$84M expansion set at cold-storage plant
Americold will spend $84 million on a new cold storage and distribution facility in Russellville, creating 30 jobs when construction is completed, the company said Friday.
Construction has begun on the 131,000-square-foot complex, with completion expected at the end of next year. Americold has 10 sites in Arkansas; the Russellville plant has 70 employees now.
The expansion will add 13 million cubic feet to the facility, creating about 42,000 pallet positions for product storage.
Americold said the plant is being built to fit the needs of a client, Conagra Brands.
Based in Atlanta, Americold has 242 plants in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and South America.
The Arkansas Economic Development Commission said Americold has entered a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with the city to abate up to 65% of property taxes for 20 years. The company also qualified for the commission's Advantage Arkansas Program, which provides state income-tax credit based on the number of new employees hired as a result of the project, and the Tax Back Program, which provides sales-tax refunds on building materials, taxable machinery and equipment associated with the project.
-- Stephen Steed
Road work finished near new Tyson mill
A $9 million project to improve a 14-mile section of Arkansas 195 that helped Hempstead County land a $65 million Tyson Foods feed mill has been completed.
Tyson chipped in $3 million and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission added another $1.5 million to help pay for the work. The Arkansas Department of Transportation provided $4.5 million.
The feed mill is under construction and scheduled to open in March, said Steve Harris, president of the Hempstead County Economic Development Corp.
The so-called super feed mill will employ about 50 workers, but it will replace older feed mills in Hope and Nashville, which support about 450 chicken growers in the region. Tyson also maintains large processing plants in Hope and Nashville that together employ almost 3,000 workers, as well as hatcheries
The section of Arkansas 195 between Fulton and Old Washington is designed to withstand trucks weighing 40 tons. It had been limited to trucks weighing 32 tons.
State, local and Tyson representatives will gather at 11 a.m. Monday at Historic Washington State Park to mark the project's completion.
-- Noel Oman
State index declines again, losing 15.85
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Friday at 591.78, down 15.85.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.