[Fort Smith, AR]

Anyone know what retailers are going to located next to the Kelly Highway supercenter?

The only restaurant I can confirm is McDonald's.

Seems like the river city is seeing a lot of of developments lately. I know the new VW Dealership is getting closer to being finished off of Zero.

[Fort Smith, AR]

I could be wrong but I think there used to be Furr's in Arkansas a long time ago. I'm pretty sure I remember going to one occasionally when I was pretty young. I think it might have been in Hot Springs.

[Fort Smith, AR]

Somebody told me Ft. Smith was getting Ruth's Chris and Buffalo Wild Wings, maybe in the new Target shopping center.

Also, does anybody know what they are building in front of Staples?

[Fort Smith, AR]

Even if you don't count those three, there are still plenty that NWA mall has that Central does not. Russell said there was nothing that NWA mall offered that wasn't in Central, which is absolutely not true. NWA mall is in a league above Central and yet still below Pinnacle Hills Promenade.

[Fort Smith, AR]

Any details on what this expansion will include? For the largest mall in the state, I've always thought it was very weak in its offerings. An expansion is much needed. NWA Mall and the new Mall at Turtle Creek blow it away.

[Fort Smith, AR]

One of my pet peeves about Ft. Smith is the way people drive here. On I-540 in NWA, you have a lot of speeders pushing 80-85. In Ft. Smith, most people drive at least 10 mph UNDER the speed limit! The traffic flows at about 50-55 and if you go the speed limit, you pass everybody like they are sitting still. Do these people not know how to push the accelerator?

[Fort Smith, AR]

This actually happened at my church in Ft. Smith, and I left the church over it.

I apologize but I get very irritated at the politics in Ft. Smith, especially since I'm stuck here with no short-term escape. The age distribution speaks for itself: 25.4% under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 21.8% from 45 to 64, and 13.7% 65 years of age or older. Notice the stunning drop in population once they hit 18...because this town has nothing for the 18-25 age group. As the above poster said and is backed up by the statistics, people do tend to come back for one reason or another as they get older.

I dont have a problem that people prefer the kind of lifestyle Ft. Smith offers and doesn't want it to change, because thats how it is here and thats how it will be for at least 20 more years, considering the manufacturing plants dont close. If that happened Ft. Smith would go from stagnant to the hole real quick. Somebody told me before November's elections that if Mayor Ray Baker got re-elected, Ft. Smith would be a ghost town within a decade. I think thats an overstatement, but his re-election is definately not going to help.

Growing UAFS and getting the number of people with bachelors degrees up is key to making some changes. Ft. Smith has an extremely low percentage of college graduates for a city its size. If UAFS wants to grow into a college that is more than just a commuter school for the local high school graduates, the community as a whole needs to offer more to make not only attending UAFS more pleasant, but living in Ft. Smith pleasant also.

[Fort Smith, AR]

Your profile says you are from Little Rock. That being said, I can see why you would find Ft. Smith interesting because of its history, although MUCH could be done to improve the downtown "historic" district which is full of boarded up buildings. Furthermore, because you don't live in the Ft. Smith area, I doubt you have a clear grasp on the politics here. Of course, if you are the kind of person who doesn't care about big city amenties, likes the outdoors, likes a slow pace of life, and are VERY religious, you might find Ft. Smith to your liking.

[Fort Smith, AR]

Unfortunately, not everyone can up and move on a whim. Several negative posters already stated intentions to leave despite mitigating circumstances precluding that (like going to college or saving for grad school). Until those goals are met, they're stuck here. Considering that this an open forum about urban development and the like, criticism of such things in relation to here is fully open and warranted, wouldn't you agree?

[Fort Smith, AR]

Land is being cleared now for the new housing developments in Chaffe crossing. This will add over 100 new houses on the east side of town. Should be in the 150-200,000 range. As for the negative posters...I 540 is open in both directions and nobody is forcing you to endure your apparent misery here. I think if I were that miserable that I had to come on a message board and slam the city I lived in every chance I got, I would do something about it...like move

[Fort Smith, AR]

According to an article in yesterday's Times Record, Fort Chaffee is making a bid to become a full time Army National Guard Reserve post. If successful, Fort Chaffee will become home to 3,000 soldiers on a year round basis. This would mean not only 3,000 more people in our community, but also their families living, shopping, dinning, etc in Fort Smith. The article says the economic impact would be greater than landing a Toyota plant.

[Fort Smith, AR]

I have recently heard that there may be plans to open up a 2nd Olive Garden and Red Lobster somewhere along the Hwy 71 corridor on the south end of town

[Fort Smith, AR]

So we have a bit going on in fort smith right now

Hooters getting ready to open up...

Supercenter on the North side of town being built and a Target on the South side

New Condo development

US Marshal's Museum coming soon

Anyone think of other good things we have going on right now?

