Outlook Conway - Amazon S3 · Conway’s Ongoing Reinvention Outlook Conway / Overview POPULATION...

Outlook Conway 1Outlook Conway 1

Outlook Conway

M A Y 2 3 , 2 0 1 6 / V O L U M E 3 3 / N U M B E R 2 1 A S U P P L E M E N T T O A R K A N S A S B U S I N E S S

2 ConwayArkansas.org

STEPHENS INC. • MEMBER NYSE, SIPC

WEALTH MANAGEMENT • RETIREMENT PLANNING FAMILY SUCCESSION PLANNINGESTATE PLANNING • EDUCATION PLANNING

As we continue to grow our client base in Conway and the surrounding area, we never lose sight of what’s most important: helping our clients achieve their most important financial goals.

As an independent firm in Arkansas since 1933, and investors ourselves, we understand our clients’ desire to create a lasting legacy of financial security by preserving and enhancing wealth.

On behalf of everyone in our Conway office, thank you for trusting us to serve as your financial advisors. It is a privilege to serve the individuals and families of our area.

703 Chestnut StreetConway, AR 72032501-328-4000800-827-5841

Serving Extraordinary Clients in an Extraordinary Marketplace

STEPHENSPCG.COM@Stephens_Inc

Standing left to right: Robin Cole, Woody Cummins, Debbie Lilley, Gina Riddle

Seated left to right: Bryan Cook (Branch Manager), Kimby O’Briant

Outlook Conway 3

STEPHENS INC. • MEMBER NYSE, SIPC

WEALTH MANAGEMENT • RETIREMENT PLANNING FAMILY SUCCESSION PLANNINGESTATE PLANNING • EDUCATION PLANNING

As we continue to grow our client base in Conway and the surrounding area, we never lose sight of what’s most important: helping our clients achieve their most important financial goals.

As an independent firm in Arkansas since 1933, and investors ourselves, we understand our clients’ desire to create a lasting legacy of financial security by preserving and enhancing wealth.

On behalf of everyone in our Conway office, thank you for trusting us to serve as your financial advisors. It is a privilege to serve the individuals and families of our area.

703 Chestnut StreetConway, AR 72032501-328-4000800-827-5841

Serving Extraordinary Clients in an Extraordinary Marketplace

STEPHENSPCG.COM@Stephens_Inc

Standing left to right: Robin Cole, Woody Cummins, Debbie Lilley, Gina Riddle

Seated left to right: Bryan Cook (Branch Manager), Kimby O’Briant

Conway and Faulkner County continue to be among the

most dynamic locations for business in Arkansas and the

region. Our education infrastructure, competitive operat-

ing environment and quality of life combine to offer the

perfect location for a diverse group of businesses. You’ll

fi nd technology leaders like Acxiom and Hewlett Packard

Enterprise next door to manufacturing giants Interna-

tional Paper and Kimberly Clark.

Often mistaken for a “suburb” of Little Rock, Conway is

the secondary job market of the Little Rock-North Little

Rock-Conway MSA. It is the epicenter of a multi-county

economic engine for north central Arkansas we call the

North Metro. Every day thousands of people choose

Conway for healthcare services, education, shopping,

dining and entertainment. Nearly 21,000 drive into the

city for employment. This dynamic local economy is

fueling a construction boom that is perhaps unmatched

in the history of our community.

By establishing your business in Conway and Faulkner

County, you will join a growing number of others who

have discovered the advantages of this competitive busi-

ness climate. We encourage you to review the in-depth

economic information provided in this report. And

we encourage you to reach out to the Chamber as we

help you participate in one of the south’s most vibrant

economies.

Brad Lacy

President & CEOConway Area Chamber of Commerce

It All Comes Together in Conway

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6 OVERVIEW

10 INFRASTRUCTURE

12 THE NORTH METRO

14 FACTS AND FIGURES

16 HEALTHCARE

20 RETAIL

24 COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES

PUBLISHER MITCH BETTIS

EDITOR TODD TRAUB

ART DIRECTOR DEAN WHEELER

CONTRIBUTING WRITER DWAIN HEBDA

EDITORIALONLINE EDITOR LANCE TURNER

DEPUTY ONLINE EDITOR TRE BAKER

SALES & MARKETINGVICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS SALES BONNIE JACOBY

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & DIGITAL SALES

JAKE SLIGH

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE ROSEMARY BRUTON

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES GREG CHURAN,

SCOTT HAGGARD, MICHAEL JOHNSON,

MYLES MCDOUGAL

ADVERTISING COORDINATORS BETHANY JOHNSON, JESSICA PRIDMORE

EVENTS MANAGER LESLIE GORDY

MARKETING AND RESEARCH MANAGER DEVAN MALONE

EVENTS COORDINATOR ALEX HOWLAND

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT DENISE BROCKINTON

ADVERTISING ASSISTANT BROCK WALKER

DESIGNPRODUCTION MANAGER APRIL SCOTT

SENIOR DESIGNER JOSEPH STOUT

DIGITAL OPERATIONS SPECIALIST REBEKAH EVELAND

CIRCULATIONCIRCULATION MANAGER DANA MEYER

CIRCULATION COORDINATOR CARLA SMITH

ADMINISTRATIONACCOUNTING MANAGER HAL LAMMEY

ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR KIM CLARK

HUMAN RESOURCES BILL PAGE

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT KRISTEN HELDENBRAND

CHAIRMAN & CEO OLIVIA MYERS FARRELL

PRESIDENT MITCH BETTIS

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CUSTOM SOLUTIONS JOHN TUCKER

© 2016 ARKANSAS BUSINESS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP

Outlook Conway

C O N T E N T S

Outlook Conway 5

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The University of Central Arkansas, one of three higher learning institutions that call Conway home.

