The city of Siloam Springs has seen continuous growth over the last couple of years.
Allen Canning Company recently announced it will move 150 jobs from Van Buren to Siloam Springs. By the end of this year, in addition to those jobs, Siloam Springs will have added 110 other jobs and $25 million in construction.
“We draw a lot of the employees from across the border from Oklahoma, we also draw a lot of those people to come here and shop,” said Gary Comiskey, Siloam Springs Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Director.
But with growth comes changes, like the widening of Highway 412 through the west side of town.
“The city had made some really big strides to create the infrastructure and the streets in order to see that growth happen,” said Holland Hayden, City Communications Director.
New businesses are popping up all over Siloam Springs. In fact, over the last couple of years there have been 112 new businesses and to encourage more, the city offers business owners incentives.
According to Hayden, the boards of directors passed an ordinance stating that business licenses fees are removed.
With more jobs and an increasing population, housing is filling up; Chamber of Commerce President Wayne Mays says a few years ago, there were a lot of empty homes.
“We`re like the rest of Northwest Arkansas in that there was a large buildup of unoccupied new dwellings when the bubble burst and a lot of the communities are sitting there with two to three years’ worth of back log in residential dwellings,” explained Mays.
“5,700 units available in Siloam Springs, 90 plus percent of which are filled currently, which is great,” added Hayden.