FORT SMITH, Arkansas — An item on the agenda for Tuesday’s (July 7) Fort Smith Board of Directors will ask directors to consider a resolution to help finance an expansion at the Gerber Products Company’s Fort Smith facility through the issuance of about $30 million in industrial development revenue bonds.
Gerber is expanding the product line at its facility at 4301 Harriet Drive in a project known as Project Best-In-Class, Fort Smith Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman said in a memo regarding the proposed resolution.
In a letter to Price Waterhouse Coopers, City Administrator Carl Geffken said the city offered the proposal in order that Fort Smith could compete for the major retention and expansion project. The principal benefit of the bond program is “the elimination of property taxes when financing the construction of new buildings and purchasing new equipment,” Geffken said in the letter.
The Gerber expansion will house food processing and manufacturing equipment and will include associated machinery and infrastructure improvements at the site. In addition to the product line expansion and the retention of 480 employees, the company will add 25 new jobs with an approximate average wage of $21 per hour, Dingman said in his memo.
To read more of this story, visit our content partner Talk Business & Politics.
