By JOEL PHELPS | arkadelphian.com
A public transload facility connected directly to the Union Pacific railroad out of the question, Clark County officials have now set their sights on acreage near Georgia-Pacific for the possibility of building its own cargo distribution center.
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The Arkansas Midland Railroad, which operates a stretch of short-line rail north of Gurdon, has a private transloading dock near GP, its use for fuel distribution by truck and rail. Weyerhaeuser Company owns 63 acres adjacent to and south of that railroad near the US Highway 67 crossing. The rail connects to UP in Gurdon.
Shelley Short, CEO of the Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance, said Tuesday that there is a need among manufacturers in the Clark County Industrial Park for a transload facility. Currently, only two Clark County industries have direct rail access to the UP line: Georgia-Pacific and Veolia North America.
Short told members of the Economic Development Corp. of Clark County that talks with Weyerhaeuser about a land sale have begun. Should a land transaction between the timber company and the tax-funded EDCCC happen, Short said there would be options on how to build a rail facility, and estimated the cost to be upwards to $1 million, depending on whether additional rail would be installed. The least expensive option would cost $500,000. Either way, any land sold would be included in the total cost, Short said when asked by an EDCCC board member.
More development needed to market super site
The roughly 1,000-acre super site, a land asset of the EDCCC, is ripe for further development to make it more marketable to potential job creators, EDCCC chair Kevin Jester told the board.
“When we look at the super site, we know what we’ve got,” Jester said, admitting that the Gum Springs land is “not a wow factor” for prospects. “It’s not a turnkey-ready asset.”
Some complaints that could be made of the site, he said, are that it’s not level and it sits in a floodplain, Jester said.
Although improvements to the property have been made — the City of Arkadelphia recently extended its water and sewer lines to the property — there is work yet to be done, Jester said. When a company wants to locate, he added, they don’t want to wait on the land to be developed to their needs.
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With $6.9 million in the bank, the EDCCC has funds available to further develop the site. But, Short said, there will be other revenue sources in the near future. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission has earmarked $10 million for site development projects in the state, a grant program the agency will be testing in 2024. Short said she aims to apply for the grant funding.
Other business
• An annual $15,000 lease was renewed for Honeycutt Farms to use a portion of the super site. The lease agreement includes the use of a home and a farming operation.
• Innovex has yet to break ground on the 70 super site acres it began leasing in 2022. Short reported the company is testing a new product and has no timeframe on when it might use the Clark County site.
• Short said the Alliance continues working with six existing potential prospects. One, a timber/wood products, is the lead project and recently held a site visit. A second prospect is a data center whose site consultant has been in touch with the Alliance. The other four projects are on hold until 2024.
• Two new prospects have also shown interest in Clark County. One is a food manufacturing business, and the other deals in bio-manufacturing. The Alliance has submitted information requests to both companies, which were referred by the AEDC.
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