Outlook Conway 7

B Y D W A I N H E B D A

Brad Lacy, president and chief executive officer of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce, takes a deep breath to consider the question before him: What eco-nomic identity has the city forged for itself over the past 20 years?

There’s much to draw upon for that question, which is part of the difficulty with the answer. Years of popula-tion growth, economic development and community im-provement leave a mark on a community, as Conway can readily attest. Exactly what shape that mark takes for the future — the peg upon which business leaders can hang continued economic development — is harder to define.

“I think that we’re confusing sometimes to people, even here in Arkansas,” Lacy said. “It’s hard to compare us to the next whatever, because we’re a little bit of a lot of things. We’re very much a college town but we’re not Oxford, Mississippi. There’s a part of us that’s very much a suburb, so some people want to lump us into this cat-egory of being just a bedroom community to Little Rock, but that’s not true. We have a sizable tech community but we’re not Austin, Texas.

“We’re a little bit of a lot of things, so to say, ‘Yeah, we want to be the best Conway that we can be,’ and look for places to compare ourselves to and benchmark, we’ve never found someone exactly like us.”

Conway has had an impressive run over the past couple of decades, from downtown redevelopment to luring na-tional and international companies to addressing tourism and neighborhood infill. Throughout, Conway enjoyed a steady population growth of highly educated, mostly family types the majority of whom, unlike past genera-tions, now work as well as live here instead of commuting to Little Rock.

The additional rooftops proved enticing enough to at-tract new retail corridors and even a new hospital, but still couldn’t meet labor demands, making the city a magnet for people from other small towns as far away as Beebe, Clinton and Russellville.

Despite all this — or more accurately, because of it — civic and business leaders find it difficult to draw one core strategy for developing the Conway of the future. Instead, as it has done throughout its history, city leaders are embracing growth through reinvention.

“Every generation in Conway has had to deal with managing a town very different from the one that they were first introduced to,” said Jamie Gates, executive vice president of the chamber. “We’re seeing changes in the style of housing, changes in the style of commercial de-velopment, we’re going to a place that frankly, a lot of people in Arkansas aren’t used to.”

Recognizing these trends is one thing; demonstrating the will to address them by taking matters in hand when necessary is another. In this regard, Conway’s legacy of leadership runs deep. A century ago a downtown busi-nessman’s hotel was deemed necessary to spark Main Street, so the Chamber sold stock to build the Bachelor Hotel. Today, this outlook survives through Conway De-velopment Corporation (CDC), an adjunct, nonprofit or-ganization to the chamber devoted to nurturing a sound business environment up to and including land develop-ment and advocacy.

Economic Development Spurs Conway’s Ongoing Reinvention

Outlook Conway / Overview

POPULATION CHANGE FORECAST 2015-2025SOURCE: EMSI

33%

5.3%5.7%

0-4 5-19 20-39 40-64 65+

PERC

ENT C

HANG

E

AGE

0

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

10%

120K

140K

160K

0

20K

40K

60K

80K

100K

CONWAY FAULKNER COUNTY

POPULATION GROWTH 2010-2014SOURCE: US CENSUS BUREAU

113,

237

116,

342

118,

704

119,

580

120,

768

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

58,9

08

61,6

66

62,9

07

63,6

10

64,4

90

CONWAY ARKANSAS US

21%

5%

-4%

30%

7%4%

2%.01%0% 0% 1%


“The thing that repeats itself over and over again throughout the history of the city is that we’ve done things ourselves when we needed to,” Lacy said. “Sometimes that was the chamber, sometimes it was the CDC, and some-times it was the city. We’re not a place that’s in the path of growth where developers are just coming in and building stuff and it all happens on its own. Sometimes we can’t wait for someone to come in and do it; we have to be smart enough to fi gure out how to do it ourselves and then do it.”

Hewlett Packard’s name comes up a lot in discussions about Conway economic development and with good reason. Landing the global technology giant in 2008 was a watershed get for the city, not only for the company’s pres-ence, but for demonstrating the lengths to which Conway factions cooperatively mobilized amenities. These included $5 million in site prep and new roads by the city and a $28 million, 150,000-SF building by the CDC in an offi ce and technology park developed by the group. Conway offi cials also played a key role in brokering HP additional incentives through the state.

“Hewlett Packard has a huge backstory, but it has been profound in terms of its impact,” said Conway Mayor Tab Townsell. “No matter where you are in the world, Hewlett Packard is a name you recognize and their coming to Con-way, Arkansas, brings us a huge economic presence and gave a different impression of our city from the outside looking in.

“It also allowed us to think about ourselves differently as well. It put us in a different mindset and made us think, ‘Hey we can compete with some of the best places in America.’ So that for us was an all around game-changer.”

Facilitating the arrival of HP, and the arrival of South-western Energy that followed, and supporting the growth of homegrown entities such as Acxiom underscored the interconnectedness of developmental priorities. Guar-anteeing skilled labor in adequate numbers, for instance, meant continually fortifying Conway’s three residential col-lege campuses to train workers, developing living spaces

and recreation to retain them or recruit from outside and improving transportation infrastructure for the growing number of commuters from a halo of surrounding towns.

