Chaffee Crossing growth speeds up

$3 million in sales predicted this quarter, $6 million for year

— Chaffee Crossing, a 7,000-acre economic development site carved out of the now-closed Fort Chaffee army base, sold almost $3 million in property for commercial and residential development in 2012 and expects to close on about $3 million more in the first quarter of this year, Chaffee Crossing officials said Monday.

Among the projects: a trucking freight terminal and warehouse, two new residential developments, a commercial shopping center and two large churches.

Purchases of 90 acres for a shopping mall are expected in the first quarter this year, said Chaffee Crossing Executive Director Ivy Owen.

Property sales for 2012 and early 2013 are expected to translate into more than $131 million in development, according to Chaffee Crossing’s 2012 annual report. Sales figures also show that 2011 and 2012 have been the largest sales years for the location since it opened.

“For this area, this is where the bulk of development is currently happening,” said Bob Cooper of commercial real estate company R.H. Ghan Commercial Properties of Fort Smith, which lists properties for the Chaffee Crossing nonprofit development.

Chaffee Crossing property sales late last year or expected in the first quarter of this year include: Chaffee Crossing Development Group and Hot Springs veterinarian Dr. Marion Smith, 90 acres for $1.8 million to build a major shopping center. The purchase is scheduled for March. Developers are waiting to see the outcome of litigation concerning a November alcohol sales vote by the city of Barling, where the property is located.

First Baptist Church of Fort Smith, 60 acres for $418,000 for a metropolitan church development. It is scheduled to be finalized by March 1.

Chaffee Commercial Park LLC of Little Rock, 10 acres for $300,000 to build a commercial shopping center. The sale is expected by March 31.

The industrial-commercial-residential development’s proximity to a rail line and a new strip of Interstate 49 has driven much of the development, say business operators who have bought Chaffee Crossing land.

“It’s at the end of a railroad. There aren’t too many places you can build anymore at the end of a railroad,” said David Harp, an owner of Chaffee Logistical Solutions of Fort Smith, which hopes to develop 300 acres for industries that need rail transportation.“You can design the rail the way you want. If they want to build a warehouse, we can run rail through your building, or by the side of your building. You don’t have that opportunity very often.”

New roads including I-49 attracted Rob Coleman, vice president of ERC Properties Inc. of Fort Smith. His company is finishing the 50-lot Reata subdivision in Chaffee Crossing, with homes priced from $280,000 to $420,000. The two-year-old subdivision has sold more than 70 percent of its lots, he said.

“It’s the newest addition to Fort Smith and has the newest roads,” Coleman said. “From a growth perspective, that’s where it’s going.”

In 1995, the U.S. Department of Defense closed the 72,000-acre property on Fort Smith’s eastern edge as an active army base, and later deeded 7,000 of its acres to the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority and other public entities. The goal was for development to benefit local governments and schools. Owen sees his job as converting the property into projects that will offer the best possible jobs and pay taxes to support government agencies.

In 2001, the authority sold $426,000 in property for development. The sales numbers hovered between $241,388 and $667,500 during recession years from 2007 through 2010, according to Chaffee Crossing officials. Among the buyers was Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., which broke ground on a $100 million wind-turbine assembly plant at Chaffee Crossing in 2010. After the building was complete, Mitsubishi announced last April that was “mothballing” the plant until the market for wind turbines improves in the United States and it resolves on-going litigation over patent issues with General Electric Co.

In 2011, Chaffee Crossing’s sales jumped to $3 million and hit $2.96 million in 2012. Executive Director Owen predicts $3 million in sales in the first quarter of 2013 and perhaps $6 million for the entire year.

Owen, hired in late 2007, says Chaffee Crossing was hurt in 2009 and 2010 when “banks weren’t loaning money. It was stagnant except for residential development. Now that the money’s freed up a little, I think 2013 is going to be our best year yet.”

The development’s location near rail, the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, Interstate 40 and the new I-49, will always be a key to success, he said.

“Fort Smith is always going to be in the middle of the country and on a navigable river and two interstates and railroads. We have to take advantage of that. We’re doing our part,” Owen said.

Business, Pages 21 on 01/08/2013

Upcoming Events