John T. Olaimey, the president and CEO of Southern Bancorp Bank of of Arkadelphia, quickly paid a federal tax lien that was slapped against him last month. 

The amount?

$46,341.

The IRS also named his wife, Timothy, in the lien that was filed with the Pulaski County Circuit Clerk’s office and said the unpaid assessment was for the 2014 tax year.

Olaimey came to Southern in 2012 with more than 20 years of experience in banking, finance, corporate law and executive management, according to Southern’s website. Olaimey oversees all bank activities.

Southern Bancorp Inc. CEO Darrin Williams told Arkansas Business last week that the board knew about Olaimey’s tax situation.

"He has been completely transparent with the board," Williams said. "This has involved only his personal financial situation and has had no impact or risk to the bank. We’ve monitored this and have been pleased that he has resolved it."

Williams said the full payment to the IRS was made on Feb. 3. 

This isn’t the first time, though, a federal tax lien has been filed against the Olaimeys.

In 2014, the IRS hit the couple with a nearly $28,000 lien for failing to pay taxes in 2009, 2011 and 2012. The IRS released that lien last March, saying the outstanding tax debt had been "satisfied."

Running your small business comes with a lot of expenses and, while you have a personal credit card, you may wonder if using a credit card for your business is a good choice. As a small business owner you may need an option to allow employees the ability to travel and make everyday business purchases as necessary. Rewards like travel points and cash back are also great perks, especially if your business requires frequent traveling. Business credit cards can be an indispensable resource for small business owners when used wisely.

There are many options today — from business cards (also called small business cards) to purchasing cards. What exactly is the difference and which card is right for you? All are considered commercial cards, and that term can be used interchangeably when referring to each, but there are significant differences to each.

Small business credit cards

Small business credit cards give employees the freedom to make company-related purchases, while allowing the employer to oversee the spending by setting spending limits and purchasing restrictions on the accounts. These cards are beneficial for businesses that may not need an expense-reporting system with a lot of extra features, but simply need to manage their expenses online and in real-time.

The range of businesses and organizations that use a business credit card is endless. Small businesses, churches, organizations and associations can all benefit from this type of payment solution.

Purchasing cards

A purchasing card is a different type of commercial payment solution that is ideal for businesses that require more advanced online functionality. Public and private school systems, municipalities or construction companies are examples of businesses that may typically use this type of system.

When a purchasing card is used, additional information regarding the transaction may be shared with the business owner, such as how many gallons of gas were purchased and the price per gallon. In addition, each company can set specific requirements or limitations for the various cards, such as purchasing restrictions. Purchasing card systems allow the cardholders to create an online expense report with receipt-attachment capabilities and also have the ability for the transaction information to integrate with the businesses accounting system.  

Make sure it’s a good fit

In addition to determining which type of card you need, business owners should research interest rates and the repayment period. How many days after the billing cycle ends is payment due — 10 days, 15 days, 25 days? Also be sure to ask what fees are associated with the card program, such as annual card fee, or a fee for online access. With numerous card options, and the ability to customize a business’s needs, small business owners can ensure they choose the best option by consulting their bank’s commercial credit card specialist.

The American economy is growing too slowly because regulations designed for international financial institutions have been imposed on smaller banks that pose no grave threat, U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Arkansas, and Tom Quaadman, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, told business leaders in Little Rock on Tuesday.

The event held at the Little Rock Regional Chamber was co-hosted by the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.

Quaadman and the congressman said policies in play since the Great Recession, and even before, have effectively cut off traditional means of financing for small businesses and need to be updated. Policies implemented post-recession were aimed at stabilizing the economy, but a stable economy is a growing economy and ours isn't growing enough, Quaadman said. 

Solutions discussed at the roundtable included requiring an economic analysis of any new regulation, the planned reintroduction of the Financial Choice Act, a more robust JOBS Act, tax reform and a gradual increase in interest rates by the Federal Reserve Bank. All of the above would, the speakers said, encourage banks to lend to small and growing companies.

Hill said the banking industry has $2 trillion in excess reserves, compared to $1.7 billion before the recession, but it's not being spent on the capital formation or business activity.

Quaadman launched the event by telling those gathered that economic growth over the last eight years has been 1.5 to 2 percent, when the norm in the 1980s and 1990s was 4 percent.

“Instead of determining policies that grow the pie, we’ve had a series of policies that have forced everybody to sort of decide how you continue to divide a shrinking pie, and that’s not really where we should be as a country,” he said.

Quaadman said the current growth rates are enough to stave off another recession but are not enough to create good-paying jobs that are needed.

Hill added that, although the national unemployment rate is low, 15 million people are “underemployed” and that rate is 6-7 percent. He also said major metropolitan areas have been doing well but “flyover country” has not reaped the benefits of the growth the U.S. has enjoyed since the recession ended in 2009.

Hill said the National Association of Counties reported that 93 percent of counties have not recovered from the recession. The congressman then said the Washington Post had reported that half of all business formation occurred in what he called “NFL cities,” with the exception of Austin, Texas. 

Hill also said one issue that needs to be addressed is that it costs a small company about $2 million to go public and $1.5 million-$1.6 million a year to stay public. Those costs need to be lowered, he said. While accelerator programs are great, startups need an initial public offering as an option, Hill said.

Quaadman said the country has less than half the public companies it had 20 years ago and more people are going out of business than are starting a business. 

Hill said the country isn't seeing the investment or capital formation it should and financing corporate expansion only through private equity players doesn't help the economy, although it does support innovation within industries. 

The two men emphasized that financial institutions are less focused on how to be successful and grow than they are on how to keep the regulators in Washington happy. They don't understand some of the more complicated rules and are conservative in compliance to avoid legal pitfalls, they said. 

Slow growth is the result, they said.

