In this edition of the Southern Fried podcast, host Rex Nelson sits down with Bryan Day, executive director of the Little Rock Port Authority, to discuss developments at the port, including the addition of the Amazon fulfilment center.
Rex Nelson: Hi, everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Southern Fried podcast, a production of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I'm Rex Nelson of the Democrat-Gazette, and really a pleasure to have somebody I've known for many years and admired for many years. And that's Bryan Day, the director of the Little Rock Port Authority. Bryan, thank you for joining us today.
Bryan Day: I'm excited to be here, Rex, thanks for having me.
Rex Nelson: Absolutely. So much going on out at the port. But I always like to start because I don't like to assume anything from anybody who is listening to this podcast, don't like to assume anything. So let's start with Port 101. Tell us about the Port of Little Rock a little about its history, which I've enjoyed writing about through the years. How you got there, and maybe just kind of an overview of that facility.
Bryan Day: Sure, I would like to. You know, that's a great question, because many folks in Little Rock and Central Arkansas don't even know we have a port. And when I took the job, several of my friends kind of scratched their heads and said "Little Rock has a port?" So we've got to do a better job of telling our story. And maybe today we'll get the word out. But a little bit about the history of the port, you know, the port actually, you could argue that it sort of began in 1927, after the big flood, when Congress realized that they had to manage these navigable, these rivers. They had to manage them for flood control, for agriculture, for economic development. We had two amazing senators, John McClellan in Arkansas and Robert Kerr, who took up the mantle in the 50s to begin trying to fund this project to make the Arkansas River navigable. And Congress was just as dysfunctional back then, as it is today, and they worked hard for it. Finally, they were able to get a $1 billion appropriation to build a 415-mile navigable stream from the Mississippi River to Tulsa, Catoosa, Oklahoma, and the project began. While all that was going on Congress, kind of said okay, Arkansas, Oklahoma, we're gonna invest in this river which at the time was the largest civil works project ever undertaken — but communities, you need to do something, too. And so Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Fort Smith, Muskogee, Oklahoma and Tulsa, decided to build ports. And in July of 1959, the City Council at the time said let's have a port. And if you think about what was there in 1959, Rex, there was nothing there, just fields. The river didn't exist as it was, the interstate didn't exist, Bill and Hillary Clinton Airport was Adams Field, College Station was just being built, so there wasn't much out there. They put a finger on a map, they have a port, the community invested in a $3 million bond. We built some railroad track. We built some warehouses and we bought some land. Fast forward today, we're 5000 acres in size. We have 43 businesses from around the world. We run 21 miles of shortline railroad, we have three docks, we have seven warehouses, and we are the largest, I believe, we are the largest employment center in Central Arkansas.
Rex Nelson: Interesting. Talk a little bit about yourself. I know you don't like doing that. But you're a Little Rock native right? Grew up here in the city.
Bryan Day: I am, I grew up here and...
Rex Nelson: How did your path lead you to the port?
Bryan Day: Well, it's a strange path. I'll be brief. So, I graduated from Park View High School, went to UA, Little Rock and got a degree in criminal justice with the concept of going to law school. My advisor at the time said that's a really bad idea, you need to do something else. I went to work for the State Park system, spent a year at Pinnacle, three years at the Ozark Folk Center, and four years at old Washington State Park outside of Hope, down in your part of the state.
Rex Nelson: Right.
Bryan Day: While I was at old Washington, I went back and got my master's in public administration. At the time there was a gentleman named Charles Nickerson, who was an adjunct professor, he became city manager. He hired me. I became the parks director for the city in 1994, I became the assistant city manager. And then in 2014, as just an extension of my public service career, I went out and became the director of the port. Twenty years ago, you know, I wanted to be the parks director at the Grand Canyon or the Great Smoky Mountains. Today, I'm the director of the port and I think I have the best job. I'm really building, you know, as a public servant, we want to build place. We want to create destination, we want to create opportunity. I did that as a parks director, I did that as assistant city manager, and I'm doing that at the port. Trying to create a place that people believe in and want to invest in. I do that with the help of people like you, who tell our story, the city, the chamber, the state, and it's a team effort to try to create these opportunities for people to invest in our community.
