CONWAY — A lot is riding on the bond-issue and sales-tax-rededication proposal in Tuesday’s special election in Conway.
It was called “one of the largest economic- and community-development projects” in the city’s history in a letter the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce mailed to voters.
Residents are being asked to rededicate a one-eighth-cent sales tax and pay off a bond issue to fund street improvements and an overpass to connect the Conway Commons shopping center with Central Landing, the proposed development for the 151-acre site of the old airport that fronts Interstate 40.
And, the tax would go toward street
improvements on Dave Ward Drive and Amity Road for the Lewis Crossing Shopping Center, which will include a Sam’s Club and other shops and restaurants.
The sales tax is scheduled to expire in 2022; voting to rededicate the tax extends it to 2045. The rededication of the sales tax and the paying off of bonds are separate items on the ballot.
Central Landing is a proposed lifestyle shopping center that would be anchored by Dillard’s and include single-family homes, town-home apartments, businesses, office space, a hotel and restaurants.
The new $30 million airport, located on the outskirts of southwest Conway in the Lollie Bottoms area near the Arkansas River, was scheduled to have its grand opening Friday. The old airport on Sixth Street will continue to operate for more than a month, said Josh Zylks, manager of the new airport.
Proceeds from the sale of the old airport property will go toward the new airport.
An offer of $6.1 million was made by the Conway Development Corp., which is led by president Brad Lacy, and Wilson & Associates of Montgomery, Alabama, contingent upon the overpass and other infrastructure improvements.
Conway Mayor Tab Townsell said in an earlier interview that the city passed a half-cent sales tax in 1987, which has been renewed and split two more times.
The sales tax has been the city’s “workhorse whenever we needed major work done,” Townsell said in an earlier interview.
Townsell said last week that he has not heard of any organized opposition to the proposal, just “general background naysaying.”
“There are a lot of people who still don’t understand all the moving parts; it’s more complicated,” he said.
“People want to fight the Christmas-tree battle over the Central Landing opportunity.”
A 54-foot artificial Christmas tree — said to be the largest in Arkansas — was purchased in 2013 from Get Lit in Springdale for about $125,000 of Advertising and Promotion funds. Controversial from the get-go, the tree’s lights often didn’t work. It was taken back in January by Get Lit employees to be examined and repaired.
However, the company went out of business without telling Conway officials, a couple of whom retrieved the unrepaired tree from the shuttered Get Lit property.
Townsell said that money couldn’t have been used for Central Landing infrastructure. Advertising and Promotions funds cannot be used for street projects.
The mayor said that what many people don’t realize is that the Conway City Council’s conversation about the overpass started long before the decision was made to sell the old airport property.
“We were doing it for traffic mitigation,” he said.
A new boulevard would be built connecting Central Landing with Oak Street, too, as well as connecting a new southern interchange to city streets.
If the bond issue isn’t approved, “we can still pay for [the infrastructure]. We’ll be forced to use only pay-as-you-go monies, instead of pay-as-you-go monies and the bond issue,” Townsell said.
“That’s still going to be a benefit if we lose Dillard’s. We just won’t get the sales-tax revenue out of it,” he said.
If the bond issue isn’t approved, the land could be offered to the second bidder, Hal Crafton, who offered $5.8 million.
“We have to build all the infrastructure for him over time, or rebid it and scale back on what we offer for infrastructure, which means less relief on traffic congestion, less of a sale price,” Townsell said.
However, Townsell said he is optimistic the bond issue will be approved.
“I think a lot of people do get it and recognize it as a true opportunity for the city that will be transformational for several reasons,” he said. “This could be transformational for everything north of the river.”
He compared the proposed Central Landing development with McCain Mall and the impact it had some 40 years ago in North Little Rock.
The development and overpass would change the way Conway is viewed from the interstate, he said.
“We’ve never been viewed well from the interstate,” Townsell said.
“We’ve been paying this tax since 1987. If we keep growing, what part of growth are we then not going to pay for? We are an absolute bargain compared to other growth cities,” he said, naming Fayetteville and Rogers.
Jack Bell, chief of staff for the city of Conway, said he is optimistic that voters will approve the proposal, because it’s not a new tax.
He said the Faulkner County Board of Realtors supports it, and members have asked what they could do to make it happen. Bell said he told them to make sure the people in favor of it get out to vote.
“That’s going to be the key,” he said.
Early voting is underway through Monday at the Faulkner County Courthouse.
On Tuesday, the two polling places will be the McGee Center, 3800 College Ave., primarily for those with the 72034 ZIP code, and the Conway Sports Center in the Don Owen Recreation Complex, 10 Lower Ridge Road, for those with the 72032 ZIP code.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.