On December 9, North American mass timber giant, Structurlam Mass Timber Corporation, announced it will expand its operations into North America with a plant in Conway, Arkansas. Structurlam will invest $90 million to purchase, retrofit, and equip a former steel plant. Set to open mid-2021 the timber production facility will create 130 new jobs, and source softwood lumber from Arkansas-grown Southern Pine trees.
Walmart will be the new facility’s first customer with plans to use more than 1.1 million cubic feet of Arkansas-grown and Arkansas-produced mass timber in its new Home Office campus in Bentonville, AR. “We’re proud to establish roots in the great state of Arkansas and the City of Conway, and support Walmart as the exclusive supplier of mass timber products for its new home office campus,” said Hardy Wentzel, CEO of Structurlam. This will be the largest campus project in the U.S. using mass timber.
Conway Mayor Bart Castleberry commented that the announcement is “one of the most exciting in Conway’s long manufacturing history” and considers it “a big win for the Conway workforce, the local economy, and the entire state of Arkansas.”