As Billions of Dollars in New Investment Flow Into Arkansas’ Delta, Communities Unlimited Helps Rural Towns Like Lewisville Get Ready

By Wesley Brown, Arkansas Delta Informer Editor

April 13, 2026 – South Arkansas and the state’s Delta region are emerging as an unexpected focal point of the Natural State’s next economic boom, as billions in public and private capital flow into lithium extraction, missile production, broadband and infrastructure expansion, and advanced manufacturing—layering new-economy growth on a region long anchored in agriculture, energy, timber, and blue-collar trades.

Amid the excitement over the region’s surging economic fortunes, one of the nation’s largest and most influential rural Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) is working to ensure these local communities understand and benefit from the billions in new public and private investment.

Who Is Communities Unlimited?

Founded in 1975, Fayetteville-based CU operates in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Through a holistic approach that integrates human connection, technology, and expertise, CU supports small businesses, sustainable water systems, rural housing, and economic development — working alongside communities to sustain healthy businesses, healthy communities, and healthy lives.

As a U.S. Treasury-certified CDFI, CU and other mission-minded private financial institutions across the state, like Bancorp South, People’s Trust, and Arkansas Capital Corp., are mandated to serve the needs of low—and middle-income individuals in urban and rural communities, which traditional banks and lending often ignore.

Today, the northwest Arkansas nonprofit has more than 105 employees and delivers programs and services to more than  2.1 million people across more than 1,300 rural communities in the South.

As one of the nation’s largest rural CDFIs, CU launched its Community Sustainability Team in 2020 to assist rural communities across its multi-state footprint during the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying local strengths, building leadership, and creating lasting economic change.

“Our Community Sustainability work is woven into everything we do,” CU’s Content Coordinator Derek Shore told the Arkansas Delta Informer. “(Although) it is a bit different from our other services, it connects closely with all of them. We’ve been doing community sustainability work across South Arkansas and the Delta for some time, and we offer it across all seven states we serve.”

Lewisville: From Infrastructure Gaps to Strategic Readiness

Lewisville, the Lafayette County seat at the heart of Arkansas’s emerging lithium corridor, offers a window into how Communities Unlimited is helping rural communities in the Delta position themselves for transformational investment.

According to a highly regarded study published in late 2024 by the US Geological Survey and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment’s Office of the State Geologist, an estimated 5-19 million tons of lithium reserves are located beneath the geological play in southwestern Arkansas. If commercially recoverable, this amount of lithium could meet the projected 2030 global demand for lithium in car batteries nine times over.

ExxonMobil has already committed approximately $20 billion toward lower-emission investments through 2030, a budget that explicitly includes its lithium operations in Arkansas. The company aims to produce enough lithium by 2030 to supply more than 1 million electric vehicles annually. Overall, the Spring, Texas oil giant’s capital spending in 2026 is expected in the range of $27 billion to $29 billion.

Chevron’s capex for drilling and extracting lithium in Northeast Texas and Southwest is equally ambitious. By acquiring assets from TerraVolta Resources and Houston-based  Energy and Minerals Group a year ago, Chevron said it is leveraging its “scale and speed” to establish a commercial-scale domestic lithium business.

 While the exact spending for its Arkansas footprint hasn’t been disclosed, Chevron has described the move as a “strategic investment” to maintain U.S. energy leadership. This also marks the Houston-based oil giant’s first step toward establishing a commercial-scale domestic lithium business.

Despite the substantial capital investment by the nation’s two largest oil giants and other industrial conglomerates, when Communities Unlimited (CU) first documented the town’s progress in March 2024, local leaders were candid about the challenges ahead: aging infrastructure, a quiet downtown, limited housing options, and a long-standing sense that opportunity had passed the community by.

Why Preparation Matters

As of March 2026, the picture is changing, according to Dale Rutherfold, CU’s area director of entrepreneurship. Over the past two years, CU has supported Lewisville across multiple program areas. For example, its community infrastructure team has helped the town address water and wastewater challenges, conduct a rate study and asset management planning, secure a USDA Community Facilities grant for a new police vehicle, and obtain $3.8 million in federal funding, with support from Arkansas Sen. John Boozman’s office.

The organization’s broadband program has worked with local leaders on a digital opportunity plan and is now assisting with expanding downtown public Wi-Fi and digital literacy classes through the library.

In lending, Communities Unlimited has closed 10 home-improvement loans in Lafayette County, including four in Lewisville, the county seat. Rutherford said entrepreneurship in the small south Arkansas community is still in the early stages. He said CU’s local “reality check” also considers the economic limits and rural constraints to birthing and supporting a new wave of entrepreneurs.

“You can’t look at economic opportunity without looking at the demographics. Some of these towns have fewer than 2,000 people, a median age in the mid-50s, and very low unemployment—so there’s not a lot of demand for new entrepreneurial activity,” he said.

Still, once a local strategy is in place, Rutherford said it ultimately comes down to local leadership embracing change. He noted that CU’s staff has also been working with Lewisville civic and business leaders to manage expectations about the multibillion-dollar investments the Smackover Foundation development will bring to Lewisville and surrounding rural communities. That strategic plan included commissioning an economic impact study for the region to help local leaders better understand where the investment will land.

