Fort Smith Rounds Up Spirit of Cooperation

Blame it on the frontier spirit.

Fort Smith’s leaders admit their city was for years saddled with a provincial attitude and that some of its power brokers often wandered after their own interests like wayward dogies on a cattle drive. “Communication,” they say, is the new sheriff in town.

Tom Manskey, president of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, said victories such as the May re-roping of Graphic Packaging Corp. are happening because Fort Smith’s three economic development teams, the city’s administration and an influx of new leadership are working together like a posse possessed.

From the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority in Barling to the public officials on Garrison Avenue, they’re putting the “unity” back in the “community.”

“I was surprised that there had been a historical lack of communication between several entities,” said Manskey, who arrived at the Chamber this past September. “I’m told it had something to do with the traditionally independent nature of the area, the frontier spirit. In this day and age though, we’ve realized we have to stuff that trait in a box and move forward with what it’s going to take to succeed.

“What’s good for Fort Smith is good for all of us.”

Graphic Packaging, a Marietta, Ga., paperboard packing company for the food, beverage and consumer product industries, told the city in February that it needed a new facility and was considering moving its 165 local jobs to Monroe, La. Monroe dangled tax breaks.

Fort Smith’s unified front fought back with an incentive package that not only kept Graphic Packaging, but inspired the firm to build a $300,000-SF manufacturing plant worth $42 million. The company even added 135 more jobs to its operation, creating a $16.4 million economic impact through payroll for saved jobs and directly and indirectly created jobs, according to Atlanta consulting firm The Economic Strategy Center.

The $7 million, 32-acre construction project at Chaffee Crossing marks the first “ground up” plant to locate on 7,200 acres designated for development on the former U.S. Army base. The Army began conveying the property back to the FCRA in 2000, five years after it was closed.

Louisiana law gives its governor a lot of latitude to compete for economic development projects, so Manskey said Fort Smith knew it probably couldn’t win on tax breaks. But he said the recruitment team knew if it could just get close, then Fort Smith’s “quality of life” issues could tip the scales.

“Everything happened so fast,” Manskey said. “There were some moments when we wondered how we were going to be able to do some things. But everyone came to the table with a sense of urgency and eight different local entities helped get it done.”

Graphic Packaging customers include most beer companies and major retail vendors such as Coca-Cola Co., Kellogg’s Co., Kraft Foods Inc., and General Mills, to name a few.

The city assisted with infrastructure support for Graphic Packaging, the state kicked in a grant, Fort Chaffee conveyed the land and the Chamber has pledged monies to help with miscellaneous costs that may be incurred in the new plant’s first year.

“With all the different groups doing economic development, there’s a real opportunity for there to be problems but we’re not having any,” Manskey said. “We get together often and talk about what everyone is doing. We just have the right personalities in place to make it all work.”

Quality of Life

Ray Gosack, one of Fort Smith’s deputy city administrators, and Manskey both cited $411.2 million worth of recent public and private investments that have added amenities to Fort Smith (see chart, p. 17). But Gosack said an increasingly progressive attitude, even back in 1999, is what made him want to return to the area. Originally from Greenwood, Gosack had worked in the Chicago area for a decade and was pleased to find a new sense of professionalism back home.

“What brought me back was the change,” Gosack said. “It’s a result of people from other parts of the country moving in and others returning after seeing what life can be like. People are investing in their communities and seeing the results of forward-thinking.'”

According to the Center for Business and Economic Research in the University of Arkansas’ Walton College of Business, The Fort Smith index of leading economic indicators stumbled a little in March. But it was was up 1.3 percent in April, led primarily by an increased value in building permits and even in the number of average weekly manufacturing hours recorded.

The center predicts mild economic growth for the Fort Smith metropolitan statistical area in the fourth quarter, not far behind it’s predictions for the boomtown Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers MSA.

The 2001 U.S. Census profile for Fort Smith tabbed the city’s median age at 36.2 and the number of its households at 81,200. Nearly 25 percent of its population has incomes of $50,000 and up. It’s unemployment rate has hovered in the same 4 percent range as Northwest Arkansas’. A string of additional economic data shows the area is thriving.

On the Same Page

Gary Campbell, a Fort Smith city director and vice mayor, said the city’s attitude adjustment started in 1999. That January the city’s board of directors held its first quarterly retreat, and there it wrote out 400 ideas and culled them to a 122-item to-do list.

That was the beginning of The City of Fort Smith’s Comprehensive Plan, a roadmap that wasn’t completely finished until 2002, but one that began outlining ways to give the city a brighter future.

