Written by Michael R. Wickline, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

November 3, 2019

Joe Baxter, deputy director of Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, had a question for an employee who moved last week into a cubicle in the building of the agency’s parent, the state Department of Commerce.

“Is there anything I can do for you except for an enclosed office?” he said.

These type of discussions will become more common in the Commerce Department, the Department of Transformation and Shared Services, and potentially other executive branch state agencies.

That’s because transformation officials said they want to place more employees in cubicles and fewer in private offices to more efficiently use building space. They want to make other changes, as well.

In February, the Arkansas Development Finance Authority bought what has been known as the Verizon 4 building for about $26 million.

During the next several months, about 720 more employees of the agencies within the Commerce Department are to be moved in the six-story, 303,000-square-foot building in the Riverdale area of Little Rock.

Anne Laidlaw, State Division of Building Authority Director, said, through a spokeswoman, it’s the largest moving of executive branch employees during her 25 years in state government, as well as the biggest executive branch building purchase in that time.

Read the full article HERE