and skilled professionals such as engineers for the utility department because of the lack of acceptable apartments.

We have to say that the location of these new apartments isn’t the most ideal when considering what is already located in that section of town and because of that factor it is doubtful they will be very appealing to the type of families and young professionals that would likely move here.

On the other hand, if a serious developer or even Guaranty Loan would commit to such a multi-family complex across from Meadowbrook on property already zoned for a gated community we are confident young newcomers would take a serious look.

Let’s also point out that such a development would avoid making available government subsidized rentals if it is to be attractive to the type of residents West Memphis desperately needs.