“The things we did for ourselves got us ready to be in that game,” Townsell added. “The things that we did — resurrecting downtown, upgrading our design standards across the city, preserving our historic district, investing in our parks system, pursuing a more business-friendly atmo-sphere for both restaurants and hotels — positioned us bet-ter to take advantage of our own demographics, but also to accept the type of demographic recruitment that industry would be looking for and would be trying to recruit.”

Not everything Conway touches has turned to gold on this front. Lacy said that while the city is a natural fi t for young families, it’s still a long way from offering what the millennial generation requires.

“The traditional [labor] model for us has been that we produce so much of it from the schools and while we’ve had a fair amount of success relocating people, the expec-tation people have now for the kind of place they want to live is very different than it was 20 years ago,” he said. “Downtown housing; you want to talk about a problem that we have, that’s it. We don’t have large-scale downtown development for young professionals who would choose to live in an apartment downtown.

“I think that’s a harsh reality sometimes for people to have to accept, that you really are competing for talent with the rest of the United States, and in some cases the world, and those people expect certain things.”

“Economic developers don’t set the agenda or decide what’s important,” Gates said. “The new things that we’re talking about are the things our businesses are talking about. The fact is, we’re a small city in a small state and when you get outside of here, those numbers are impossible to argue with. So, the classic economic reality is we have to be nicer than anyone who is a better value and we have to be a bet-ter value to any place that’s nicer. We try to compete on one of those two fronts.”

Part of Conway’s growth includes a revitalized downtown district.

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Conway’s rapid growth over nearly 20 years has resulted in a mixed bag of results when it comes to transporta-tion infrastructure. On the positive side, in 2014 the city opened a new municipal airport, Cantrell Field, which dramatically increased the type of aircraft local facilities could handle, improving the city’s profile among prospec-tive businesses.

“Generally speaking, for people who are looking to move a business, the first impression they’re going to get is of your airport,” said Josh Zylks, airport manager. “Now, the chamber doesn’t have to tell companies they’re going to have fly into Little Rock and drive up here be-cause their airplane is too big for our little, dinky, old air-port. We are an airport that shows very well.”

The airport is served by Runway 4-22, a concrete, 5,500 feet by 100 feet runway and full-length, parallel taxiway. Air-field lighting is provided by state-of-the-art LEDs and the airport is served by GPS WAAS/LPV approaches. In addi-tion, the city operates the fixed base operation as a branded Phillips 66 dealer. Both Jet A and 100LL fuel are offered full service, and self-serve 100LL is available 24 hours a day.

Zylks said the airport’s expanded runway and 6,300-SF terminal have steadily drawn new business customers.

“We have 62 based aircraft at the new airport; that’s up about 40 percent from what we were at the old location,” he said. “Correspondingly, we’ve seen in the neighbor-hood of about a 30-40 percent bump in fuel sales to go along with the increased, based aircraft count.

“Most of the on-demand charter operators’ company regulations prohibited them from using a runway as short as we had. With the new facility we’ve started to see that business start to pick up, especially over the last eight to 10 months.”

Cantrell Field opened to a measure of pent-up demand, and available T-hangars were quickly snapped up. Larger aircraft hangar space is plentiful, however, thanks to the facility’s 431-acre building site.

“The airport itself — where it was built, the land that was acquired and the infrastructure that’s in place — was obviously done with growth in mind,” Zylks said. “If somebody called me tomorrow and said ‘Hey I want to sign a lease and build a 10,000 square foot hangar,’ I’ve got a spot that they can go to tomorrow and start building.”

Things may be well-positioned for growth through the air, but back on the ground, increasing vehicular traffic presents ongoing challenges. Finley Vinson, director of the Conway Street and Engineering Department, said most of Conway’s issues are not unlike what other com-munities face, although the city’s three college campuses combined with growth and expansion of local businesses produce traffic volumes that have demanded creative so-lutions.

“One thing that we are known for is the number roundabouts that we have,” Finley said, noting the traffic management tactic was first utilized nearly 20 years ago. “We’ve got more roundabouts than any other city in the state. They’ve been a huge success both from a public acceptance standpoint and from a traffic management standpoint.”

Problems in other areas aren’t as easily solved, particu-larly retail-heavy stretches along the state highways that stripe the city, including US 64, US 65, AR 60 and, of course, Interstate 40. One example, Oak Street, which overlays the five-lane US 64, is home to some of the larg-est and newest retail development in Conway and is one of only four access points to the Interstate within the city limits. In one half-mile stretch, what Vinson called “a traffic engineer’s’ nightmare,” Oak Street has seven traffic lights.

“The Interstate is both a blessing and curse to Conway; it’s a blessing obviously because we’ve got a six-lane arte-rial that runs through the center of town that provides a lot of mobility,” Vinson said. “The difficulty is that be-cause of the controlled access there are only a handful of ways to get from the west side of town to the east side of town across the Interstate.

Growth Produces New Airport, Strains Streets And Highways

Outlook Conway / TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE

Outlook Conway 11

“Of these, Oak Street in particular is the one that’s most central and easily the one that is most heavily trav-eled and congested. It’s known to be kind of the place that everybody wants to avoid, but where everybody has to be if they want to get from one side of town to the other.”

Bottlenecks along Oak Street, and to a lesser degree Dave Ward Drive one exit up, stumped previous traffic engineers and an outside traffic consultant. Even the state highway department has attempted to solve the puzzle, with limited success.

