Placemaking in Pettaway Square

June 26 - July 2, 2023

By Becca Bona

Building a neighborhood with personality

If you build it … will they come? The answer isn’t cut and dry, but for local developer and builder Michael Orndorff the answer is yes, followed by a caveat. 

Specifically, people will show up if there’s a reason to do so.

Enter Pettaway Square, Little Rock’s newest neighborhood aiming to champion identity, provide entrepreneurial opportunities, and offer a study in placemaking for anyone interested in walkability.

For Orndorff, Pettaway Square was a long time coming. His inspiration can be traced back to his travel-heavy childhood. Orndorff’s father was first a Navy man, and then an Air Force man, so the family lived all over - from Alabama to Tennessee and Colorado to Maryland. 

In high school he and his family were living in Waldorf, Maryland. He went to a great school, but his father ensured that Orndorff and his sister got there via a long commute. “[H]e drove an hour there and an hour back every single day and never thought about it,” Orndorff remembered. “He never complained. [...] I could never sit in a car for two hours a day, every day.” 

Beyond the long commute, he remembers being struck by the lack of pride residents had for Waldorf, himself included. “Everybody wanted to be from D.C. or Baltimore,” he said. “I just recognized that having pride in a place matters. And I want that for my kids. I want them to be proud that they’re from this neighborhood.” 

“This” neighborhood is the Pettaway Square area, Southeast of SOMA lining 21st street, flanked by Commerce and Rock Streets. A mix of residential and commercial, Pettaway Square is the latest happening place to be in Little Rock, thanks to Orndorff’s vision and determination. 

But Little Rock, let alone Arkansas, wasn’t always on Orndorff’s radar. The journey to the Natural State for Orndorff began after he joined the military and attended college. When he was in school, he and a buddy decided to buy a trailer park in Southwest Little Rock. After graduating he made the trek down with all his belongings in a U-haul. 

“I only spent one night in Arkansas before doing that,” he said, laughing. But for Orndorff, the shock of moving to Arkansas had little to do with Southern Hospitality and more to do with Little Rock. 

“[T]he urban environment is what was new and I don’t want to say shocking to me, but just most interesting to me,” he said. “It turns out I liked the urban lifestyle much more than I liked the suburban and rural lifestyle.”

After living in the trailer park and renting a home in Benton, Orndorff decided he wanted to build his first home. He was 27 at the time and it was 2007. The economy was on the brink of devastation - especially within the housing market and homebuilding sectors. Orndorff believes, however, that life has a way of manifesting people or opportunities whenever they’re most needed.

“I’d come across some guys with building experience that offered their advice to me for [free],” he said. “And so I did a lot of the work myself but I was able to build my first house.” The two-bedroom, one-bath house totaled 900 square feet. Orndorff worked for the next year and a half and was able to pay the house off in full and pay his parents back for the money they loaned him to start the project.

One house wasn’t enough, however. He built another that was slightly nicer than his and sold it. He made a profit of $11,000, which felt like an incredible amount of money to him at the time. He was, however, still mowing yards and managing a trailer park on the side to make ends meet. 

Regardless, he kept building. “I never thought that I was going to build homes for a living,” he said, laughing. “I never thought that I would ever build commercial structures for a living, but that’s how it all started.” 

Orndorff began chipping away at his dream before he consciously knew what his dream was. He delved into neighborhood design via podcasts. He executed minimalism in his work, erecting a 270-square foot tiny home for one of his building projects. On top of that, he never lost a key memory from his childhood, involving a town square that was a study in walkability as well as a self-sufficient economic ecosystem.

“I was raised working summers at a family business that was on the town square,” he said. “We’d get our paycheck on Friday and I remember I would walk to the bank and make the deposit. I just loved the walkability. I loved the lifestyle.” 

When he purchased the lots on which Pettaway Square now stands in May of 2020, Orndorff never doubted that people would rent the residential spaces. However, his idea to create a square, complete with commercial spaces, was the risky one. 

“Yeah, that was the leap of faith. We’ve been building houses. We’ve been keeping them as rentals. We’ve been selling them, and we knew we had a market,” he said. “[W]e had some people that gave us letters of intent and you know said that they would locate here, but when the rubber meets the road, were people legitimately going to come here and start a business?”

