Multinational tech giant Amazon is heading to the Port of Little Rock, although the official announcement Tuesday revealed few details about the project.
Mayor Frank Scott Jr. confirmed that the company's construction of a Little Rock location was underway, shortly after the city Board of Directors approved a resolution authorizing the port to transfer land to a limited liability company associated with the project.
Scott said the development is unprecedented for the city in terms of economic opportunity, because of Amazon's size and the job loss or financial struggles many are facing amid the covid-19 pandemic.
"As we all understand, Amazon is a very dynamic, innovative company. It's not only a national company, it's a global company," Scott said. "This is some good news in the midst of uncertainty, and so we are grateful to welcome this company to our city, and we're excited because this is a major investment and a major deal for our city, and we're looking forward to its future as those details are revealed."
Scott said on social media Tuesday evening that the project will employ hundreds of people during construction and will involve the hiring of "many more hundreds" once it opens. He clarified on Twitter that the number of jobs would be fewer than 10,000 and said he could not give an exact number at the time.
Jay Chesshir, president and CEO of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, said Amazon requested that no details be released until after the deal is closed because of the global economic uncertainty brought on by the pandemic.
"Unfortunately, because of the unprecedented times that we all find ourselves in, with the economy changing literally before our very eyes, the company's requested not to release any details on the project until after the closing of the project, as they are still obviously working through exactly what that's going to look like," Chesshir said. "Suffice it to say once the final details are buttoned up and once we have the opportunity to talk about those things, it's going to be an even better and more exciting day in Little Rock."
Chesshir said state and local officials had been working on attracting Amazon for more than six months. Officials gave no time frame for completion of the project.
Scott said he would sign documents after the board meeting and in the following hours, and that he hoped to close the deal as soon as possible.
The Amazon project has been dubbed Project Diamond in publicly available documents, a common tactic for the company in the early stages of project development.
A project of a similar scale in north Memphis was code-named Project Iris before confirmation it was an Amazon effort. That 855,000-square-foot center is expected to open in time for the 2020 Christmas shopping season.
A four-story warehouse totaling about 2.5 million square feet that was built in a Milwaukee suburb was code-named Project Arrow.
Project Diamond has been months in the making, according to publicly available documents.
The Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality issued a federally mandated stormwater construction permit on Nov. 27 to the port for the "construction of a distribution center" on an 83-acre site west of the intersection of Zeuber and Fletcher roads, which is within port property.
The real estate purchase and sale agreement between the port and a limited liability company called PDC TN/FL LPIV was dated even earlier, on Oct. 28. It sets out the sale of the property for $3.2 million, or more than $38,500 per acre. The company is represented locally by Cliff McKinney, an attorney with the Little Rock law firm of Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull.
The Little Rock Port Authority board of directors unanimously approved a resolution on the transaction at an emergency meeting that began at 5 p.m. Board members met by conference call for the first time because of the covid-19 pandemic.
Bryan Day, the port's executive director, didn't disclose the property tenant.
"Economic development is complicated, and we have to recognize certain levels of confidentiality need to be honored so the project can come to fruition," Day said. "I can tell you it will be a wonderful addition to the Port of Little Rock with ... significant [numbers of] jobs and significant investment."
The site is across Fletcher Road from the location of the proposed production plant and North American headquarters for CZ-USA, the American subsidiary of the Czech arms manufacturer. Little progress on the $90 million project, which is expected to create 600 jobs, has been evident since Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced it almost a year ago.
A spokesman for CZ-USA said the project continues to move forward, if not at the pace initially envisioned.
"We are committed to Little Rock as the future home of CZ-USA," Jason Morton, the company's marketing vice president, said in an email. "The investment plan continues. The preparatory work on the project currently focuses primarily on the selection of optimal technologies and preparation of production, while at the same time creating an appropriate funding framework."
Construction is planned for the second half of the year, he said.
Heavy construction at the Project Diamond site is ongoing and has appeared to be for at least a couple of weeks, if not longer. The equipment present includes a concrete production plant.
The project, first reported Friday by Arkansas Business, appears to be part of a new generation of multistory distribution centers.
"Seattle-based Amazon and other retailers are looking to put products closer to population centers as they add more automation to cut transportation time and costs in the era of same-day and next-day delivery," according to CoStar, the commercial real estate information company.
Project Diamond is the third Amazon facility announced for Central Arkansas in less than two years.
The company opened a facility in 2018 in North Little Rock. The tent-like structure is designed to distribute "last-mile" deliveries using Amazon vans owned by contractors who deliver packages for the online retailer.
Amazon just renewed its lease for that property, according to the property owner.
Amazon also will open a facility in an empty warehouse off Interstate 30 on the edge of southwest Little Rock, according to Catylist, another national real estate industry research company.
Amazon signed a 10-year lease that began April 1 for the city-owned property at 12401 Interstate 30, which is an Alexander address, according to Catylist.
Ward 5 City Director Lance Hines asked if the city's "Love, Little Rock" advertising campaign had anything to do with the company choosing to expand into Arkansas' capital.
A tongue-in-cheek breakup letter to the company appeared on a full-page ad in The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, in 2017. The chamber launched the campaign at a time when many U.S. cities were trying to land Amazon's second headquarters, and Little Rock, which didn't meet the company's requirements for that project, said it didn't want to be considered anyway.
"Some of us were castigated for it, but as it proved out, it got a lot of traction for our small investment in it," Hines said.
Chesshir kept his answer simple.
"Today's a great day to love Little Rock," he said.
A Section on 04/08/2020