Quaadman added that reforms to the regulatory process need to include allowing for more public input. He also said fewer regulators are needed because the number that we have now causes “turf wars.” Regulators may also avoid addressing an issue so they don’t step on toes and an area may not have the oversight needed as a result, Quaadman said.

He provided guests at the roundtable a book produced by the U.S. Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness. Quaadman said it contains more than 100 recommendations to grow the economy compiled from nine months of research.

Speaking specifically about the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act, Quaadman and Hillman agreed that, while some things in it worked, the 2010 law did not fix the underlying causes of the problems it sought to solve. Hillman added that only three new bank charters have been granted since Dodd-Frank, while 100 or more banks were formed on average each year for the three previous decades.

Asked later about reinstating the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, Hill said actions it prohibited and its repeal were not major contributors to the recession. The congressman also noted that predatory behavior by Wall Street firms is still outlawed by the Bank Holding Act of 1956. 

He said a more thorough look into reform is needed than simply reinstating what the U.S. had before.

Hill also said the Fed owns 40 percent of the world's  U.S. Treasury Agency securities, 15 percent of the world's treasury market and has a $4.5 trillion balance sheet. He said those positions need to change as it gradually increases interest rates. 

Quaadman also said during the roundtable the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent agency set up by the Dodd-Frank Act, needs to be reformed because it’s not accountable to Congress, it “litigates through press releases” and it’s not clear what issues the bureau is trying to address. He said consumer protection is an important function but the bureau needs to be more transparent and accountable.

He added that some rules for the financial services industry have been adapted from other countries and applied here, with little input from the public, and that needs to change.

Quaadman also said the Obama administration's fiduciary rule, a requirement that all retirement advisers put their client's interests ahead of their own, was a first step toward the federal government taking over the private retirement space. He said it took away people's ability to choose what 's best for them and negatively impacted the ability of small businesses to provide retirement benefits. 

WASHINGTON — Americans shrugged off rising mortgage rates and bought existing homes in January at the fastest pace since 2007. That has set off bidding wars that have pushed up prices as the supply of available homes has dwindled to record lows.

(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

A plan to make major improvements to the downtown Pine Bluff area and enhance education is looking toward a sales tax to help fund its numerous recommendations.

Go Forward Pine Bluff is an ambitious, $50 million-plus community revitalization plan with targets ranging from infrastructure improvements to education.

The plan, rolled out in January with input from 100 citizens, aims to address long-standing needs in Pine Bluff, including removing downtown blight, building affordable housing and luring businesses to the area. But it faces the challenge of finding funding through tax revenues in an age in which new taxes are not always popular.

Go Forward Pine Bluff contained 27 separate recommendations when it was unveiled before an overflow crowd of more than 1,000 at the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas on Jan. 12. There have been further discussions, tweaks and changes since — proponents have since dropped a recommendation to reintroduce the Civil Service Commission — and the next step is a city council vote on a seven-year, five-eighths cent sales tax measure at the council's next meeting March 20.

If the council approves the measure it would go before the voters June 13, said Go Forward Pine Bluff Chair Mary Pringos and Simmons First Foundation Chair Tommy May on Thursday. The Simmons First Foundation conducted a year-long study that led to the creation and recommendation of the Go Forward plan.

"Our efforts … are devoted to getting the tax passed and our meetings are with different groups to ask questions and answer questions," Pringos said.

Some of those questions were heard at Tuesday's city council meeting in which the tax proposal was read. Pringos and May acknowledged that there are tax opponents and tax supporters, both were heard from Tuesday, and said opinions vary depending on with whom one speaks.

But Pringos and May said they were buoyed by the level of interest seen in the turnout for the initial rollout and follow up meeting and expressed confidence that the city council, and then the citizens, would approve the tax measure.

To help ensure a yes vote, Pringos and May said the Go Forward leadership has assured the public that accountability will be built into the plan, "so they can see how they are spending the money." 

Additionally, a resolution was adopted in Tuesday's meeting ensuring the mayor's office and other department heads would be able to conduct a detailed evaluation of current projects to ensure there are no conflicts or overlap.

If the sales tax were approved and the Go Forward plan proceeds, Pringos said, it would necessitate forming a 501 (c) (3) organization, as the funding plan includes public and private money. Go Forward is projected to raise $32 million with another $20 million coming from private donations.

"One of our focus areas was education, so anything going on in that area will have to come from grants we will be able to acquire or donations from our citizens and businesses," Pringos said.Private money could also be used as incentives for businesses to relocate to downtown to help with the revitalization.

The Go Forward Pine Bluff task force is also supporting renewal of a three-eighths cent, county-wide sales tax enacted in 2011 for economic development that is set to expire in 2018. 

Education proposals under the Go Forward plan include an Educational Alliance among the city's three school districts to focus on improving educational performance through proven initiatives that include joint teaching arrangements with teachers from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programs.

Among its other recommendations, Go Forward Pine Bluff includes a redo of city codes and enforcement under a municipal master plan; downtown beautification; creation of a Delta Festival with Delta basketball and baseball tournaments; food trucks; restaurants; a historic district with renovation of certain buildings like the Sanger Theater and Masonic Temple; elimination of residential blight and the creation of living and office space with incentives to draw businesses.

A proposed Innovation Hub would be located in the Arts and Science Center annex in a partnership with the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Southeast Arkansas College.

A related development is the January sale of the historic Hotel Pines, opened in 1913, to the nonprofit group Pine Bluff Rising. Buying, demolishing or repurposing the hotel was one of the Go Forward Pine Bluff recommendations and, though the groups are separate, Pringos said she hoped they could work together and enhance each other.

At the time of purchase, The Pine Bluff Commercial reported that Pine Bluff Rising leaders were investigating the "challenges and opportunities" that may exist within the deteriorating property.

