News in brief

FedEx to construct new building in LR

FedEx Corp. plans to build a $50 million, 300,000-square-foot building in southwest Little Rock to replace its two existing locations, company executives said Thursday.

The fully automated building at 11300 Alexander Road should be complete by August 2016.

There will be about 160 workers at the building. Most of them will transfer from the firm's two locations in Little Rock. Two company executives declined to say how many jobs are full time and how many are part time.

Little Rock and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission will provide $250,000 each to help with infrastructure, said Scott Hardin, a commission spokesman.

To qualify for the city's payment, a Little Rock Board of Director's resolution requires FedEx to retain 27 jobs for five years and create at least 11 new jobs by Aug. 1, 2020, at an average hourly wage of $22.31. So by 2020, the FedEx building should employ at least 38 full-time employees, Hardin said in an email.

"The company should also employ quite a few part-time workers, although that's not a requirement," Hardin said.

-- David Smith

Arkansas Index dips in mixed trading day

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 1.10 to 392.32 Thursday.

"U.S. stocks were mixed on Thursday in another round of uneventful trading after some mixed economic data and continued focus on Greek bailout negotiations," said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.

ArcBest rose 2.6 percent on average volume.

Wal-Mart shares fell 3.2 percent.

Total volume of the index was 29.8 million shares.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business on 02/20/2015

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