Fort Smith lies on the Arkansas – Oklahoma border and is the third-largest city in Arkansas. It was established in 1817 as a western frontier military post that was the center for fur trading. With its location on the Arkansas River and its proximity to major highways, Fort Smith is considered an ideal location for growth and development, as it has been ranked in the top 10 most affordable cities for new business development.
According to the City’s Mayor McGill, the healthcare industry plans to invest approximately $300 million dollars into the area, (Arkansas Democrat Gazette). Health care is not the only area seeing growth in the area, as the growth in the industrial sector is also increasing at a rapid pace. This is evident with the very low vacancy rate in the city as the supply of warehouses is struggling to keep up with the demand to do business in Fort Smith.
As part of the continued plan for growth in Fort Smith, NAI Harmon Group recently made a major purchase in Fort Smith, Arkansas that consists of 30 acres of prime real estate within Chaffee Crossing in Fort Smith. This purchase creates a total of four properties owned by NAI Harmon Group in Fort Smith.
NAI Harmon Group’s sister company, Spartan Logistics first began to do business in Fort Smith in 2013, when a trusted customer came to Spartan with a need for a 3PL provider in the area. Spartan was able to locate a solution in the city of Fort Smith to fulfill their location and service requirements and began to move quickly on the startup. This required a long list of projects which included finding specialized forklift equipment, preparing the building, and hiring a team of warehouse members in a brand-new market.
This warehouse opened later in 2013 when Spartan also quickly realized the untapped potential for warehousing in the market. Today, Spartan Logistics operates three distribution centers in Fort Smith for three Fortune 1000 companies in a combined footprint of over 700,000 SF.
Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority CEO, Daniel Mann, has worked over the past six months to bring this important project to fruition. He states “bringing additional warehouse space to the Fort Smith regional market at this point in time is a critically important step toward helping our economy grow and expand. The region is known for its industrial and manufacturing strength, but warehouse space has been tight for some time, limiting expansions and new capital investment. This property in Chaffee Crossing is conveniently located on the Interstate 49 corridor in a rapidly developing area that can readily serve new and existing industries. We are highly confident it will be a successful investment.”