Home BancShares Inc. of Conway said Friday that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Giant Holdings Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The company, the parent of Centennial Bank, announced the deal in November. At the time, it was billed as an $88.5 million deal that would push the company beyond the $10 billion-asset mark.

Giant Holdings is the parent of Landmark Bank. The deal officially closed on Thursday.

"The acquisition of Landmark is another example of our ability to make smart, strategic deals that are immediately accretive to diluted earnings per share, book value and tangible book value," Home BancShares Chairman John Allison said in a news release. "This merger provides added shareholder value on day one while increasing our market share in the Ft. Lauderdale area. Jeff Roschman and his great team of bankers are an excellent addition to our Company."

As of January, GHI had about $396.9 million in total assets, $329.4 million in loans, and $302.6 million in deposits. With the completion of the acquisition, the Home BancShares now operates 76 branches in Arkansas, 65 branches in Florida, six branches in South Alabama and one in New York City. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Home will issue about 2.7 million shares of its common stock valued at about $77.5 million as of Thursday, plus about $18.5 million in cash in exchange for all outstanding shares of Giant common stock.

Greg Shaver is retiring from Citizens Bank in Batesville after 42 years. Since joining the bank in 1975, he has served in various positions, including internal auditor, cashier, senior vice president and chief financial officer, as well as his most recent positions as executive vice president and secretary-treasurer.

Reggie Rose has joined Simmons Bank in Conway as a vice president of community banking. He previously served as the general manager of Centennial Country Club in Conway.

See more of this week's Movers & Shakers, and submit your own announcement at ArkansasBusiness.com/Movers.

A pair of mini-storage projects in southwest Little Rock changed hands in two deals totaling $5.2 million.

SSCP Geyer Springs Rd LLC acquired the 376-unit project at 8015 Geyer Springs Road for $3.16 million, and SSCP Leon Circle LLC purchased the 562-unit project at 6100 Leon Circle for $2.09 million.

The affiliates of Philadelphia’s Self Storage Capital Partners bought the properties from Little Rock Self Storage LLC of Cordova, Tennessee.

The deal is financed with a five-year loan of $7 million from Citigroup Global Markets Realty Corp. of New York.

The 4.88-acre Geyer Springs development previously was tied to an October 2014 mortgage of $1.88 million held by Centennial Bank of Conway.

The property was acquired for $2.35 million more than two years ago from Cubby Hole USA 2 Ltd. of Hallsville, Texas.

The 3.34-acre Leon Circle development previously was linked with a November 2014 mortgage of $1.41 million held by Centennial.

The property was purchased for $1.7 million more than two years ago from Wood Stone Little Rock LLC of Mount Kisco, New York.

Retail Acquisition
A 25,400-SF retail center in west Little Rock tipped the scales at $1.85 million.

9801 West Markham LLC, led by Justin Muller and Andrew Holbert, bought the Markham Square project at 9801 W. Markham St. The seller is Markham Square Holdings LLC, led by Jason LaFrance.

The deal is backed with a five-year loan of $1.8 million from FNBC Bank of Ash Flat.

The 2.31-acre development previously was tied to a March 2016 mortgage of $1.4 million from Relyance Bank of Pine Bluff.

Markham Square Holdings purchased the property for $1.8 million in November 2009 from Markham Square LLC, led by Gene Cauley.

Office-Warehouse Buy
A 45,860-SF office-warehouse in North Little Rock weighed in at $1.65 million.

BlueCoop LLC, led by Robert Bluejacket, Marcia Cooper and Glenn Petkovsek, acquired the Jenkins Enterprises project at 4949 W. Bethany Road.

The seller is JWJ Investments LLC, led by Steve Jenkins.

The deal is funded with a 15-year loan of $1.4 million from Regions Bank of Birmingham, Alabama.

The 4.74-acre location was assembled in two deals totaling $20,000, plus a trade.

The sellers were the city of North Little Rock, $16,000 in March 1983; George and Linda Stancil and Kirview and Clairette Wicker, $4,000 in June 1985; and a land swap with Cemco Inc., led by Buddy York, in December 1989.

Dairy Queen Site
A Dairy Queen development in midtown Little Rock is in motion after a $700,000 land deal.

You Scream Properties University LLC, led by Todd Denton, purchased the 1.4-acre site at 6100 W. 12th St. The seller is BH University Development LLC, led by Brandon Huffman, James Barnes and James Batcheller.

The deal is financed with a three-month loan of $630,000 from Simmons Bank of Pine Bluff.

The property was acquired in June 2013 as part of a $3 million deal with MBC Holdings Worldwide LLC, led by Bruce Burrow and Marty Belz.

C1 Transaction
A 19,000-SF driver training facility in North Little Rock is under new ownership after a $480,000 sale.

Legal Beagle Properties LLC, led by Steven Moss, bought the C1 Truck Driver Training project at 7303 U.S. 70. The seller is Maverick Real Estate LLC, led by Stephen Williams.

Maverick purchased the 7.87-acre property for $332,000 in September 1993 from Williams Properties East Inc., led by Williams.

Heights Home
A 4,724-SF home in Little Rock’s Country Club Heights neighborhood rang up a $1.15 million sale.

Louis and Jolene Wilson acquired the house from 2115 Properties LLC, an affiliate of Riverside Bank led by Stephen Davis and David Matchett.

The deal is backed with a 10-year loan of $1 million from IberiaBank of Lafayette, Louisiana.

The residence previously was linked with a September 2015 mortgage of $1.1 million held by Allied Bank of Mulberry.

Riverside Bank recovered the property from Lane Kidd and Jennifer Matthews Kidd in a $1.37 million foreclosure sale in March 2011.

The house carried $1.52 million of Riverside debt when the foreclosure process began in July 2010.

PV Residence
A 5,000-SF home in west Little Rock’s Pleasant Valley neighborhood drew a $950,000 transaction.

