Fort Smith

[KJW]

Chaffee Crossing gets another: Fort Smith approves funding for the River City Softball Complex.

 

JMO, Fort Smith = "goose", NWA = "gander".

 

(BTW, it was announced, though this isn't directly related to FSM/NWA, that Arkansas State at Jonesboro is going ahead and starting its own osteopathic medical school.

 

JMO, but this again is traceable to NWA (with FSM coming in behind especially as I-49 grows).  Think about it. In the 80s the Fort Smith metro area was somewhere around 100,000 + 150,000 if that.  NWA was working to get there as well.

 

Now in a decade or two we may have a combined metro of 1.5 million between the two if growth goes as expected.  That changes a lot of things, and I would think helps show why Arkansas at least needed one other medical school.  We've made comparisons on here between Arkansas and either Oklahoma (with two emerging, dominant metro areas) or Iowa (cluster of cities on one side of the state, capital/largest city in the middle, city bordering the biggest city of another state on the opposite side of the state).  Oklahoma has had, I believe, a medical school in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City for awhile even though those two are literally four counties apart from each other.  The population necessitated it.  And it seems to me that rural Oklahoma, particularly west of Oklahoma City, is much more sparse than rural Arkansas in many cases.  Likewise, Iowa has two med schools, one at the University in Iowa City on the east, one at Des Moines.  Don't know yet (with Memphis in the east) that it's time for 3 med schools in Arkansas but it's certainly time for two (NWA/FSM is, again, bigger than Des Moines/Ames combined), and we can thank NWA for that, I reckon.)

[KJW]

 

The U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith said Tuesday that received a grant from Lisenne Rockefeller, wife of the late Lt. Gov. Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, to fund a lecture series in his name.

The museum said the three-year Winthrop Paul Rockefeller Distinguished Lecture Series will welcome leaders from the executive, judiciary and legislative parts of the U.S. government to speak about the marshals' history as it relates to each branch.

"The U.S. Marshals Museum is committed to education and honoring the heritage of the nation's oldest federal law enforcement agency," Robert Young, chairman of the U.S. Marshals Museum Foundation, said in a news release. "Mr. Rockefeller was an avid supporter of law enforcement throughout his life and this gift allows that legacy of support to continue."

http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/97594/lisenne-rockefeller-funds-lecture-series-for-us-marshals-museum

(Hadn't seen an interior rendering of this museum until this article.  Very interesting.)

[KJW]

(Hadn't seen an interior rendering of this museum until this article.  Very interesting.)

 

...and now the grand opening of the U.S. Marshals' Museum at Fort Smith is slated for 2017, the same year that the new Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (if it goes as scheduled) accepts its first incoming class.

 

2017 is shaping up to be a banner year for Fort Smith (and for its all but conjoined at the mountains sibling, NWA, I'm quite sure).

[KJW]

Kind of amusing when a Fort Smith commissioner is talking about FSM getting a zoo before NWA does.

 

(May happen, but doubt it happens at the future FSM Riverfront Park, which is what that article link above is about.  Springfield, MO has had a zoo (Dickerson Park) for years, and that metro is smaller than Fort Smith is likely to be when I-49 comes to town.)

[KJW]

In the same newspaper story (front page) yesterday about NWA getting ready to hit the 500,000 mark, Dick Trammel was quoted as saying that he thinks as we grow, the more we're going to see co-marketing efforts with the River Valley (Fort Smith/Van Buren area).

 

He said something like: "Can you imagine the political and marketing clout those two areas would have combined?"  Surprised, honestly, this hasn't been done already.  But I'm seeing more advertisements for businesses with both an NWA and an FSM location, and I think this is further borne out by the money that the Walton family is donating to Fort Smith area projects.

[UrbanArkie]

I think Mr Trammel is wrong.

[KJW]

Some interesting land sales at Chaffee Crossing, including one for preservation of “electric-powered street cars, railroad equipment, transportation and other technology”:

 

http://swtimes.com/news/trio-land-sales-chaffee-crossing-move-forward

[KJW]

Add a chemical plant (albeit a miniature one) for CC in Fort Smith, apparently the first Arkansas facility for Affinity Chemical of Dallas...

[KJW]

Nice article on the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum (like their signage at night...beautiful work by the architects and builders):  http://www.thecitywire.com/node/32817#.U1gWE_ldWWY

[KJW]

For all intents and purposes, this is the port of Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas as well*.  And thanks to new rail lines which just opened yesterday, it's growing, and likely another piece of the I-49/I-69 puzzle slowly being assembled into an image...