Thankfully, ongoing projects demonstrate the city has learned from the sins of the past and is taking steps to construct new thoroughfares more systematically. Three projects are currently underway, at a cost of more than $30 million, to bring new developments online and help the traffic picture in the process.

They include a south interchange to improve access to the Conway industrial park, widening of Dave Ward Drive and — the largest of the three projects — improv-ing streets and building a bridge to handle the increased traffic anticipated with the completion of new retail.

“One of the things that we’re doing as part of the Cen-tral Landing development is adding a bridge over I-40 to connect the development with the Conway Commons development,” Vinson said. “Both the city of Conway and state highway department anticipate that’s going to be one of the best things we’ve done for mobility, traf-fic relief and alleviating traffic congestion in Conway in a very long time.

“The overpass is the largest chunk of money, about $10 million of the roughly $30 million we’re spending on all these projects. But it’s easily the most important as it’s go-ing to be very beneficial not just to this property but to the city as a whole.”

Such complex projects, involving state roads to boot, make precise coordination with the Arkansas State High-way and Transportation Department crucial. Scott Ben-nett, state highway director, echoed Vinson’s assessment that the things that make Conway attractive also present the most challenges.

“When you talk about economic development, one of the biggest advantages is exposure, and when you have a major interstate that connects your city it really provides you with a lot more opportunities,” he said. “At the same time, the biggest challenge in Conway has been the fast rate of growth that has resulted.”

Bennett said that while the state enjoys a positive work-ing relationship with Conway, shrinking infrastructure dollars limit much of what the department could do to advance projects.

“Trying to maintain and improve a 16,400-mile high-way system, which is the 12th largest highway system in the nation, we’re always going to be playing catch-up. We’re never going to have enough money to meet needs in a timely manner,” Bennett said. “One of the things that really helped working with Conway is they brought local money to the table, allowing us to do a lot more work in the area than we would have been able to do otherwise.”

Roundabouts near Hendrix College. SARAH LEWIS PHOTO

The new Conway airport has increased its number of based aircraft close to 40 percent over the previous facility.


64,490 population 121,5528.8% of the population of the Little Rock MSA 16.6 %7th largest city in Arkansas / county as percent of state population: 4%92% percent of the population has a high school diploma 90% 37% percent of the population has a bachelors degree or higher 27.3%2.5 Average household size 2.623,205 Households 42,96433,180 Labor Force 60,863$65,006 Family Median Income $62,247$47,126 Median Household Income $51,095

B Y T O D D T R A U B

Conway is the linchpin of an economically vibrant, north-central area of the state known as “The North Metro,” which includes Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Perry and Van Buren counties.

With its expanding healthcare, improving infrastruc-ture, growing job market and diverse retail opportunities, Conway draws close to 21,000 North Metro residents to the city to work each day.

Conway is there for the North Metro residents and the North Metro residents commute to energize Conway. And if the city continues to grow its wealth of opportu-nities that relationship appears to have a future.

With a population of 196,584, according to 2015 EMSI numbers, the North Metro area showed a five-year growth of 4 percent, outstripping the state growth rate of 2.1 percent for the same period. Of that growth, the largest percentage (9.1 percent) is people aged 20-24, the coveted young professionals who are just entering the workforce with the potential to impact Conway, and the region, for years to come.

The next largest groups are the 15-19-year-olds, who made up 7.0 percent of the North Metro population growth and are poised to join the workforce in the com-ing years, and the 25-29-year-olds (again, younger pro-fessionals) who made up 6.8 percent of the population increase.

The region showed a 17.6 percent job growth from 2001 to 2015, an increase of 13,403. The growing occu-pations in that period were in customer service, postsec-ondary teaching and real estate sales while the declines were in welding and related fields, farming and other ag-ricultural occupations and assembly jobs.

With the nearby shale play, natural gas was 12 per-cent of the North Metro’s $6,132,166,108 gross national product (according to 2013 figures) but only accounted for 3 percent of the jobs and is expected to continue to decline. On the other hand healthcare, accounting for 6 percent of the GNP but 10 percent of the jobs, is on the rise.

Of the 89,567 jobs listed in 2015, government pro-vided 11,653, followed by retail trade (10,295), healthcare and social assistance (9,189) and construction (7,634).

Close to 75 percent of North Metro residents have completed high school, have some college or a bach-elor’s degree. The North Metro population is largely white, at 84.3 percent, with black and non-Hispanic residents making up 8.5 percent and Hispanics making up 3.3 percent.

Defining the North Metro Region

Outlook Conway / Region

NORTH METRO ECONOMY OVERVIEWSOURCE:EMSI

Jobs (2015) 89,567Average earnings (2015) $37,911Unemployed (11/2015) 4,226Completions (2014)* 3,437GRP (2013) $6,132,166,108Exports (2013) $7,855,257,434Imports (2013) $9,651,492,334* The number of post-secondary formal awards/certificates/degrees conferred

NORTH METRO POPULATIONSOURCE:EMSI

196,584 4.0 percent 2015 Population Population growth for the last five years 6.6 percent of state State Growth 2.1 percent

