A team of UCA graduate students led by Don Bradley, professor of marketing and executive director of UCA’s Small Business National Advancement Center, recently issued a report about the deterioration of buildings in downtown Gentry, Ark.
According to an article published last Friday in the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas, “Several buildings in the downtown area that once thrived with business now contain mounds of old merchandise and other items as owners use the buildings as storage. Don Bradley, a professor of marketing and executive director of the Small Business National Advancement Center at University of Central Arkansas, told City Council members and Mayor Wes Hogue earlier this month the buildings are a serious fire hazard. … Bradley’s report was part of a presentation put together by himself and graduate students in an entrepreneur class at the University of Central Arkansas.
“Students prepared a 38-page report detailing what Gentry leaders could do to take advantage of growth in Northwest Arkansas, Bradley said. The main concern in the report was the disintegration of downtown. ‘The abandoned goods and buildings give the impression that the community, the downtown and the heart of Gentry is dying,’ according to the report prepared by Jason McClure and Nancy Scott. The report stressed expanding downtown commercial spaces, exploiting assets and enforcing building codes.”
