MLRA attracts business to central Ark.

Joey Dean, executive director of the Metro Little Rock Alliance, told the Conway Kiwanis Club on Wednesday how MLRA helps central Arkansas compete with metropolitan regions and around the world for new business.

MLRA was formed by business leaders and elected officials in an 11-county area to create a unified brand and marketing effort for central Arkansas. The MLRA includes Pulaski, Saline, Garland, Hot Spring, Grant, Jefferson, Lonoke, White, Faulkner, Conway and Perry counties. Its purpose is to compete with Memphis, Tulsa, Nashville, Jackson and other metropolitan areas, as well as national and international markets. MLRA targets site location consultants, real estate developers and corporate decision-makers through a combination of web, print, direct and person-to-person marketing. Its Web site is www.metrolittlerockalliance.com.

"Economies don't exist in a vacuum or within city limits or county limits," Dean said. "We are all dependent upon each other for our economy to survive and grow. MLRA just links our marketing effort."

Individual cities are all marketing themselves, and MLRA does not take the place of that, but it will enhance economic development in the area, Dean said.

"We're stronger together than we are individually," he said.

Strengths of the region, he said, include a low cost of doing business, growing working population, universities and colleges, attractive incentives, exceptional quality of life and successful businesses. Challenges, he said, include a poor perception, utilizing and growing a pool of tech workers, replacing lost jobs, lack of entrepreneurial focus, and a mindset on traditional industries.

Dean said MLRA has had a hand in the creation of a total of 5,502 new jobs; a new payroll of $191,035,544; and a new capital investment of $660,487,311.

Among the new businesses that have located or are in the process of locating in Central Arkansas with help from MLRA are Cardinal Health in Sherwood, Accent Marketing Services and Stanley Inc. in Hot Springs, SAIC in Little Rock, FMC North America in Maumelle, Welspun in Little Rock and LM Glasfiber in Little Rock.

Welspun is a company from India that is locating for the first time in North America, Dean said. It will manufacture steel pipes for the oil and gas industry at its Little Rock plant. The company released a newsletter to all its customers with an article about the Little Rock plant, which will give MLRA publicity around the world, Dean said. MLRA is already working with Welspun in India regarding other companies that have a need to locate in America, he said.

Closer to home, LM Glasfiber is the world's leading manufacturer of blades for wind turbines. Little Rock was chosen over competitors in other states because of its "excellent logistical options road, rail, air or marine," according to a quote from the Web site.

Dean said having international companies investing in the region "should open up markets for us not only in these industry sectors but in the region where they are headquartered."

(Staff writer Rachel Parker Dickerson can be reached by e-mail at rachel.dickerson@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1277. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)