Michael and Katherine Miller purchased the house from Jim Pace Homes LLC. The deal is funded with a 30-year loan of $417,000 from One Bank & Trust of Little Rock.

The residence previously was tied to an April 2016 mortgage of $760,000 held by BancorpSouth Bank of Tupelo, Mississippi.

The land was acquired for $260,000 10 months ago from Shashwat and Falguni Goyal.

Courts House
A 5,477-SF home in The Courts neighborhood of west Little Rock’s Chenal Valley development sold for $565,000.

Judith McDaniel bought the house from Eloy and Megan De La O.

The deal is financed with a 30-year loan of $423,750 from Centennial Bank.

The residence previously was linked with a December 2014 mortgage of $417,000 held by Little Rock’s Bank of the Ozarks.

The property was purchased for $525,000 more than two years ago from John and April McMorran.

Mirabel Abode
A 3,920-SF home in the Mirabel Court neighborhood of west Little Rock’s Chenal Valley development changed hands in a $559,585 transaction.

Christopher Shields acquired the house from Richard Harp Homes Inc. The deal is backed with a 30-year loan of $417,000 from Bank of Little Rock Mortgage Corp.

The residence previously was tied to a March 2016 mortgage of $465,000 held by Gateway Bank of Rison.

The location was bought for $82,000 in December 2015 from Deltic Timber Corp. of El Dorado.

Diamond Bank of Murfreesboro is expanding its southwest Arkansas footprint by opening an Ashdown branch.

The project represents the 14th full-service office for the $528 million-asset lender and its first in Little River County.

The addition of Diamond creates a competitive field of five banks in Ashdown that includes Little Rock’s Bear State Bank; Regions Bank of Birmingham, Alabama; Wells Fargo Bank of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and BancorpSouth Bank of Tupelo, Mississippi.

Diamond has operated a loan production office in Ashdown since 2014.

The pending $4.5 million sale of Farmers Bank of Hamburg will further pare the headcount of Arkansas lenders with less than $50 million in assets to four.

The sale to Southern Bancorp Inc. of Arkadelphia also marks the final reward for investors who stood by Farmers when insolvency was knocking on the door.

Since 2008, the bank has produced a combined net income of only $103,000. Its biggest profit during the past 15 years was recorded in 2007: $3 million.

That historical figure reflected a $2.7 million reduction in its loan loss reserves tied to the ill-fated Hermitage Tomato Cooperative Association.

That bookkeeping move was made in advance of a favorable outcome in a long-running legal battle with Uncle Sam.

Farmers Bank collected almost $4.4 million in February 2008 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture after the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled in its favor.

The decision required the USDA to honor a sizable chunk of its guarantee on loans totaling more than $8 million to the tomato cooperative.

The judgment essentially repaid Farmers Bank the loss it was forced to book in 2003 in connection with the cooperative and the USDA dispute.

Shareholders invested $5 million to keep the bank solvent in the third quarter of 2003 as a preface to pursuing claims against the USDA. Most of that emergency recapitalization was repaid by dividends of $3.1 million in the first quarter of 2008.

Mixed in with the fiscal drama, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a November 2004 cease-and-desist order to clean up unsafe and unsound bank-ing practices related to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and fix informa-tion technology shortcomings.

Inexplicably, the FDIC terminated the order in November 2006 but didn’t announce Farmers Bank was in compliance until a year later.

The pending book value transaction will fold Farmers Bank into Southern Bancorp Bank, a $1.1-billion asset community development financial institution that operates in eight counties in southern and eastern Arkansas as well as nine counties in Mississippi.

Among the leading investors in Farmers Bank are:

• The Nancy C. Foote Spivey Revocable Trust of Hamburg, 31 percent worth about $1.4 million.
• Spivey Family LLLP, led by John Spivey III of Little Rock, 18.3 percent worth about $824,845.
• Phil and Inez Barnes of Hamburg, 13.8 percent worth about $621,000.
• Bobby and Elizabeth Witherington of Hamburg, 6 percent worth about $271,410.

Farmers Bank, Hamburg
Staff: 12       Full-Service Locations: One
(All dollars in thousands)

Source: FDIC

A new development vision with a Western flair has recast a would-be Little Rock subdivision into a $40 million townhome project.

In recognition of a market shift in millennial housing patterns, Village at the Gateway is courting tenants instead of homebuyers.

“It was kind of like remodeling a house except we are remodeling a subdivision,” said Russ Huckaby, CEO of Big Rock Development LLC.

Huckaby and his business partner, Bob Francis, are overseeing construction of a 145-duplex neighborhood geared toward renters wanting to live on the edge of home ownership.

The townhomes feature a tricked-out amenity package that appeals to a growing market of younger and older residents who aren’t interested in ownership but crave the niceties of an attached garage and more space between neighbors.

“We believe this is the way it’s going between millennials and the baby boomers,” said Francis, CFO of Big Rock.

The early reception to the one-bedroom model townhome at 12506 Vimy Ridge Road has surpassed even their optimistic expectations. Big Rock recorded 42 preleases in the first 35 days of showing the property that began in early January.

“We’re over 50 now,” Huckaby said. “We don’t even have asphalt down at this point.”

The project represents a turnaround in the making for the property as well as Huckaby’s development career.

Ten years ago, the 37-acre Village at the Gateway site was going to be part of The Ridge Estates. But plans for the 204-lot, single-family subdivision fell apart in the face of financial miscalculation.

Unforeseen costs associated with utilities and infrastructure requirements by the city of Little Rock were blamed for the budgeting shortfall.

The timing of that realization heading into the 2008 financial meltdown was made all the more dramatic for the movers behind The Ridge Estates, John S. Williams and Nick McDaniel.

