The Tractor Supply Distribution Center in Maumelle had a ribbon-cutting of sorts with several hundred in attendance on Tuesday morning.
If you could call firing up a chainsaw and cutting through a pallet a ribbon-cutting.
Which, they did.
A fair number of dignitaries and elected officials were on hand including Maumelle Mayor Caleb Norris, Gov. Sarah Sanders and Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge, who lives in Maumelle, and the state’s top two elected officials had a very awkward exchange of hellos and a half-hug before the ceremony’s second-half began.
The event was in two parts. The first was outside where the Maumelle High School choir and band performed along with a ceremonial raising of the U.S, and state flags, along with much milling and gabbing.
After that portion was complete, the event moved inside the cavernous distribution center. As previously noted, the facility is huge with 1.1 million square feet under roof, and has a footprint covering 26 acres.
Former Mayor Mike Watson was among those on hand and he detailed the nearly two-decade process to get the city’s industrial park up and going.
Watson said that in 2006, 2006, when he was then on the city’s Planning Commission, he successfully opposed a move that would have converted the Tractor Supply site into single family residential.
Then, as he was wrapping up his third and final term as mayor, he and Judy Keller, then the city’s head of economic development, had that area converted into a select site for industrial growth.
Keller and then Courtney Dunn, her replacement and who currently leads the city’s economic development efforts, kept things going and the groundbreaking was held in 2022.
The facility represents a $175 million investment by Tractor Supply and when fully staffed, something that will happen this summer, it will employ a total of 500.
Cody Ritchson, the facility’s general manager, was among those who spoke at the event as did Tractor Supply CEO, Hal Lawton, who came from the company’s headquarters in Brentwood, Tenn., a suburb of Nashville.
They both noted that the Maumelle facility is the 10th opened by the company and will serve roughly 10 percent of its stores, or about 250 locations.
“On behalf of the City of Maumelle, I am proud to welcome Tractor Supply to our thriving industrial park,” Norris said. “Boasting Tractor Supply’s largest distribution center in the nation is a major milestone for our city, and the company’s Out Here philosophy closely complements our live, work and play community spirit. It is an honor to bring an economic opportunity of this caliber to Maumelle’s residents and the greater state of Arkansas, and I look forward to a future of growth supported by our shared values.”
It was chainsaw that wrapped the day up, along with presentations to the Maumelle police and fire departments, the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office as well as the Maumelle Future Farmers of America, resplendent in their blue corduroy jackets with their signature yellow trim, who got a $5,000 donation.
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Tractor Supply has grand opening
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The Tractor Supply Distribution Center in Maumelle had a ribbon-cutting of sorts with several hundred in attendance on Tuesday morning.
If you could call firing up a chainsaw and cutting through a pallet a ribbon-cutting.
Which, they did.
A fair number of dignitaries and elected officials were on hand including Maumelle Mayor Caleb Norris, Gov. Sarah Sanders and Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge, who lives in Maumelle, and the state’s top two elected officials had a very awkward exchange of hellos and a half-hug before the ceremony’s second-half began.
The event was in two parts. The first was outside where the Maumelle High School choir and band performed along with a ceremonial raising of the U.S, and state flags, along with much milling and gabbing.
After that portion was complete, the event moved inside the cavernous distribution center. As previously noted, the facility is huge with 1.1 million square feet under roof, and has a footprint covering 26 acres.
Former Mayor Mike Watson was among those on hand and he detailed the nearly two-decade process to get the city’s industrial park up and going.
Watson said that in 2006, 2006, when he was then on the city’s Planning Commission, he successfully opposed a move that would have converted the Tractor Supply site into single family residential.
Then, as he was wrapping up his third and final term as mayor, he and Judy Keller, then the city’s head of economic development, had that area converted into a select site for industrial growth.
Keller and then Courtney Dunn, her replacement and who currently leads the city’s economic development efforts, kept things going and the groundbreaking was held in 2022.
The facility represents a $175 million investment by Tractor Supply and when fully staffed, something that will happen this summer, it will employ a total of 500.
Cody Ritchson, the facility’s general manager, was among those who spoke at the event as did Tractor Supply CEO, Hal Lawton, who came from the company’s headquarters in Brentwood, Tenn., a suburb of Nashville.
They both noted that the Maumelle facility is the 10th opened by the company and will serve roughly 10 percent of its stores, or about 250 locations.
“On behalf of the City of Maumelle, I am proud to welcome Tractor Supply to our thriving industrial park,” Norris said. “Boasting Tractor Supply’s largest distribution center in the nation is a major milestone for our city, and the company’s Out Here philosophy closely complements our live, work and play community spirit. It is an honor to bring an economic opportunity of this caliber to Maumelle’s residents and the greater state of Arkansas, and I look forward to a future of growth supported by our shared values.”
It was chainsaw that wrapped the day up, along with presentations to the Maumelle police and fire departments, the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office as well as the Maumelle Future Farmers of America, resplendent in their blue corduroy jackets with their signature yellow trim, who got a $5,000 donation.