MAUMELLE, Ark. – The Tractor Supply Store announced on Wednesday it would be investing $100 million into a new 900,000 square-foot distribution facility. 

It will create 450 new jobs and the average starting salary at the facility was not announced yet but Secretary of Commerce Mike Preston said they will have to be competitive in the current economic environment.

Preston hopes it will mean more money flowing all over Maumelle and the surrounding areas.

“Those individuals are going to go out and have lunch and they’re gonna go have dinner there and stop at the grocery store on their way home, they’re gonna stop and fill gas tanks that means more money going into our economy, more money going into a city like Maumelle,” Preston explained.

The Tractor Supply Store is one of the leading rural lifestyle retailers.  Preston said when searching for companies to locate in Arkansas that the cultural fit is an important part of the puzzle.

“It’s a company that Arkansas really likes and fits well with Arkansas City support for us to make sure that we have a connection with the company as a state and we certainly do in tractor supply,” Preston elaborated.

Tractor Supply is now the third company to announce a distribution center in Central Arkansas in recent months.  Amazon and Dollar General announced similar projects already.

Preston said the economic environment the Legislature and Governor have created is a big part of why they’ve been able to attract these types of companies.

“It has helped us get into the conversation more often these days is because of what we’ve been able to do as a state in terms of our tax rate and being able to reduce it in a very meaningful but fiduciary responsible way,” Preston said.

Preston said companies are realizing the geographic advantage Arkansas has.  Metro areas like Dallas, Nashville, Memphis, St. Louis and Oklahoma City are easily within a days drive from Central Arkansas.

“That’s why you see a lot of distribution facilities giving us a look and the other be central, on the eastern side of our state, on the western side.  Just our proximity to the rest of the country, I think, within a day’s drive, two-thirds of the entire US population, so it’s a natural fit.” Preston said.

Construction on the new facility is slated to begin later in the year and the hope is to be completed by the end of 2023.