After clearing the site and wading into the early utility and infrastructure work in 2007, the project came to a halt followed by defaults on a loan and special improvement bonds that triggered dual foreclosures in 2009.

The project’s failure contributed to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Williams in July 2009 and the Chapter 7 bankruptcy of McDaniel in March 2012.

First Community Bank of Batesville, trustee of the ill-fated $1 million bond issue, was left as the caretaker of the property after recovering it in 2010.

“They didn’t have enough funds to complete it, and with the downturn in economy, they walked away from the project,” said Dale Cole, CEO of the bank.

Huckaby endured his own Chapter 7 bankruptcy in July 2010 after he hit the financial wall with his residential and commercial projects in Pulaski and Saline counties.

“It was nobody’s fault, but at the end of the day, it’s mine,” Huckaby said. “It’s been a humbling experience.”

He worked with his lenders during the bankruptcy and gained a reputation for helping fix things that led to work helping banks with problem properties.

The problem property on Vimy Ridge Road caught the eye of Francis, whose finance background has focused primarily on real estate during the past 30 years. The Little Rock businessman also is known for his restaurant-entertainment dabblings during the 1970s and 1980s that included Cash McCool’s Saloon & Game Parlor, a forerunner of today’s Dave & Buster’s.

Francis teamed up with Huckaby to figure out a development plan to make the numbers work for the 59.6-acre tract once envisioned for The Ridge Estates.

“I’d always thought about doing duplexes, but I could never pull it together,” Huckaby said. “It all came together with the right timing.”

“We spent two years looking at this,” Francis said.

Until late last year, the partially improved property less than a mile from Interstate 30 sat dormant as potential developers looked but passed on restarting the project or bringing a new concept to the table.

More units on less land with an eye toward selling off the balance of the property for

commercial development is the plan Big Rock has in motion.

“What Bob and Russ recognized was density,” Cole said. “Density makes it economically feasible — and the lifestyle of a high-end apartment complex with the privacy of a home, no one living above you or below you.

“They have a unique idea that is really going to be successful. It doesn’t look like a typical duplex. It looks more like a single-family home.”

Huckaby calls the look Colorado Craftsman, an updated take on retro residential with blue spruce plantings for the landscape. The design is the product of working with the Dallas staff of Stantec Inc., the global design and consulting firm based in Edmonton, Canada.

“We probably went through 100 revisions,” Huckaby said.

The “Gateway” name is a nod to the nearby Gateway Town Center, and the Western vibe of the townhomes is inspired by the retail project’s Bass Pro Shop.

The one-, two- and three-bedroom townhomes will be decked out with the amenities of the latest upscale apartments supported by a clubhouse and dog park.

“Will it compare with other projects in the market, or how much better will it be?” Huckaby said. “It’s the test of tests.”

“Based on demand, we’ll have it all built out this year,” Francis said.

The entryway utility-roadwork along Vimy Ridge Road is winding down, and the construction of townhomes is about to begin.

“We will start building Tuesday,” Huckaby said.

Brandon Woodrome, the 29-year-old Fort Smith construction company owner, will be sentenced April 18 for one count each of bank fraud and wire fraud.

In September, Woodrome waived indictment and plead guilty to the crimes in the U.S. District Court in Fort Smith.

He admitted to receiving more than $2.1 million from First Western Bank of Booneville and a finance company in Texas by submitting fraudulent invoices, crimes for which he faces years in federal prison.

“What happened was our growth outpaced our actual sales,” Woodrome, whose company was called Behr LLC, told Arkansas Business in October. “And instead of responding to a decline in sales by controlling overhead expenses, I just tried to push through and underbid projects. It compounded the problems.”

Bank fraud carries a penalty of up to 30 years federal prison, a fine of $1 million or both. Woodrome could be sentenced up to 20 years, a maximum fine of $250,000, or both for the wire fraud count. But his plea agreement suggests a sentence that’s more likely to be two to four years.

Woodrome will be sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III.

Simmons Bank said Tuesday that Paul D. Kanneman has joined the company as executive vice president and chief information officer. 

Kanneman most recently worked for 14 years for Grant Thornton of Dallas, an international accounting firm that provides tax and advisory services to businesses and public-sector entities around the world. 

Simmons said Kanneman has more than 30 years of experience in management consulting, technology management and governance advisory services. At Simmons, his duties will include management of information technology infrastructure, physical and information security, data analytics, business applications and information technology project management. 

After graduating from the University of Toledo, Kanneman served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer for seven years. He later worked for the global management consulting firms of Booz Allen & Hamilton and Andersen Consulting. Kanneman also started his own technology services company, which grew to more than 40 employees before being acquired, according to Simmons.

From 1994-98, Kanneman was the CIO for the Zale Corp., responsible for technology supporting more than 1,800 retail locations, three credit card processing and customer service centers with more than 12,000 employees, the corporate headquarters, and a distribution center and supply warehouse.

Simmons Bank is the subsidiary bank of Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff. 

IberiaBank Corp. of Lafayette, Louisiana, said Wednesday that it has agreed to buy Sabadell United Bank N.A. from Banco de Sabadell S.A. of Barcelona in a stock and cash transaction valued at $1.025 billion.

The deal, already approved by the boards of both companies, is set to close in the second half of the year. It will make Florida IberiaBank's biggest state by deposits, and gives the company a presence in each of the five largest markets in the Southeast, according to its CEO.

"We are very pleased to have the opportunity to bolster our South Florida franchise by joining forces with the exceptional team at Sabadell United," Daryl G. Byrd, IberiaBank's president and CEO, said in a news release. "With a population of over six million people, the greater Miami area is a dynamic market with a strong concentration of commercial and industrial clients that are particularly attractive to us. 

"Sabadell United's deep commercial and retail lending base, combined with strong core deposit funding and quality credit underwriting, provides an excellent fit with our unique culture and business model."

