By Amy Riggin of the Pine Bluff Commercial

June 7, 2009...Economic development leaders envision a bustling, high-technology industrial park in Jefferson near the National Center for Toxicological Research and north of the Pine Bluff Arsenal called The Bioplex.

On Wednesday, they dedicated a new Bioplex sign and Jack McNulty Road, a county road leading to the 1,500-acre site.

Lou Ann Nisbett, president and chief executive officer of The Alliance, said after the ceremony that industries had begun to show interest in the site “in the last year or so.” She said there was no specific target date for landing tenants.

“In economic development you just always do your best every day,” she said.

The county road was named for Jack McNulty, a local attorney and member of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. He said he is still hopeful that an economic development tax will pass here.

“I think the passage of an economic development tax could be important to development of the Bioplex complex,” he said. “I was very, very disappointed when it didn’t pass [Dec.9]. I have seen communities that have passed an economic development tax and what they’ve been able to do with it.”

David Beck, current chairman of The Alliance’s Bioplex committee, said the concept for such a technology park was developed in the early 1990s. He credited McNulty with obtaining the land.

“It literally took an act of Congress,” Beck said.

In April 2001, while McNulty served as chair of the Bioplex committee, the land was deeded from the U.S. Army to The Alliance. The deed restricts the land, which is divided into two tracts on either side of NCTR and just north of the Pine Bluff Arsenal, for use as a technology park. The park’s master plan was developed in 2006 by Forcum Lannom Contractors LLC of Dyersburg, Tenn.

Preparing for new economy

McNulty said collaborative efforts will be encouraged with the Jefferson Laboratories of the Food and Drug Administration (NCTR and the Arkansas Regional Laboratory), the arsenal, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and other institutions in the state.

Beck said Bioplex committee members, with help from the Alliance and the Jefferson County Industrial Foundation, already have begun marketing the site by providing data to potential tenants.

“We hope to begin infrastructure investments in the very near future,” he said.

Already in place is a major gas pipeline, electric transmission lines and a fiber-optic telecommunications ring.

The Alliance received a $230,000 grant from the Delta Regional Authority last year to clear an initial 10 acres, install a Bioplex sign and construct an access road. Nisbett said the project came in “a little under budget.” Mitch Rose of McClelland Consulting Engineers Inc. is the project manager for the Bioplex.

“We never gave up and the DRA did not give up on us,” she said, adding that The Alliance plans to apply for more DRA funding. “We want to keep moving on this.”

Beck said since the early stages, organizers have been “using every resource to catch the new wave of economic opportunity.” While Jefferson County has been successful in the agricultural and manufacturing segments, he said the economy is heading in a more high-tech direction and early planners recognized that the county must follow or be left behind.

‘Good, high-paying jobs’
Rex Nelson also was on hand for the dedication. Nelson became co-chair of the DRA in 2005 and announced Tuesday his plans to join The Communications Group of Little Rock as senior vice president of government relations and public outreach.

He said when he first came on board at DRA he decided that “we didn’t need to do anymore studies” in the Delta and wanted to “put money into an actual project.”

“We need to find people that have their act together,” Nelson said. “The folks in Pine Bluff, Ark. have their act together.

“It’s an honor to end my federal service here at this great project. I think this vision is going to come to fruition.”

Nelson noted that the area will benefit from “good, high-paying jobs” that will come from it.

McNulty was quick to point out that scores of people have been involved in getting the Bioplex off the ground.

“If you put all of their names on the road sign it would be longer than the road itself,” he quipped.