City of Rogers Tops 1Q ATBI Rankings

Marc Fusaro.

A strong showing in March propelled Rogers to the top of the monthly and quarterly rankings on the Arkansas Tech Business Index.

Rogers had a rating of 109.06 for March and a rating of 106.85 for the first quarter of 2016, the best rating among the 19 municipalities tracked by the ATBI.

“To see the four largest cities in northwest Arkansas at the top of this quarter’s index rankings is very nice and, frankly, not a surprise to those of us in the banking sector here,” said Mark Ryan, loan manager of Arvest Bank of Benton County. “Perhaps the best news is that the development activity we are experiencing appears to be measured and sustainable as no indicators of over-development have been evident.”

The ATBI was created by the Arkansas Tech University College of Business and sponsored by Arvest Bank. It aims to provide a snapshot of economic activity, including labor, housing market, construction and retail sales indices. The index is based around 100; a city rating above 100 indicates that the city is doing better than the state average from 2009 to the present.

“Rogers was above par in all four sectors and above 110 in three of the four,” said Marc Fusaro, associate professor of economics at Arkansas Tech and developer of the ATBI. “The city’s strongest component was eight commercial construction permits totaling $22.6 million, over half of which is the Primrose Retirement Community totaling $12.9 million. All of this adds up to a commercial construction component index of 119.5.”

Bentonville (105.72), Fayetteville (103.98), Springdale (103.54), Benton (103.12), Fort Smith (101.75), Conway (100.45) and Hot Springs (100.29) also completed the first quarter above 100.

“Obviously, Benton and Conway continue to show strong business activity across all sectors, with Benton demonstrating exceptionally strong growth,” said John Womack, president of Arvest Bank in Little Rock. “It was also nice to see that Little Rock had the third highest increase in its index score for the quarter, indicating positive momentum for the capital city.”

Mountain Home (99.93), Van Buren (98.58), North Little Rock (98.48), Russellville (98.36), El Dorado (98.27), Searcy (98.07), Texarkana (97.48), West Memphis (97.45), Jonesboro (97.42), Little Rock (95.29) and Pine Bluff (94.79) rounded out the ATBI ratings for the first quarter of 2016.