The making of an industrial park: a 262-acre crop of plants begins to emerge after many trials.

THE STORY OF THE MAKing of the North Little Rock I-440 Industrial Park would make a great novel if only there were some sex and violence.

The plot twists and characters are certainly there: struggle, disappointment, government red tape, scrappy public servants and persevering little men, the changing of the guard in Washington, D.C., benevolent landowners and finally, success.

"It took a lot of blood," says Stephanie Milligan, the executive director of the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce and one of the project's chief bulldogs.

"We started out with no money and no land, and we now have an industrial park," she says, simplifying a complex and unique situation.

The project, which includes federal funding to turn private property into a city's economic development calling card, is purportedly a one-of-a-kind collaboration. Usually, a city will own land and get a grant to develop it.

Seventeen private landowners donated 55 acres (now an additional 10 acres for roads) to the city's newly formed Industrial Development Corp., a non-profit entity. The city's ante is a pledge to develop the entire 262-acre plot.

In April, after three years of planning and hold-your-breath delays (you even have to apply just to apply for this money), the federal government approved a $465,000 grant for the park that promises at least 326 new jobs to the area.

On Aug. 6, Danco Construction Co. of North Little Rock was awarded the infrastructure contract valued at about $650,000.

"The bids were one more hurdle in the process," says Milligan, who was concerned about the project if the bids had been too high. Three companies came in under the magic number, but Danco got the paper.

Ground-breaking is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 30, and North Little Rock should have its industrial park by January 1994.

A fifth park tenant, an optical lens grinder, will be announced at the ground-breaking ceremony, or soon thereafter. It joins RAM Industries, its two subsidiaries (RDC Sales and Lamination Systems Inc.) and Audio International in committing to the property. Each of the companies had to jump numerous federal hurdles of their own because of the park's federal financial aid.

Still, Milligan and her co-workers won't rest until spade turns dirt at the proposed location bordered by Faulkner Lake Road on the north, state Highway 165 (England Highway) on the south and Interstate 440 on the west.

During a recent interview, she and a peer often digressed, exchanging bits of information around the corner of a boardroom table and referring to marked maps on the wall -- "Oh, by the way ..." and "Did you know ...?" and "Excuse me."

Milligan lugged in two expansion folders that couldn't expand any more. The application, in one folder, measures five inches thick. The second folder holds supporting documentation.

The Roller Coaster 

One year ago it seemed the park's application to the Economic Development Authority, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, would easily move through offices in Little Rock, Austin, Texas, and Washington.

Does bureaucracy move that slowly? Well, the distraction of a presidential election can't help. By the time the application reached Washington for final approval, it was December -- two weeks before the inauguration of Bill Clinton -- and government had stagnated under "transition."

When the application was reviewed, it was denied on the grounds that North Little Rock's unemployment rate was not high enough.

Project supporters rallied from the blow, submitting in March an amendment to the package that said workers would be drawn from nearby Lonoke, Prairie and Jefferson counties, all of which had higher unemployment rates. The amended package was funded in April.

"By then, there was a more favorable government in place," says a smiling Milligan. It didn't hurt, either, that the new White House chief of staff, Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty, had come from Arkla Inc., an early player in the planning of the project.

The EDA requirement that the city have at least one company committed to the park before the grant was funded proved to be an earlier source of angst.

Rock City Furniture, a North Little Rock company with nearly 200 employees, was the park's first recruit. But, as the project dragged on, Rock City was forced to make other arrangements and drop out of park plans.

"That hurt," says Milligan, with a face that says she remembers it well.

Lured by several states, Rock City amazingly decided to stay in North Little Rock, just not within the proposed park.

"We went forward on blind faith," Todd Larson, director of Commerce and Government Relations for North Little Rock, says of a move that planners now say spared them at least six months of downtime.

Larson says the government didn't always require an "industry in hand" or a "beneficiary," as they're called.

