FORT SMITH, Ark. — Toledo, Ohio-based Owens Corning is building a new 550,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Fort Smith that will replace the existing plant the company built in 1984. The estimated $115 million project is expected to add five jobs.
The new facility will be on the east side of Arkansas Highway 45 and just south of the Americold (former Zero Mountain) cold storage operation. Industrial revenue bonds approved Dec. 15, 2020, by the Fort Smith Board of Directors puts the value of the project at $115 million, with $20 million of that for an associated warehouse. The warehouse was not mentioned in Monday’s press release from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC). The board also approved spending $450,000 for “ingress and egress infrastructure.”
Gov. Asa Hutchinson provided $250,000 from the Governor’s Quick Action Closing Fund to support road construction around the new plant. The company also qualified for the Advantage Arkansas Program and the Tax Back Program, according to Chelsea O’Kelley, AEDC director of communications.
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