|
| |
 |
On October 8th, at a 2:00 pm news conference at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, Polymarin Composites, an international developer and manufacturer of high performance rotor blades for the wind industry and a 100% subsidiary of Emergya Wind Technologies, announced it will locate a new manufacturing facility in Little Rock. The company will move into the former Levi Building on I-530.
Polymarin will invest $16 million in the facility, and aims to employ 630 people at an average wage of $15.00 an hour within four years.
(more)
Back to LittleRockChamber.com |
 |
By 1886, the Chamber was already engaged in a quest to make the Arkansas River navigable. H.S. Tabor, of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, developed a plan to improve the river. He estimated a cost of $2.5 million for primary hurdles to control river deposits and make a channel at least three hundred feet wide and six feet deep from Little Rock to the Mississippi River. His plan included a canal from Little Rock to the White River at Devall’s Bluff. Pine Bluff and Little Rock supported Tabor’s plan and urged congressional representatives to lobby Congress for appropriate funds. The Chamber issued a memorial to congress extolling the Arkansas River Valley’s virtues as a “natural highway of commerce” and “one of the richest and most fertile (river valleys) in the south.” Many people along the river relied upon it for transportation of products in and out of the area, yet low water often cut these people off from commerce and communication. (more)
Back to LittleRockChamber.com |
 |
After World War II, in 1947, the government created the Air Force as an independent branch of the military, separate from its parent branch, the Army. The War set the stage for the federal government to begin expanding the military across the nation and allied countries. The Chamber coupled the advantages of this military expansion with the creation of the new Air Force and had the foresight to envision a potential new industry in Arkansas – the possibility of an air base situated near Little Rock. (more)
Back to LittleRockChamber.com |
 |
In 1995, the Chamber raised $280,000 and managed the county-wide election campaign that led to the construction of Alltel Arena and the expansion of the Statehouse Convention Center. (more)
Back to LittleRockChamber.com |
 |
Metro Little Rock Alliance (MLRA) is a coalition of 11 counties (Conway, Faulkner, Garland, Grant, Hot Spring, Jefferson, Lonoke, Perry, Pulaski, Saline and White) dedicated to central Arkansas’s becoming recognized as the premier location for new and expanding business within the mid-south. MLRA is staffed by the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. (more)
Back to LittleRockChamber.com |
 |
On June 30, 2007, Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren Ltd. (W.G.S.R.L) announced plans to build a manufacturing facility in Little Rock on a 740-acre site adjacent to the Little Rock Port Authority. Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce Chairman Russ Harrington (Baptist Health) hosted the event before a standing room only audience in the Chamber’s Deltic Timber Atrium. (more)
Back to LittleRockChamber.com |
 |
On July 18, 2007, at the Governor’s Conference Room, Governor Mike Beebe announced that Denmark-based LM Glasfiber will construct a new manufacturing facility in Little Rock. The site will feature a blade manufacturing plant and a dedicated training facility. The plant is scheduled to begin operations in first quarter 2008 and will employ over 1,100 people within five years.
The LM Glasfiber location originated with and continues to be coordinated by the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and Metro Little Rock Alliance. (more)
Back to LittleRockChamber.com |
 |
At a March 14, 2008 news conference, Man Industries, a leading pipe manufacturer based in India, announced plans to locate a new manufacturing plant on a 162-acre site just south of the Little Rock Port. The company will invest approximately $100 million in the facility, which will employ 250 people. The facility will also serve as Man’s headquarters for North and South America.
Elizabeth Small (PDC Companies), Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, hosted the event in the Chamber’s AT&T Auditorium and introduced Ramesh Mansukhani, Chairman of Man Industries (India), Ltd. (more)
Back to LittleRockChamber.com |
 |
Since February 2005, the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and Metro Little Rock Alliance, Central Arkansas’s eleven-county economic development coalition, have partnered in generating the following economic development successes for the region:
New Jobs |
8,017 |
New Payroll |
$280,537,208 |
New Capital Investment |
$995,865,211 |
New Locations |
29 |
New Expansions |
14 |
Prospect Inquiries |
222 |
Site Visits |
104 |
Market Research Requests |
591 |
Back to LittleRockChamber.com |
 |
In 2006, the Chamber found the region’s film and content development efforts virtually nonexistent. Arkansas’s share of the annual $65 billion production industry was a paltry $4 million – almost two hundred times less than neighboring Louisiana’s $700 million.
So, the Chamber began creating the economic development infrastructure to enable the region to compete with comparable metropolitan areas. (more)
Back to LittleRockChamber.com |
|
|
|
|
