johnnydr87, on Feb 26 2006, 06:45 PM, said:
Fayetteville needs a Wal-mart, Tyson, or JB Hunt.
The problem is Fayetteville has been relying too much on the prosperity of it's sister cities for some time now. Before XNA was built everyone flew into Fayetteville to get to Northwest Arkansas. Now Fayetteville has become nothing more than a university town instead of the flasgship it once was. The University of Arkansas draws a lot of great people to live in Fayetteville, even if they work in Bentonville. That almost sounds like a bedroom community which we all know Fayettevile is not. Much of the university's funding comes from the generosity of it's sister city's large corporations.
What Fayetteville needs is a Fortune 500 company or even a Fortune 1000 company to return it to flagship status. We know they won't get anything like a Wal-Mart. The strength of Fayetteville lies in it's opportunnities for technology research and development. The University of Arkansas is the only comprehensive research university in the State of Arkansas. The startups at the Arkansas Technology & Research Park are producing some of the most advanced technologies in the world. It's not an exaggeration. The city of Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas, the GENESIS Technology Incubator, and the Arkansas Research & Technology Park makes Fayetteville a uniquely attractive destination for emerging technology companies.
The University of Arkansas RFID Research Center is one of only a few university research centers in the nation exclusively dedicated to RFID. This demand for RFID development will bring billions of dollars into Northwest Arkansas in coming years. Companies in the Fayetteville area alone are expected to spend more than $3 billion in the next three years on RFID tags and computer systems related to RFID.
Located at the Arkansas Research & Technology Park, the University of Arkansas' High Density Electronics Center (HiDEC) is the only working laboratory of its kind in the United States. It has an international reputation in designing state-of-the-art prototypes in multi-chip module (MCM) technology, optical interconnects integrated passives (?), high temperature superconductor and thermal management.
Fayetteville's Science and Engineering Center for Nano and Micro Systems and the Manufacturing Research Laboratories are both engaged in groundbreaking research in MEMS and microelectronic packaging and integration, nanomanufacturing, and surface engineering for advanced machining.
The University of Arkansas in Fayetteville is at the forefront of biotechnology through the following research centers, such as the Center for Protein Structure and Function, Center for Sensing Technology Research and the Institute of Food Science and Engineering. These pioneering institutions of biotechnology research provide unlimited opportunity for industry partnerships in such fields as biomedical research, bio-sensor technology, and bio-foods. These centers underpin the University of Arkansas's research into biotechnology and they encourage industry partnerships to create synergies to further all areas of biotechnology.
Not finished yet...
The Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST) is dedicated to leading edge research and applications in geospatial analysis and modeling, enterprise spatial databases, remote sensing, digital photogrammetry and geospatial interoperability. The Center has been selected as a Center of Excellence by over 10 companies including Intergraph Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Trimble Navigation Ltd., and Sun Microsystems.
Fayetteville through the University of Arkansas has a long-standing tradition in the logistics area through advanced research activities and educational programs. Millions of dollars of industry-funded research sponsorships have led to breakthroughs by the university in material handling and logistics, leading-edge methodologies in supply-chain management, shop floor logistics, and vehicle dispatching.
The University of Arkansas is known as a leader in animal science and technology. In 2004, the university's combined Animal/Poultry departments were ranked third in the nation by Meat & Poultry magazine and consistently rank in the top five departments in the country every year. The John W. Tyson Center of Excellence for Poultry Science is the largest teaching and research facility on the University of Arkansas campus. The center is the most prestigious of its kind in the nation.
Microsoft, Intel, Texas Instruments... In the near future Fayetteville may be home to the biggest technology corporation in the United States. All it takes is a spark to ignite this possibility and the sparks are flying in Fayetteville... when it does ignite "anybody not wearing 2 million sunblock is gonna have a real bad day."
Fayetteville can certainly do more and use some of it's potential. But I really think they city is more worried about quality of life than trying to maintain being the 'flagship' of the metro. I think the city could have been more progressive and grown and developed a lot more than what they have. But the city wants to have more controlled growth. It's a bit odd to see the other cities 'grow up' and Fayetteville not to be the only destination in NWA. But I do think Fayetteville's method of growth is probably best and I also think it's good for the other cities. But Fayetteville does also need to diversify it's economy. Although the city has less to worry about because the university isn't going to go away like a company could. But a nice company could obviously provide more jobs and bring in more money for the school system and so on.