Sabadell United has $5.8 billion in assets. Headquartered in Miami, it has 26 branches in Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Sarasota, and Collier counties.

IberiaBank has 199 bank branch offices and three loan production offices in Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, and Georgia; 24 title insurance offices in Arkansas and Louisiana; and mortgage representatives in 69 locations in 10 states. It has $21.6 billion in assets.

Home BancShares Inc. Chairman Johnny Allison received a $3.6 million compensation package in fiscal 2016, up from $2.8 million in the previous year, according to the company's proxy statement, filed Thursday.

The publicly traded company (Nasdaq: HOMB), the parent company of Centennial Bank, reported compensation increases for Allison and CEO and President C. Randall Sims. Allison and two other executives received additional payments by exercising stock options.

Allison's total compensation of $3.6 million included salary of $330,000, up from $300,000 in 2015, and stock awards worth $2.5 million. He realized an additional $2.6 million by exercising stock options.

Sims' total compensation of $317,539 included salary of $285,000, up from $275,000 in 2015, and a $10,000 bonus. 

Other executives and their compensation: 

Tracy M. French, CEO and president of Centennial Bank, had total compensation of $659,061, down from $2.2 million in 2015. His 2016 package included salary of $385,000, up from $360,000 in 2015, and a $192,000 bonus. French realized an additional $1.1 million by exercising stock options.

Kevin D. Hester, chief lending officer, had total compensation of $620,447, down from $1.6 million in 2015. His 2016 package included salary of $325,000, up from $300,000 in 2015, and a $162,000 bonus.

Brian S. Davis, chief financial officer and treasurer, had total compensation of $477,092, down from $1.7 million in 2015. His 2016 package included a salary of $300,000, up from $225,105 in 2015, and a $150,000 bonus. Davis realized an additional $289,562 by exercising stock options.

Home BancShares will hold its annual meeting on April 20 in Conway. There, shareholders will be asked to:

• vote on a proposal to elect the nominees listed in this proxy statement as directors for a term of one year;
• vote on a proposal to approve, on an advisory (non-binding) basis, the Company’s compensation of its named executive officers;
• vote on a proposal to approve the material terms of the performance goals under the Company’s Amended and Restated 2006 Stock Option and Performance Incentive Plan, as amended; and
• vote on a proposal to ratify the appointment of BKD, LLP as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm for the next fiscal year.

Earlier this week, Home BancShares completed its latest acquisition — The Bank of Commerce, a Florida state-chartered bank that operates in the Sarasota area. The company originally announced the deal in November.

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen signaled Friday that the Fed will likely resume raising interest rates later this month to reflect a strengthening job market and inflation edging toward the central bank's 2 percent target rate.

(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Johnny Poole has joined Arvest Wealth Management in central Arkansas as senior vice president and regional manager. He will be based in Little Rock.

Poole was previously a vice president and program manager for a Florida credit union and has also served in executive leadership roles at financial institutions in Alabama.

Tim Cooper has been named senior vice president and senior lending officer at Stone Bank in Harrison. He has experience in financial services gained from previous positions, including at Anstaff Bank, Security Bank in Harrison, Farm Credit Services and USDA-Farmers Home Administration.

Ryder Bonham has been hired as a credit analyst for Simmons Bank. Before joining the Little Rock bank, he worked as a revenue accountant for Windstream Communications.

W. Scott Davis recently joined The Circumference Group LLC in Little Rock as director of partner relations. He will be responsible for business development and client relations.

He was previously vice chairman and chief financial officer for Clearview International LLC, a data center and cloud computing company.

See more of this week's Movers & Shakers, and submit your own announcement at ArkansasBusiness.com/Movers.

CPAC stands for Conservative Political Action Conference, which is held annually by the American Conservative Union. At this year’s conference in our nation’s capital, the Trump tandem of Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon performed a duet with lyrics from a new presidential songbook of policy and politics. And they were singing from the same page.

For Bannon’s part, a trilogy of policy objectives was laid out. They were described as national security and sovereignty, economic nationalism and deconstructing the administrative state.

For our purposes today, and following last month’s column on trade, let’s unpack the idea of economic nationalism. What is it?

Let’s call economic nationalism a set of policies that would result in more nativist control of our own economy. Although economic nationalism is a hodge-podge of political rhetoric, if we include such notions as increased tariffs or the more complex border adjustment tax that would penalize American corporations for off-shoring manufactured goods sold in the U.S. (while reducing, by the way, their on-shore corporate taxes), then the idea begins to walk and quack like a policy duck.

Last month I suggested a new resistance to globalization and to the integration of worldwide markets and marketplaces. It seems the idea of economic nationalism embodies that resistance and, perhaps, fear. Indeed, free trade — or the more descriptive open trade — suggests to some the lessening of national identity. Would that mean such things as retail labels could soon simply say “Made Somewhere in the World,” or “Made by Proud Internationalists Right Here on Our Shared Planet”? Well, that’s a bit extreme.

Statements made by Donald Trump during the campaign, and now as president, could be characterized as a go-it-alone, unilateral approach to international relations, including diplomacy (or lack thereof), the use or threat of military force and trade. If carried out to its end-game conclusion, this economic-isolationist approach would be markedly different from the way this country has viewed and interacted with the world since Jefferson resided in Paris.

And it would be antithetical to President Trump’s own business model of planting his brand around the world. The Miss Universe Pageant, after all, is global!

Consumers need to understand that the cost of a move toward economic nationalism is a cost that will be borne by us all. It will show up first and foremost in electronics and clothing and then work its way into other products at retail, as well as parts and components for final assembly of manufactured goods.