Of course, there were snafus. Orndorff was worried the project would fail before it started, thanks to the elevation of the lots. “But you’re imagining and you keep thinking through it,” he said. “You just put your mind to the test - it’s just like Tetris.”

The Pettaway project has been a labor of love. Unlike other developments, more Euclidian in their goals - apartments only with the potential for one anchor restaurant - Pettaway Square offers residential spaces marked by commercial spaces such as Blue Water Barber + Supply, Mid-South Realty, Vacant Places (a shoe store), and Pettaway Coffee. Moody Brews - a familiar name to beer lovers in Arkansas - is also slated to open soon. 

The barber shop was the first tenant to sign on, Orndorff says. Owner Cody Mayes, who had recently purchased a home in the area, was intrigued by the ability to live and work within walking distance. 

“When Mike approached me about opening a business in the Square he sold me on his idea,” Mayes said. “Something for a community, bringing back a small feel in an upscale way - that was music to my ears. We feel like we are a part of something bigger down here. We aren’t just showing up to work. We are helping an area long forgotten about become something bigger than ourselves.”

The coffee shop, actually, was a MUST for the square, according to Orndorff. Orndorff never had plans to be involved with it personally, but he couldn’t find a coffee-minded entrepreneur to fit the bill. Plus, he had promised those already renting and those already working in the Square that there would be a coffee shop. 

Orndorff is not one to break promises. 

“I said there was going to be a coffee shop in the development and that is the ‘third place’ that we needed for our neighborhood. That is the rich uncle. That’s where community takes place,” he said. “That’s where we are.”

Orndorff approached Community Bakery’s John Bradenberger, who put him in touch with Aaron Long - former co-owner of Revival Coffee.

“Aaron has just been absolutely amazing,” he said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him.”

Plus - the coffee shop is doing more than serving up caffeinated beverages - they’re also spearheading the non-alcoholic movement, locally. Across the country - in part thanks to Gen Z and the effect the pandemic had on alcohol consumption - the n/a movement is here to stay. Think beyond Shirley Temples. Think carefully crafted drinks that help you unwind without the negative effects of alcohol. 

For Orndorff - this was slightly personal as well. “So every one of us are reanalyzing our relationship with alcohol after COVID,” he said. “So to solve the need we saw the market demand.” Pettaway Square, with Pettaway Coffee as the cornerstone, truly is an example of - if you build it - they will come.

Beyond the coffee shop, the Square offers entrepreneurs the ability to open a brick-and-mortar outside the traditional model. Take, for instance, Paper Heart Bookstore - a small, independent book seller in Little Rock that was previously operating via pop-up markets with a large web presence. Co-owner Beth Quarles has been amazed at how the 300-square foot space has accelerated her business plan. 

“A brick-and-mortar space was in the 5–10-year plan, but when I learned about Pettaway Square that changed. The micro-space size for a 300 sq. ft. store and the price was something that made me feel comfortable moving up that plan,” she said. “I am so grateful it worked! The neighbors have been extremely supportive.” 

Pettaway Square is here to stay. If you ask Orndorff how he feels about the looming economy, he’s likely to give you a grinned response. “If we go back to a financial crisis like we had in 2007, people will start businesses. That’s just a human - we’re going to provide for our families. If you put us in a hole or put us in a corner as humans, we’re going to fight our way out of it.”

What better way to create an identity for a place, bolster it with economic activity, and package it in a way for people to take ownership?

Pettaway Square is a study in building social capital. Become a part of the movement. If you haven’t visited Pettaway Square yet, there’s no time like the present.  

1. Pettaway Square lines 21st Street. Michael Orndorff - developer and homebuilder - has been working on the labor of love since 2020. (Photo by Becca Bona)

2. Blue Water Barber + Supply was the first business to set up shop in Pettaway Square. “The Square is giving all us opportunities that we never knew we had. Big dreams start in small spaces,” owner Cody Mayes said. “And I think the Square can be that space for a lot of people.”  (Photo by Becca Bona)

3. “The neighborhood has welcomed Paper Hearts with open arms and it is my sincerest hope that we can pour as much love as we have been given back into the community,” says Paper Hearts Owner Beth Quarles. (Photo by Becca Bona)