Tyson moving corporate employees to downtown Springdale

Tyson Foods will relocate about 300 of its corporate employees to downtown Springdale, Arkansas, as the company will construct a new office building on the property that housed the company’s original headquarters there. The company is also renovating another nearby building that will be the home to a company store.
John Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods, announced on October 8 that a new, two-story building will be constructed on property the company owns at 319 E. Emma Avenue and the adjacent building, formerly known as the Brown Hatchery building.
“Downtown Springdale is where we started,” Tyson said. “There’s a rich past here, but also an exciting future – and, we plan to be part of it.”

New Tyson Foods office building

A new two-story, 44,000 square-foot structure will be constructed on the site, between and behind the two older buildings, preserving their original frontage. Workspace for about 250 people will be created by the project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2017. Demolition of several other buildings on Tyson Foods’ property will begin in mid-October.
The announcement comes several months after the company made a $1 million contribution to the Downtown Springdale Alliance.
“While the purpose of that donation was to help jump-start the revitalization of downtown, what’s even more important is bringing people back to Emma street,” Tyson said. “That’s why we have plans to locate more than 300 of our corporate team members downtown.”

History of Tyson Foods and downtown Springdale

The original headquarters building was first constructed around 1920 and was once home to the Springdale Produce Company, owned and operated by John W. Tyson, John Tyson’s grandfather. A fire partially destroyed the building in the early 1950s. It was razed and rebuilt in 1952 and became home to Tyson’s Feed & Hatchery until 1969 when the company, now known as Tyson Foods, moved to its current location.

New home for Tyson Company Store

As previously announced in January, Tyson Foods is also renovating the 28,000 square-foot building located at 516 E. Emma, named the Tyson Foods JTL Building. It will become the new home to the Tyson Company Store, a wholesale outlet where team members and others can purchase Tyson Foods products and a limited selection of staple grocery items. About 75 people will work at the JTL Building beginning in spring 2016.