Next month, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield will break ground for the construction of a new 81,000-square-foot building in Springdale that will expand the company’s presence in Northwest Arkansas.
“Arkansas Blue Cross has grown and changed with our state for more than seven decades now,” said Curtis Barnett, president and chief executive officer of Arkansas Blue Cross. “Northwest Arkansas, in particular, has grown a great deal through those years, and our customer base there has grown with it. So we want to be sure we are serving the members and communities of this region at the highest level.”
In February, Arkansas-based Nabholz Corporation was selected as the general contractor for the project. Crafton Tull is the project’s engineering/architecture firm.
In November 2019, USAble Corporation (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arkansas Blue Cross) announced the purchase of the new building’s future site – an 8.81-acre tract west of U.S. Interstate 49 in southern Springdale, immediately southeast of Arvest Ballpark. The property is immediately northwest of the intersection of I-49 and Don Tyson Parkway.
Plans for the building still are being finalized. Construction is expected to be completed in the summer of 2021.
Arkansas Blue Cross has had a sales presence in Northwest Arkansas for more than 45 years. The company opened a full-service regional office there in 1994. The company also has two ArkansasBlue retail locations in Fayetteville and Lowell.
The headquarters of Arkansas Blue Cross will remain in Little Rock. The company also operates retail and regional locations in Fort Smith, Hot Springs, Jonesboro, Little Rock, Pine Bluff and Texarkana.