Seattle-based company has acquired Van Buren-based Five Rivers Distribution

Five Rivers Distribution, which has made or participated in significant port facility investments in Fort Smith and Van Buren in recent years, is being sold to Seattle-based Carrix through its Logistic Services (LSI) company. Terms of the private transaction, which closed June 1, were not disclosed.

According to a Tuesday (June 2) press release, LSI is acquiring “substantially all assets” of Van Buren-based Five Rivers as part of an effort by the company to expand LSI’s “inland waterways operations and expanding its presence on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.”

“Five Rivers is an outstanding inland river operator with strong assets, deep customer relationships, and a proven track record of safe, efficient operations, Meghan Weinman, president of the Conventional Division of Carrix, the parent company of LSI, said in a statement. “This acquisition aligns with LSI’s strategy to grow its inland rivers network, expand customer solutions, and invest in assets that support long‑term, sustainable growth.”

LSI has intermodal bulk and breakbulk operations on U.S. inland waterways and its services include barge, rail, storage, packaging, and logistics. LSI has an operation at the Port of Little Rock.

Five Rivers operates a port operation in Van Buren, and operates the Port of Fort Smith through an agreement with the Fort Smith Port Authority, which is part of the city of Fort Smith.  According to the city, the authority approved the lease transfer on May 28.

Five Rivers’ operations in Fort Smith and Van Buren provide barge, rail, bulk storage, and truck services primarily for customers in agricultural and industrial sectors. Five Rivers President Marty Shell said all Five Rivers’ employees will remain with the company. Five Rivers has around 17 employees. Shell said he will continue to manage the Fort Smith and Van Buren port operations.

“I have known LSI during my 30 years of being in business, and they put employees at the top of their list, and I value that,” Shell said. “They can offer benefits and salaries that I could not even match, so that will be good for them (employees at Five Rivers).”

Shell said LSI does not have immediate plans for facility investments, adding that he has “about 6 to 7 years of work” ahead of him with ongoing and expected expansions.

“This (LSI deal) will allow me to be free from the day-to-day things and really focus and really work on those bigger projects and get those commitments done,” Shell said. “I’ve got close to $25 million in projects to get done, and I need to get those done in a short amount of time.”

One of projects Shell is managing is funded with an $8.1 million federal grant that will help build an almost $10 million transload yard on more than 6 acres of newly acquired property at the Port of Fort Smith. The 28-acre port is located near the confluence of the Poteau and Arkansas Rivers at 200 Navy Road in Fort Smith.

Five Rivers also is involved with the $18 million slackwater harbor project in Van Buren. That work, funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD), was recently approved. The harbor will be off the main channel of the Arkansas River and will be 1,000 feet long and 200 feet wide and have the capacity to moor and offload up to eight barges at a time. The harbor will have roughly 2,000 feet of dock frontage with a 50-foot-wide concrete deck for mobile cranes.

In September 2025, the Port of Fort Smith received an almost $2 million grant from the Arkansas Waterways Commission to help build a new warehouse. The grant was part of the effort to rebuild from the 2019 flood that significantly damaged the product-handling facility.

Shell also said the two ports are likely to benefit from the “vast resources of business development” that come from being connected to Carrix.

“This puts the Fort Smith region, the Van Buren facility in a better spot, and in a better place than just with Marty Shell at the helm,” Shell said.

Carrix subsidiaries are SSAMarine, Tideworks Technologies, and RMS. SSAMarine is the largest container terminal operator in North America, and also has cruise terminal operations that handle more than 21 million passengers annually. SSAMarine also has more than 55 U.S. and Canadian port operations that handle more than 42 million tons of cargo annually. Tideworks provides software and operating systems for more than 130 global terminal operations. RMS manages U.S. intermodal and auto handling facilities primarily through railroad networks.

Carrix, which has around 20,000 employees and was founded in 1949, is owned by Blackstone through its Blackstone Infrastructure Partners Group. New York City-based Blackstone (NYSE: BX) is one of the world’s largest investment houses, and reports having more than $1.3 trillion in assets under management.