On the Ouachitas pizzeria, brewery and low spot in Mena, close to the deliberate location for an enormous new bike park, state officers held a public assembly on the financial perks of a rising outside recreation financial system.
A lot of the dialogue targeted on state tax incentives for outside tourism companies, together with updates on the event of the Trails at Mena bike park.
A type of incentives, The Pure State Initiative Financial Zone program, affords gross sales tax credit for folks beginning or increasing companies in a 1-mile zone round 4 state parks, together with Queen Wilhelmina State Park north of Mena. The park sits close to the height of an extended ridge within the Ouachitas known as Wealthy Mountain, round 12 miles northwest of Mena, a small city of round 5,000 folks the place tourism has lengthy been a primary characteristic of the financial system. The forested mountains between Mena and Queen Wilhelmina State Park are principally a part of the federally owned and managed Ouachita Nationwide Forest. It’s right here that the state has begun developing the primary part of the Trails at Mena bike park over 8,200 acres of leased land owned by the U.S. Forest Service and the Metropolis of Mena.
The state is placing round $48 million into growing the primary a part of the bike park by primarily contracting with KINCO Constructors in Little Rock on land owned by the town of Mena. Quickly, the development crews shall be shifting into nationwide forest land to start engaged on trails and the “bike lift” system that can set the Trails at Mena park aside as a “world destination” for mountain biking fans.
The Forest Service permitted a plan for the bike park that goals to draw 600 extra folks day-after-day, with as much as 1,900 folks throughout a peak day in 2036. If the Trails at Mena turns into a profitable year-round vacationer draw, that might equal over 200,000 further vacationers yearly in a city of solely 5,000, in a county with round 20,000 folks complete.
More Read
As soon as the development groups have cleared and leveled the realm, they may construct an expansive customer heart that can function the downhill base of your complete park. The imaginative and prescient for the park is that gravity trails would run all the way down to the bottom, and a motorcycle elevate would transport bikers farther up the mountain for them to journey again all the way down to the customer heart space. Type of like a forested, mountainous ski slope for biking fans that can be utilized all yr spherical.
With the state making a pronounced public funding within the space, the objective, as defined by Katherine Andrews, the director of the Workplace of Out of doors Tourism, is to increase tourist-oriented companies across the park and bike trails.
“What we really want to incentivize across the Natural State Initiative Opportunity Zones are companies that help enhance the visitor experience at these State Parks,” Andrews mentioned. “So think about lodging, restaurants, bed and breakfasts, bike shops, rentals… there is a lot of things that can qualify for the incentive. All of that is to say that before you break ground, or hire somebody, or start doing something– call us because we can help guide you through this process.”
More Read
Andrews mentioned the state is presently in negotiations with a contractor to run the bike park after soliciting bidders between Aug. 24 and Sept. 13 of final yr. Resulting from ongoing negotiations, she wouldn’t reveal who that contractor is or plans for a way income sharing from guests would work between the contractor, parks division, metropolis and county. Andrews and parks division staffer Jordan Thomas mentioned that the Workplace of Out of doors Recreation hopes that after the park opens in Spring of 2028, the unnamed contractor will work to increase the park towards Queen Wilhelmina State Park with two further bike lifts and round 80 miles of extra trails.
Mayor Seth Smith of Mena praised the park growth and guaranteed residents that when extra vacationers begin coming to Mena, the town is poised to learn from the extra gross sales tax income.
“From my standpoint this is the best business model there is,” Smith mentioned. “People are coming here and leaving their money here and we can utilize that money to improve our quality of life.”
Together with Andrews and Smith, the joint presentation included employees with the state Financial Improvement Fee, together with representatives from nonprofit companions like Startup Junkie and the College of Arkansas Workplace of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, who all knowledgeable residents about varied small enterprise assets supplied by them.
The 2 dozen or so residents who gathered to listen to about financial incentives and the park growth appeared excited to be taught extra in regards to the bike park and alternatives for residents. And the Arkansas Instances caught up with just a few small enterprise house owners within the space after the assembly to see what they thought.
Dissenting Views and Rising Pains
Based on the general public feedback on the Trails at Mena mission, most Mena residents have a good view of the event.
And the Geber household is a kind of supporters. Tim and his spouse Toni, together with their son Scott and daughter-in-law Michelle, not too long ago purchased a lodging and outfitting enterprise south of Mena designed to cater to the ATV vacationers who journey the in depth trails at Wolfpen Hole. These trails have been open for many years, drawing vacationers by Mena for weekend stays to drive 4-wheelers, filth bikes and side-by-sides by rugged, muddy trails for nearly your complete yr. Together with the ATV crowd, Mena has at all times drawn hikers to the Ouachita Path and paddlers to the Ouachita and Cossatot rivers.
