Arkansas Report

State puts on the brakes, but maintains tempered pace

By Candy McCampbell

Arkansas, like other states, has put on the economic brakes recently, but it continues to see a “tempered pace” of growth this year.

Because Arkansas did not undergo an economic boom like many other areas, “our bust will not be so bad, either,” says Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

advertisement

The hot job growth in the northwest corner – home of Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers and Springdale – has cooled. Ditto the jump in year-to-year building permits.

The northeast corner – including Blytheville, Jonesboro and Paragould – does not have the population density to match the northwest area's expansion.

The Little Rock area has been the state's “shining star” for job growth, running ahead of the state average, Deck says.

Rob Hileman, at the Associated General Contractors' Arkansas Chapter, says his members are looking at about the same amount of work this year as in 2007.

Commercial construction continues to grow, despite the decline in residential construction, says Zig Vitols, vice president and general manager for Martin Marietta Materials Arkansas District.

Among the new projects:

• The $125 million, 288,000 sq ft Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.
• Baptist Health's 37-bed extended care hospital at its Medical Center in Little Rock.
• The John W. Turk Jr. Power Plant near Fulton, an estimated $1.3 billion, 600 megawatt facility to finish in 2011.
• Nestle Foods’ $60 million, 50,000 sq ft plant expansion in Jonesboro.
• The Plum Point Power Plant in Osceola, a $1.3 billion, 665 megawatt coal-powered electric generator with a 2010 completion.
• The Texas Gas Transmission $360 million, 167-mi gas pipeline now in the permitting process.

Two recent developments will have a major impact on construction industry.

One is Gov. Mike Beebe's planned severance tax on natural gas to generate about $57 million in 2009, with 95% of that going to state, city and county roads budgets. The total could reach $100 million annually by 2013. The current severance tax generates only about $600,000 annually.

“This is new money” that can be applied to the almost $19 billion road work backlog,  says John Suskie, executive director of the Arkansas Asphalt Pavement Association. “It would go a long way for road repairs.”

Bids have been off because rising materials costs and limited funds have cut the number of projects. “What you could pave 20 mi for a few years ago you can only do 6 or 7 mi now,” Suskie says.

The new highway construction funds “will have a positive effect on employment in the state and a favorable ripple that will be felt for years to come,” Vitols says.

The other major announcement is the UA study that natural gas production in the Fayetteville Shale Play could mean a $17.9 billion economic impact, about $1.8 billion in taxes and 11,000 jobs over the next five years. An earlier study had estimated a $5.5 billion impact and almost 9,700 jobs between 2005 and 2008.

“It's an unrecruited superproject,” says Kenny Hall, executive vice president of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.

Rising natural gas prices have made exploration and drilling profitable, so harvesting and moving gas to consumers will generate more construction.

Following are a few of the larger projects currently under construction in the state.

LM Glasfiber Wind Turbine Rotor Blade Plant, Little Rock

Construction of LM Glasfiber's Wind Turbine Rotor Blade Plant is still under way but the company has already produced the first blades at a temporary production facility near the Little Rock Port.

R.W. Allen & Associates of Little Rock is general contractor for the $150 million, 700,000-sq-ft plant, which includes a manufacturing facility, headquarters offices and a worker training center.

Construction began last fall and is scheduled for completion later this year.

Cranes will be used to handlel the fiberglass blades, which can range from about 120 ft  to more than 200 ft.

The blades are made in large molds, so the manufacture is a closed process.

Welspun Manufacturing Plant, Little Rock

Tubular steel pipe for the oil and gas industry will roll out of this $110 million, 500,000-sq-ft manufacturing plant on 740 acres near the Little Rock Port.

Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren Ltd. of Mumbai, India, hired May Construction Co. of Little Rock as general contractor on this fast-track project. It got under way last July and production will start this summer.

Pre-engineered steel structures from Nucor Building Systems of Terrell, Texas, are used for the five plant buildings. They are the 328,000-sq-ft, 36-ft spiral pipe mill; the 136,000-sq-ft, 27-ft coating mill; the 26,000-sq-ft, 20-ft pipe jointing building, the 1,650-sq-ft, 16-ft compressor building and the 8,700-sq-ft, 17-ft storage building.

There will be a pair of 90-ft interior bay clear spans in the spiral mill plant to provide room for operation of a 50-ton bridge crane and two 10-ton bridge cranes.

The pipe will be moved through the plant on its own rail system.

