Paper plant looks to boost Arkadelphia economy
ARKADELPHIA — The city of Arkadelphia and Clark County will soon be getting a new factory, which will help boost the area’s forestry industry. Several new restaurants are also giving residents new places to hang out and and eat.
A new paper mill will soon call Gum Springs home. Last year, Shandong Sun Paper Industry Joint Stock Co., a Chinese company, announced that it will build a new pulp mill in the Clark County town of Gum Springs near Arkadelphia.
The mill will cost about $1 billion to build and is expected to employ around 25o. The jobs at the plant are expected to pay about $52,000 annually, and the mill should provide another 1,000 jobs for the local logging industry.
Arkadelphia and Gum Springs will provide the plant with convenient access to rail lines and proximity to Interstate 30. The cities are also located in the heart of the state’s timber industry.
“They wanted to build [the mill] new because they’ve got some new technology,” said Stephen Bell, president and CEO of the Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance and Area Chamber of Commerce. “There hasn’t been a paper-pulp mill built in the United States in 30 years. A lot has changed.”
Bell said one concern officials had about the construction of the plant was odor from the mill’s operation. After touring one of the company’s plants in China, Bell said they were reassured that the company’s process would not produce any of the odor
that is commonly associated with paper mills.
“They’ve always told us that once the facility is constructed, we’re going to be very impressed and very proud of the facility,” he said.
The mill will produce a product called dissolving pulp that is used in rayon, which will go into clothing and other textiles, he said. The plant will consume 10,000 tons a day of pulp material. The heat that will be generated by the process will produce about 80,000 megawatts of energy, which will be sold back into the power grid, he said.
Bell said construction on the plant is expected to begin in March. The land has been cleared, but there are some regulatory steps that must be completed before construction can begin.
A new rail spur is also being built on the Union Pacific Railroad line that will connect to the Gum Springs industrial park. This will have a public transload facility where the companies in the industrial park can ship and receive products from the rail line. Bell said this will be the only public transload facility between Dallas and Memphis.
Georgia-Pacific recently completed an expansion at its plant in Gurdon, Bell said. The company, which produces lumber and plywood at the plant, invested $40 million in the project. The expansion allowed the mill to increase production by about 60 percent, Bell said.
A few new restaurants have opened in Arkadelphia this year. Little Caesars Pizza, Baskin-Robbins and Dunkin’ Donuts opened on Pine Street. The Flying Burger, a national fast-food chain, also broke ground on a new location in Caddo Valley. Bell said The Flying Burger is expected to open in about six months.
“We had a lot of activity on our social media [for the groundbreaking],” he said. “People are excited about The Flying Burger.”
A new restaurant and pool hall called The Cue also opened in January. Located in the University Plaza shopping center, The Cue serves up a variety of bar foods, sandwiches, pizzas and more. Bell said the restaurant has been popular with Arkadelphia’s Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University students.
In downtown Arkadelphia, 67 Grill opened. This restaurant has live music, sandwiches, burgers and more.