The Gebers household (from left to proper). Toni, Tim, son Scott, and daughter-in-law Michelle sit within the again room of The Ouachitas after listening to the presentation on outside recreation financial incentives.
The Gebers household’s enterprise, Little Wolf Cabins and ATVs, is much to the south of the financial alternative zone round Queen Wilhelmina State Park. Whereas Tim and Toni consider extra vacationers will finally be good for his or her enterprise, they didn’t see how they may profit from the tax incentives supplied within the growth zone.
“We’re thinking that the bike paths coming in, well we will be an alternative for those bikers so they can go ahead and do something different than just ride bikes,” Tim Gebers mentioned. “Some new people that are going to come in are going to get what you call ‘saddle sore’ and may not want to go out the next day or two and ride an ATV instead. Then hopefully we might pull some mountain bikers over to our lodging.”
Tim’s son, Scott Gebers, informed the Arkansas Instances that whereas they could not have the ability to profit from the tax incentives, they do suppose they’re poised to learn from cross-promotion of the bike park and the ATV trails. He mentioned they have been hoping to open a comfort and novelty retailer on their property quickly for vacationers.
The financial alternative zone was expanded by laws in 2025, and now stretches all the way in which throughout northwest Mena to the purpose the place downtown intersects with Freeway 71. The zone contains a lot of Mena’s iconic primary avenue hall, Mena Avenue, which already accommodates a large number of native companies and nonprofits like Skyline Cafe, The Ouachitas, Ouachita Little Theatre and Mena Artwork Gallery. However companies positioned within the southern a part of Mena, or perhaps a methods south of the city, can’t benefit from the incentives designed to encourage investments in tourist-oriented hospitality companies.
An aerial take a look at the financial alternative zone (pink) that stretches round Queen Wilhelmina State Park. The chance zone covers the northern half of Mena, together with a lot of the downtown space nearer to the mountains. (Credit score: Arkansas Workplace of Out of doors Tourism)
Any funding of no less than $150,000 in an outside recreation oriented enterprise in that chance zone can qualify for a tax credit score of no less than 15% of the full funding, in keeping with the Workplace of Out of doors Recreation. So a brand new or increasing enterprise making the minimal funding may obtain a reimbursement of $22,500 from the state.
Two different native enterprise house owners, Jodi Abdo and Rhonda Tims, confirmed little enthusiasm for the tax incentives. Abdo is new to the neighborhood, and began working a cabin enterprise catering to the ATV crowd known as Naked Again Cabins. Tims is a longtime resident and a realtor and a landlord with a number of tenants.
Together with the Gebers’, Abdo and Tims raised issues about how the town and area would take up and prosper from growing tourism.
Abdo mentioned she didn’t suppose the town was getting ready to capitalize on the inflow, and she or he and Tims raised issues that the town just isn’t capitalizing on the vacationers already coming in. In addition they raised issues about sustaining inexpensive housing within the space, each noting that though Mena is a really small city, short-term leases have proliferated all through the downtown— as a fast search on AirBnB reveals. Brief-term leases are recognized to constrict the housing provide and drive up hire prices for locals.
Mena has launched detailed imaginative and prescient plans for growing the downtown space and the remainder of the city, and Mayor Smith, different public officers, and the native chamber of commerce are working to develop utilities and infrastructure and set Mena on a path to capitalize from the anticipated vacationer rush. Polk County not too long ago voted to change into a moist county in 2022, opening up a realm of recent companies that may produce and serve alcohol, like The Ouachitas.
In the course of the presentation, Smith spoke about varied infrastructure tasks the town is working to safe funding for, together with extra bike lanes and trails to attach varied elements of the city, and upgrading water and sewer infrastructure.
“We are going to miss things, we are human, but we are trying to go over and do everything that we can to prepare for this,” Smith mentioned.Even nonetheless, whereas residents like Abdo and the Gebers sit up for the event, they’ll’t assist however be involved about how the town will handle all the expansion. And whether or not massive tourist-oriented companies would possibly have the ability to capitalize on the alternatives higher than they’ll.
“It’s going to develop no matter what and it’s going to be a great thing,” Abdo mentioned. “But it’s not going to be a great thing for everybody. And not everybody survives during a big change like this. The larger view of the tourism already happening in this area – the motorcycles, hikers, kayakers, Wolfpen Gap area– there is already so much that is not getting utilized.”