 

*Those "ore jennies" filled with sand that the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad frequently hauls on their freight trains are loaded off the River, although on tracks closer to the Union Pacific yard.

[KJW]

Oh, great...another one (Roland, OK in Sequoyah county, several miles across the river north/northwest of the Choctaw one in Pocola, LeFlore County, each in the FSM suburbs):  http://www.thecitywire.com/node/32894#.U2A5hvldWWY

[KJW]

Medical property interest near the upcoming Osteopathic college in FSM:  http://swtimes.com/news/medical-college-spurs-interest-surrounding-property-chaffee-crossing 

[TRB]

On the casino, Shame we couldn't get in on the Ft. Smith Riverfront. Oh well. It's not like Arkansas  is losing any money or anything. Rolleyes.

[KJW]

It'll likely (depending on I-49   ) never again the the amount of people under its roof that it once did, but good to see more people will be in at least part of the old Whirlpool complex in Fort Smith in the future:  http://www.thecitywire.com/node/33028#.U2qjmfldWWY

[KJW]

^^ Arkansas' newest collegiate logo? Apparently so.  And now after hiring a high-powered dean, the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education may open one year sooner (Fall of 2016) in Fort Smith.  They're clearly VERY serious about this project, and it's evident to me that NWA, soon to pass 500,000 and keep going, helped drive this:

 http://www.thecitywire.com/node/33115#.U3RB0PldWWY

[KJW]

$14 million anonymous donation received for the Fort Smith med school.  (Anonymous?  Clearly it happened.  I'd really be curious to know who the donor was.  Someone, maybe many, really WANT(S) this.)

 

Still developing building plans.  Accreditation process starts within the month:  http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/98879/proposed-fort-smith-osteopathic-medical-school-receives-anonymous-14m-donation

[KJW]

The process has been started to make the remaining standing buildings at Fort Chaffee into an historic district, with possible eventual studio apartments and a walking trail linking all the way to downtown Fort Smith.

[KJW]

Score a big one for Chaffee Crossing.  The former ABF/Arkansas Best (now "ArcBest") to build new corporate facility in Chaffee Crossing, expecting to add 975 jobs by 2021 (and this comes the same week when Georgia Pacific also announces an expansion in FSM) :  http://arkansasedc.com/content/arcbest-corporation-announces-land-purchase-agreement-new-corporate-facility

 

(EDIT: forgot to add that ABF freight will remain at the nice facility on Old Greenwood Road - corporate and administrative will move to the Chaffee facility).

[TRB]

I suppose that mitigates them likely abandoning their NLR terminal.

[KJW]

I suppose that mitigates them likely abandoning their NLR terminal.

 

Yes, sorry to hear that, TRB.

 

In the Ft. Smith paper, the AEDC director also said he is expecting to return to Fort Smith for another similar-sized announcement (as today's) before the year ends.

[KJW]

Multi used projects including a sports bar approved for Chaffee Crossing:  http://swtimes.com/news/design-review-team-oks-chaffee-development

[KJW]

Interesting:  looks like the Chaffee Crossing folks are expecting about 2.7 million dollars more in land sales this year, with about 3.000 of their original 7,000 acres left to sell or convey: http://swtimes.com/news/chaffee-crossing-future-looking-pretty-bright

[KJW]

Speaking of "restaurant development", Fort Smith is getting a "Bricktown Brewery", the first in that company's chain outside metro Oklahoma City or metro Tulsa:  http://swtimes.com/business/oklahoma-brewery-buys-downtown-fort-smith-restaurant (they will be renovating "The Adelaide" meeting hall as well).

 

Fort Smith is exploding right now, and they're very close to an even bigger "detonation" in NWA.  This will be very close to the planned U.S. Marshals' Museum.  People are seeing a lot of potential in FSM...there have been several downtown business moves in the past month.

[jb1087]

Is anything planned on the west side of 540 on Rogers Ave?  Between 540 and the mall specifically.  Judging what that 1-2 mile stretch is like, including the mall, I would say that area is anything but exploding. 

[zman9810]

The trucking company ArcBest is building a new headquarters out at Chaffee Crossing, also. This is the company that was Arkansas Best until recently. Sounds like it will be a high tech building with state of the art facilities. Good to see a local company reinvesting in the area. I haven't seen any renderings on what it will look like but it is supposed to be a bit smaller than the current headquarters which will still be used by the company,