When the subject of U.S. tech incubators comes up, downtown Little Rock is probably not the first hotspot that springs to mind, or even the second or third. The Little Rock Technology Park, however, has been quietly helping tech entrepreneurs bring their visions to life and shaping the central Arkansas startup ecosystem since 2017.
This summer, the Tech Park will embark on phase 2 of its multi-part master plan, and sub-phases will come online as needed. The new phase will be geared toward tech-related tenants who are not quite ready for regular commercial office spaces but need more space than is currently available.
Brent Birch, LRTP’s executive director, whittled the park’s concept down to “an office facility specifically dedicated to housing technology-focused companies.” Tech park tenants have represented a wide range of life cycles, from a gleam in someone’s eye to a going, growing startup.
Success stories abound, Sullivan Wright Technologies, Servato Corp., Bond.AI, Data Driven Partners, Sequretek, WhiteRock and Rock City Digital among them. Birch said the Tech Park serves startups by bringing together like-minded people under one roof, where casual interactions and relationships can spark creative ideas.
“Lexamica recently moved on to a bigger space on President Clinton Avenue,” Birch said. “Our biggest success story to date, Apptegy, outgrew us before we were even able to open on Main Street. Jeston George started working by himself out of our space when we were in the Statehouse Convention Center. Before you know it, he took over a large facility in the Riverdale area with well over 300 employees.”
This mingling of expertise can help break through dense problems. The park mission also includes counseling, programming and financial advice and, of course, space available for meetings and presentations.
Plus, there is really good coffee. Birch said this kind of everyday interplay does not happen on a couch at home with leaf blowers blaring. The Tech Park offers private, totally enclosed office spaces, as well as semi-private offices with open tops and glass walls. Workstations are available for people who are not completely ready to commit to an office but thrive in a dedicated workspace, and there are phone booths on every floor for privacy.
“Our blend of tech companies of different shapes and sizes creates a kind of ecosystem where idea sharing and mentorship can easily take place,” he said. “It’s widely recognized that this brand of tech community can be critical to helping companies succeed.”
The Little Rock Technology Park mission includes counseling, programming and space for meetings and presentations. Plus, there is really good coffee. (Photos by Steve Spencer)
The overarching goal behind the park is to boost the tech startup ecosystem, from spurring new ventures to attracting fledgling efforts to central Arkansas. In partnership with the Venture Center, the entrepreneurial resource provider that calls LRTP home, the park has successfully recruited companies from places such as Atlanta, New York, New Jersey, New Orleans, St. Louis and Austin.
The long-term goal of the park is to continue that trend. Instead of Arkansas entrepreneurs fleeing to Austin, Dallas or Nashville, why not foster an environment where technology companies and talent — local or otherwise — can succeed in central Arkansas? To that end, extensive renovations for phase 2 expansion are underway inside the building at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Main Street in downtown Little Rock, next door to the existing LRTP building.
Christopher Wright, a partner at Sullivan Wright Technologies, said the possibility of expanding his company’s footprint is a huge positive.
“We’ve been in the tech park in some fashion since it opened, growing from a small office on the third floor to two larger offices on the fifth,” he said. “The meeting spaces make this a great place to bring clients and partners.”
Phase 2 plans include a state-of-the-art conference center and more meeting spaces.
“The park’s central location means we can hold a structured meeting here and then head out and walk to a restaurant down the street for a social hour afterwards,” Sullivan said, adding that is where the real work gets done.
Chris Mangum moved his company, Servato, to Little Rock from New Orleans two years ago. Servato has an operations facility in Nashua, N.H., and additional employees in Boston and Dallas, but Magnum was looking for a way to move closer to his aging parents. He said he loved the atmospheres of tech-centered spaces in more well-known tech hubs and poked around, looking for something like that in Little Rock.
“The flexibility of an affordable, month-to-month lease here and the bundled offering of Wi-Fi, cool office space, printing, conference rooms and the growing community of entrepreneurs was a powerful inducement to get me invested here,” he said. “With the expansion going on in phase 2, I think we could stay in the tech park for some time as we grow our local presence.”
Mangum said downtown Little Rock has momentum and cited the area’s restaurants and cultural centers, as well as the “sense of belonging” beginning to envelop the area, as major pluses.”
“This place is a great attraction for the kind of talent we look to recruit for Servato,” he said. “I have even joined the Downtown Little Rock Rotary Club. I’ll be the incoming program chair in July.”
Another growing park success story is Christopher Wright’s Central Arkansas Hackers, a grass-roots cybersecurity networking and mentorship group.
“We have our monthly meetings in the building,” he said. “It’s a great meeting place for the burgeoning tech workforce in Little Rock.”
Birch said the ongoing revitalization of downtown Little Rock, the renovations and updating of available office space, and the growth of residential properties and retail works hand in hand with resources such as the tech park. This adds to the feeling that something truly exciting is going on downtown
“We hope this rolling expansion causes people to step back and realize that they really do not need to move to Dallas or Nashville or Austin or anywhere else,” he said. “A secondary focus of phase 2 is to help us to recruit more companies to come to central Arkansas and figure out what a great place to grow this is, that they’ll have access to capital and a skilled workforce.”
There is no one factor that makes the technology sector take off in a specific geographic location, so why not Little Rock?
“Tech is such a multidimensional, interconnected animal,” Birch said. “We’re aiming to supply all the ingredients that attract tech-minded businesspeople here. Phase 2 will supercharge our ability to leverage the resurgence of downtown Little Rock and boost our area’s whole economy.”
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