Tax-incentive vote aims to attract firm
The Little Rock Board of Directors is set to vote Tuesday on a local endorsement of a state tax incentive to help an electrical infrastructure company expand its operations to Little Rock.
Midwest Independent Transmission Operator Inc. representatives estimated the incentive would help bring 60 jobs and $15 million in investment to the city. The state has offered the incentive to a number of companies since the tax program began. Local endorsement is a requirement, because a portion of the taxes that are returned come from local sales tax revenue.
A few weeks ago, the city approved a similar agreement through the Arkansas Tax Back Program, authorizing local support for expansion at Fidelity National Information Services, 4001 N. Rodney Parham Road. Fidelity, a technology company specializing in payment processing and other bank-related issues, estimated the incentive would produce a $3 million investment in expansion and an additional 200 jobs.
Board to consider Falcon Jet bonds
The Little Rock Board of Directors will vote Tuesday on whether to issue Industrial Development Revenue Bonds to help Dassault Falcon Jet Corp. expand its operations at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/ Adams Field.
The bonds are a routine way the city helps industrial facilities develop inside city limits. The bonds are nontaxable and can be paid back through facility revenue.
Dassault would sign a lease agreement with the city. The bonds would not exceed $60 million and the rental price of the facility would be used to pay off the bonds.
Dassault announced the expansion in May after a five year exploration process that focused on two other locations, including Greensboro, N.C. The expansion, if built elsewhere, was estimated to have produced 400 jobs, but the company has declined to estimate how many jobs would be added with the expansion in Little Rock.
Much of the expansion is centered on a new 14-bay hangar. The hangar - to be almost three football fields long and one football field wide - will be used to complete a new jet that the company said it will unveil in October. Work on the new hangar is expected to begin in the fall and be completed by 2016.
The additional 250,000 square feet of hangar space will almost double what Dassault has under roof at its complex off E. 10th Street on the north side of the airport.
U.S. Pizza seeks OK for new warehouse
U.S. Pizza Co. representatives will speak at a Capitol View/Stifft Station Neighborhood Association meeting on Aug. 12 to explain a proposal to build a warehouse and office space between 712 and 724 Appianway St., just north of Interstate 630.
The Little Rock Planning Commission approved the request, which included a zoning change, on July 11. The plan will now go before the Little Rock Board of Directors, likely next month.
The plan calls for building a 60-foot-by-100-foot warehouse and converting an existing single-family house into office space.
Several residents objected to the plan during the Planning Commission hearing in July, saying they wanted more information and were concerned that the area would stop being residential. Residents also objected to two occupied homes being demolished for the project.
The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Aug. 12 at the neighborhood alert center at 2715 W. Seventh St.
Clinton park bridge closes for light work
The Clinton Presidential Park Bridge will be closed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday through Oct. 1 for renovations related to planned bridge lighting.
The lighting, which was announced earlier this year, will happen Dec. 6 as part of the 100-year anniversary of Entergy Arkansas. Entergy donated $2 million to the project. Little Rock, North Little Rock, the Pulaski County Junction Bridge Authority and several private businesses will donate supplies, labor, time and other funding worth more than $400,000.
For now, people can use the Junction Bridge Pedestrian Walkway to cross the Arkansas River on Monday through Thursday, but eventually both the Junction Bridge and the Main Street Bridge will be partially closed for the same lighting work needed for the celebration.
Dates for those closures and additional construction have not been announced. All of the bridges are open Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 08/04/2013