Dun & Bradstreet reports that economic nationalism would disrupt the global supply chain. “At a global level, Donald Trump’s election success in November confirmed a wider shift towards protectionism in global trade policy,” the company said. “The adoption of protectionist trade policies, closing of borders and pursuit of bilateral trade deals over multilateral ones, all signal that the gap is widening between an interdependent global economy and the sole pursuit of national interests.” This increases supply uncertainty. And uncertainty in markets impacts products, pricing, promotion and distribution.

Echoing that concern is Tufts University Professor Daniel Drezner. Commenting in the Washington Post, Drezner says that the implementation of a Bannon-style economic nationalism would “reward non-tradable sectors at the expense of tradable sectors.” That would mean tradable categories from technology to agriculture could be severely hampered.

Is this a movement or an aberration? Are we becoming Brexitized, or is there a newly found realization that we can survive on our own, with little attention to the world around us? Which is it?

Stay tuned.

Craig Douglass of Little Rock is an advertising agency owner and research and marketing consultant. He is also the executive director of the Arkansas Good Roads Foundation. Email him at Craig@CraigDouglass.com.

MidSouth Bank of Lafayette, Louisiana, has asked a bankruptcy court judge not to allow Dr. Hiren D. Patel, who owns the Arkansas Convention Center & Holiday Inn in Texarkana, to be allowed to walk away from a $13.3 million debt he owes the bank.

The bank said Patel “did knowingly and fraudulently … make a false oath or account” when he obtained the loans, the bank said in an August filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Texas. It asked the bankruptcy court judge to deny a discharge of the debt.

Patel, and his wife, Nila, along with two of Patel’s companies, are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas.

Between May 2010 and September 2013, the bank made a series of loans to Patel’s companies to build and furnish the Country Inn & Suites in Texarkana, Texas, and the convention center and hotel project on the Arkansas side of the city. At the end of March 2016, $13.3 million was still owed on the loans, according to the bank’s filing.

The bank said that instead of using the money for the properties as required, Patel transferred at least $1.3 million to his other companies or to his father, Dineshchandra Patel, sometimes called Dinesh, who has an ownership interest in his son’s companies.

The bank said that Hiren Patel was the one who contributed all the money to the companies. His father, “on the other hand, contributed virtually nothing,” MidSouth Bank said. “He guaranteed no debt. He carried none of the risk.”

MidSouth charged that Patel and his father “conspired to make substantial transfers of assets to Dinesh, or to third parties for Dinesh’s benefit.”

In addition, the bank said that in September 2015, just before Patel and his companies filed for bankruptcy reorganization in late 2015 and 2016, he transferred money from his companies so he could buy a house with his wife in Southlake, Texas. The house, with a value of $450,000, has been claimed as exempt in Patel’s bankruptcy, the filing said.

Hiren Patel also misrepresented his financial condition, according to the pleading. The financial statements he submitted to the bank showed that the convention center and Holiday Inn had a value of $16 million and the Country Inn & Suites was valued at $6.5 million, MidSouth said. The Country Inn recently sold for $2.9 million and the winning bid for the convention center and Holiday Inn was $6.6 million.

Hiren and Nila Patel’s attorney, Bill Payne of Dallas, denied the allegations of wrongdoing in his filing but didn’t return calls for comment. No court date has been set.

(Related: Podiatrist's Purchase of Convention Center Gives Texarkana Officials Cold Feet)

A Texas podiatrist with a past that includes a federal conviction wants to buy the troubled Arkansas Convention Center & Holiday Inn out of bankruptcy — and that has some Texarkana officials on the Arkansas side concerned.

City officials say they haven’t heard from Dr. James J. Naples about his plans for the convention center. In December, Naples entered into a $6.6 million purchase agreement with Dr. Hiren Patel, who owns the property through his Texarkana Hotels LLC. The sale ultimately would have to be approved by the bankruptcy court.

“We are as much in the dark as you are,” Ruth Penney-Bell, mayor of Texarkana, Arkansas, told Arkansas Business. “I have never heard of his having any experience in this sort of thing, not even being a hotel or motel” operator.

She said the city has invested more than $9 million in the convention center project, which opened in 2013, about a year after a convention center opened on the Texas side of the city. Penney-Bell said the city has no voice in the convention center’s operation.

Several messages left at Naples’ medical office in Texarkana, Texas, drew no response. Messages and emails to the attorney representing Naples in the purchase, Kyle B. Davis of New Boston, Texas, also brought no response.

Naples, who has practiced podiatry for more than four decades on the Texas side of Texarkana, also is known for buying properties in financial distress, according to an Arkansan who was in business relationships with Naples. The Arkansan asked that his name not be used because he had been involved in a lawsuit with Naples.

The 27,000-SF, $15 million convention center and 127-room Holiday Inn would seem to be the kind of property Naples finds attractive. It lost $381,000 on revenue of $2 million between April and January, according to financial reports in its bankruptcy. And Naples is familiar with Patel. In January, Naples bought the 81-room Country Inn & Suites in Texarkana, Texas, out of bankruptcy, paying $2.9 million to Patel’s Krishna Associates LLC.

Naples’ biggest deal, though, appears to be selling his AmiCare Behavioral Centers LLC of Fayetteville to publicly traded Acadia Healthcare Co. of Franklin, Tennessee, for $113 million in late 2012. AmiCare was the largest provider of behavioral health services in western Arkansas and did business as Vista Health, operating three inpatient psychiatric treatment facilities in Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Texarkana. It also operated the Piney Ridge Center, a residential treatment facility in Fayetteville, and eight outpatient treatment centers throughout western Arkansas.

More than a decade ago, Naples made headlines for legal troubles. In 2005, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and was ordered to pay $2 million in restitution and sentenced to probation for two years. As a result of that conviction, the Texas State Board of Podiatric Medical Examiners suspended Naples’ medical license for three months in 2006 and fined him $75,000.

