Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “Booming Osceola Adds to Housing”
Aerial photo of Riverback Estates by Guy Pardew
Publication Date: December 21, 2023 at 1:53 a.m.
Original Story: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/dec/21/homes-under-construction-in-osceola-where-steel/
OSCEOLA -- Jonesboro-based Olympus Construction is building a subdivision in Osceola, where the surge in employment associated with Mississippi County's ascendant steel industry had been slow to spark housing construction.
Mayor Joe Harris Jr. said his city was not prepared for the thousands who came to work steel industry construction. He said the project -- up to more than 100 multibedroom homes under construction and around 18 already built, with more possible depending on buyers' interest, and selling from around $300,000 to $420,000 -- is a start as the city seeks to address its housing shortage.
"No one is being displaced out of their homes, but we do have a large trailer and mobile-home population now," he said. "Most of the people living in trailers are prepared to live in trailers because they're out-of-town construction workers. The homes are being built for the permanent population."
The influx of employees working full-time steel industry jobs has led the city to pass a 1-cent sales tax to support quality-of-life investments, including plans for water park and other park improvements including new fishing ponds and a golf course, Harris said.
The development, Riverback Estates, is within city limits and 1 mile east of the Arkansas 140/Keiser Avenue exit off Interstate 55.
Olympus Construction's father-and-son leadership, President Tony Pardew and Vice President Guy Pardew, said during a tour of Riverback Estates that the company had built the last housing development in Osceola, 22 duplexes, in 2018. Guy Pardew said all northeast Arkansas mayors he's spoken to have told him housing is the biggest inhibitor to economic development in the area.
"We know the market, we know the people, and we're used to working with small towns," he said. "We decided as a family that we'd put more of our eggs over here in this basket, because, obviously for us as contractors, having the money is one thing, but having the workforce to back it up is another. With both those being here, we said, 'OK, let's see if we can find some stuff to get into."
He held a development reception in 2022, which attracted an investor, Jeff Magness of Magness Oil in Gassville, who acquired the property and invested more than $9 million.
Olympus splits work with hired contractors supplying materials and supervising the labor. The homes are being built to the standards of the U.S. Department of Energy's Zero Energy Ready Home program, in which the energy efficiency is so high it offsets most or all of the homes' annual energy use.
"If these houses were built to code, they would be 100 on the HERS [Home Energy Rating System] scale," Guy Pardew said.
Olympus is now a distributor for Kentucky-based heat pump manufacturer MRCOOL. "These units are able to run without heat strips down to like 20 degrees," Tony Pardew said. There's also energy efficiency baked into water-heaters, line and thermal-break insulation set up to use solar power and car-charging ports.
Federal subsidies around energy-efficient home systems are abundant, but Guy Pardew said Arkansas is behind other states in terms of distributing it, which he tied to Arkansas' low energy costs.
"The federal money is passed down to the state for administration. If you don't have the administration of the program set up yet; even if you get $500 back on your water-heater from a federal standpoint, if they haven't set it up from a state level, [we don't get the benefit] of those policies and programs," he said.
Riverback Estates' houses are mostly ranch and craftsman-style bungalows. "The trend now is obviously the 'Northwest Arkansas aesthetic,' the board-and-batten-type feel. A bigger open front; we've got garages in the front, but the idea is to try to keep the garages on the side or on the back," Guy Pardew said.
Sandra Mitchell, who lives next to the subdivision in a brick home she built 14 years ago, dislikes their design, saying it's mismatched with older houses in the area, but she's happy to see houses under construction. She trusts city leadership to do it, though she wants to ensure the homes are built deliberately and with community input. With the new homes priced up to $300,000, she hopes she would be able to one day sell her house at a profit.
"People are always looking for housing," she said. "They're looking for rental, they're looking to own -- we just don't have it. We just don't have it in Osceola. So having a new development is a plus for us. We need all kinds of housing."
"Whatever they're trying to do, I hope that it's successful. I hope that it is, and I hope that it brings in people. I hope people buy these homes," she said. "There's some good things happening in Osceola, and we cannot allow the negative. We're trying to push it to the next level."
