West Memphis officials gathered at 626 E. Broadway Blvd. on Friday morning for the official groundbreaking of a new West Memphis Police Department headquarters and Fire Station No. 1, a project city leaders are framing as part of the city's Broadway revitalization efforts. The 10 a.m. ceremony drew Mayor Marco McClendon, city officials, first responders and community members to the site, which currently serves as the police department's existing address.
According to WMC Action News 5, the new facilities are meant to give officers and firefighters state-of-the-art modern workspaces along with improved resources and infrastructure to better serve a growing community. City officials described the project as part of a continued investment in the future of Broadway and the surrounding area, with the new buildings expected to support the downtown district's future growth and attract private investment, the station reports.
A Broadway Strategy Years in the Making
A Broadway Strategy Years in the Making Friday's groundbreaking is not West Memphis' first attempt to use public safety construction along Broadway. Back in October 2019, city leaders broke ground on Fire Station #3, a police substation and a new municipal courthouse along the same corridor, according to West Memphis CivicEngage.
Arkansas voters will decide on Issue 3 on the November 3 ballot, a proposed constitutional amendment involving economic development districts. Municipal leaders have noted that surrounding states already use similar statutory mechanisms to attract private development.
Big-Ticket Projects Line Up Along the Corridor
The police and fire groundbreaking arrives amid a run of large private investments reshaping West Memphis. Google announced in October 2025 that it would build its first Arkansas data center campus on a 1,000-acre site in the city, a multi-billion-dollar project that led the city council to authorize up to $60 billion in industrial development bonds in June 2026, according to Datacenters.com. It's described as one of the largest private economic investments in state history.
A Buc-ee's location in West Memphis has had its opening delayed, per localmemphis.com.
Clearing the Path for Emergency Vehicles
Away from Broadway, the Arkansas Department of Transportation is pushing ahead with major highway work along the Delta 77 Corridor, adding four new roundabouts and a Highway 77 overpass over the BNSF railroad tracks, according to MakeMyMove. The overpass is intended to clear emergency response routes to Baptist Memorial Hospital Crittenden by eliminating train delays for ambulances and fire crews.
That infrastructure push follows McClendon's broader urban renewal record. In July 2022, the mayor announced Big River Landing West, a mixed-use housing development with 60 planned homes that marked the city's first new residential construction project in 40 years, according to WMC Action News 5's sister outlet reporting at the time. The project paired housing with retail and park space in a neighborhood that had gone without new construction for decades.
A Mayor With a Long Runway
McClendon became the youngest city council member in Arkansas history in 2003 and took office as West Memphis' 13th mayor in January 2019, making public safety and Broadway revitalization central pillars of his administration, per Wikipedia. He has now served as mayor through the Google data center announcement, the Buc-ee's development and this latest round of municipal facility upgrades.
West Memphis sits in Crittenden County directly across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tennessee. The city traces its roots to historical river towns including Hopefield, Bragg and Hulbert.
The new police and fire headquarters also fits into a regional infrastructure picture that includes the I-55 Mississippi River bridge connecting West Memphis and Memphis.