“People hear ‘$1.2 billion’ and think that money is coming directly into the community. That’s not really the case—it’s being invested in land, equipment, and infrastructure, not handed to the town to spend,” Rutherford explained. “But even so, that level of investment does create opportunity—if the community is prepared for it.”

Pine Bluff: Launch Local

The CU business development expert said the organization recently launched an initiative to work with local leaders to develop strategies to assist small business owners and entrepreneurs, connect resources, and lay the groundwork for long-term, sustainable growth.

“We’re trying to match all these different pieces of the puzzle to come up with a basic strategy for the community—one that fills gaps without cannibalizing existing businesses,” said Rutherford.

Outside Lewisville, Shore said the organization also provides community sustainability services across South Arkansas and the Delta and is closely connected to its other programs.

More recently, Shore said the Northeast Arkansas 501 © 3 organization is working across the Arkansas Delta and south Arkansas to directly address one of the most persistent barriers facing small rural business owners: access to capital.

The effort begins with CU’s Empower Entrepreneurship training on April 18 at the Economic Research and Development Center in Pine Bluff. This session introduces participants to the fundamentals of starting a business and turning ideas into a viable plan. It marks the first step in a broader pipeline that moves entrepreneurs from concept to capital. 

That pipeline continues with the Capital Readiness Program on May 9, also held in Pine Bluff. Led by Rutherford, the program is hands-on training designed to prepare entrepreneurs to successfully secure and manage funding. It goes beyond traditional financial education, equipping participants with the tools, plans, and confidence needed to approach lenders and investors and become truly “loan ready.” 

Rutherford said participants in the program progress through a structured process that begins with feasibility training and advances to capital readiness, culminating in a lender panel where vetted entrepreneurs present their business plans for potential funding. CU Area Director of Lending, Debra Leach, will also play a key role in this phase, working alongside participants to understand lenders’ expectations and strengthen the materials needed for financing decisions. 

Rutherford explained that the objective of the capital readiness program is simple: to serve the client. First, CU works with small business owners and entrepreneurs to understand their needs and the barriers they face and then designs programs to help them overcome those barriers.

“The capital readiness program can stand alone, but our focus is helping small business owners become lender-ready—so they can stand in front of a bank and be more successful in obtaining capital,” said Rutherford.

Launched as part of CU’s broader “Launch Local” initiative in Pine Bluff, the program is designed to support entrepreneurs in rural communities in persistent poverty, where access to financial education and capital networks has historically been limited.

This entrepreneurship work is being made possible by the Walton Family Foundation. By preparing business owners to navigate lending systems and avoid predatory financial products, the initiative aims to build stronger, more resilient businesses. 

“Behind that, what we’re really doing is helping business owners understand their capital needs, how to budget, and how to manage their finances and their business,” he said.

In Pine Bluff, the effort is part of a larger strategy to build downtown economic momentum — supporting new business launches, bringing more customers to local storefronts, and creating a sustainable pipeline of local entrepreneurs, with a model designed to scale across Arkansas and reach additional communities.

“Community Sustainability is a bit different from our other services, but it connects closely with all of them,” said Shore. “We’ve been doing (this) work across South Arkansas and the Delta for some time, and we offer it across all seven states we serve.”

Both Rutherford and Shore told the Arkansas Delta Informer that CU’s work is just beginning across the Delta region, which has faced high unemployment, job losses, and population decline for the past decade. In addition, the region’s once-formidable agricultural industry, which drove the state’s economy, continues to face high tariffs and crop losses for key crops, including corn, cotton, long-grain rice, and soybeans.

However, beyond the unprecedented lithium investment primarily in Lafayette, Columbia, and Miller counties, capital investment at the Highland Industrial Park in East Camden, Ark., could easily surpass the expected economic boom in those nearby counties. Earlier this year, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth visited the 20,000-acre industrial-defense complex to secure historic Pentagon agreements to accelerate the buildout of the nation’s missile and munitions stockpile, which has been decimated by the war in Ukraine.

In the last year, Highland tenants L3Harris, along with three of the nation’s Big Five defense contractors, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and RTX, have announced agreements that will give them a big share of the Pentagon’s expected $1.5 trillion annual budget. Both Lockheed and L3 Harris have over 1,200 employees at the sprawling defense site abutting Calhoun and Ouachita counties in south Arkansas.

In addition, billions of federal dollars from the Biden-era $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are funding local infrastructure projects, including broadband expansion and water infrastructure. In February, the Arkansas Legislative Council (ALC) approved the initial tranche of Arkansas’s more than $1.2 billion in federal funds from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, allocating $126.1 million to expand high-speed broadband access in most rural areas of the state.

• To register for CU’s Empower Entrepreneurship, scheduled for April 18, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Economic Research and Development Center in Pine Bluff, click here.
• To register for the Fayetteville nonprofit’s Capital Readiness Program on May 9, also held in Pine Bluff, go here.

(Photos for this story, courtesy of Rory Doyle)