Blytheville Chamber completes Rebuild, Restore, Renew project

A vision became a reality as Blytheville has two new houses and two new homeowners thanks to the foresight of the Greater Blytheville Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber Foundation project started in 2018 with the idea of cleaning up the city by purchasing and removing dilapidated houses.

Liz Smith, executive director of the Chamber, said the idea of removing the vacant houses evolved into the idea to build back with affordable new houses.

The plan was to improve neighborhoods, house by house.

“We shared our plans to improve neighborhoods with Mayor James Sanders who started a demolition project removing dilapidated houses,” Smith said. “It is making a difference.”

“We received a generous contribution for the project from Nucor Steel Arkansas and Nucor-Yamato Steel as well as strong support from Yamato Holding. Our goal was to select property that is visible. The first one was a large, vacant house on the corner of Walnut Street. The house was purchased with plans for its removal,” Smith added. “We were pleased to discover there were actually two lots on the property and we decided to replace the house with two new brick homes.” The Chamber wanted to use local builders and purchase local materials when at all possible. Smith said they found ARB Construction to do the work. The house plans were designed in Arkansas.

The two house plans are similar with 1,500 square feet, three bedrooms and brick.

Once the houses were built, realtors were encouraged to sell to homeowners instead of selling them for rental property.

“Overall, the project took longer than we expected and cost more than we thought it might but we learned from the experience and hope to continue with future projects,” Smith said. “This was a major project and probably one of the most challenging we have undertaken. The Chamber does a number of things we are proud of but this was an unusual project for us. We are and have always been a community development minded organization.”

The Greater Blytheville Area Chamber of Commerce is more than 110 years old with over 300 members.

Smith said they are looking forward to continuing with more new homes using the experience and knowledge gained from their first completed project. The new homes sold fairly quickly once they were completed. Smith says they hope to continue rebuilding one home at a time. Home ownership has long been a part of the American Dream for many and the Blytheville Chamber is helping to make that dream come true.

Smith did want to express a special thanks to Farmers Bank & Trust, Nucor Steel Arkansas, Nucor-Yamato Steel, and Yamato Holding.