The River Market District is the place to enjoy for locals and visitors alike. The anchor of the district is the River Market building. Home to numerous locally owned restaurants featuring everything from Mexican and Middle Eastern cuisine to barbecue and pizza, the River Market hums during lunch as locals struggle with the tough decision of where to eat. Vendors in the newly enclosed plaza area sell handcrafted items and art daily. Local farmers who bring produce to the Farmers’ Market are inundated with shoppers looking for the freshest foods, from tomatoes grown in the Ozarks to Hope watermelons to peaches from eastern Arkansas. Street musicians and entertainers add to the festive energy as friends and business acquaintances chat while picking out vegetables.

The district has expanded to include restaurants, retailers and art galleries that pull in crowds for lunch and late night fun. Community events such as 2nd Friday Art Night attract crowds to various museums and art galleries. Additional anchors include the Main Library of the Central Arkansas Library System and a Courtyard by Marriott topped with offices and condos. A few blocks away, the Museum of Discovery is a popular destination for families and field trips alike. To the east is the William J. Clinton Presidential Center, which attracted more than 400,000 visitors during its first year. And Heifer International’s multiphase development of its headquarters should be finished in 2009 with the completion of its Global Village. A recent expansion of Central Arkansas Transit System’s River Rail trolley line takes riders from River Market District hotels and businesses right to the Clinton Presidential Center. En route you’ll pass the corporate headquarters of Acxiom Corp., data provider for businesses around the world.

An anchor actually preceding the River Market District is the Julius Breckling Riverfront Park and Riverfest Amphitheater. Concerts and evening film festivals regularly draw diverse groups to this city-run park. Riverfest, one of the city’s largest annual gatherings, draws tens of thousands on Memorial Day weekend.

Development continues in the area with the groundbreaking of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center located on the Arkansas River adjacent to the Clinton Presidential Center. The nature center, currently in its design phase, should open in late 2007. And the Archive for Arkansas Governors, a joint venture of the Central Arkansas Library System and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, is a repository for governors’ papers slated to open in early 2007.

The addition of more condominium projects will add more residents to this entertainment and business district. Condo owners range from empty nesters to city dwellers to out-of-towners wanting a luxurious location close to the action in the River Market.