AGE GROUP 2015 POPULATION PERCENT OF POPULATIONUnder 5 years 11,908 6.15-9 years 12,534 6.410-14 years 12,748 6.515-19 years 13,771 7.0 20-24 17,848 9.125-29 13,281 6.830-34 12,650 6.435-39 11,334 5.840-44 11,844 6.045-49 11,558 5.950-54 13,006 6.655-59 12,729 6.560-64 10,806 5.565-69 10,019 5.170-74 7,857 4.075-79 5,513 2.880-84 3,715 1.985 over 3,463 1.8

Outlook Conway 13

64,490 population 121,5528.8% of the population of the Little Rock MSA 16.6 %7th largest city in Arkansas / county as percent of state population: 4%92% percent of the population has a high school diploma 90% 37% percent of the population has a bachelors degree or higher 27.3%2.5 Average household size 2.623,205 Households 42,96433,180 Labor Force 60,863$65,006 Family Median Income $62,247$47,126 Median Household Income $51,095

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CONWAY FAULKNER COUNTY

CONWAY AND FAULKNER COUNTY COMPAREDSOURCE: US CENSUS BUREAU, EMSI

VALUE OF BUILDING PERMITS (CITY OF CONWAY)SOURCE: PULSE OF CONWAY

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 $0

$20M

$40M

$60M

$80M

$100M

$120M

$140M

$160M

$180M

$150,6

51,33

1

$130,3

78,36

3

$115,2

49,34

9

$110,5

72,36

2 $140,3

85,50

1


Conway Little Rock North Little Rock Greenbrier Maumelle Vilonia Morrilton Sherwood Russellville Benton Cabot Mayfl ower Searcy Jacksonville

Outlook Conway / BY THE NUMBERS

RESIDENTS WORKING IN CONWAY:

0 11K10K9K8K7K6K5K4K3K2K1K

FAULKNER COUNTY GROSS REGIONAL PRODUCTSOURCE:EMSI

OtherMining, Quarrying, Natural Gas Extraction

GovernmentProfessional, Scientifi c & Technical Services

Manufacturing Healthcare & Social Assistance

Retail Trade Construction

Finance & Insurance Real Estate & Rental & Leasing

Administrative & Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services Wholesale Trade

Accommodation & Food Services Transportation & Warehousing

UtilitiesOther services

Crop & Animal ProductionEducational Services

InformationManagement of Companies & Enterprise

Art, Entertainment & Recreation

PRODUCT REVENUE: $0 $250M $500M

$484.6 million

$482.1 million$425.6 million




$147 million$134.4 million


$99.1 million




$11.2 million

TOP HOME ADDRESSES OF CONWAY WORKFORCESOURCE: (2014) ONTHEMAP.CENSUS.GOV

10,655

TOTAL TOP NON-CONWAY RESIDENTS IN CONWAY WORKFORCE: 5,422

1,295646

600413

385297289284282276

221220214

}

Outlook Conway 15

PROPERTY TAXES COMPARED

Fulton County, GA (Alpharetta) $2,733Greenville County, SC $971Williamson County, TN (Franklin) $1,879Hamilton County, IN (Carmel) $2,274New York County, NY $5,873

Los Angeles County, CA $2,989Larimer County, CO (Fort Collins) $1,570Cook County, IL (Chicago) $3,681Collin County, TX (Plano) $4,351Harris County, TX (Houston) $3,040Faulkner County, AR $706

Median property taxes paid by homeowners calculated as a percentage of average total household income over fi ve years. Major US markets, competitors, and aspirant cities are included. / SOURCE: TAXFOUNDATION.ORG 2006-2010 5 YEAR AVERAGE

Conway

Los Angeles

Atlanta

Chicago

Greenville, SC

Plano, TX

Houston, TX

New York City, NY (Manhattan)

COST OF LIVING COMPAREDSOURCE: C2ER ANNUAL AVERAGE 2015

95.5

140.3

99.9116.2

93.9

100.8

98.2227.4

100(NATIONAL AVERAGE)

150500 200

CONWAY’S TOP 10 EMPLOYERSSOURCE: CONWAY AREACHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Acxiom Corporation 1,500 University

of Central Arkansas

1,500Conway Regional

Health System

1,330Conway Human Development Center 1,200

Conway Public Schools 1,100

Hewlett Packard

Enterprise 900

Walmart 825

Kimberly Clark 700

VircoManufacturing 600

Southwestern Energy

Company 600

TOP HOME ADDRESSES OF CONWAY WORKFORCESOURCE: (2014) ONTHEMAP.CENSUS.GOV



Conway’s current healthcare landscape is characterized by more players entering the market, providing additional capacity within city limits and expanding and enhancing services here and in surrounding communities.

“We have spent a considerable amount of money inter-nally updating and upgrading our facilities and infrastruc-ture,” said Matt Troup, president and CEO of Conway Regional Medical Center. “And, with the current empha-sis on population health, I’d anticipate a lot of our future capital being spent in developing additional access points which emphasize the ‘regional’ portion of our name.”

In addition to its flagship, 154-bed acute care medi-cal center featuring a 12-bed ICU/cardiac unit, women’s center and nationally-recognized laboratory, Conway Re-gional operates clinics in Clinton, Mayflower, Greenbrier and Vilonia as well as in Conway itself. Troup said the economic connection among these communities is grow-ing.

“We’ve really seen, within the last year, the pull from North Little Rock at the southern portion of our area, the pull from the south in Maumelle,” he said. “We think that’s due to the fact that a lot of people that live in these parts of the state work in Conway and so instead of see-ing these communities going to Little Rock for work, the economic development that’s occurred here is creating the reverse trend in traffic.”