Rex Nelson: You know, you talked about the fact that a lot of people don't even know we have a port, but I think a lot more people in the last year or so have become aware of that, because of the giant Amazon project. Talk a little bit about that and how that came about for you.
Bryan Day: I will. That's, that's a great- it is a great story. And it did put us on the map. And Amazon has invested in this community in three locations, not only the port.
Rex Nelson: Exactly, and I was gonna get to that next, but since you mentioned it, I'll mention it now. Of course, we've got the old jacuzzi plant down in southwest Little Rock. We've got another facility on the edge of North Little Rock right behind the Galloway exit, a lot of people are familiar with all the truck stops there, another massive facility. Bryan, between those three facilities, and you can correct me if I'm wrong on this, but that's about 2000 jobs. And I researched it, and I think that's the largest job injection into Central Arkansas since the Little Rock Air Force Base was created.
Bryan Day: Yes, I agree with that. You know, Amazon has not really been real public about how many they're going to hire. I would say that number's probably closer to 4000.
Rex Nelson: Wow.
Bryan Day: There are 2000 at the port alone, and they're growing and expanding. You know, the port facility was the newest rendition of their distribution facility, full of robotics and technology, and it is now the model that they're building around the country. But the way they came to us, so the port, you know, we're really targeting manufacturing, making of things.
Rex Nelson: Right.
Bryan Day: And so distribution is not something we're real interested in. You never say no, though. So I got a call from a local real estate guy. And he said, hey, I've got a client. Needs 70 to 80 acres. And so I asked him, well, are they going to use the Arkansas River? And he said, no, probably not. I said, are they going to use our railroad? He said no, probably not. And I said, Well, they use our Foreign Trade Zone. He said no, probably not. I said, well, you know, I'm probably not interested in them, because we really, we don't have a lot of land available, we're really trying to attract manufacturing. And he said, that's fine, I understand. About three weeks later, he called me back and said my client really wants to be at the port. They drove out this weekend and liked it. And you really want them to be at the port. You know, because in economic development you don't know who they are, right?
Rex Nelson: Exactly, exactly.
Bryan Day: So we found out who they were, and it was amazing. It is, I like your story about it. They're, it is an incredible investment in Central Arkansas for the city of Little Rock, Pulaski County and really the whole region.
Rex Nelson: Absolutely. You know, I have always thought and I know this is one of the things that you sell Bryan, but I have always thought that Little Rock could really eventually rival Memphis on being a logistics hub for mid-America. I mean, you have two major interstates in 30 and 40 coming here together. Of course, you've got direct interstate access with 440 that connect those interstates. You've got the river. You've got the airport right there. You've got first class rail service. So you know, rail, water, air, ground, really kind of all come together where you are.
Bryan Day: They do and you know, there's a thousand reasons why we maybe haven't achieved that yet over the years. You know, the old FedEx story, of course, we don't need to bring that up.
Rex Nelson: Starting in Little Rock, of course.
Bryan Day: Yeah. But I think that, I think you're right. I think from a logistic- You know, when you, if you're focusing on manufacturing or distribution, it's really about logistics, and we have it all. Two Class One railroads, great interstates, a couple hours from Memphis, five hours from Dallas, five hours from St. Louis. I mean, we are in the center, the heart of the community. You throw in the river, the opportunities there, I think what we're gonna see over the next five to 10 years, we are busier than we've ever been in terms of people inquiring about buildings, land. Because, for supply chain issues, for logistic issues, and I think that the bigger cities, and I'm not disparaging those, but it's a whole lot easier to operate in a community the size of Little Rock than it is to operate in the community size of Dallas.
Rex Nelson: Exactly.
Bryan Day: Cost of living, transportation, congestion, air quality. And so I think the mid size communities like Little Rock, and the fact that the port has greenfield we don't have to tear down buildings or recreate, you have opportunities to build from the ground up. I think in the next five to 10 years that — we have about 7000 people that make a living there right now — I would feel comfortable saying within 10 years, that's gonna be 15,000. I really do believe that.
