More details are emerging about the industrial announcement set Wednesday morning on Lindsey Road, at the site of the former LM Wind Power turbine blade manufacturing plant that closed in 2020.
Multiple sources tell me that the announcement will be an expansion for W&W-AFCO Steel, a long-time Little Rock steelmaker with a facility in the industrial district west of the airport.
The company is expected to lease 40 acres of the site purchased by Frazier Pike Holdings LLC of Springdale in 2020. The LLC purchased two parcels totaling more than 140 acres for $9.5 million. AFCO will be leasing, with an option to buy, 40 acres in a 135-acre parcel lying between Frazier Pike and Lindsey Road. This acreage includes the main LM production building, with 40 feet of clearance inside and multiple industrial cranes.
The company is expected to bring a rail spur into the facility. Its investment and employment prospects will be announced tomorrow, but it’s a big new investment in the industrial area surrounding the Little Rock Port and joins other flourishing steelmakers in the state, both in Little Rock and Northeast Arkansas. The company makes steel for bridges and commercial and industrial facilities. W&W Steel, headquartered in Oklahoma, purchased AFCO, headquartered in Little Rock in 2002. Allegheny Capital acquired a majority interest in the holding company in 2017.
