FORT SMITH — Gov. Mike Beebe on Monday lamented the plight of two major plants here, one whose incremental closure idled thousands of workers and another that could put hundreds to work if it ever opens.
Beebe called the closing of Whirlpool’s Fort Smith facility “just heartbreaking,” and criticized the appliance company’s strategy of shifting production and jobs to Mexico as “very shortsighted.”
Beebe’s comments came during the taping of “Talk Politics,” a radio program directed by Roby Brock, executive producer of Talk Business, a weekly television program, and a contributor to Stephens Media.
Beebe commented on the June 29 shutdown of Whirlpool, which ended a half-century of production in Fort Smith, and the continued vacancy of a windmill component manufacturing facility built in Fort Smith by Mitsubishi Corp.
The Whirlpool closing put the remaining 1,000 people out of work at the facility, which as recently as 2006 had an employment of 4,500.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Beebe reported economic development officials on both local and state levels have been working to find a buyer for the 2 million-square-foot production complex.
“Whirlpool still owns it,” Beebe said of the facility. “They don’t want it marketed for a competitor. We are somewhat hamstrung by what they are willing to do with it.”
Tim Allen, economic development director for the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, said Monday afternoon he had not heard Beebe’s remarks and declined to comment.
Allen said efforts to sell the complex continue.
“The availability of that building is known across the globe,” he said. “It is no secret that it’s available.”
But Allen said while securing a tenant for Whirlpool’s facility is a priority, an even greater one is “finding jobs for people, who for no reason of their own, are out of work. We are doing everything we can to put them back to work.”
The governor also lamented the situation of the Mitsubishi plant that sits vacant at Chaffee Crossing. He said the facility is not likely to open until a lawsuit is settled between Mitsubishi and General Electric over patent rights, and until federal legislation is adopted to extended energy-tax credits for production of windmill components.
The $100 million plant, completed in the fall of 2011 but not put into operation, was to have employed 330 workers. Mitsubishi officials announced in April the plant was being mothballed amid economic uncertainty.
Beebe said the construction jobs created by building the plant provided a temporary economic boost, but its operation would have had far greater impact.
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Rusty Garrett writes for the Times Record in Fort Smith