Simmons Bank Tower is a 40-story skyscraper located at 425 West Capitol Avenue in downtown

Little Rock, Arkansas ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

. At high, it is the tallest building in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

.Metropolitan Tower
Emporis.com, accessed January 15, 2008

Construction

The new tower was born out of discussions between two ascending business executives, John Flake, a Little Rock real estate developer, and Jerry Maulden, president of Arkansas Power & Light (now

Entergy Entergy Corporation is a Fortune 500 integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations in the Deep South of the United States. Entergy is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, and gene ...

). Construction began in 1984 on the $72 million building, and in 1986 the building was completed and dubbed The Capitol Tower. Currently, the namesake tenant, Simmons Bank, is headquartered in the tower with presence in various markets of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. Kelley Commercial Partners, the current name of the development firm of the tower, performs the management and leasing of the tower, and the Doyle Rogers Company is the special asset manager. The building was renamed Simmons Tower in April 2014.

History

Once construction finished in 1986, the building was opened and named Capitol Tower. Upon completion it became the tallest building in Arkansas, taking the record by 92 feet (28 m) from its neighbor the Regions Center (formerly First National Bank Building) located across the street. The tower has held this record ever since. Little Rock–founded international frozen yogurt chain

TCBY TCBY (The Country's Best Yogurt) is an American chain of frozen yogurt stores. It is one of the largest U.S. retailers of soft-serve frozen yogurt. History In 1981, Frank D. Hickingbotham opened the first TCBY in Little Rock, Arkansas. TCBY ...

moved into the tower and gained naming rights in 1991 and the building became known as TCBY Tower. TCBY would later move out of the tower after the company was sold in 2000, leaving the three floors they occupied vacant. The name was changed again in August 2004 when Metropolitan National Bank bought naming rights to the tower and moved its headquarters in the building, and it was renamed Metropolitan Tower. Metropolitan Bank added exterior lighting to the facade of the tower in 2005 which includes 400-watt flood lights that illuminate the sides of the tower along with LED lights that can be programmed to any color and are used to commemorate national holidays. Simmons Bank purchased Metropolitan National Bank in 2014 and renamed the tower. The building has a 952-car parking garage across the street with a connecting skywalk to the tower lobby. Simmons Tower has 17 elevators and is equipped with antennas and satellite dishes on the roof that are used for radio and cell phone communication as well as by local network affiliates.

Timothy McVeigh Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American domestic terrorist responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children, injured more than 680 others, and destroyed one-third ...

scouted out the building as a possible bombing location prior to bombing the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. He would decide against bombing the building due to the presence of a florist's shop on the ground floor at the time.

Construction

History

References

See also