Rex Nelson: Wow, that's exciting. I have always thought again, because Memphis of course has tens of thousands of jobs in that area. But as it gets a little full, just just two hours driving to the west there's Little Rock, there's Central Arkansas and just really potential opportunities there. And when Amazon makes the kind of investment that they're making in Central Arkansas — again, not just at the port but in North Little Rock and in southwest Little Rock — does that not send a message to others around the country?
Bryan Day: It absolutely does. When, you know, a company like an Amazon, a global company. When they announced, we got calls. What is this Port of Little Rock place? Tell me more. I think people will follow them. I think that obviously, they are the largest retailer in the world. I think there's potential for suppliers, manufacturers of microwaves and tablets and headphones that might come into the region because it's easier to or cheaper to deliver those quality, those commodities. I think that people want to be next to an Amazon. I mean, people want to locate next to an amazing facility. And if you, if your listeners haven't seen this facility, I would encourage them to drive out to the port one Sunday afternoon. It is incredible. It is beautiful, it is high tech, it is an amazing investment. And I think people are taking notice of what we have. Not only at the port, but Little Rock as a whole.
Rex Nelson: Talk a little bit about some of the other developments. Some of the other tenants at the port. We've talked about Amazon, I know you've got some major other major anchor tenants if you will, there.
Bryan Day: We do. You know, you're a great storyteller, and every one of those businesses at the port is an individual story. Let me just share a few of them. If you like Skippy peanut butter, every jar of Skippy peanut butter sold in North America is made at the Port of Little Rock. And if you drive by when they're cooking, and you can smell it, it's just amazing. There's a company, one of my favorite companies is a company called Novus. It's a Japanese-owned company that makes an organic animal protein that they ship around the world, primarily focusing on developing nations, the Far East, Asia, Africa. In 2017, I think that's the right year, the product that was made in Little Rock ended up in 62 countries that came out of Little Rock, Arkansas.
Rex Nelson: That's fascinating.
Bryan Day: Locally, we have a company called Lexicon. The Schueck family.
Rex Nelson: Right.
Bryan Day: Mr. Schueck passed away last year; his son Patrick has taken over. They are one of the best steel builders in the nation. They're building bridges. They're building...
Rex Nelson: Done some of the most high profile projects in the country.
Bryan Day: They are, they are. Built all over the country. They're building Amazon facilities, they're building civil works projects. And the fact that all that's a kind of a homegrown company located in the port, you know, that's an incredible thing. There's other great- Interstate Signways, owned by Bobby Brown and his team. They make the green highway signs and they deliver those signs to every state in the nation. And ironically, he told me that in the state of Wyoming, the state law says that the signs have to be made out of wood. Think about it, it's the lumber industry so he buys high quality plywood to make those signs to ship there.
Rex Nelson: Interesting.
Bryan Day: But those are just a few of the stories, Rex, and there are so many more to tell you know, it's TY Garments, a Chinese clothing manufacturer owned by German company making Adidas clothing.
Rex Nelson: Yeah, I wrote a column about them, you might remember, a couple of years ago. Because my dad was once the biggest Adidas dealer in the state and somebody said we'll almost all the Adidas branded apparel in the country now is being made in Little Rock.
Bryan Day: Being made in Little Rock, yeah.
Rex Nelson: i thought, you're kidding. Went out and had a great tour of that facility.
Bryan Day: That is a great story. You know, it was, it came, Governor Hutchinson was very instrumental in helping that, and it's another great story. And there are others. We've got some in the works that we'll be proud to tell in the future. But, I think that your listeners ought to know that everyone out, every company out there does something amazing in their own rights and it's just a great place and Little Rock should be very proud of it.
Rex Nelson: I know that you have worked, certainly when you were back at City Hall, closely with the airport also and the airport commission. And you know, when I think about the airport, its footprint, its long history of modification out there and the thousands of jobs that it's produced for Little Rock through the years. I always kind of think of the port and the airport kind of as one big footprint for Little Rock. Do you work pretty closely with the airport commission?