One goal was to establish an economic development team, not to compete with Chamber-type efforts but to help create products the Chamber of Commerce could use to sell Fort Smith. That was realized in July of 2003 with the arrival of veteran economic development practitioner Davie Spindle. He joined the city as economic development director, and Tracy Winchell joined the “ED” team at the same time as economic development coordinator.

“I wouldn’t be here if Fort Smith hadn’t done a comprehensive plan,” Spindle said. “I was close to retirement over in Oklahoma, but Dean Kruithof [a deputy city administrator] came over and handed the plan to me and said, ‘Here’s the way we’re going to go, come work with us.’ It spelled out in detail what the city wanted to do, and I thought, yeah, that sounds like fun.

“I think what happened is the leadership in this community gelled. They took a look at where the city was at and decided they wanted it to be someplace different. They started taking steps to get there.”

The 2002 formation of the Two-State Coalition, an economic development and marketing coalition, has also been an invaluable regional asset, Spindle said.

Capacity for More

On July 14, the Fort Smith Chamber announced a $2.2 million economic develop initiative aimed at increasing area employment by 1,000 net jobs and increasing annual payroll by at least $30.68 million by July 1, 2008. It seeks to raise $500 million in new capital investments by the same time.

The initiative could be challenged soon, since Whirlpool Corp. announced earlier this year that it is going to move some level of production to a Mexico facility. Details won’t be known until January, but Manskey said even if some of those 4,500 jobs leave the Chamber intends to “net” 1,000 new jobs during the next four years. It has narrowed a list of national economic development consulting firms to three, and expects to select one by the end of July.

Bill Harding, Fort Smith’s city administrator, said Fort Smith is ready for another wave of development. Instead of continuing to rely on state and limited general fund monies for infrastructure improvement, Fort Smith passed a penny sales tax to address street, storm drainage and bridge improvements back in 1985.

“Frankly, back then the infrastructure was in deplorable condition,” Harding said. “But one of the big successes we’ve had is the ability to pretty much pay cash for all of our infrastructure. As of May, we were essentially out of debt in relation to capital projects, except for the new water supply initiative.”

Revenue from the tax has grown from $8.5 million in its first year to about $15 million annually. A county tax followed in the early 1990s, which generates about another $10 million to $11 million annual, for Fort Smith roads.

A $180 million expansion project that will combine Lake Fort Smith and Lake Shepherd Springs into one was approved by a 90 percent margin two years ago. It will increase the daily water supply from 22 million gallons to 54 million. Using a combination of tax bonds ($50 million) and 20-year water and sewer revenue bonds, Fort Smith’s 50-year water supply infrastructure will be paid off in 18 years.

The four-year construction project is in its second year in the Frog Bayou area northeast of Mountainburg. The new Lake Fort Smith inherits more than 140,000 customers including 12 other water utilities that buy water from the city.

“The best numbers that demonstrate what kind of job the leadership of Fort Smith is doing are the ones at the polls,” Gosack said. “When we take an economic development issue to the voters, they approve it usually by a two-to-one margin. They have confidence that their money is going to be spent right, that it’s going to be used for progress.”

Manskey said in addition to Fort Smith’s new sense of cooperation, relationships up the Boston Mountains have also dramatically improved in recent years. Chamber leaders in both areas routinely try to help each other, he said, rather than squabbling over deals.

“What is it, 70 miles or so to Bentonville and Rogers,” Manskey said. “Their growth came suddenly, and ours was slower so we were able to keep up. I think as a result, we have some things to offer each other, and I know that leaders in both areas are working to tap into those synergies.”

More Like Fort Knox

Significant public and private investments either started or were announced in Fort Smith during the last couple of years include:

• $180 million water supply expansion project at Lake Fort Smith
• $40 million expansion by Whirlpool Corp.
• $25 million Marriott Courtyard hotel with more than 150 rooms
• $10 million new health sciences building at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith
• $65 million plant expansion at Gerber Products Co.
• $10 million plant expansion by Hiram Walker/Allied Domecq
• $4 million new Cox Communications customer care center
• $4.5 million WestEnd Loft development, a loft-style apartment and retail space complex downtown
• $6 million Alltel Corp. new distribution center.
• $6.7 million new U.S. Army National Guard 188th Fighter Wing headquarters
• $20 million new main and three neighborhood library system throughout the city

That makes a total $411.2 million worth of investiture. And going forward, a commercial Produce Row development downtown and an expected Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Supercenter are each expected to be million-dollar investments this year. Wal-Mart is apparently looking to add its third Supercenter in Fort Smith, or its fifth within a 20-mile radius.

Source: Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce and city of Fort Smith