If you had asked locals 15 years ago if they'd like to hang out in the River Market, the answer would have been a resounding no. But visionaries could see the potential of the dilapidated, abandoned buildings, and today the River Market is the place to enjoy for locals and visitors alike.

The anchor of the district is River Market Hall. Home to numerous locally owned restaurants, 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 enclosed plaza area sell handcrafted items and art daily. Local farmers who bring produce to the Farmers' Market Tuesdays and Saturdays from May to October are inundated with shoppers looking for the freshest foods, from tomatoes grown in the Ozarks to Hope watermelons and peaches from eastern Arkansas.

The district includes restaurants, retailers and art galleries. 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; a Courtyard by Marriott topped with offices and condos; and 300 Third Tower, a multiuse building with restaurants, retail and office space, and upscale residential lofts.

Also in the area, the Museum of Discovery is a popular destination for families and field trips. 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.

At the edge of the Arkansas River is 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.

A recent addition to Riverfront Park is Peabody Park. The child-friendly park on the river is dotted with green space, underground tunnels, a tube slide, climbing wall, splash fountain, space net and "tree room" created to encourage imagination, exploration and discovery.

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 early 2009. 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 and will open in 2009.