Bryan Day: We do. Bryan Malinowski, the director and I, we communicate regularly. We are, we have talked about some potential joint projects. You know, we really are not very far. If you could hit a golf ball, a really good driver, you could probably hit from the port property to the airport property.
Rex Nelson: Right, right.
Bryan Day: And we both are in the economic development business. You know, they've got some amazing aerospace, some of the largest, largest businesses in the state and we need to work together to attract industry. We need to work together to let people know that air freight, you know, is another logistic thing. We need to think if you have a company from a foreign country it's, you know, the airport is two miles away or half a mile away. So, we do work well together, we have a great relationship. But in fairness, we could do more to grow jobs for Central Arkansas and that's probably something we need to focus on.
Rex Nelson: I was just curious about that because, like I said, when I think of Little Rock, in my mind that's kind of one big footprint with a lot of manufacturing, a lot of logistical potential there, a lot of distribution potential there. And Little Rock, you know, you travel a lot like I do, and Little Rock, I have always thought, is so fortunate to have its airport basically five to 10 minutes from downtown. Because so many cities that you fly into, you're traveling 20, 30, even 40 minutes to get to the core of that city.
Bryan Day: That's another great point. When I was assistant city manager one of my other duties as assigned was to deliver important people back to catch their flights. And they would come to me and they say, "it's two hours till my flight we need to go." I said, "no we don't." You know they'd get nervous, right?
Rex Nelson: Oh yeah, yeah.
Bryan Day: And they'd say, "it's an hour from our flight." I'd say, "we're okay." And then we'd get we'd leave City Hall and we're the airport in seven or eight minutes because you go back behind the Clinton Library. And they were so amazed and shocked. And then, with maybe the exception that first flight in the morning, you can get through the concourse in minutes. It's a very convenient, well-run air system that we have, and it is a selling point, for sure.
Rex Nelson: Yet another thing. Let me play on your past work with parks, with the City of Little Rock, and kind of take this out more big picture. I mean, I've have called Little Rock home for the past 32 years since coming back from Washington, D.C., 32 years ago and I'll probably be here from now on. So, as we look at the future growth of the state's largest city, certainly what we see with Amazon I think is very positive. As you said, the other projects you have going for Central Arkansas. But the glass half- there are always plenty of glass half-empty, and we can mention some of those. But the glass half-full of me side looks and sees other things in addition to Amazon, such as the financial sector here. We talk about downtown Simmons Bank, full disclosure for whom I worked full time before coming back to the paper. Four years ago, bought the Axiom building in the River Market. That building’s already full, Bryan, and they're looking for more space. Meanwhile, I wrote recently about Bank OZK, which opened this state-of-the-art headquarters. I tell people, I feel like I'm in the north — I live out there, and I feel like I'm in the North Dallas suburbs with the look of that building.
Bryan Day: Right.
Rex Nelson: And George Gleason, as you know, eventually has an entire campus planned out there. So you look at the growth of Simmons, OZK, of course they're Conway-based, but Central Arkansas jobs. We saw Centennial make a major purpose. All of those banks over $20 million dollars. You combine that with Little Rock's long history in what's now just called FinTech, financial technology, and I think there's a real potential for Central Arkansas to be a very strong regional financial center going forward.
Bryan Day: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. And you know, the unique thing about Central Arkansas, and Little Rock particularly, is that we have a very diverse economy, you know, the FinTech sector, the financial sector, the medical community. And if you look back, if you remember back in 2008, 2009, when the market corrected itself, many communities were in trouble. Little Rock wasn't, because we have a good mix of retail and manufacturing and finance and banking and medical and tourism. And I think that's unique. I do think that we are definitely the banking capital of Arkansas. But I think that as we, as populations shift and demographics evolve, as we kind of see the true impact of the pandemic and what it means on how people operate from home or work from home, I think Little Rock becomes a regional hub on many things, including, I think you're right, on the banking sector, the financial sector, the FinTech. I mean, that's an amazing success story. Yeah, you're right. I mean, those are things that we need to be proud of. And we need to tell that story, as well.
