Golf-centered venue
planned for Rogers
Topgolf, a Texas entertainment company, plans to build its first Arkansas location in Rogers.
The company revealed its plans Friday for a golf-centered venue with food, beverages and music. Topgolf also features a driving range for point-scoring golf games using microchipped balls.
Topgolf did not provide a time frame for opening and the project is pending city approval, but the venue would be built on 11 acres adjacent to the Walmart AMP concert hall on South J.B. Hunt Drive.
The company said the project would create 300 full and part-time jobs at the Rogers location and estimates the venue would host about 250,000 guests annually. It plans to lease the land from Hunt Ventures.
Topgolf, which has 41 sites, has has been interested in expanding to smaller and midsize cities. Chris Calloway, the company's chief development officer, said the strength of the economy, population growth and corporate presence made Northwest Arkansas an attractive destination.
-- Robbie Neiswanger
State investor zones
get approval of U.S.
The U.S. Treasury Department has approved the 85 census tracts identified earlier by the state as "opportunity zones" for private investment in return for tax breaks, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement Friday.
The federal tax law approved by Congress in late 2017 established the zones and required governors across the nation to submit census tracts that meet certain low-income criteria. The state identified 337 eligible tracts but was limited by law to submitting just 25 percent, or 85 tracts, to the Treasury Department for approval.
The program allows private investors to defer payment of taxes on capital gains on profits they earn on investments in the certified zones. They must invest the money through a corporation or partnership that was organized for the specific purpose of investing in Opportunity Zones.
-- Stephen Steed
State index off 0.45
as 12 stocks decline
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 0.45 to 424.33 Friday.
Twelve stocks declined and four advanced.
P.A.M. Transportation rose 3.2 percent in light trading and Windstream fell 2.1 percent on low volume.
Total volume for the index was 24.3 million shares. The average daily volume for the week was 27.4 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 05/19/2018