The Hot Springs Metro Partnership's Majestic Site Committee told the Hot Springs City Board on Nov. 10 that it is nearing the end of its solicitation work and asked the board to set a Dec. 31 deadline for final written proposals and allow candidate presentations before delivering ranked recommendations in the first quarter of 2026.

"With your approval, the committee would like to establish December 31 at the end of this year as a deadline for candidates to submit their completed written proposals," said the committee presenter on behalf of the Metro Partnership. The committee asked the board to allow the month of January to vet and rate submissions and requested an extension of the committee timeline through March 31, 2026 to present a formal recommendation.

The committee said it expects two distinct proposals: a submission from the Garland County Library team led by Executive Director Adam Webb, and a combined proposal from Summit Properties led by Rick Williams, who the committee described as having 35 years of experience in health-care facility development and commercial real-estate transformation. Committee members also identified architect Brooks Atwood and creative strategist Gianna Wiesel as part of the Summit team.

Committee members told the board they had invited a 12-person group of downtown investors and hotel owners to two informal stakeholder meetings to share perspectives; they described the stakeholder forum as an opportunity for downtown investors to exchange ideas rather than a formal advisory panel. The committee said it has finalized a scoring model and will provide its scorecard and ranking model to the board.

Several board members raised two related concerns: transparency into the committee's scoring and whether the city should allow staff to accept and vet proposals in parallel with the Metro Partnership. "Let's just race," Director Webb said, urging the city to open a second channel so staff and the Metro Partnership could both consider proposals; he framed the suggestion as a way to accelerate results for the Majestic site. Metro Partnership representatives pushed back on the idea of competing with the city, saying they had invested thousands of hours and did not want the process characterized as a competition, but they encouraged anyone with proposals to submit them to the committee.

The board did not vote on any change at the Nov. 10 agenda meeting; presenters noted the Majestic site will be listed under new business on the Nov. 18 board agenda where members may propose amendments to contracts or request staff-drafted options. The committee reiterated that the board of directors will make the final decision.

What comes next: the Metro Partnership said it will deliver the ranking model to the board and accept final proposals by Dec. 31. The committee requested permission to present ranked recommendations to the board by the end of March 2026.