Downtown Fort Smith and Garrison Avenue. Image published with Talk Business & Politics' Main Street Fort Smith coverage.
Hey Fort Smith — there's a new downtown progress report out, and a couple of the numbers in it are actually worth paying attention to.
Main Street Fort Smith says more than $4.3 million in property and infrastructure investment has either been documented or committed across the downtown district during the first half of 2026.
That total includes about $1.12 million in building improvements, $1.72 million in downtown property sales and the city's roughly $1.45 million Farmers Market solar-canopy project.
But one of the bigger updates is sitting right at 300 Garrison Avenue.
The replacement Bricktown Brewery and Adelaide Hall building is now roughly 60% framed, according to the newest construction progress report.
The current construction schedule targets completion in April 2027.
If everything stays on track, the rebuilt restaurant and event venue are expected to bring somewhere between 75 and 90 jobs back into downtown Fort Smith.
Anybody who regularly drives Garrison has watched this project go through a pretty brutal sequence.
The November 2024 fire.
The loss of the historic building.
Demolition.
An empty construction site.
And now, finally, a building coming back out of the ground.
The newest report says structural steel is up, the elevated second-floor deck is in place, roof trusses have been set, and crews are continuing exterior wall framing and sheathing.
The arched openings facing Garrison Avenue are also taking shape.
Those arches aren't random.
The design is intentionally pulling from the historic 1885 Fishback/Adelaide Hall building that was lost in the fire rather than replacing it with something that looks completely disconnected from the rest of downtown.
The restaurant and bar are planned for downstairs again.
Adelaide Hall returns upstairs.
But underneath the historic look, the building itself will be substantially different from what stood there before.
The new structure is being built with modern fire protection, including a full sprinkler system, fire alarm and notification system, rated exterior walls, fire blocking and a commercial elevator serving the upstairs event space.
That safety work isn't just construction jargon.
The old building was not sprinklered, and investigators found that the 2024 fire was able to travel through concealed spaces and later rekindle after firefighters initially believed it had been extinguished.
The replacement is being designed specifically to perform differently if something ever goes wrong again.
The Main Street report also gives us a clearer picture of actual business movement downtown.
Three new businesses are listed as having opened: Social Vibes Studios, Serious Fiber, and Old Fort Cards and Collectibles.
Two existing downtown businesses — 10th Street Bookery and Olen & Co. Market — moved into larger downtown locations.
That second part is probably more important than it sounds.
Getting somebody to open a business downtown is one thing.
Getting a business that's already operating there to outgrow its space and still decide it wants to remain downtown is another.
There's also an interesting little number buried in the report involving property improvements.
Main Street put $11,000 into seven completed mini-grant projects, and those projects generated $82,249 in total property investment.
That's roughly $7.48 in total property investment for every $1 awarded through the program.
These weren't giant developments.
The projects included things you actually notice when you walk or drive through downtown: facade painting, exterior lighting, historic wood repair, signage and other building improvements.
So the idea is pretty straightforward.
Put a relatively small amount of money on the table and give property owners a reason to put considerably more of their own money into fixing the building.
Main Street is also experimenting with another approach to empty storefronts.
Serious Fiber at 409 Garrison Avenue is the first participant in Main Street's Commerce Collective storefront program.
The program is basically trying to solve two problems at once.
Downtown has vacant commercial spaces.
And new entrepreneurs often aren't ready to immediately take on all the cost and risk of a permanent brick-and-mortar lease.
Put a new entrepreneur into an otherwise empty storefront with support around the business and see whether it can become something permanent.
Main Street says Serious Fiber recorded $10,176 in gross sales between June 3 and July 15, with zero days without a sale during that period.
That's still early.
Nobody should turn six weeks of sales into some giant prediction about the future.
But it's at least real data showing people are walking through the door and spending money.
So what should residents actually watch next?
Bricktown is the obvious one.
April 2027 is the current completion target.
Construction schedules move all the time, so don't read that as a guaranteed grand-opening date.
But 60% framing is a lot different from a rendering and a “coming soon” sign.
The building is physically going back up.
Main Street has also started doing a floor-by-floor inventory of downtown properties to identify vacancies and possible opportunities for storefront improvements, preservation work, murals and future development.
That's useful because downtown conversations shouldn't only track what's opening.
We also need to know what's still empty.
Hey Fort Smith — here's the part underneath all the “economic development” language:
More than $4.3 million in documented or committed investment.
Three businesses opened.
Two existing businesses expanded into bigger downtown spaces.
Eleven thousand dollars in small property grants helped trigger more than $82,000 worth of improvement work.
And one of downtown's biggest fire scars is becoming a building again.
Bricktown Brewery and Adelaide Hall are roughly 60% framed, with completion currently targeted for April 2027 and an estimated 75 to 90 jobs expected to return with them.
Does that mean downtown is suddenly fixed?
No.
There are still empty storefronts, buildings that need investment and parts of downtown where foot traffic disappears fast once an event ends.
Buildings also don't create a healthy downtown by themselves. People have to actually use them.
But there's a difference between talking about revitalization and being able to point at steel going up, businesses expanding and private money actually moving.
Right now, Fort Smith has some of both.
Community takeaway: Main Street Fort Smith reports more than $4.3 million in documented or committed downtown property and infrastructure investment during the first half of 2026. Three new businesses opened, two existing businesses expanded downtown, and Bricktown Brewery and Adelaide Hall's replacement building at 300 Garrison Avenue is roughly 60% framed. Construction is currently targeting an April 2027 completion, with an estimated 75 to 90 jobs expected when the restaurant and event venue return.
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Sources: Talk Business & Politics — Main Street Fort Smith downtown investment update · Main Street Fort Smith — 2026 Impact Report and Bricktown construction update · Main Street Fort Smith
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