City, ATU One Step Closer to Innovation Hub

The Russellville City Council has approved a proposal that would allow Arkansas Tech University to occupy the former Russellville Fire Department central station and begin seeking grant funding for the creation of an innovation hub and makers’ space at that location.

Dr. Rick Massengale, associate vice president for sponsored research and university initiatives at ATU, spoke before the council on Thursday, Sept. 20, and shared that the innovation hub would be a incubator for entrepreneurship. It would be modeled after similar operations elsewhere in Arkansas.

The council voted to enter the partnership and lease the former central fire station to ATU for six months with an option to renew beyond that if grant funding for the innovation hub and makers’ space is secured.

Located at 203 W. 2nd Street in Russellville, the former Russellville Fire Department central station has been vacant since the new central station opened on North El Paso Avenue in March 2018.