Nabholz Construction and JE Dunn have been tapped to build a proposed $825 million, 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County, Arkansas, that would be one of the largest public investments in recent state history.
The Arkansas Board of Corrections voted to approve the contracting team made up of Conway, Arkansas-headquartered Nabholz and Kansas City, Missouri-based JE Dunn on Thursday.
The goal of the project is to address prison overcrowding at the state as well as county level, according to the project website. It would house minimum- to maximum-security inmates. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the purchase of the 815-acre property in the Vesta community just outside of Charleston to host the prison in October 2024.
However, the state has not yet secured funding for the project, and a bill to appropriate up to $750 million for the prison failed multiple times in the Arkansas State Senate earlier this year, according to 40/29 News. Many Franklin County residents have pushed back on the plans, citing insufficient infrastructure, challenging topography, a lack of workers and fear of declining property values in the area.
Opponents have questioned the Board of Corrections’ $825 million price tag estimate. In March, an amendment to a failed appropriations bill would have established a restricted reserve fund allocating $1 billion for the project, 5 News Online reported, while Gravel & Grit, a nonprofit created to oppose the project, pegs the total cost at $1.5 billion, not including infrastructure upgrades.
Nonetheless, the Corrections Board is using $75 million that had previously been appropriated for prison construction to move the process forward, the Arkansas Advocate reported May 15.
In October 2024 the Corrections Board also approved a $16.5 million contract with Sacramento, California-based Vanir Construction Management to oversee the project, and picked Omaha, Nebraska-headquartered HDR and Cromwell Architects Engineers of Little Rock, Arkansas, for the design in April.
For now, the state is conducting further environmental studies on the prison site, according to the project website. A cultural resource study is also likely to be undertaken to look for cultural and historic artifacts after members of the Chickamauga Nation recently warned that ancestors could be buried there, Axios reported last week.
