Southeastern Timber Products El Dorado LLC was approved Tuesday for $5 million in Arkansas Economic Development Commission financing to aid in the proposed purchase of an abandoned plant in Union County.
Parent company Southeastern Timber, based in Mississippi, has expressed an interest in renovating the sawmill formerly used by Georgia-Pacific. Total cost of the project is $25 million, and commission members were told during a Tuesday meeting at the Northwest Arkansas Council office that the operation could create 125 jobs for El Dorado and Union County.
No timetable has been set for completion of the project, a commission spokesman said. Details of the purchase are still being discussed, and Robert Reynolds, chairman of the El Dorado Economic Development Board, cautioned that the plant purchase wasn’t quite a “done deal” but was closer to a reality because of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission decision.
Offering financial incentives to Southeastern Timber was a step in the right direction, Reynolds said.
“This bond approval is what needed to be done before we take the next step,” Reynolds said. “We’re not as far along as AEDC. We come second. AEDC leads. We work with them and follow their lead. It’s great news this passed muster with AEDC. It doesn’t mean it is going to happen, but without approval it probably can’t unfold in the best way.”
Georgia-Pacific closed itsplant, located about 5 miles outside El Dorado, in 2008. Adding 125 jobs would be a big boost to El Dorado and Union County, which had an 8.6 percent preliminary unemployment rate in Bureau of Labor Statistics data released in February.
Unemployment in Union County has been under 8 percent just once since January 2013. It is higher than the state’s 7.1 percent reported in February.
“It’s nuts and bolts kind of stuff, but huge and significant in that so many of those mills have been shut down over the years,” said Bryan Scroggins, business finance director for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.“Having a mill cranking back up is good news for southeast Arkansas, which has so much of its economy tied up in the timber industry.”
Southeastern Timber Products has its headquarters in Jackson, Miss., and has been in operation for more than 40 years. A message left for Sidney Allen, the company’s chief financial officer, wasn’t returned Thursday.
Business, Pages 27 on 04/11/2014