Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale on Friday gave $1 million to the Downtown Springdale Alliance, the nonprofit working to revitalize the city’s original downtown.
The money will support the organization’s effort to develop infrastructure and green space, the group said.
“My grandfather started Tyson Foods 80 years ago on Emma Avenue,” John Tyson, chairman of the company, said in a news release. “We’re proud of our heritage here. We look forward to the regeneration of downtown Springdale, and the positive impact it will have on this great city’s economy and its future.”
Tyson Foods also revealed plans to convert the former Jones Truck Lines terminal at 516 E. Emma Ave., which it owns, into its northwest Arkansas employment center, records management group and company store, all currently located in Lowell.
About 25 Tyson employees will work at the new facility. The 28,000-SF building was built in 1930 for Jones Truck Lines and has sinced housed the Springdale Morning News and most recently Orscheln Farm & Home. In honor of its heritage, the building will be named the Tyson Foods JTL Building.
A rendering of the building can be viewed here (PDF).
Tyson purchased the building in June and plans to complete renovations it late summer, the company said.
“For 80 years, we’ve lived and worked in Springdale. For 80 years, we’ve done business here, shopped here and raised our children here. We’re rooted in Springdale,” Tyson Foods CEO Donnie Smith said. “But Springdale is not just our past. Springdale is our future. We’ve grown from a small operation to a global one and we’ve chosen to do that here.”
Tyson Foods owns additional properties in downtown Springdale, including its first headquarters at 319 E. Emma Ave. While the company has not yet determined what it will do with the properties, an internal group is reviewing potential uses, according to the release.
The publicly traded meat processor employs about 23,000 people in Arkansas.