A pair of MedExpress projects, a medical office building in Sherwood, a Little Rock home and a restaurant site in west Little Rock form this week’s five-piece of million-dollar transactions.

• National Retail Properties Ltd. of Orlando, Florida, bought MedExpress projects at 5326 Markham St. in midtown Little Rock for $2.6 million and 5505 John F. Kennedy Blvd. in North Little Rock for $1.8 million.

Seller: Affiliates of American Equity Development Co. of Gaithersburg, Maryland.

• 1525 Country Club LLC, led by Jeff Johnson of Little Rock’s Clear Pointe Properties, acquired its namesake property, the 7,595-SF home of Arkansas Specialty Orthopaedics.

Who were the sellers in the nearly $1.6 million deal?

Two limited liability companies led by Mark Bentley: ASCC North LLC, 55 percent; and Once LLC, 20 percent. Rounding out the sellers is Burlingame Investments Ltd., led by Lowry Barnes, 25 percent.

• Meanwhile in the Country Club Heights neighborhood, Celia-Anne Martindale purchased a 5,986-SF home from George and Deborah Makris for $1.4 million.

• An affiliate of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville sold a 0.67-acre piece of a parking lot for $1.3 million.

The 0.67-acre parcel near the southwest corner of Chenal Parkway and Bowman Road was bought by out-of-state developers with an eye toward an eatery, whose name is veiled for now.

For the second straight week, I’m going to write about listening to the Chief U.S. District Judge deliver a well-reasoned message on fair play.

This time, I’m not talking about Chief Judge P.K. Holmes III of the Western District, who has not at this writing issued his decision on sanctioning lawyers he suspects of abusing his court. This time I’m talking about Chief Judge Brian Miller of the Eastern District, who sentenced Alberto Solaroli to federal prison because it would have been deeply unfair not to.

Solaroli is a Canadian citizen who was running some kind of business — prosecutors seem to think it was mainly just a scam — in Florida. But he was indicted in Arkansas because his biggest victim was One Bank & Trust of Little Rock.

I’m not sure I’ll ever understand the whole story, but here are the high points:

Back in 2007, Gary Rickenbach, then EVP and chief loan officer of One Bank, got hooked up with Solaroli through a mutual friend, David Crews of Little Rock. Rickenbach invested in Solaroli’s super-efficient engine technology, and shortly thereafter he arranged a $1.5 million line of credit from One Bank.

Solaroli claimed net worth of $170 million on his loan application, which makes me want to rerun my old column about the meaninglessness of big numbers.

Solaroli essentially maxed out the line of credit in three days. He bought two Porsches ($750,000 and $244,276) and gave $380,000 to Crews — presumably to repay a debt, since prosecutors said the money was ultimately for Solaroli’s benefit. And he made a $120,000 wire transfer to his company.

Solaroli never made a single payment on the loan, although he apparently persuaded Crews to make one interest payment early on, and One Bank went into an all-hands-on-deck panic to cover up the dumbest loan by supposedly professional lenders I’ve heard of since the S&L crisis. (Yes, dumber than the loans to Kevin Lewis and Dennis Smiley.)

The mess that was One Bank under its late owner Scooter Stuart eventually unraveled, and Solaroli was indicted for bank fraud. In a sweet plea deal, Solaroli got the charge reduced to money laundering of just the $120,000 wire transfer. That’s all the restitution he’ll have to pay One Bank, although the bank did get a civil judgment for the full amount.

Which brings me back to Judge Miller’s sentencing hearing late on the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 26. Defense attorney Omar Greene boldly asked for a probation-only sentence, pointing out that Solaroli, a first-time offender, is 61 and that recidivism is unlikely after age 50.

“I don’t think he’ll ever do anything against the law again,” Greene told Miller, and the judge didn’t argue.

“As I sit here today, any prison sentence I would give you would not be based on any future crime you might commit,” Miller said. But he shot down Greene’s argument about recidivism with a reminder that Solaroli was in his 50s when he committed his first crime.

Judge Miller seemed to be trying to juggle the magnitude of that crime with the terms of the plea deal, which reduced the value of the crime by 92 percent and completely omitted his breathtakingly dishonest loan application.

“I think when you steal $1.5 million, you deserve prison,” Miller said, coming back repeatedly to the actual amount of the loss instead of the negotiated plea.

“I put postal workers in prison for stealing gift cards,” he said. “How can I look those people in the eye if I let a guy steal $1.5 million and not go to prison?”

The sentencing guideline for a first-time offender who takes responsibility for laundering $120,000 is 12 to 18 months. I think it’s safe to say that Miller thought that lenient.

“To be very honest with you, Mr. Solaroli, if you were a younger person I’d be looking at going above the guideline,” the judge said.

Instead, he went with 12 months and one day, and that extra day was a point of grace. Federal prisoners serving more than a year are eligible for “good time” early release, meaning Solaroli will likely be out in about nine months.

Rickenbach and two other former One Bank executives, Michael Heald and Brad Paul, are still under indictment for allegedly helping cover up the Solaroli default while One Bank applied for and received TARP bailout money.

