It
hasn’t hit us yet, but in the next three months, a name we haven’t heard much
will likely become a household term in eastern Arkansas – Big River Steel. If
the company’s financing falls into place as most expect, Big River Steel LLC
will become a fixture in, and make a huge economic impact on, our region.
Big
River Steel is a $1 billion “mini mill” project that will employ about 2,000
construction workers at the height of the building process and more than 500
permanent workers when it is complete. So what possessed the company to select
a site near a Mississippi County town that has a population of around 7,800 on
a good day? They settled on Osceola partly because they found affordable
property, relatively cheap utilities, and easy access to the Mississippi River.
But Osceola is certainly not the only place in the world that can offer those
benefits, so that’s only a piece of the story.
