June's joblessness lowest in state's NW
Northwest Arkansas' 2.9 percent June unemployment rate was the lowest in the state, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
That compared with an unemployment rate of 3 percent in June last year.
Arkansas had an unemployment rate of 3.8 percent in June. The national rate was 4 percent in June.
Two other metropolitan statistical areas -- Little Rock and Jonesboro -- had the next lowest rate at 3.5 percent each. Jonesboro and Little Rock also had an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent in June last year.
Other June unemployment rates in Arkansas compared with June last year were Fort Smith, 4.1 percent, down from 4.4 percent; Hot Springs, 4.4 percent, up from 4.3 percent; Texarkana, 5.6 percent, up from 4.8 percent; and Pine Bluff, 5.6 percent, up from 5.4 percent.
-- David Smith
2 Stifft Station sites to get $200,000 redo
A restaurant or pub is planned as part of a $200,000 redevelopment of two historic buildings on West Markham Street in the Stifft Station area of Little Rock.
Teeter Property Group LLC, led by Brian Teeter, acquired the Coley Building at 3011-3013 W. Markham, once home to Buice Drug Store, for $450,000 in April. The same month he acquired the Allen Building, next door at 3015 W. Markham, for $435,000.
Teeter told the Little Rock Board of Adjustment that he expects to complete renovations on the Coley Building, which has a finished upstairs apartment. He is applying for federal and state historic tax credits for the work on the buildings, both of which are more than 80 years old.
Teeter plans to use the Coley Building as a real estate office and showroom. He told the board he detects "strong market interest" in the Allen Building, but has no commitments yet.
He won a parking variance from the board and an endorsement from the Capitol View/Stifft Station Neighborhood Association, which wanted him to limit any business to a 10 p.m. closing time and any restaurant be limited to selling beer and wine.
-- Noel Oman
State index up 5.84 to close at 441.73
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, jumped 5.84 to 441.73 Thursday.
"Investors shrugged off overnight weakness driven by concerns over trade tariffs and chose to focus on positive quarterly earnings reports as the information technology sector outperformed," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
Total volume for the index was 16.8 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 08/03/2018