Fort Smith Economic Development

Know someone interested in learning the trade of carpentry and construction without incurring student debt? Invite them to attend our Residential Construction Apprentice Program (RCAP) orientation!
This is a no-cost, 2-year program registered with the Department of Labor, designed to equip students with valuable skills and OSHA certification.
Employers – if you have employees you'd like to receive additional training, bring them to the orientation! Employers also receive a tax credit for hiring registered apprentices. Come to the Orientation on Thursday 7/31 at 5:30pm at the Peak Innovation Center. It is an information meeting to learn about the program and get signed up. Contact HBA for more information 479-650-3009.

🚜🏡 Breaking Ground on the 2025 Showcase Home! 🏡🚜

Join us as we kick off the 2025 Showcase Home with a groundbreaking at 1101 Hunter Drive in Bryorwood Subdivision, Barling! Builder Donnie Wise of Don Wise Construction will lead this year’s project. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to celebrate as we begin this incredible home! Lunch provided by Firstar Bank

📍 1101 Hunter Drive, Barling, 11am

We hope to see you there! 🎉

This is truly how economic development begins and is sustained among leaders of a region. Build relationships and trust to be able to work together, to discover solutions and pool resources, and to create bigger impact, faster and more efficiently. This is brilliant.

The Fort Smith Regional Alliance held a Leadership Luncheon at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, bringing together participants from Leadership Crawford County, Leadership Fort Smith, Leadership Franklin County, and Leadership Logan County. Attendees enjoyed an engaging session led by Kim Worlow of Inspire Me, who delivered an inspiring talk on the habits of highly effective people. The interactive luncheon fostered meaningful discussions and connections among the leadership classes.

Even though Fort Chaffee is a significant training asset for our national defense, it receives very little public attention. This announcement is a few months old, but it deserves sharing because it represents a level of excellence achieved by very few facilities. We salute the men and women who contribute to this high level of performance every day.

Fort Chaffee upgraded to Level 1 training site; one of just five nationwide - Talk Business & Politics Almost 30 years after it was feared Fort Chaffee would be permanently closed as a military facility, the base near Fort Smith is now just one of five among more...

Saturday, October 14th, we will experience a partial annular eclipse of the sun. An annular eclipse is often called "The Ring of Fire." About 70% of the blockage of the sun will be visible from Greenwood at the peak of the eclipse here at 11:54 am. The ONLY safe way to look at the sun is though certified eclipse/sun viewing equipment. Get your free eclipse viewing glasses at the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce office, Greenwood City Hall, or at any Farmers Bank location.

There are some encouraging statistics for Sebastian County in this Talk Business & Politics-Fort Smith & Northwest Arkansas article.

Sebastian County ranks fifth highest per capita household income among all Arkansas counties by wealth index; per capita income in parenthesis.

Sebastian County ranks ninth in the top 10 Arkansas counties in terms of average weekly wages.

With the incoming Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, expansion of the I-49 corridor, and an intermodal port, we should see these positions improve over the next 5-10 years.

Wealth index has Benton County ranked first in Arkansas - Talk Business & Politics A county wealth index produced by New York City-based SmartAsset has the top Arkansas counties in the state’s metro areas, with the only non-metro counties in the top 10 being...