[Fort Smith, AR]

Well I have to admit that there are numerous restaurants in Fayetteville that Fort Smith does not have such as Noodles, Red Robin, Fudruckers, O'Charleys, and on and on...Ft Smith doesn't have all of the chains but tends to have a pretty good mix of locally owned and operated eating places. One of the most appealing aspects of NWA to me anyway is that there are areas that are asthetically pleasing, such as around NWA mall in Fayetteville and even more so around the new mall in Rogers...When I lived in Bentonville in 1997-1998 that area was a cow pasture...It is incredible how fast that area has changed. I am glad for NWA...Makes you wonder why all of this growth happened and how it got started. Geographically, it seems like Fort Smith is the city that should have taken off. i mean we are right here on the Arkansas River, I 40 goes just north of the city, we had the airport before Fay, rail, etc...What would NWA be like today if Sam Walton had been from Fort Smith??? I think it all goes back to city leadership from long ago..We focused on bringing in the factories which worked ok until companies started shifting production to countries with cheaper labor and now we are left with a loarge blue collar workforce that is running out of jobs and with no education. In other words, we put all of our eggs in one basket...We have fumbled away opportunity for at least the past 100 years in my opinion.

[Fort Smith, AR]

I very much agree with the quote - Ft. Smith is losing its young professionals.

Hello, new to the forum, somewhat new to Fort Smith. My husband and I moved here in the late summer. He has his MBA, and an undergraduate degree in Physics, 5 years experience running his own property management company, 1 year experience in Banking, and one year experience in Financial Advising - and he can't find a job here. He has been on so many job interviews, with the big companies, small companies, etc, it is getting absolutely ridiculous. It took me 5 months to find a job, and I am an attorney - and I actually do have some connections with the city.

I have always called Fort Smith home, although as an army brat, I never actually lived here before - lived all up and down the Northeastern coast as well as a few foreign countries. I was excited to move here, to be near extended family, but now, it is just sad - the town is really dying.

It is not just the lack of shopping, or the restaurants either, the demographics are shocking. Only around 16 percent of Sebastian county has an education higher than a high school diploma.

While Garrison Ave is great, and the historic district is promising, Rogers Ave really needs to be cleaned up for lack of a better word. Perhaps some of the higher traffic stores or restaurants should be moved to Phoenix.

And what is with the no sidewalks??

Anyway, I am happy to be here, but I do not know how long I will be staying.

[Fort Smith, AR]

Another thing I forgot to address in my first post is the city government. Unlike many cities, we have a city administrator that essentially acts in the role that most other citiy mayor would. Sure we have a mayor, a clown, but nonetheless a mayor. We have recently had a change in city administrators. The previous fella had a problem with the alcohol. Our fair city also recently spent upwards of $2 million to hire a consulting firm to tell them what "is wrong with our city"...why aren't we growing like NWA...well who is? Anyway they paid this company all this money to tell them what I and many others could have told them for free...It's about quality of place...people's perceptions like I said before that the city is old, dirty, etc...To some degree, I think we owe some of this to the State of Arkansas...the main entrance for most into the city is I540 from the north crossing over the Van Buren River Bridge. We have this nice new I40 all across the state, but as soon as you hit 540 it turns into this awful road with trash everywhere...I mean when the state mows in the Summer, they literally just mow the trash, shredding it into hundreds of pieces. The main drag in Fort Smith is Rogers Ave. This is also Hwy 22 so guess what, the state maintains it. bad idea...I can't tell you the last time it was repaved. the sidewalks are crumbling, street lights look like they are barely hanging onto oles that are 35 years old, weeds grow out of the median, etc... to me these are the little things that the state could help with that represent quality of place. just sprucing up a few things could totally reverse this idealogy. Please excuse my rambling post but there are just so many issues I feel we could cover with regards to Fort Smith.

[Fort Smith, AR]

I'm a new poster who has lived in Fort Smith or near Fort Smith most of my life. i have also lived in Bentonville for 1 year, Little Rock for one year and Conway for 2 years before moving back to Fort Smith. I have noticed that most of the pics posted on here are of Downtown Fort Smith. While the city tries to focus on this part of town and has for years, the growth is to the East and South. We have several new restaurants set to open within the next few years along with at least 2 major shopping centers (one anchored by target and the other by the city;'s 3rd Wal Mart Supercenter)...Both will be highly visible from I540...I'll try to post some pics of the more modern areas of Fort Smith soon. Many folks perception of Fort Smith is that it is a "dirty" city, and some parts of town are. However, we have some better parts of town and have a fairly good standard of living at a lower cost that other progressive parts of the state. Also, we have some good schools and a growing college. Keeping our best and brightest students at home or getting them to come back to Fort Smith after they leave may be a key in determing our future.