Rex Nelson: Absolutely. I want to get your read a little bit, again, putting your hat on and looking city-wide. Of course, we saw a recent sales tax proposal, which really would have benefited the port, go down. But, you know, you and I've been around a while, I've been around long enough. I can remember back when I was editor of Arkansas Business, good gosh, 30 years ago. And the old Little Rock 2000 proposal goes down in flames. It would have built an arena on the side of the old Coachman's Inn where the main post office is now in downtown Little Rock. It would have expanded the convention center so forth and so on. I can remember being at, covering the party that night when that went down and people like Jimmy Moses and Wally Allen, just you know, looked awful that night. But we come back later. We get what's now Simmons Bank Arena, we get the Statehouse Convention Center. That party that night was at the Camelot Hotel which was already kind of run down by then.
Bryan Day: Right, right.
Rex Nelson: We get the Doubletree out of it. So you and I both know politics, sometimes it takes a first effort, come back, refine, listen to the people, another effort. I kind of want to get your read on the sales tax proposal and what you see going forward as far as taxpayer investment in the city.
Bryan Day: So that's a great question, and there's a whole lot of answers. I'd say a couple things about it. One is that I think Mayor Scott gets an A plus for his vision. You know, trying to do something really built around quality of life and investing in our parks and our trails and our children. And that's, that's a little bit different than what we've done in the past. And I think that people, a majority of the people, obviously, the majority of people that voted felt that that was probably not what they were interested in at this time. They were interested in good roads and safe neighborhoods. And that's important, too. As an economic developer, I can tell you that quality of life is critical. I mean, when you bring in someone that's going to invest a quarter of a billion dollars in a community, they want to be able to have places for their families to play and enjoy. And so, and I'm an old parks guy, so I'm disappointed that we didn't get the funds to improve our parks, to build our bike trails, to connect Little Rock to Hot Springs and all these other things that that little bit would have helped. However, I also, like you said, Little Rock is a very resilient community. And I do believe we will be back. No one likes taxes, Rex. But if we're going to have, if we're going to compete not only with, you know, Tennessee and Georgia, North Carolina, but even Northwest Arkansas, to some respect, we're going to have to invest differently than we have in the past. We must take care of the basics. We've got to pick up the garbage. We've got to patch the potholes. We've got to arrest the bad guys. That's a given. But we also have to create a community that is equitable and accessible to everyone here, for those recreational opportunities, for those places to to gather and communicate. And so I hope that the city board will come back together sometime after the first of the year, and regroup and put something forth. You know, what a lot of people got lost in, what got lost in the conversation, is that we have an existing three-eighth cents sales tax.
Rex Nelson: Three-eighths that is goin off at the end of the year.
Bryan Day: That rolls off in December, and that was all for capital. That was for street resurfacing, fixing parks, fixing buildings, and we lose that revenue. And so I have great confidence in our leadership. And I think that the community will see something again sometime. Just like we did back at the — what was that program called? It wasn't Future of Little Rock, it was-
Rex Nelson: Little Rock 2000, that was the one I was mentioning, yeah. That was the Little Rock 2000 plan.
Bryan Day: Little Rock 2000, I remember that too. And people were sad. Jim Dailey's a good friend and was just... But you know what, they came back together. And they built, they came back, the community got behind it, and look what happened. We connected the two communities across that river that's often really deep. But we came together across jurisdictional lines, and did something amazing. And I think that's what will happen sometime next year with this. And Little Rock's got to — and again, I'm not advocating for high taxes — but if we're going to grow and invest, we've got to, something's got to give. And the only way to do it is to increase our revenue to some level.
Rex Nelson: I write a lot about quality of life, and the importance of that, as you know. And again, putting back on your parks hat if we look at, you know, those footprints, big footprints with War Memorial Park, Hindman Park, the other parks. You used to, you know, use the old line "city in a park," but you need money to really get the improvements to bring people into those parks. But boy, there's a lot of land in there. You could still tell me the acreage from your old job. I don't know it off the top of my head, but for a city this size, and that remains in my mind a very nice potential canvas to paint on, if you will.
