North Little Rock’s Innovation Hub is closing up shop by year’s end.
The popular makerspace provided specialized tools, classes and hands-on learning for a monthly membership.
Originally owned by Winrock International, the North Little Rock Public Library System (NLRPLS) assumed operation of Innovation Hub in January of this year in what it had hoped would be a season of growth for the space.
However, on Tuesday, NLRPLS announced its board voted unanimously not to renew the lease for 2026.
CEO Crystal Gates said the landscape of grant funding that supported its operation changed significantly in a short time.
"The Innovation Hub takes quite a bit of funding to operate, as I am sure you can imagine," said Gates. "The library was prepared to supplement grant funding, but as the grants continued to decline, that funding is not available.”
Gates said the hub’s mission was closely aligned with the library’s, meaning it was an easy choice for them to take over the operations this year.
NLRPLS explored various options to continue to bridge the ever-widening funding gap, but Gates says allowing the lease to terminate was critical to ensuring the library system would be able to continue to fund its core operations for as long as possible.
The board voted unanimously to relinquish ownership by 2026.
"It's a heartbreaking decision. It's not something we ever really saw happening or wanted to happen, but for the financial health of the system as a whole, it's a decision that just has to be made. It's the responsible decision to make.”
The Innovation Hub will continue regular operations through the end of the year. Once the lease ends, ownership of the building will transfer back to Winrock International.
Gates says many programs like "Skills to Launch" will retain their individual grant funding. She adds that NLRPLS is working to ensure as many of the programs and services provided by the hub are preserved throughout the library system.
"The good news about that is while the Innovation Hub has been member-based, the public library is not. And so, any of those services that we can shift over to our traditional public library space, those services will be free. A lot of what you enjoy about the Innovation Hub, you can still experience.”
The library will release more information about how it is distributing these resources throughout the coming months.