River Market Tower, Little Rock

CDI Contractors LLC of Little Rock is general contractor for this 424,000-sq-ft mixed-use downtown tower with condominiums, retail and parking.

Developed by Little Rock-based Moses Tucker Real Estate, the $47 million job includes 139 condos in 215,000 sq ft., 6,000 sq ft of ground-floor retail and a parking garage for 399 vehicles.

The condo tower is a cast-in-place concrete building with post-tensioned slabs and the parking garage is the same type of structure, says Kris Fluger, project manager.

The 245-ft tower is on a foundation of drilled piers and geopiers.

The exterior walls are precast concrete and glass curtain. Most of the condo units also have floor-to-ceiling glass walls. 

The building also includes a fitness center, a club center and a golf putting area. It is part of an $82 million development by Moses Tucker Real Estate that also includes an eight-story hotel.

Work started in July 2007 and is on track for completion in Spring 2009.

The Promenade at Chenal, Little Rock

This new $45 million lifestyle center will include about 208,000 sq ft of retail space in 9 buildings that will be completed this summer and fall.

VCC of Little Rock, the general contractor, started construction with site preparation work in June 2007.

The one-story buildings are on spread footing foundations with metal stud framing, says Sam Alley, president.

The center has an open-air design, following a shopping district with on-street parking.

The French Gothic design of the buildings is carried out in the exterior of EIFS, archistone, brick and block, he says.

The center covers 32 acres and has an asphalt surface parking area, with “very extensive” landscaping., Alley says

The company also is doing hardscaping, including decorative building lighting and parking lighting.

Fellowship Bible Church, Little Rock

Church members will gather May 18 for their first worship service in this new $38.4 million complex that CDI Contractors LLC of Little Rock started building in October 2006.

The 210,000-sq-ft structure includes the 1,450-seat stadium-style main auditorium, teenage, children's, progressive and encounter worship areas -- that are connected with a 30-ft wide concourse. At its center is an atrium with a large cross, says Matt Morrow, project manager.

They are steel frame structures, and the exterior is a combination of EIFS, manmade stone and some metal wall panels.

This has been a fast-track job and a challenge, he says, with crews on the job for six-day work weeks until the last few months, when they cut back to five days.

The track was so fast that the work came in packages: foundation, structure, exterior and interior.

It also meant weekly meetings of the design and construction teams. “It had to be that way to make sure everybody was on the same page,” Morrow says.

Alberto-Culver Manufacturing-Distribution-Office, Jonesboro

Arco Construction of St. Louis broke ground in January 2007 and Alberto Culver started producing and shipping hair care products from the plant in January 2008.

That's the result of “a lot of planning and a lot of up-front coordination” by Alberto-Culver, Arco and Forkum-Lannom of Dyersburg, Tenn., which is relocating some production equipment from a Dallas plant, says Michael King, Arco project manager.

The $22 million construction job includes the 500,000-sq-ft building with about 300,000 sq ft of production space, 150,000 sq ft of distribution space and 45,000 sq ft of offices, he says. Alberto-Culver's $60 million cost estimate includes building and equipment.

Though production started in January, some of the equipment was still being installed in March.

The building is on a spread footing foundation. It has tilt-up walls and metal decking, and 24 truck doors in the distribution area.

Standing 38 ft tall at the peak, it has a 30-ft clear height interior.

The plant, on 80 acres in Jonesboro Industrial Park, is built for expansion.

St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center Expansion, Little Rock

Nabholz Construction Central Arkansas Division is building this four-story, $19.6 million hospital expansion that will add a new emergency department and ambulance entrance, a new cardio intensive care unit, four general surgery suites and two larger orthopedic surgery suites.

The project also includes expanding the hospital's central plant with a 1,000 hp dual fuel boiler, a 750-ton chiller, an additional cooling tower and the expansion's own 75,000 cfm rooftop air handler, says Gary Strack, project manager.

On concrete drilled piers with footings and grade beams, the addition is a structural steel frame and composite floor decks on elevated slabs. It will take 1,500 cu yds of concrete in the footings and slab, 510 tons of structural steel and 83 tons of rebar in the foundations.

The exterior is an aluminum curtain wall glazing system with lo-E glass, spandrel glass,  aluminum composite panels and brick veneer to blend with the existing building.

The new ER, with 25 exam rooms and 3 major resuscitations rooms, is on the ground floor, the first floor is a shell for future expansion and the second floor is the new intensive care unit with 12 cardio rooms and 12 ICU rooms.

Started in April 2007, the new ER will open July 31 and the ICU Oct. 30.