Board OKs plan to grow LR Port

The Little Rock Port Authority Board has adopted a growth plan for its burgeoning industrial park and pinpointed four kinds of industry to recruit to the port over the next several years: advanced food products; and chemical, machinery and primary metals manufacturing.

The plan, developed by Boyette Strategic Advisers for $ 70,000, took six months to complete and is the first comprehensive road map for development in the port’s 56- year history. The board approved the plan in the form of a resolution at a special meeting at the port Monday.

Port Authority board member Joe Bailey said the port has grown to the point it needs such a plan.

“We’ve reached that critical mass,” Bailey said. He’s also senior project manager for business and economic development at Entergy and president of the Arkansas Economic Developers. Entergy is a port partner.

The port is next to Interstate 440, connecting to Interstates 30 and 40, and operates two full- service river terminals, its own switching railroad and a slackwater harbor on the 448- mile McClellan- Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. The river system runs from the Mississippi River northwest to roughly 15 miles east of Tulsa.

Of the four targeted types of industries Boyette suggested for recruitment, Bailey said primary metals manufacturing seems to have generated the most interest of late. The production processes within the industry could include traditional steel mills, mini mills, rolled steel manufacturers, aluminum producers and copper foundries.

Bailey said related inquiries

at the port could be attributed to the coming of Big River Steel, under construction in Mississippi County. When operational in mid- 2016, Big River Steel will produce 1.6 million tons of the country’s niche steels needs.

“Companies are kicking tires,” Bailey said. “Some are serious, some aren’t.”

Advanced food product companies also are attractive as a user for the port’s industrial park because those businesses require less labor, the processes are cleaner and the jobs are better than they used to be, Bailey added.

Worldwide retail sales of advanced food products — such as snacks, baby food and candy — are nearly $ 2.4 trillion, $ 769 billion in annual revenue in the United States, Del Boyette, founder of Boyette Strategic Advisers, said in his report. The workforce in the metropolitan Little Rock region is projected to grow more than 4 percent in the sector between now and 2025, the report said.

Port Authority Executive Director Bryan Day said the four targeted industries would all work well with the port’s current assets and amenities and the area’s workforce.

“Now we need to build an organization that can be globally competitive, can be efficient and effective and can be

recognized as a leader in this industrial economic development movement,” Day said.

Buying more land for the port’s 2,640- acre industrial park is another priority, Bailey said. Day has already been in talks with landowners in the vicinity of the industrial park. Bailey said Tuesday that future land acquisitions need not be contiguous to the existing park.

“We’ve just about reached our capacity,” he said. Not all the land around the park is suitable for industrial use because some of it is wetland.

Boyette pitched 80 specific steps to work toward the plan’s goals over the next 10 years but offered five overarching recommendations for maximizing the port’s assets: make the port a recognized leader in land use, planning, infrastructure management and real estate development; have a strategic market focus on companies that utilize port assets; increase programs to support existing and new businesses; promote the Port of Little Rock with an aggressive marketing and communications strategy; and enhance organizational capabilities and resources.

Day, who has a background in parks management, describes himself as a “dreamer,” and said he is striving to make the Port of Little Rock “the best inland port in America.”

“There’s no reason we can’t get there, and I think this plan helps us make that first step,” Day said.