Having representation in many of Conway’s feeder communities ultimately funnels to the health system’s main campus. Anecdotally speaking, Troup said there ap-pears to be a trend for people increasingly seeking health-care services where they work as often, if not more, than where they live.

Steadily increasing medical traffic has spurred compe-tition, in particular growing urgent care clinics, a hand-ful of which have opened in Conway in just the past year. Growth potential was also the linchpin for Baptist Health’s entering the community with a new, 264,000-SF, 111-bed hospital set to open this fall.

Competition Expanding Area’s Healthcare Horizons

Outlook Conway / HEALTHCAREBaptist Health

Outlook Conway 17

68+61+59+57+53Healthcare Support

67.7 %Healthcare Practitioners & Technical 60.7%Food

Preparation & Serving

59.2 %

Building & Grounds Cleaning & Maintenance

56.5 %

Personal Care & Service

52.5 %

Conway Regional Medical Center

FASTEST GROWING OCCUPATIONS, FAULKNER COUNTY 2001-2015 SOURCE:EMSI


“Conway has continued to grow quite a bit over the years; that whole part of the state has developed quite nicely,” said Troy Wells, Baptist Health president and CEO. “When we studied the market prior to making the decision to build a hospital, we saw a continued growth pattern expected to take place there.

“[Between] current and future demand for health-care services in that region of the state, the relation-ships we had established with the medical community and just the high growth of the area and the medical needs of the future it looked, after study, like a great place for us to make that kind of investment.”

Wells’ measured assessment of the area’s growth potential is underscored by U.S. Census data. Between 2000 and 2010, Conway’s population grew 36.5 per-cent to 58,908, growth that paced Faulkner County to a similar increase of 31.6 percent or 113,200. As reported in Arkansas 2020: Arkansas Population Pro-jections and Demographic Characteristics for 2020, produced by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, growth projections predict the region to continue to grow at a rate of 1.47 percent annually.

In fact, the numbers are so bullish, Baptist amended the size of its project before construction even started, from the original specs of 216,000 SF and 96 beds. Wells said while Baptist obviously represents competi-tion in the market, there’s evidence to suggest the new hospital’s immediate impact will merely help the com-munity catch up to demand, bringing home patients currently going elsewhere for care.

“We continue to see demand increasing throughout our system related to certain medical services due to the aging of the population,” he said. “Orthopedics is probably the most obvious thing, cardiology is an-other one. Individuals are living longer, healthier and they’re active, so even with no population growth, we’re seeing demand for these services.

“Emergency services [is] another area that contin-ues to grow throughout our existing health system, creating demand and capacity issues right now. We hope to provide yet one more place for people to ac-cess that doesn’t further congest our Little Rock and North Little Rock facilities.”

Having two hospitals also bodes well for the eco-nomic health of the community on a variety of fronts. Conway Regional employs 1,300 and Baptist Health will employ 500 once fully up to speed. Indirectly, the two organizations increase Conway’s attractiveness to companies looking to relocate, the employees those companies will recruit and even the local medical in-dustry itself.

“Not only just here in Conway, but in historical ex-perience, physicians considering an area really look for population growth among the highly insured,” Troup said. “The realities in the healthcare industry are that there is an offset of cost. The government, by their own estimation, tells us that hospitals and health care providers lose money on Medicaid and Medicare ser-vices, so very often we have to have a higher margin on some of these other populations.

Outlook Conway / HEALTHCARE

OCCUPATIONS WITH HIGHEST MEDIAN HOURLY EARNINGS IN CONWAY / 2015SOURCE:EMSI

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Outlook Conway 19

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It’s hard to say which emerging segment of Con-way’s entrepreneurial community best typifies the city’s economic development, retail or tech start-ups. City leaders aren’t complaining either way.

“I think [Conway] has evolved, but it’s not evolved out of anything necessarily,” said Mayor Tab Townsell. “We have taken hits on the industrial side, like a lot of American cities have and the American economy has. We still have a strong industrial presence here in Conway, but we’ve also developed a strong retail mar-ket and a restaurant industry. More recently, we’ve ex-panded on information technology and have leveraged resources to grow the tech sector.

“So, I wouldn’t say that we’ve typecast ourselves in one particular sector; I think we’ve broadened our au-dience and demonstrated that we’re an economy ca-pable of hosting elements of many sectors.”

From a visibility and square footage standpoint, retail has grabbed the most recent headlines as large developments continue to shape the economic and physical landscape of the community and the region. Conway Commons, opened nearly a decade ago with

750,000 SF on 80 acres, broke the seal as the city’s first development to line up a string of national retailers side by side, including Home Depot, Old Navy, Target and Best Buy.

The development demonstrated the city’s ability to support several big box outlets at once and paved the way for two new, massive retail developments. One, Lewis Crossing, boasts 442,000 SF over 54 acres along Interstate 40 at Dave Ward Drive, within sight of the new Baptist Health Medical Center, also under con-struction. Lewis Crossing, a development of Collett, based in North Carolina, will feature Bed Bath & Be-yond, Academy Sports, Michael’s and PetCo among others and is anchored by a 135,580-SF Sam’s Club. It is slated for a late 2016 completion.

Further north along the freeway another ambitious development is being built, the 303,000-SF, 150-acre Shoppes at Central Landing. Developed by Jim Wilson & Associates of Montgomery, Ala., Central Landing promises a mixed-use development including shops, restaurants, businesses, single-family homes, apart-ments and hotel and office space. Anchored by Ar-kansas retailer Dillard’s, Central Landing is predicting a 2018 completion.

