To reserve the Main Street Pocket Park for a private party or event, please email Jackie Miller: Jmiller@DowntownLR.com.

About:

The Main Street Pocket Park is managed by the Downtown Little Rock Partnership. It is located at 711 Main Street, Little Rock, AR 2201 (view the location on Google Maps here: https://goo.gl/maps/azyzdurzVXCUwaQq9).

Those who live, work, and visit downtown Little Rock are invited to enjoy the pocket park. Whether it's eating there on your lunch break, walking your dog, or simply enjoying a nice day, the public is welcome to use the space.

Rules:

Please be respectful and clean up after yourself and/or your pet. There is a trash can located on the Main Street end of the Pocket Park, and there is a doggy waste bag dispenser available within the park.

Please note there is absolutely no smoking permitted in the Main Street Pocket Park, as it can damage the artificial grass. Please help us keep this small urban green space beautiful for years to come.

Any event held in this park must first be booked through Downtown Little Rock Partnership so as to not interfere with any other events. 

Backstory:

At the beginning of 2021, as the Downtown Little Rock Partnership team was brainstorming ideas and planning out projects for the year ahead, the idea for a pocket park on Main Street was raised. There was a dilapidated, weedy patch of land that sat in between the vacant Donaghey Building and the Department of Human Services' Parking Deck in the 700 block of Main Street.

Green spaces such as this were few and far between in the heart of downtown, and we knew with the right planning and execution, this space had a great deal of potential. The wheels started turning.

As it turns out, there were quite a few hoops to jump through. But as the world was still combatting a global pandemic and most of our projects couldn't move forward just yet, we had the extra time to devote to this task in particular.

DHS agreed to let us use the side of their parking deck for artwork and their power for lighting. We got permission from the owner of the Donaghey Building, to whom the strip of land technically belongs, via Newmark Moses Tucker Partners to turn the green space into a park. A local law firm helped us with the agreement, and our work could officially begin. 

Local distribution company Ben E. Keith Foods agreed to sponsor public art for the space, with the only request that it be food-themed. DLRP’s Public Spaces Committee delivered, hiring 10 local artists to paint a gallery wall of food-themed murals in the park. Arkansas Luxury Lawns and Greens installed high-end artificial grass in the space, the best alternative for a space which does not receive enough sunlight for sod to grow. String lights were hung and the surrounding area was cleaned up.

In May of 2021, the park's transformation was complete and the Main Street Pocket Park, as it was officially named, was unveiled in a press conference. 

Before and after: