The ethos of interlocal cooperation that was a feature of northwest Arkansas' economic success story can be scripted here, Hot Springs Mayor Pat McCabe said Monday, telling Rotarians local economies benefit from greater integration with their neighbors.
McCabe recounted a presentation he heard this spring at the Southwest Arkansas Economic Development meeting on the northwest part of the state's evolution from economic backwater to a Metropolitan Statistical Area boasting more than half a million residents and a quality of life that is the envy of the state.
"They supported regionalization," McCabe told the Oaklawn Rotary Club, which met Monday at The Hotel Hot Springs & Spa. "They said we don't care where businesses locate in northwest Arkansas. Just come up here. Come to Rogers. If you don't want to be in Rogers, be in Springdale. If you don't want to be in Springdale, go to Bentonville. Go to Fayetteville. Just be up here.
"I think that's the concept they were promoting to us: Just get people here."
McCabe said business and civic leaders in Garland, Clark and Hot Spring counties pledged greater cooperation at the meeting earlier this spring, recognizing they have more to offer collectively than alone.
It is a strategy The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce has echoed, rebranding the local economy as part of a Metropolitan Statistical Area comprising Clark, Garland, Hot Spring, Montgomery and Pike counties. Though commuter traffic between the counties is not sufficient for the Office of Management and Budget to expand Hot Springs' current one-county MSA, the chamber markets the area to site consultants as a five-county region with more than 175,000 people.
McCabe said Clark and Hot Spring counties have transportation infrastructure Garland County lacks, specifically a rail network and proximity to Interstate 30.
"They have strengths in our areas of weakness," McCabe said. "We can work together and create an economic powerhouse for this region."
Garland County has a quality of place its neighbors do not, McCabe said, predicting the city's push to position itself as a mountain biking destination will attract business elites looking for new places to bring their entrepreneurial energy to bear.
"I believe our next big industry is going to come as a result of mountain biking," McCabe, citing biking trails set to open later this year in the city-owned Northwoods Urban Forest Park north of downtown and a constellation of other nearby trails, said. "Not that you're going to find a mountain bike manufacturing center here.
"But somebody, a decision maker, is going to say I want to get out of work, and I want to ride a world-class bike trail every night. They can move their company anywhere they want in the world. People might come here because of mountain biking. They're going to say I can ride a different trail every day of the week. Quality of place will resonate with people."
Local on 07/10/2018