Retail, Tech Startups Joust in Entrepreneurial Climate

Outlook Conway / RETAIL

2010 20112012201320142015

CONWAY ESTIMATED RETAIL SALES, 2010-2015 SOURCE: PULSE OF CONWAY

SALES: $1B $1.5B 2B$500M

$1,445,314,647

$1,408,497,323

$1,397,647,579

$1,380,100,030

$1,345,351,218

$1,213,359,200

Outlook Conway 21

Tech companies and Main Street businesses are both vital to Conway’s economy.


Both developments reimagine their build sites — Lewis Crossing is being built on the grounds of a former sale barn and Central Landing on the site of the city’s former airport — and both have required re-engineering of the city’s transportation grid plan to ac-commodate the additional traffic.

“We’ve already commenced on our largest in-vestment in street improvements we’ve ever done,” Townsell said. “Over a multiple number of years, we’re investing $34 million in construction of a lot of the roads across and around our commercial areas to take better advantage of our Interstate highway pres-ence.”

Less headline-grabbing, but no less dynamic, is the growth and development of the city’s tech and startup sector. While not as immediately conspicuous as real estate-intensive retail growth, Conway’s resident tech-nology companies are growing in number and attract-ing attention.

Conway tech residents Acxiom and Hewlett Pack-ard helped seed the current growth in startups, either through former employees spinning off on their own or by their presence attracting existing tech companies. In January 2015 alone, three tech firms — Metova, Big Cloud Analytics and Eyenalyze — announced plans to build facilities in Conway, bringing with them 140 jobs and $2.5 million in capital investment.

Conway institutions have, in turn, nurtured the tech-friendly environment. Last year, the city launched the Data District, a seven-block area served by gigabit In-ternet service, to eventually include 18 blocks in down-town. And, the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) announced the bottom floor of its forthcoming Dona-ghey Hall will be devoted to students’ entrepreneurial interests, an outgrowth of its innovation and entre-preneurship program, offered through the college of business.

“We have a residential college that is designed to help develop student entrepreneurs who have ideas and want to try to develop them regardless of their field of study,” said Tom Courtway, UCA president. “In open-ing Donaghey Hall, which is a four-story, mixed-use development, we’re going to set aside about 2,000 SF on the bottom floor as an innovation hub.

“I think we’ve got all the tools necessary to really make some great strides over the next few years. When

you have a young, very smart group of people, which is what Conway has, then this is the kind of innovation that you get. And we’re very proud of it.”

But perhaps the most impressive measure of the city’s future in technology lies in the creation of Cad-ron Creek Capital, the city’s first venture capital group, representing 62 investors who raised more than $1.5 million to invest in promising early-stage start-ups.

“Main Street businesses are absolutely part of the fabric of Conway,” said Jeff Standridge, Cadron Creek co-founder. “We have a handful of very large employ-ers, but like everywhere else in the United States, the vast majority of employees work in small to medium businesses.

“So, I think it’s really beginning to shape up that the next step in the evolution of Conway, Arkansas, is to build this startup environment. The fact of the matter is, being a startup entrepreneur is a viable career path today where years ago it was very difficult.”

Standridge, a UCA alum, said Cadron Creek’s long-term goals include serving the needs of entrepreneurs beyond just providing capital.

“Startup entrepreneurs in Conway and around the state need access to three things,” he said. “One, access to programming where they can get together to share ideas and receive training and development on how to start a business. Second, they need access to mentors; and third, access to capital.”

Standridge said the long-term goal is to be com-pletely invested in Conway-based companies and also to launch startup incubators as can be found in other parts of the state. He said while such things take time to build, he’s encouraged by the response from inves-tors who have bought into Cadron Creek’s vision.

“From an investor perspective, we have some invest-ment from northwest Arkansas but the vast majority of our investments are from central Arkansas, ” he said. “Roughly 75 percent of our investors have never invested in startup companies before and they would never do it one-on-one, because the risks are too high, but they are very interested in a fund that deals with these types of companies.

“The reason Cadron Creek started in Conway was because our sole purpose is to build the startup ecosys-tem in central Arkansas, and we believe Conway is the perfect location for that.”

“I think we’ve broadened our audience and demonstrated that we’re an economy capable of hosting elements of many sectors.”

— Conway Mayor Tab Townsell

Outlook Conway 23

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Conway boasts three residential campuses among its educational institutions. Hendrix Village near Hendrix College is shown here.

Outlook Conway 25

BY DWAIN HEBDA

Signs greeting motorists proudly proclaim Conway the “City of Colleges,” and its three residential cam-puses have played a major role in the growth and de-velopment of the wider community.

“First of all we all get along,” said Terry Kimbrow, president of Central Baptist College. “Some may think that we’re fierce competitors and while we are definite-ly competing for some of the same students, the three schools understand that our mission can be really dif-ferent at each institution and yet we can cooperate for the good of the community.”

Conway’s history of supporting higher education is a long one, beginning in 1890 when Hendrix College relocated here, followed by Central Baptist College’s forerunner in 1892 and the University of Central Ar-kansas rounding out the trio in 1907. Since then, all three campuses have grown to become integral parts of the community’s economy, directly and indirectly, particularly over the past decade.

