Bentonville’s Industrial Parks Showing Signs of New Promise

Bentonville may be the place the world’s largest retailer calls home, but the once-quiet seat of Benton County is not content to leave things as they are.

Harvey Ricketts, past chairman of the Bentonville Industrial Development Committee and vice chairman of the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, notes the quest for diversity.

“One of our goals [is] to attract a lot of smaller industries not necessarily associated with Wal-Mart. We still get [those companies with Wal-Mart connections] and we take them, [but] you’ve always got to look ahead,” Ricketts says.

With that goal of a diverse economy in mind, Bentonville city leaders long ago established a couple of industrial parks and recently purchased more acreage.

Curt Loyd, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, notes that the industrial development group recently purchased another 70 acres of property for future development. Located on Arkansas Highway 12, near the Vaughn community, the property is adjacent to another 75 acres on which the BIDC has a two-year option to buy, Loyd says.

There’s considerable activity in the property designated as Industrial Park South, Loyd notes. MSI, which makes molds for injected plastics manufacturers, such as Benton County’s own FM Corp., is expanding its operations with a new building in the park. Graebel Van Lines will get a storage facility on a 7.75-acre site that was recently sold.

And Consumer Testing Lab, which tests textiles for Wal-Mart, is building a new structure.

One company that proved less than successful for the community was Alumax, which opened to much fanfare in June 1996 with a 102,000-SF building filled with high-tech equipment. A year and a half later, the company was closed.

Alumax had been purchased by Alcoa, which now owns the building and has listed it for sale with New America International Marketing, a real estate firm that specializes in industrial and commercial properties.

Of the 102,000 SF of space, about 94,000 SF is available for manufacturing purposes, about 7,000 SF was previously used for offices and the remainder was breakroom and conference space, Loyd says.

He and other city leaders remain confident that the building will sell to a strong company. Listed at $7 million, the building has some built-in assets that won’t appeal to just any one: a railroad spur, overhead trains inside the building and raised and ground-level dock space.

“[Alumax] didn’t have all that many employees, but they had a lot of equipment that was real high-tech,” Ricketts notes. “The structure has extra concrete reinforced for heavy metal operations, [it’s wired for] a lot of extra power because they used electricity … and railroad siding.

“If you need [those things], it’s great. If you don’t, you probably don’t want to pay for them,” he says.

Ricketts notes that the smaller industries Bentonville has set its cap for won’t require many employees – an advantage in an area such as Northwest Arkansas where the unemployment rate has been low for several years.

It’s easier to attract employees, however, when the employer is paying high wages, usually for more highly skilled positions, he says.

Improvements to the city’s infrastructure should help in recruiting, too. Loyd says the city has dedicated about $20 million for such improvements, including additions to the existing wastewater treatment plant and for developing and expanding lift stations necessary for moving wastewater.

Ricketts sounds pleased with the direction and progress the city is making.

“We think it looks real good. We think we’re staying ahead of the game.”

Loyd seems to agree.

“It’s exciting right now. There’s so much going on and happening.”

He’s especially happy about the new distribution center Wal-Mart recently built.

“We were able to keep a major, high-tech distribution center here.”