Population Milestone Will Be Development Tool For NWA

Sometime around May 28, give or take a few days or weeks, the Northwest Arkansas metropolitan statistical area unofficially reached a population of 500,000.

Because of this, the region will find itself on a brand new set of radar screens viewed by site selectors, business developers and commercial retailers.

“We have been told directly by site selectors that, for certain types of projects, they won’t even consider an area if the population is under 500,000,” said Mike Malone, president and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Council, a regional economic development entity. “So we can say to them now, and we are trying to make sure they understand that we’ve reached and exceeded that threshold. So, it’s part of not getting eliminated.”

The Northwest Arkansas metropolitan statistical area includes Washington, Benton, and Madison counties in Arkansas and McDonald County in Missouri. No community in the region has a population of 80,000, but the different cities often work together on economic development activities.

The 500,000 figure was based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s last annual projected population of 491,966 as of July 1, 2013. By subtracting the 2010 population from that, it was determined that the region was growing by 24.2 residents per day. The daily increases were added to 491,966 to reach the 500,000 figure.

The Census Bureau will release its estimates for this year’s population next March or April, but the Northwest Arkansas Council is not waiting to tout the figure. Malone said the milestone is being mentioned in informal communications with potential employers.

“It’s all part of communicating how dynamic the region is in the minds of the site selectors and business decision-makers,” Malone said.

Steve Clark, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, said in May that economic developers were “salivating” about entering the 500,000 to 1 million population grouping.

“Now we’re on the same level playing field with site selectors,” he said during a driving tour of the city. “There are only about 250 or so site selectors in the country, and those are the people who have the keys to the kingdom initially.”

Clark said site selectors would not have given the region the benefit of the doubt when it was close to 500,000. With so many other communities to choose from, “They look for reasons to push you out, not to push you in.”

T.J. Lefler, a commercial real estate broker with Sage Partners in Fayetteville, said a similar dynamic exists with national retail chains. Retailers use the 500,000 mark as a gauge for deciding to enter into an area, or, if they are already there, to open additional locations.

“Whenever populations reach 500,000, you get to a demographic of national retailers that look to expand on a national scale, and they will only look at certain population thresholds,” he said.