Hell’s Kitchen
Naples grew up in a part of New York known as Hell’s Kitchen. “This man was not born with a silver spoon,” his attorney, David Botsford of Austin, Texas, said at Naples’ April 2005 sentencing hearing. Naples “brought himself up by his own bootstraps from a tiny hovel of a family home in New York City.”

Naples received his podiatric medicine degree in 1974 from the Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science in North Chicago, Illinois, which has produced approximately a third of all practicing podiatric physicians in the United States. He moved to the Texas side of Texarkana in the early 1970s.

Botsford told the judge during the 2005 sentencing that Naples is “a man of his word, a man of integrity, a man that is devoted to his family.”

Naples owned and operated the 63-bed New Boston General Hospital in Texas.

“He made his first million at New Boston hospital. That’s where he got his start,” said the business associate. “He did a huge amount of surgeries there.”

The hospital activity caught the eye of state and federal investigators.

Fraud Allegations
In February 2004, Naples and eight others who worked at the hospital were indicted in U.S. District Court in Texas on charges that included racketeering and Medicare fraud. The 134-count indictment accused Naples of leading the “other doctors to overbill Medicare and persuaded an assistant to help him perform unauthorized cancer research,” according to an April 2004 article in the Houston Chronicle.

“We vehemently deny all the accusations and look forward to proving our innocence in court,” Keith Naples, son of Dr. Naples and the administrator of the hospital, told the newspaper.

Naples wasn’t under indictment for long. About three months later, in May 2004, a federal judge dropped the charges against Naples and his co-defendants. At the request of the defendants, the documents in that case were sealed, which is an unusual move.

But the dismissal of the charges against Naples didn’t end his dealings with the federal government.

In September 2004, Naples was charged with one count of obstruction of justice for causing “an employee to fail to produce airplane trip logs, … which were required to be produced” by a grand jury subpoena dated in August 2003, according to the information sheet filed in U.S. District Court in the Texarkana, Texas, Division.

Federal prosecutors considered Naples a flight risk and prevented him from using his Beechcraft King Air B100 Turboprop plane, according to the April 2004 Houston Chronicle article. Naples, however, did receive permission to use the plane to fly from Texarkana to Fayetteville and back to watch his son graduate from business school in December 2004.

Not long afterward, Naples pleaded guilty to the obstruction charge.

At his sentencing hearing in April 2005, Naples was given two years of probation and ordered to pay $2 million in restitution to the Department of Health & Human Services, the federal agency that oversees the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Naples also was sentenced to 250 hours of community service.

Naples apologized and told the judge, “I assure you I won’t be back.”

After being on probation for about 14 months, Naples asked U.S. District Judge David Folsom to end his probation early. The $2 million restitution had been paid, and “he has far exceeded his 250 hours of community service,” Botsford said in a pleading. “His attitude has been exceptional and he has done everything the Court required of him.”

Folsom granted the early termination of Naples’ probation on Nov. 3, 2006.

More Deals
Released from probation, Naples continued buying property.

Through an entity called Pinewood Healthcare Realty LP, Naples bought an On Deck batting cage in Fayetteville in September 2007 for $375,000 after it had been an asset in a bankruptcy. The 18,300-SF building on 1.4 acres now has an estimated market value of $2.2 million, according to the Washington County assessor’s record.

Other properties in bankruptcy also caught Naples’ attention.

Naples was one of six parties who submitted bids in November to buy the Country Inn & Suites on the Texas side of Texarkana out of bankruptcy from Hiren Patel and his father, Dineshchandra Patel, through their company, Krishna Associates LLC.

Krishna Associates had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in November 2015 and listed $5.3 million in debts and $3.2 million in assets. The company’s bankruptcy attorney, Bill F. Payne of Paris, Texas, didn’t respond to calls or an email.

Naples was the winning bidder, and the $2.9 million in proceeds from the sale went to MidSouth Bank of Lafayette, Louisiana, which was the leading creditor.

Hiren Patel and his father also own the Arkansas Convention Center & Holiday Inn, through their company Texarkana Hotels, which filed for Chapter 11 reorganization last March. It listed $10.6 million in debts and $5.2 million in assets.

The convention center project has previously been a source of controversy.

Between 2009 and 2012, Harold Boldt, then city manager of Texarkana, Arkansas, persuaded city directors to approve several deals and incentives so Patel would develop the convention center project and a water park, which he operates under Holiday Springs Water Park LLC. That company is not in bankruptcy.

In 2014, a legislative audit found several violations of state law in the city’s handling of the development, but no criminal charges were brought.

Meanwhile, revenue was increasing at the convention center and hotel, growing from $1.85 million in 2014, its first full year of operation, to $2.46 million in 2015.

MidSouth Bank, though, said Patel’s company defaulted on $10 million worth of loans and wanted to foreclose. That triggered the trip to bankruptcy court to stop the foreclosure action.

(See: Midsouth Bank Accuses Arkansas Convention Center Owner of Fraud.)

The property went up for bid in January, with Naples winning the bid. But objections to the sale were filed, including one by the Advertising & Promotion Commission in Texarkana, Arkansas, which pays the company almost $235,000 annually as incentive for operating the property. The A&P Commision said it shouldn’t have to continue to make those payments to a new owner.

A&P Commission Chairman Buddy Allen said he hasn’t talked to Naples about the purchase of the property. Naples hasn’t requested that the A&P tax incentives continue under his ownership, Allen said.

“I do not know what his plans are if he is the successful bidder,” Allen told Arkansas Business.

A hearing on the sale is scheduled for March 17 in front of Bankruptcy Judge Brenda T. Rhoades in Plano, Texas.

Arkansas Convention Center & Holiday Inn
Texarkana, Arkansas

Source: Monthly Operating Reports filed in Texarkana Hotels LLC’s Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Texas. The reports started being filed in April 2016.