Spartan acquires Riverside warehouse, owner optimistic about Fort Smith economy

In just a little more than two years, Columbus, Ohio-based Spartan Logistics has grown from hoping to utilize 100,000 square feet of the former Whirlpool warehouse in Fort Smith to investing $20 million in the city to repurpose more than 1 million square foot of warehouse space.

Spartan recently acquired the 423,000-square-foot Riverside warehouse operation located near the former Whirlpool manufacturing plant in Fort Smith. Ed Harmon, chairman of the Harmon Family Group which owns Spartan, said the building was acquired for around $8.5 million and the company will likely spend $850,000 on remodeling and renovations.

The warehousing, logistics and real estate company acquired in October 2013 100,000 square feet of space within Whirlpool’s 620,000 warehouse operation adjacent to its recently shuttered 1 million square foot manufacturing plant. Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool Corp. closed the refrigerator manufacturing plant in June 2012, which at the time employed about 1,000, but was home to more than 4,500 jobs at its peak.

In May 2014, Spartan acquired the entire warehouse, and at least four companies are operating in the facility. With the Riverside building, Spartan will have 1.043 million square foot under roof in Fort Smith.

Spartan and its associated companies provide “one-stop shopping” to many Fortune 500 companies with package handling, light manufacturing, packaging assembly, inventory controls, shipping and other needs. The company has 12 large warehouse and logistics operations, with eight in Ohio and three in Indiana. Prior to acquiring the Riverside operation, Spartan had more than 3.2 million square feet of warehouse space. With the Riverside addition, Fort Smith will have the most warehouse space of any other Spartan location.

Harmon said at least 300 people are employed by various companies in the former Whirlpool warehouse building. One of those companies is Furniture Factory Outlet, which in July 2015 announced it would move its corporate headquarters from Muldrow, Okla., to a 180,000-square-foot part of Spartan’s warehouse operation in Fort Smith. That move was initially estimated to bring 64 jobs to Fort Smith.

Harmon told Talk Business & Politics he has potential tenants with “firm growth plans,” but would not speculate as to what types of companies might use the Riverside building or how many jobs might be created. Harmon did tease that Spartan is looking at other warehouse space in Fort Smith. His belief is that Fort Smith, because of geography and transportation infrastructure, is a good location to service customers in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas – especially Texas.

“From a distribution standpoint, we believe Fort Smith is very compatible to the Dallas market. That’s why we are very enthusiastic about it,” Harmon said.

And while he did agree that the Fort Smith regional economy was hit hard with manufacturing losses, Harmon is bullish on the region’s future.

“Fort Smith, I think, is positioned (for growth), and we want to be there, to have a part in that recovery. … The long-term outlook for us is that Fort Smith and Arkansas is the place we need to be,” Harmon said.