At Hendrix, for instance, direct community impact takes the form of payroll that comes in at $41 million, money spent in the community by the majority of fac-ulty and staff who live in or near Conway and alums that have a history of sticking around after graduation, about 1,000 at last count.

“I think that’s one of most amazing things, consider-ing how small Hendrix is,” said Bill Tsutsui, president. “If you go back 50 years [enrollment was] in three dig-its. Yet today you can barely go to a doctor in Conway without hitting a Hendrix alum.”

Along with student body head count (1,348 last year), Hendrix has grown its physical presence signifi-cantly. Once contained to a small huddle of modest

brick buildings, the school made a big splash develop-ing The Village at Hendrix, a walkable, new urbanist community of single-family detached houses, town-houses, apartments and four mixed-use buildings.

In addition to garnering several awards for the proj-ect, The Village is today serving as a template for simi-lar developments throughout Conway.

“I think it’s one of the best examples of how Hen-drix gives back to Conway and stimulates the local economy,” Tsutsui said. “It has been a very dynamic presence. It’s really hitting its stride now as a destina-tion for the city and, I think, a model that others have been adopting.”

Meanwhile, the University of Central Arkansas (11,754 enrolled in 2015) has developed academic pro-grams that dovetail with business community trends, specifically through its innovation and entrepreneur-ship major offered through the college of business.

“Central Arkansas is a hotbed of that activity now,” said Tom Courtway, president. “A lot of students want to start a career as an entrepreneur or do some kind of real neat innovation stuff. You’ve got to have an outlet for this, so we’re providing that venue for students to learn and de-velop these entrepreneurship and innovation skills.”

In fact, the brand new $16.3 million, 67,500-SF, four-story Donaghey Hall on campus will devote an entire floor to such pursuits, an investment Courtway said keeps UCA students on pace with what’s developing in the wider community.

“Conway is one of the more unique cities in the na-tion when it comes to this,” he said. “We’re one of these places where you not only have three institutions of higher education, you have a chamber and a busi-ness community that’s very open, very innovative and very aggressive in pursuing this.

Colleges, Universities Play Vital Role In Conway’s Economic Success

Outlook Conway / EDUCATION

FASTEST GROWING OCCUPATIONS FORECAST, FAULKNER COUNTY 2015-2025 SOURCE:EMSI

Protective Service

20.1%Healthcare Practitioners & Technical

19%Education, Training, & Library

17.5%

Community & Social Service

17.4%

Healthcare Support

17.3%


“With Acxiom here, with Hewlett Packard here now with some of the data companies that are in Conway, it is a very fertile area for a graduate not only to gain employment but also to live and work.”

The presence of all three schools makes for a high-er-than-average level of education among Conway residents — about 40 percent hold a college degree — giving the city a competitive advantage over similarly sized communities when it comes to recruiting new business. However, as the city continues to grow, the demand for skilled and educated workers is constant.

Central Baptist College’s professional adult college education (PACE) program was designed with this sce-nario in mind, giving the sizable segment of the popu-lation without a degree a streamlined, cost-effective means to improve skills and marketability.

“One big player we have would be the adult edu-cation program,” Kimbrow said. “It is designed for working adults and the degree programs have expand-ed significantly so that it meets the needs of area em-ployers.”

More than 300 students have earned their degree since the program was launched 13 years ago. Adult learners are attracted to the ease and pace of schedul-ing — just one class per week, for five weeks — as a means of improving individual marketability, particu-larly locally.

“Ours is a community that values education, not just higher education, but education,” Kimbrow said. “Look at the millages that have been passed by big margins, look at our preschool initiative. I don’t know of another place, and I have lived in many cities across three states, that values education like we do here.”

Such is not to say the city’s colleges and universi-ties do not face challenges. After enrollment spikes a few years ago, the number of incoming students has flattened out, in part because of the state’s lower high school graduation rates. Given the high representation

of Arkansans in each respective student body, this has forced the institutions of higher learning to redouble recruitment and expand offerings to maintain num-bers, with Central Baptist enrolling 881 in 2015.

“Our growth of a few years ago was the result of pretty aggressive recruiting and the expansion of pro-grams,” Kimbrow said. “We expanded our bachelor’s level program from just a handful to almost 50. That helped. We also have 12 intercollegiate athletic teams now, where we had maybe six 12 years ago.”

“Over the last few years, we’ve had what I would call steady growth. Not huge, but growing very conserva-tively and very prudently,” Courtway said. “Last year, the year we increased admissions standards, we grew about .5 percent, the year before about 1 percent.

“As we move ahead, we have to look at our retention rates and try to keep more of our students in school progressing toward graduation. We’ve also really re-doubled our efforts to attract transfer students coming from some of the nearby, two-year colleges.”

All three presidents pointed to the absolute neces-sity that college fit the demands of the modern labor market. Even Hendrix with its traditional taste-from-many-plates liberal arts philosophy, is increasingly stressing how to translate broad-based learning within the marketplace.

“Fifty years ago, the job trajectories were very clear; you needed A, B and C to get a job at X, Y or Z com-pany,” Tsutsui said. “These days, most young people going into the job market are going to have to invent their own job. That’s why I think the liberal arts educa-tion is valuable, to have skills that are widely applicable.

“At the same time, I tell all students if you have a chance to take an accounting course it is going to be useful in whatever you do. If you can read a balance sheet — whether you are in a nonprofit organization or a Fortune 500 company — you are going to be pow-erful because of it.”

Central Baptist College’s newest academic building, built in 2014.

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