BUSINESS MATTERS

Chaffee Crossing exec gives 3 years notice, hopes to wrap up projects

More than $1 billion in capital investments have occurred in the past 15 years at Chaffee Crossing, the 7,000 acres of mixed-use property inside the Fort Smith and Barling city limits.

Not all of the development, but a significant portion, has occurred with Ivy Owen serving as executive director of the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority. Owen, who took over the position in 2007, informed the authority board last week that he is ready to develop a succession plan with an eye on retirement in 2018.

During Owen's tenure, the land that once housed parts of the Fort Chaffee Army post has become one of the state's top economic development success stories. ArcBest Corp. and the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine are involved in nearly $100 million worth of projects expected to be completed within the next year.

Owen, 69, recently visited with me to discuss the timing of his announcement, accomplishments over the past eight-plus years and where his focus will be until retirement. What follows is a transcript of our discussion; portions have been edited for space and clarity.

Why announce plans to retire in three years?

I wanted to give them enough notice that if they wanted me to mentor somebody during those three years I would. I'll be heading out Dec. 31 of 2018. Or sooner. I don't intend to leave before then, but we'll see. This gives the board enough time to find somebody and it gives me enough time to finish some things that I want to finish.

What are those things? Where will your attention be focused?

I want to see plans to fund a bridge over the Arkansas River into Alma from Fort Chaffee as part of the completion of a 13-mile stretch of Interstate 49. I think both of those are achievable. I don't think it's a dream any more. Also we have to get Arkansas Highway 255 relocated and widened to five lanes on Frontier Road. That's about a $12 million project. We committed up to $2 million and the city of Fort Smith committed up to $5 million. That $7 million is a pretty good indication that we want to get it done. Once ArcBest opens its new headquarters in the first quarter of 2017 there will be an additional 1,000 people out here every day. Plus you've got the osteopathic medical school admitting its first students in fall 2017 and Mercy Health is opening a clinic. That will put additional traffic stress the next couple years.

So the bulk of your interest lies in infrastructure projects in and around Chaffee?

Well, I want to see the medical school open. That's going to be a big, big step forward for Fort Smith. People will finally realize that we don't just have to be a manufacturing town. We can do research and development. We can be doctors and scientists. We can do other things. I'm not sure people really believed we could do it. I don't know that we, in Fort Smith, believed we could do it, initially. It's going to happen. Combined with the additional [information technology] jobs that ArcBest is bringing here, it's going to change the workforce not just for Chaffee Crossing, but Fort Smith and the region. Our profile is really going to change.

Do you consider the medical school your biggest victory in Chaffee Crossing?

There have been a lot of big victories. There were a number of industrial victories with Umarex USA, Mars Pet Care, Phoenix Metals and Old Dominion Truck Line. Those were all big and even though the building is still vacant and never opened, Mitsubishi Electric building a plant here was big. I'm confident something is going into that building this year.

Really, though, the opening of I-49 was one of the biggest accomplishments so far. When I got here I was told I could spin my wheels as long as I wanted to, but it would never be funded and never be finished. We opened a stretch last year. Then the medical school comes on the heels of that and then ArcBest. Having all three of those happen in a year was significant. In an economic developer's career you might have one of those things happen in five years. Maybe. Three in one year is unheard of, so it's hard to separate one from the other.

What sort of progress are you making on retail and residential?

We have our first restaurant in Stonehouse Grill. There are three medical clinics under construction and we've got 17 new neighborhoods completed or under construction. That's a total of about 1,600 finished, occupied or planned homes. So it's all coming, and the mall project in Barling is in development. It's amazing what's happening.

If you have a tip, call Chris Bahn at (479) 365-2972 or email him at [email protected]

SundayMonday Business on 02/14/2016

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