Incentive has professionals making move

Remote workers take offer of $10,000 for new NW life

FILE -- The Preacher Son restaurant as well as the Bentonville water tower and Midtown building in downtown Bentonville Arkansas.
FILE -- The Preacher Son restaurant as well as the Bentonville water tower and Midtown building in downtown Bentonville Arkansas.

Los Angeles native Shanelle Sherlin declares that today is her first official day as a resident of Arkansas — a state she was little aware of just a few months ago.

Last year, Sherlin was scouting locations to celebrate her 30th birthday with friends. They discovered Eureka Springs on a search and forgot about it. Then she found a friend’s Instagram photo of a waterfall in the Fayetteville area. A week later, a social-media influencer she follows put up photos of Arkansas. The state’s natural beauty caught her eye — again.

“All of that together just told me it was definitely a sign that I should go to Arkansas for my 30th birthday,” said Sherlin, a technology manager for the CW Network. “Arkansas really wasn’t on my map as a place to visit, never mind to live.” Four friends joined her on a driving adventure through Arkansas in August — starting in Little Rock, hopping over to Hot Springs, winding up to Eureka Springs and then across to Bentonville to end the trip.

“Arkansas was absolutely stunning and when we got to Bentonville I just fell in love with the town,” Sherlin added. “I loved how progressive it was and that art and cycling was such a huge part of the town.” Sherlin is one of 26,000 professional workers who applied to move to the region and receive a $10,000 cash incentive offered by the Northwest Arkansas Council. Applicants have jobs that don’t tie them to an office or specific city — they have the freedom to work where they would like to live. So far, 25 candidates have been selected to move to Northwest Arkansas.

The initiative is not an effort to fill jobs. Rather, the goal is to attract highly accomplished professionals with a specialty in STEAM areas — science, technology, engineering, the arts and math.

“This is an attempt to contribute to the STEAM focused ecosystem that we’re trying to create in the area,” said Nelson Peacock, the council’s president and chief executive officer. “That is what will help us over the long term in building our economy over the next 10 years.” The Life Works Here incentive program, opened in November, has generated interest from candidates in more than 115 countries and all 50 states. Along with cash, participants receive a mountain bike to enjoy the hundreds of miles of trails in the region. Or they can choose an annual membership to one of the region’s arts and cultural institutions.

The Walton Family Foundation is providing financial support.

Similar concepts have been tested and proved effective in communities like Tulsa and Topeka, Kan. Arkansas as a whole will benefit from the effort, according to Commerce Secretary Mike Preston.

“As these individuals discover all we have to offer here in Arkansas, I am confident that they will invest their talents into our communities, shaping culture and creating economic advancement throughout the region and the state for years to come,” Preston said.

Morrilton native Whitney Romanoff and her husband, Steve, saw the program as an opportunity to return to Arkansas and raise their 19-month-old daughter near relatives.

The Romanoffs have lived the past four years in the San Francisco Bay area, most recently in Oakland. Whitney graduated from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and has kept up with growth in the area. “My brother and sister-in-law live in Fayetteville and for years have raved to us about the booming arts, culture and food scene in Northwest Arkansas, trying to convince us to consider a move,” Whitney said.

Then came the pandemic — working from home opened as an option for the couple, both in their 30s, and personal priorities shifted. “After months of quarantine, we missed being with our family and having the extra support from the village we were used to growing up,” she added. “We didn’t want our daughter to miss out on opportunities to get to know her family and be around other kids her age.” Steve will continue working remotely as director of software engineering for Capital One. The move puts the family closer to his parents in the Washington, D.C., area. Whitney, formerly senior manager for PwC’s emerging tech group, is starting a web and interior design firm.

The couple is renting in Fayetteville with plans to buy a house soon. Along with closer family connections, the Romanoffs are looking forward to the greater financial flexibility the move and the cash incentive will deliver.

“This opens up opportunities for us to explore new ventures together — we are even considering building a little cabin in the woods as a fun family retreat and investment property,” Whitney said.

Springdale soon will be home to new businesses operated by chef and cookbook author Jennifer Hill Booker, now living in Atlanta and working as a fellow at the James Beard Foundation. Later this spring she plans to move to the area and open two businesses — a traditional beer garden that includes an outdoor kitchen and a Southern-cuisine restaurant with global influences.

Booker, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Paris, has visited Bentonville several times to participate in events at Bright-water, a culinary school at Northwest Arkansas Community College. There, she met an investor willing to partner on food and beverage ventures in the area.

The two had back-and-forth communications over a few years, tossing around ideas and concepts. “Atlanta is super saturated and I didn’t have anyone saying, “Hey, Jen, come and cook your food,’ ” Booker said. “I really had to think it over for a long time before pulling the trigger.” The financial incentive offered by the Northwest Arkansas Council was the clincher. “I believe in fate and kismet and the financial end was a sticking point so the money for relocation was very helpful,” she said.

With a move to the region, Booker and her partner plan to open Bauhaus Biergarten and the restaurant Revival, both on Holcomb Street in Springdale. Bauhas is scheduled for a soft opening in June with a formal opening in July, and Revival is planned for next year, pending the pandemic’s permission.

Neither would be in the works without financial support from the Life Works Here initiative, Booker said.

“The program is pure genius,” she said. “People look at big cities when they look to relocate and they don’t consider smaller towns that need the lifeblood to grow. It’s a super-smart concept and it’s a beautiful area to live in.” Back at the Northwest Arkansas Council, Peacock said the organization is continuing to scrutinize applications to find the right candidates for the program. The goal this year is to have 100 new workers move to the area, with a rough outline of having about half of those in technology fields, about a quarter in the entrepreneurial/ startup sector and another 25% in the arts.

Ideal candidates are highly accomplished professionals who agree to live in the region for a year.

“We want individuals who are going to fit with what we’re offering here,” Peacock added. “The last thing we want to do is incentivize someone to relocate here and it doesn’t match up — they want to leave after a year.” The program places a high value on applicants with a history of community service.

“We’re being very selective in who we bring here,” Peacock said. “We want people who are willing to put down roots and stay for the long haul.” As she nestles into her rental home in Fayetteville, Sherlin said she may well sit and stay a while. She soon plans to look for a property to purchase. “There is really so much growth potential for the area,” she said. “I can definitely see myself living there. I didn’t have any doubt about making the move.”

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