CONWAY, Ark. (AP) — A Canadian-based mass timber manufacturer that Walmart has invested in announced Monday it’s spending $90 million to open a plant in Arkansas, the company’s first in the United States.
Structurlam Mass Timber Corporation announced it will purchase, retrofit and equip a former steel plant in Conway and create 130 new jobs at the facility. The plant is set to open in mid-2021 and will source softwood lumber from Arkansas-grown southern pine trees.
Walmart will be the first customer of the facility, and 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.
The company said the new location will meet the demand in the U.S. for mass timber, which is a category of building construction featuring structural laminated wood components for walls, roofs, beams and columns.
The Arkansas Economic Development Commission says the project is receiving $1.5 million from an incentive fund, as well as tax refunds and rebates.
