Boomtown, U.S.A.
In Arkansas, a new economy--and an unlikely Xanadu
Hunt salivates at the growth potential. Bored with retirement, he used some of his $252 million fortune to put up South Fork, a 970-home development named after J. R. Ewing's mythical spread on TV's Dallas. His partner in that project was Gary Combs, Don Tyson's son-in-law. Their latest grand plan is to transform Rogers, the stepsister among the four major towns, into the Cinderella city. Until recently, Rogers served primarily as a bedroom community for Wal-Mart, Tyson, and Hunt employees. Stench from broiler chicken houses on the fringes of downtown limits its appeal somewhat, but the new interstate along the rural western flank has suddenly made smelly Rogers more fetching. "I look at it as a clean sheet of paper that you can put a city on," says Combs.
On the blank slate, Combs and Hunt have drawn up the dozen towers looking down both sides of the freeway. Twin 20-story deluxe condominiums would stand perched on a hill. "There's a fantastic view," Hunt claims. (It's of the highway.) There would also be a hospital, medical park, shopping center, and offices for Wal-Mart vendors. In July, construction is scheduled to start on a $35 million, 10-story Embassy Suites hotel. Overall, Hunt and Combs project $1 billion will be spent to bring 15,000 to 20,000 people to their "city" in five years.
If Hunt had his druthers, the new community would be called the Pinnacle. But locals like Jacqueline and Pat Patterson would probably call it the pits. The Pattersons bought a house at the Manors last fall; they put in a pool and a wooden fence to keep out the cows grazing in surrounding pasture they thought was protected. Now Hunt's "city" is creeping within one farm of their home. "I'm not going to be sitting in High Noon at my backyard," Pat Patterson, a retired Wal-Mart vendor, said acidly at a City Council meeting. He told the developers, "You'll buy my property, and you can do whatever the hell you want with it."
Even old grammar school chums are feuding over the changes. Lynn England is especially peeved at former classmate Rickey Roller, who sold his 37-acre turkey farm to Hunt and Combs. "We do feel like he sold everyone down the river," she says. Roller says his neighbors treat him with disdain. "They all griped when the turkey houses were all put up because it smells," he says. "Then they're griping because they're tearing down the turkey houses and putting up something else." Hunt, who used to ride horses on the land he's developing, says he understands the bitter feelings. At one point, he's so taken with the property that he stops his souped-up pickup to watch a beaver lumbering along a spring-fed creek. But he quickly buries his sentimentality. "To me, that's past history," he says. "There are other places to ride horses."
Big box appeal. He's not the only one who thinks so. Hunt says Rogers Mayor Steve Womack is so pro-growth that he "want[s] to hug his neck" every time he sees him. The mayor says he encourages commercial projects for the sales tax revenue. England sees another motive. "It's going to create fame and glory for the mayor," she says.
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