Clinton's financial influence praised

Former President Bill Clinton played a major role in persuading John Correnti to build his Big River Steel mill in Arkansas, the state's top economic director said Monday.

Grant Tennille, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, told the story as an illustration of the effect that Clinton and the Clinton Presidential Center have had on the state.

Tennille spoke during a panel discussion at the center that included Bruce Moore, Little Rock's city manager; Gretchen Hall, chief executive officer of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau; Van Tilbury, the chairman-elect of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce; and Sadie Mitchell, assistant superintendent of the Little Rock School District.

"The [center] and the grounds are one thing, but what they represent are an entirely different thing," Tennille said.

Tennille said he had hundreds of examples of how the center and Clinton himself have helped expand the state's economy.

For example, Tennille's office contacted Clinton, told him officials were close to persuading Correnti to build his $1.5 billion steel mill near Osceola and asked Clinton to talk with Correnti.

"He closed the deal, and that was immediately $1.5 billion added to the state's economy," Tennille said.

The decision in 1997 to build the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock east of Interstate 30 has had an economic effect of at least $3.3 billion on downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock, said Tilbury, citing a study conducted for the Little Rock chamber.

The study said the estimation of the center's effect on the downtowns is conservative.

An an example, the study looked at the Hilton Garden Inn, scheduled for construction in downtown Little Rock. To show the full effect of the $16 million hotel, which will employ about 50 people when it opens next year, the study estimated that it would generate about $60 million over the next 10 years, said Tilbury, almost four times the initial investment. Tilbury is chief executive officer of East-Harding Construction.

Several new hotels have been built and other older hotels have been renovated in downtown Little Rock in the past 10 years, Tilbury said.

There have been about 2,000 hotel rooms added in the downtown area in recent years, Hall said. There are about 6,500 total rooms available in the Little Rock area.

The growth of the downtown area has been significant since 1997, Moore said.

"This library anchors so much, not only from an economic development standpoint and from a tourism standpoint, but also from a quality-of-life standpoint," Moore said.

Before the library was built, the area was a dilapidated warehouse district, Moore said.

"We had not seen any development on the east side of that bridge in over 50 years," Moore said. "The president knew that he could put it here and it would change the makeup of our city. And we continue to see it."

Business on 11/18/2014

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