Bryan Day: Yeah. And, you know, it's six, seven, 8,000 acres of park land over, I think there's 53 of them. And for a city our size, that's really incredible. There are some misnomers about that. You know, there's not many public parks in West Little Rock.
Rex Nelson: Right.
Bryan Day: You know, in the 70s when Congress quit funding parks — they used to give out money left and right for communities to build parks. You built a basketball court, a tennis court and hiking trail.
Rex Nelson: Put two picnic tables up and call it a park.
Bryan Day: Yeah, exactly. We quit doing that, and in West Little Rock the property owner associations, the HOAs, built the park. So there's still access, but so we've got to solve that problem. But you know, Little Rock's got great parks. Of course, War Memorial's, one of my favorites and we have great plans to make that a Central Park-type facility. One that I truly enjoy is his Fourche Creek.
Rex Nelson: Oh, yeah.
Bryan Day: It's not a park that you would think of with tennis courts and basketball courts, but what an incredible — I believe I'm correct in this, it may be if it's not the largest, it's the second largest urban wetland in the country. And if you get-
Rex Nelson: Yeah, you get out there under those big cypress trees, I've floated it with somebody before, and you think you're in the heart of the Arkansas Delta and you're in the city limits.
Bryan Day: You do, and you hear wildlife and birds and it's really cool, and there's great plans to connect all those. You know, Two Rivers, our partnership with the county. Rebsamen Golf Course is a first-class public golf course, we have great community centers. The parks are really, we should be very proud of what we have. Like all things though, it needs investment and reprogramming and we've got to find a way to do that so they remain relevant.
Rex Nelson: You talk about bringing prospects in here to locate at the port. Are you generally bullish? Do you feel like with Central Arkansas, you have a lot to sell them when we talk about that big overall picture?
Bryan Day: I do and, you know, some of those are the fact that Arkansas is a great place to do business in terms of cost, you know, quality of life, housing, medical care, ease of access. The other selling point, and one of the greatest ones that people don't think about, being a small state, it's easy to get the governor on the phone or the mayor on the phone, have dinner, because we all believe in Central Arkansas. And so that's a selling point. You know, it's, you bring in a CEO that has a company, say in a Dallas Metroplex or Kansas City, there are some things you got, you got to convince them there's other things. We sell, not only Little Rock, we sell the Buffalo River, we sell the state park system, we have great food. I mean, you're the foodie, we have great food in Little Rock.
Rex Nelson: Little Rock is a good food city. Too much for my waistline, frankly.
Bryan Day: So yeah, I mean, it's we're, every community is different. But I am very proud to stand up and say that, you know, Mr. investor, Mr. CEO, this is what makes Little Rock great, and this is why you should choose that. Yes, absolutely.
Rex Nelson: So I want to go back and close with this, because I like this a lot, and I hope you're right. And make sure I got you right: About 7000 people working at the port now.
Bryan Day: On any given day.
Rex Nelson: Any given day.
Bryan Day: And they come, just as an aside, they come from 23 counties.
Rex Nelson: Wow.
Bryan Day: A third of the state sends someone to Little Rock to make a living every day. We are a statewide regional industrial park.
Rex Nelson: And you believe in the next decade that 7,000 could be 15,000?
Bryan Day: I do.
Rex Nelson: Wow.
Bryan Day: You have me back in 10 years.
Rex Nelson: OK, if I'm still around.
Bryan Day: We are growing and there's a lot of interest and people want, people like what Little Rock has to offer. And I do believe that number will double. I really do. And I'm not afraid to stand up and say that publicly.
Rex Nelson: Great point to end on. Bryan, I can assure you I will have you back before the 10 year point.
Bryan Day: Okay.
Rex Nelson: We'll run out of guests, here. I'll have you back before that. Bryan Day, director of the Little Rock Port Authority, thank you so much for joining us.
Bryan Day: I've enjoyed it. You're great. Thank you for everything.
Rex Nelson: All right. And thanks all of you for joining us for another edition of the Southern Fried podcast, a production of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I'm Rex Nelson. Have a great day, everybody.