Marshals Museum, Community School of the Arts to arrive in 2022

The construction sign for Community School of the Arts is seen next to the U.S. Marshals Museum Friday, July 2, 2021, on the Fort Smith riverfront.
The construction sign for Community School of the Arts is seen next to the U.S. Marshals Museum Friday, July 2, 2021, on the Fort Smith riverfront.

FORT SMITH -- Two prominent riverfront developments are slated to arrive in 2022.

The U.S. Marshals Museum has a projected soft open date of July 2022 predicated on securing $8 million to produce exhibits inside, according to museum administration. Next door, Community School of the Arts is preparing land for its $7.5 million facility, which is expected to arrive next year, said Rosilee Russell, executive director of the school.

Russell said she and the Marshals Museum administration feel as if they're "a catalyst to begin real riverfront development" so restaurants, hotels, athletic fields and parks will eventually come to the area.

"To activate and bring families down to enjoy the riverfront is something that we've all tried for for a long time, decades, and those will do that," said Sam Sicard, Central Business Improvement District commissioner.

More than $38.6 million in cash, pledges and land has been raised in the construction of the 53,000-square-foot museum honoring the history and legacy of the U.S.' oldest law enforcement agency, according to Alice Alt, president of the Marshals Museum Foundation. Once complete, the museum is projected to attract more than 100,000 people annually, which could have up to a $34 million economic impact on Sebastian County, according to estimates from the Arkansas Economic Development Institute and Leisure Development Partners.

The museum will feature a museum experience from the Los Angeles-based group Thinkwell. The facility already has a Hall of Honor dedicated to members of the Marshals Service who died in the line of duty.

The museum will produce the displays once $8 million of the remaining $12.5 million is raised, said Patrick Weeks, president and CEO of the museum.

"In two or three weeks, we would be able to project a time frame," Weeks said Wednesday.

In the meantime, the museum has hosted events such as quinceaneras and governor's conferences, which have brought in revenue for the museum, said Alt.

Fort Smith voters defeated a proposal in March 2019 to levy a nine-month, 1% sales tax to pay for its completion.

The museum sits just south of where Community School of the Arts administration is overseeing construction of its new facility. The roughly 37,000-square-foot school will hold instructive spaces for teaching music, theater, dance, visual art, film and culinary arts.

The students will come from within a 60-mile radius reaching into eastern Oklahoma, Russell said. The school currently instructs 800 students from the classrooms both in the schools they're enrolled and at St. Boniface School and Central Presbyterian Church.

"Between us and the Marshals folks, we can do lots of things that will bring people down to the riverfront," said Russell.

Russell couldn't give a specific completion date for the school but said concrete will be poured on the land in two to three months. School administration is "finalizing some decisions" about the soil on the riverfront before they pour the slab, she said.

The final cost might also be a little bit higher because of supply cost inflation from covid-19, Russell said. But she added the project is "moving forward" to allow teachers and administration to move in by end of 2022.

"We think those are destination places, and they're on the riverfront, so we think they'll attract families, both local and non-local," Sicard said.

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The competition

Fort Smith was selected over Washington, Nashville, Tenn., St. Louis and Laramie, Wyo., as the home of the U.S. Marshals Museum.

Source: U.S. Marshals Service

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