"But people were building industrial parks and waiting for businesses to come, and they didn't," Larson says. "To my knowledge, this is the first industrial park since that requirement was put in place to pull it off. It's remarkable that these companies have waited."

RAM, it's reported, needed to be in the park yesterday and will start construction before the park's roads are completed.

Larson says Arkansas used the EDA grants extensively in the 1970s and points out the industrial park in Clark County near Arkadelphia as an example.

However, this is the first EDA grant ever for North Little Rock and the city's first public industrial park.

Larson credits the success to the "true partnership" between the parties. "There was a significant commitment of time and money here.

"There's been a lot of legwork and excellent cooperation between several parties," says Libby Fort, assistant director for economic development at the Central Arkansas Planning and Development District, another agency involved early in the project, run by Charlie Cummings and given much credit for the project's success.

Fort has worked for CAPDD preparing grant applications for 21 years and says this was the most difficult application her office has done.

More Hoops

A wetlands study was done twice, and there's been an archaeological dig to assess possible Indian artifacts on the property. And, because this is farmland being converted to another use, other government agencies had to check off.

For federal funding, the city also had to prove there was no excess park space in a 25-mile radius, so even the government is convinced there's not a competition issue.

North Little Rock does have a few small private industrial parks, but those are full or offer only small parcels of land. Maumelle's and Little Rock's parks also are both approaching capacity.

Rose City Industrial Park, with roughly 15 acres available, houses Tyson Foods Inc., North Little Rock's second largest manufacturer. The Galloway Industrial Park has about 135 acres available but recently was rejected by a large industry because of utility extension problems.

Steve Bonds with The Hathaway Group, representing the private land owners in the new park, has marketed the property for more than three years. The land owners have formed a property owner's group and made William Patton Jr. their managing partner.

"It was yelling out and begging to be turned into an industrial park," Bonds says, but his clients didn't want to get into the development business.

Bonds is encouraged about the park's future.

"I think the balance of the property will sell out in about five years," he says. "That's pretty conservative. I had four calls last week."

The remaining 200 acres or so should sell between $12,000-$18,000 per acre depending on size and location. Last year, the private land owners signed property-value agreements stating they would not sell the land for more than its 1992 appraised value for 4 1/2 years. The park will not sell plots smaller than three acres, and it is all zoned I-2.

Bonds' job was not so easy before he could promise roads, water and sewer. He showed it to dozens of company representatives.

"It's a bean field," he says. "It doesn't have the smack of an industrial park."

He and Milligan concur that industries consider so many sites that when they visit an area, they're not so much looking to select a site as they are to eliminate one.

Maybe they won't be so quick to eliminate North Little Rock now.

So where does a project like this originate? For North Little Rock, it started on a Thursday morning over coffee and cake donuts in the chamber's board room.

The chamber, with the help of Arkla Inc., had done a community survey assessing the city's needs. The answer came back: "We need jobs," says Milligan.

An economic development committee was formed that met every Thursday morning at 7 for a year. The group got input from various state agencies and other sources, learning what programs were available.

Hal Matthews, then-president of the chamber, is credited with the original idea for the park and the 1990 formation of the North Little Rock Industrial Development Corp.

In mid-1991, the group did a survey of industrial sites in North Little Rock. "We drove around in our cars with maps and notebooks," Milligan says.

The result was 45 viable plots for an industrial park. That was narrowed to nine, then one.

Chuck Davis of the project's engineering firm Mayes Sudderth & Etheredge Inc. is credited with bringing in RAM and its subsidiaries. Audio International was recruited via a billboard on the Arkansas River Interstate 30 Bridge. As the project proceeds, the IDC will earn more revenue from the sale of its remaining acreage. That money is earmarked for marketing costs, further site development, maybe a speculative building, or maybe even more land.

Milligan recently returned from an economic development institute. She says she "learned we did it by the book and saved about $70,000 by not hiring a professional consulting team.

"But you couldn't pay somebody enough to do this. It was a real labor of love."