Clark County breaks ground on Southwest Arkansas Mega Site, hoping to attract industry
The Southwest Arkansas Mega Site is located right outside of Arkadelphia in Gum Springs near the Clark County Industrial Park.
Port of Little Rock slated for $1 billion, 400-acre data center
Shelley Short is the CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Clark County.
'It's about having the infrastructure in place, it's about having ready-to-go land,' Short said.
The area is being developed so businesses considering locating in the county will have prepared land to use, for example, for factory construction.
'Part of the economic development process is getting your product ready for an industry to locate, and so while there may not be jobs associated with today's announcement, immediate jobs, it's all about getting a site ready so that industries that are looking can see its potential and value.' Short said.
Short said the nearly 1,000-acre property will undergo site certification and erosion control to make it more marketable to companies.
'They want a ready-to-go, shovel-ready site so that they are able to get from spending money to making money, from not having product to making product as quickly as possible,' Short said.
The $2.4 million project is funded through a $1 million site development grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and $1.4 million from the Clark County Economic Development Fund.
Clint O'Neal, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said Clark County is one of the inaugural grant recipients.
'So an opportunity for communities to better develop their industrial sites to make them more attractive,' O'Neal said. 'When prospects go around looking at the best sites, we want them to find sites that have due diligence, have infrastructure.'
Entergy, Port of Little Rock announce 'shovel ready' 875-acre industrial megasite
He added that attracting business requires having available real estate.
'Whether it's vacant industrial buildings like the one that Hostess took down the road, or great industrial sites like the Southwest Mega Site,' O'Neal said.
Short said the community is a driving force behind the project and believes in economic development.
'They believe that while we may not see the results for a year or two years or five years down the line, that it's worth investing in,' she said.
The site should be ready to go in about six months.
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