By SARAH CAMPBELL
Leader staff writer
Jacksonville may have a better shot at recruiting the state fair to its 445-acre site off the North Belt freeway after North Little Rock voters this week rejected raising their sales tax by a penny.
Half of the sales tax increase would have gone toward improving infrastructure and the other half would have paid for more firefighters and police officers.
The Arkansas Livestock Show Association, which puts on the state fair for 10 days each fall and runs a variety of non-fair events the rest of the year, was waiting to see if North Little Rock would purchase 2,000 acres with the sales tax revenue and invite the state fair to be the main tenant there.
“Our strategy is to look at all our options. Jacksonville has set the bar by offering 450 acres of land from the start. We haven’t done this in 70 years. We want to do it right,” said Ralph Shoptaw, general manager of the association.
The fair board will meet Dec. 15 to discuss its next step, he said. He added that the fair has a good relationship with Jacksonville and Mayor Gary Fletcher.
Two years ago, the city offered the board the $2 million gift of undeveloped land along I-440 and Wooten Road, a break on utilities and an already built highway interchange. Most of the land is owned by Entergy. Jacksonville would acquire the land through eminent domain.
Fletcher is ready to wow the board with a presentation at its meeting. His goal is to make it clear that the fair moving to the city is realistic, even with the financial burden of building it from the ground up.
“I always thought we had a good shot at the fair. I’m trying to put somemeat to the bones,” he said.
Fletcher said he’s looking at prices to construct a 200,000- square-foot events center and the move would be several years of transition, mentioning that it took six years to construct the roof of Barton Coliseum.
Fletcher said the fair could operate in Little Rock as it is being established in Jacksonville.
He said the impact of the fair would be enormous for the city.
“It would be a shot in the arm. It would be huge economically,” Fletcher said. “I think we’ve lost that the fair is the people’s.”
He said the fair could bring between 500 and 650 jobs and as many as 400 non-fair events to Jacksonville, but the city has a plan B.
“We are prepared to move on,” he said.
Jacksonville has been talking to several sources about getting a regional fair at the location if the State Fair doesn’t decide to take advantage of the city’ offer.
Fletcher said the city should be in charge of its own destiny rather than let others decide its future.
According to a consultant’s study given to the board in March, relocating the fair would take several years and cost $200 million. After the study was released, Fletcher questioned some of its figures.
The fair’s current home on Roosevelt Road in Little Rock consists of 148 acres. State fairs across the nation average 366 acres.
Also, crime – or the perception of it – keeps potential visitors away from the fairgrounds, according to the study. It cited police reports, various crime statistics and, apparently, the words of state fair management.
The fairgrounds have been on Roosevelt Road since opening in the 1940s.
Fletcher said Jacksonville has already proven its ability to make a project like the fair successful because it donated land to the Department of Defense in the ‘50s. The result of that investment was the Little Rock Air Force Base, which has an impact of $700 million in the area.
The study said a new fair could have an arena with 5,000 fixed seats, a primary exhibition building of 100,000 square feet, a year-round park for up to 2,500 recreational vehicles, and various horse and livestock facilities totaling 280,000 square feet.
It also said the association could expect significant increases in paid attendance, parking fees and camping fees if the fair was relocated.
