Furniture Factory Outlet is moving its corporate headquarters from Muldrow to Fort Smith, locating operations in a 180,000-square-foot part of a former Whirlpool warehouse that is now owned by Spartan Logistics.
The company said the move will bring 64 new jobs to Fort Smith.
“Moving our operations to Fort Smith provides the strategic foundation for our aggressive long term growth plans, and further builds on our commitment to Arkansas. I want to thank our partners Spartan Logistics, Arkansas Economic Development Commission and the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce for making this a reality,” Larry Zigerelli, president and CEO of FFO Home, said in a statement.
FFO opened its first store in Fort Smith on Rogers Avenue in 1984. The company now owns and operates 36 retail stores in the midwest, including 17 in Arkansas employing 151 people.
"It's always encouraging to have a company decide to locate a corporate headquarters in Arkansas," said Gov. Asa Hutchinson. "Companies from across the U.S. and internationally realize that our central location and versatile workforce make Arkansas an ideal location.”
Hutchinson told a crowd gathered Tuesday afternoon at the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce for the announcement that having FFO move its headquarters to Fort Smith also provides a "footprint for the future" as the company grows.
BOLD MOVES
Columbus, Ohio-based Spartan Logistics acquired the 620,000-square-foot warehouse facility adjacent to the large manufacturing facility. Spartan and its associated companies provide “one-stop shopping” to many Fortune 500 companies with package handling, light manufacturing, packaging assembly, inventory controls, shipping and other needs. Earlier this year Spartan founder Ed Harmon said the entire space is now occupied by four companies who employ up to 300 people.
Tim Allen, president and CEO of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, said Spartan’s “bold move” to acquire the warehouse from Whirlpool helped set the stage for the FFO move.
“Today, FFO Home (Furniture Factory Outlet, LLC.) made another bold move by locating their corporate headquarters and manufacturing operations in the Spartan Logistics building,” Allen said.
Allen thanked the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and Bob Cooper with R.H. Ghan & Cooper Commercial Properties for their work on the FFO project.
The FFO move will help economic activity in Fort Smith, but with Muldrow a part of the Fort Smith metropolitan statistical area the move does not bring new jobs to the area. The number of employed in the Fort Smith region totaled 114,596 in May, down from 114,943 in April, but up 3,217 jobs compared to the 111,379 employed in May 2014, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of employed in the metro area is down 8.6% compared to the revised high of 125,426 in June 2006 – or 10,830 fewer jobs than the peak metro employment.
REMAINING WHIRLPOOL PROPERTY
The future of the 1 million square foot former Whirlpool manufacturing site and its 95 acres remains uncertain.
Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool Corp. closed the refrigerator manufacturing plant in June 2012, which at the time employed about 1,000, but was home to more than 4,500 jobs at its peak. Later that year it was made public that trichloroethyclene – a cancer-causing chemical – was found in and around the plant. Whirlpool has worked to monitor and remove the chemicals, with ongoing oversight handled by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.
Jeff Noel, Whirlpool vice president of communications, told the Fort Smith Board of Directors on May 12 that a successful redevelopment plan for the company’s shuttered manufacturing plant will likely require “strategic demolition” and a plan to “repurpose” the property into 12 smaller parcels. He told the Board it is not likely to find a single buyer who will use the entire site.