Kyle Kellams: And it is Friday. That means it’s our opportunity to catch up on some of the week’s news with Michael Tilley from Talk Business and Politics. And Michael, it was a week filled with news.
Michael Tilley: It has been. We had to pivot on a few things. There’s probably a couple of stories we just had to drop, but we hope we made the right decisions on picking which stories we’re going to pull together.
Kellams: Here’s one thing that you picked, and I’m glad you did. There is a new Fort Smith Regional Airport director.
Tilley: Yes, Andrew Meyer was hired. His first day was Sept. 24. He succeeded Michael Griffin, who resigned back in April. And don’t tell anyone with the city of Fort Smith, but it is possible to hire a top boss within just a few months of the other guy leaving. Just don’t let those folks know over at the city.
Anyway, Andrew Meyer is on board. It’s an interesting job. Sometimes you get information and it kind of changes your perspective on what you think about a job or a facility. The Fort Smith Regional Airport — and look, it’s not XNA, I get it — but it has 16 employees and an annual operating budget of over $3 million. And that’s just the operating budget, not the capital budget. That’s a hell of a job.
In addition to doing that, he’s also responsible for working with the Air Force on this pilot training center that they’re in the process of creating, having an Air National Guard base right across the runway. A lot of that requires FAA coordination, which puts him right in the middle of it. He’s also in the middle of this ongoing effort to try to get new service to the airport, which is part of an effort to improve enplanements, which we’ll talk about later.
He has a lot on his plate, and he’s just 35. He’s been in aviation his entire career, graduated with an aviation-related degree. He was one of four candidates for the job. Talking to some of the airport commissioners, I always got the sense that if Andrew interviewed well, he would get the job because he’s done, by all accounts, a good job. The Air Force folks like working with him, and he’s the least disruptive coming in. I don’t want to diminish his background and his experience, but I think he was a good choice also for those reasons.
He does have a challenge. Their enplanements were up in August, but through the first part of the year they’re still down. And they were really recovering. The enplanement numbers were recovering at the airport, and by enplanement, that’s the number of folks who travel out of the airport. They were on a growth trend prior to the COVID pandemic, but they’ve just struggled to rebound since then. Their only route is three flights a day to Dallas–Fort Worth. They’re trying to get a route to the east, whether that’s Chicago, St. Louis, or maybe back to Atlanta. Delta pulled their flights from Atlanta back in 2020. So I’m glad he’s got the job. I’m glad there’s a director there. Congrats to him. But that’s one of those jobs you’re not sure you’d wish on a lot of folks.
Kellams: There will be planes from Finland in Fort Smith by the end of next year. I bring that up because the ambassador to the United States from Finland was in Fort Smith recently. What did she have to say?
Tilley: Well, it was interesting. We don’t get many ambassadors from Europe in Fort Smith. She was speaking to the chamber. It was the annual chamber banquet — Fort Smith Chamber banquet — 500 or 600 folks there. I don’t have an exact number, but that was my rough estimate. Big crowd.
And Ambassador Mikkola — I think, and I’m hoping I’m not butchering that name — first of all, has an impeccable background. She has been an ambassador. She represented Finland. She was the ambassador to China, ambassador to Israel, Middle East. She’s been in some critical positions for Finland, and now she’s representing her government in the U.S.
As any good speaker does, she opened her comments with some humor, reminding the crowd that the one and only Santa Claus comes from Finland. But then there was a very serious tone to it. She talked about how they’re bringing not just pilots but personnel for the planes and some of their families. In fact, she introduced a young pilot and his wife. They have two boys now in Fort Smith.
She talked about this as not just defense cooperation but also people-to-people connections, and I thought that was interesting. Part of the theme of her speech was, yes, we’re here flying planes and yes, it’s technical and interesting, but these are about trust and friendships and very real things.
To kind of bring that home, she said, ‘Hey, we’re grateful to be here. It’s a great community. We’ve had a great welcome.’ But she said, ‘You need to remember that the men and women who come over here from Finland are here to train for a very real threat to their country.’ Finland has roughly an 830-mile border with Russia, the longest border of any NATO country. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Russia has not been a stable player on the international front.
