John Tyson, chairman of the board of Tyson Foods; board member Barbara Tyson and Tyson CEO Donnie Smith have announced a gift of $15 million to Arkansas Children’s Hospital’s planned northwest campus in Springdale. The gift is the largest in Children’s history.
The gift, coming from both the family and the company, will build the Tyson Family Tower, an anchor to the 233,613-square-foot scheduled to open in January 2018.
Children’s announced plans to expand to Northwest Arkansas last year. Total cost of construction, equipping and operating the new campus over the next five years will be $427.7 million. The Northwest Arkansas community has pledged $45.5 million, including major gifts from Kirk and Cynthia Dupps ($1 million), the David Clark family ($2 million), Karen and Darren Horton ($1 million), Premier Concepts ($1 million) and Robin and Gary George ($1 million and the 37 acres the hospital will be built on).
Architects are Polk Stanley Wilcox of Fayetteville and FKP Architects of Houston. Nabholz will oversee construction.
UPDATE: The David M. Clark family gift is for the Center for Safe and Healthy Children on the Little Rock campus, not Arkansas Children’s Northwest.