While a new year dawns with the doors still unopened at Mitsubishi Power Systems America's $100 million plant at Chaffee Crossing, Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Ivy Owen believes 2012 will be the Year of Mitsubishi in Fort Smith.

"Hopefully, Mitsubishi will start producing in 2012. I don't know at what level, or when. But I am confident it will happen in 2012," Owen told the Southwest Times Record (http://is.gd/tPqkOv).

Construction has been completed on the 200,000-square-foot wind turbine manufacturing plant. At the onset of the project, Mitsubishi officials said the plant could employ up to 400 workers when it becomes operational. Original projections called for achieving full operation in the first quarter of 2012.

However, the plant sits idle as a legal battle between Mitsubishi and General Electric continues to play out in federal courts. GE charges Mitsubishi with patent infringements. Mitsubishi has filed its own litigation, alleging GE has likewise violated patent laws and engaged in antitrust activities in an effort to monopolize the market for variable speed wind turbines in the U.S.

Owen said regardless of Mitsubishi's situation, the prospects are favorable for increased manufacturing at Chaffee Crossing, in tandem with other commercial, residential and recreational enterprises.

Mars Petcare, a pet food manufacturer, has a work force of about 200. Graphic Packaging, which employs close to 450 people is operating at full production, and Umarex USA, manufacturer and assembler of air pistols, has about 60 workers, Owen said.

He said while the numbers may seem small in comparison to the recently announced layoff of some 1,000 workers at Whirlpool's Fort Smith plant in 2012, the addition to the work force "is sure going to help."

Owen said he also is buoyed by smaller businesses coming to Chaffee Crossing, those with initial employment of 10 to 15 employees. Among them, he named Fort Smith Petro Environmental and Fort Chaffee Car Auction and said there are other "crosstown" operations planning to move to the site and expand operations. "These businesses are growing, and they are not going to go away," Owen said.

Owen said a number of commercial and residential buildings that will be erected in coming months will give a boost to the construction sector, as will the awarding of another two contracts to complete the portion of Interstate 49 that traverses Chaffee Crossing. Completion of the highway link, as well as recently completed upgrades to rail transportation, make the area more attractive to industrial prospects, he said.

"We are going to keep recruiting industry," Owen said. "We won't stop working with the state every single day. Hopefully, we will get some announcement in 2012."

Paul Harvel, executive director with the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, shares Owen's vision.

Harvel was on vacation last week and not available for comment in this report. However his remarks following the Whirlpool announcement indicated he too recognizes the prospects of filling the void created by the plant closing with a single development are unlikely.

"Finding companies that can employ 4,000 to 5,000 people in one place is almost a thing of the past," Harvel said in November. "That used to happen. ... One of the larger ones announced recently in Arkansas was Hewlett Packard employing 1,100 in Conway. That is a very large number of employment. More frequently, you see employment levels of 200 to 400. If you have a building (like Whirlpool's) though, it's not inconceivable that you could find someone to employ as many 2,000 there."

Statistics compiled by the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services provided a more somber look at manufacturing prospects.

A short-term report prepared by Brian Pulliam, ADWS Research Project analyst, anticipates a net loss of 1,501 jobs from 2010 levels in both non-durable and durable goods manufacturing in western Arkansas. The total number of manufacturing jobs in the area of Crawford, Franklin, Logan, Polk, Scott and Sebastian counties is expected to increase by only 323, or 0.20 percent.

The ADWS report, however, holds some hope that could improve Fort Smith's prospects. It lists among manufacturing industries "with the brightest future" engine, turbine, and power transmission equipment manufacturing.

"At the heart of this is the major expansion of wind turbine-related manufacturers in the state," Pulliam's report states. Jobs in that category are projected to more than double from 2010 levels in this year to about 1,200.

Other manufacturing categories on the ADWS list of those expected to add workers include agriculture, construction and mining machinery manufacturing; soap cleaning compound and toilet preparation.

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Information from: Southwest Times Record, http://www.swtimes.com/