She talked about that instability and uncertainty. I thought it was interesting she brought the seriousness of it home without being overly grim. It was an upbeat address overall, but it was a good reminder that this isn’t just some cool little training center out here. This is real-world stuff.
Kellams: We know that through the first eight months of 2025, home sales in the Fort Smith metro are down a little under 10% year to year, and not surprisingly, average sale prices are up a little bit — almost 6%. I ask you this a lot, but what do we gauge from those numbers? Anything?
Tilley: I’m still a little surprised that through August we’re still down — down 8.3% in the number of homes sold. The total value of all those is down 3%, but yes, that average price per home is up, as you said, almost 6%. That’s the positive. Nobody’s losing value.
Sebastian County home sales numbers are down 13%, which is a big number considering that home sales in the county represent roughly 42% of all home sales in the metro. Home sales in Crawford County are down 8%. This is all through August, and they represent just a little over 20% of home sales in the metro.
I think it’d be nice if I had an economist I could just say, ‘Hey, go study this.’ But what I continue to hear from both developers and realtors, homebuilders, is that there’s just some uncertainty still in the economy. The Fort Smith metro — there’s also, I’m told, not enough selection of homes, not enough homes on the market, and that some people are waiting on lower interest rates. Although, if you look at it from a historical perspective, the rates are still pretty low.
There’s some anecdotal information — again, I’d love to see a detailed study — but there’s some anecdotal information about younger generations not as interested in homeownership as, say, you and I, our generation, would have been. So I don’t know to what degree those factors play into these numbers, but those are some of the things that we hear in terms of why home sales are down.
Kellams: Well, if you have a leaking skylight, that means you have to replace it — and the drywall. I understand not being as interested in homeownership.
Tilley: Yeah, I just put over $3,000 into a home, so I’m here for a while now.
Kellams: Exactly. I’m not moving.
Tilley: I’m not putting mine up on the market anytime soon.
Kellams: Finally, speaking of numbers, year-to-year hospitality tax revenues in the Fort Smith metro are down so far, but there seems to be optimism that the final numbers will be close to last year. And there was no eclipse this year.
Tilley: Yeah, the eclipse drew a big crowd, helped a lot of communities in Arkansas. The Fort Smith hospitality tax revenues are down, again through August, a little over 8%. Five hotels have not reported. I don’t know if those are big hotels or smaller ones, but that could change that dynamic.
Van Buren hospitality tax numbers — unlike Fort Smith, which just has a hotel tax — Van Buren has a hotel tax and a prepared food tax, often called a hamburger tax. Their numbers are down 6%.
Again, as you said, we talked to both Ashleigh Bachert in Fort Smith and Maryl Purvis in Van Buren. You don’t hear any alarm in their voices. They said, ‘Yeah, we’re seeing the numbers moderate a little from last year.’ For example, Fort Smith hospitality taxes last year were $1.3 million. They were up almost 1%. Van Buren was around $880,000. They were up almost 5%.
It’s been four or five years of a very positive trend. And your listeners are probably tired of me talking about numbers moderating from recent growth trends, but this may be another example of that. I think we’re seeing a moderation in tourism-related data in Arkansas and nationwide. Folks are just, again, there’s that uncertainty element about the economy.
Also, Kyle, if this government shutdown continues—
Kellams: Well, there is that.
Tilley: Yes. Much longer — it’s not going to help the tourism sector. So when folks in Fort Smith — Ashley in Fort Smith and Merrill in Van Buren — are counting on some year-end numbers, what’s that going to do to that optimism? I don’t know, but if that government shutdown continues, it will not help.
Kellams: It would be nice to have a conversation, the two of us, and not bring up the word “uncertainty.” But I don’t think we’re going to be able to do that next week.
Tilley: I think it’s uncertain when we’ll be able to have that conversation.
Kellams: I’ll tell you what I’m certain of — you can read about all of this and more at TalkBusiness.net.
Tilley: Well, again, you’re welcome, sir.
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