Mayor Copenhaver details Sportplex, demolition plans
by January 29, 2025 6:53 pm 238 views

Jonesboro is slated to host a youth volleyball tournament in the coming weeks, and more than half of the 85 teams slated to play are not from the area, Mayor Harold Copenhaver told members of the Kiwanis Club of Jonesboro on Wednesday (Jan. 29).
The event is only one day and that’s sort of a problem, the mayor said. If those players and their coaches and families stayed two days, the economic impacts would be enormous.
That’s a problem that is about to be fixed.
The city will break ground on the Jonesboro Sportplex in mid-March, but Copenhaver said he’s hopeful it could happen even sooner. The 200,000 square-foot sports complex will cost more than $77 million, but it will be a boon to the city’s economy.
“It will have the largest financial impact we’ve ever had in Jonesboro,” he said.
The main structure will include 12 basketball courts, 24 volleyball courts, 36 pickleball courts, and a natatorium. The natatorium plan has a 50-meter pool, a competition diving pool, and a warm-up pool. The natatorium features seating for 1,245 spectators.
A timeline for the project’s completion has not been released.
Another project, the demolition of the former Citizens Bank building in downtown Jonesboro, will begin as early as this weekend. Electrical lines will be removed from the building, and the street light at the confluence of Washington and Main streets will become a four-way stop because the stoplight there won’t have power for a while.
City officials had to settle for a “wet demolition” of the building that has been an eyesore in the area for decades. The structure couldn’t be imploded because the bottom four stories are made from concrete, while the upper three are made from steel, the mayor said.
A dry demolition could cost millions more and take 6-8 months to complete, he said. The wet demolition will only take 10-12 weeks and will cost about $3.25 million. Funds from the American Rescue Plan Act will fund the demolition.
The only problem with a wet demolition is that all the asbestos in the building will have to be removed from the water used in the process, Copenhaver added.
Once the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) approves the demolition plan, two 120-foot cranes will be brought in to start the process. Copenhaver said he expects imminent approval of the plan.