Heald and Paul are scheduled for trial in May. Rickenbach, who was originally accused of TARP fraud, has offered to plead guilty to misprision of a felony — that is, failing to blow the whistle when Scooter Stuart submitted doctored call reports to federal regulators — in exchange for a probation-only sentence.

His federal judge, Kristine Baker, hadn’t decided last week whether to accept that deal.

Gwen Moritz is editor of Arkansas Business. Email her at GMoritz@ABPG.com.

Alberto Solaroli came this close to making restitution.

The Canadian citizen — who never made a single payment on the fraudulent $1.5 million loan he got from One Bank & Trust of Little Rock back in 2007 — had his sentencing delayed by a month because he told U.S. District Judge Brian Miller that he could come up with the $120,000 in restitution required by his plea deal.

When his sentencing hearing rolled around on Feb. 26, defense attorney Omar Greene read an email from Solaroli’s Canadian attorney saying mortgages on property in his wife’s name had been executed on that Friday. The money would be wired to Greene’s trust account on Monday.

Solaroli, 61, was hoping to be sentenced to probation, but Miller gave him a year and a day in federal prison instead. “I think when you steal $1.5 million, you deserve prison,” the judge said.

What’s more, Miller told him that paying the restitution before the hearing probably wouldn’t have changed his sentence, which he is to start serving on April 26 because Miller gave him a generous 60 days to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

When last Monday rolled around — surprise! — the money didn’t show up. It still hadn’t been paid by the end of the week, and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Harris was not amused.

Harris filed a motion Friday asking Miller to order Solaroli to report to the Bureau of Prisons immediately.

"To this point, the defendant’s promise of the 'check is in the mail' has been a false promise," Harris wrote. "The actions of the defendant have been nothing more than a ruse to influence the Court as it is apparent that material misrepresentations were made by the defendant."

ALBANY, N.Y. — Average Wall Street bonuses were down 9 percent last year to $146,200 as industry profits declined, New York's comptroller reported Monday.

Industry-wide profits decreased by 10.5 percent, according to the annual estimate from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The comptroller said revenues were weak, especially from trading and underwriting. Profits were at their lowest reported level since 2011.

"This was the third consecutive year of lower profit," DiNapoli told reporters Monday. "You do have a very volatile market."

Pre-tax profits for the broker/dealer operations of New York Stock Exchange member firms declined by about $1.7 billion to $14.3 billion last year. While the first half of the year was strong, the industry reported a loss of $177 million in the fourth quarter. It was the first quarterly loss since 2011, according to the comptroller.

One bright spot: employment in the securities industry in New York City grew by 2.7 percent in 2015, averaging 172,400 jobs for the year. DiNapoli said that marks the first time since the financial crisis that the industry in New York City has added jobs for two years in a row. The industry remains 8 percent smaller than before the financial crisis.

"In terms of employment, the trends at the end of the year were up," DiNapoli, a Democrat, said. "Whether that trend will continue it's too early to tell."

The state comptroller releases an annual estimate of bonuses paid to securities industry employees in New York City. The state and city budgets rely on the securities industry and lower profits can affect tax revenue. The industry accounted for 22 percent of all private-sector wages paid in New York City in 2014, even though it represented less than 5 percent of the city's private-sector jobs.

The average salary, including bonuses, for securities industry employees in New York City increased by 14 percent in 2014 to a record $404,800. There was no 2015 data for average salaries.

(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

The University of Arkansas has named Timothy J. O'Donnell its new vice chancellor for finance and administration.

The UA said O'Donnell's appointment was effective March. 1. O'Donnell has been working in the position on an interim basis since July 1. He previously worked as associate vice chancellor for budget and financial planning.

"Tim O'Donnell has done an excellent job leading the division of finance and administration since 2014 and has proven that he is the right person moving forward," UA Chancellor Joseph E. Steinmetz said in a news release. "This is an important position that impacts everything the university does and having someone with Tim’s leadership abilities, institutional knowledge and experience gives us great confidence. This is especially important given the current challenging financial times we face in higher education."

Seven units report to the vice chancellor for finance and administration: facilities management, human resources, information technology services, business and administrative strategic information systems, business affairs, financial affairs and the university police department.

O'Donnell joined the UA in 2013. Before that, he worked 22 years in financial management and administration at Southwestern Energy Co., where he rose to the position of vice president and served as treasurer.

An increase in stock awards helped boost total pay for a pair of executives at Home BancShares Inc. of Conway, according to the firm's annual proxy statement filed March 4.

The publicly traded company, the parent company of Centennial Bank, reported compensation increases for Chairman Johnny Allison and Centennial Bank CEO and President Tracy French in 2014,

Allison's total compensation was $2.8 million, up from $2.3 million the previous year, and he realized an additional $5.6 million by exercising stock options. Allison's 2015 compensation included a $300,000 base salary and stock awards worth $1.9 million. In 2014, Allison received a $275,000 base salary and $1.4 million worth of stock.

French received total compensation of about $2.2 million, up from about $620,000 the previous year. The 2015 total included a $360,000 base salary, a $180,000 bonus and $922,750 in stock awards. In 2014, French received a $310,000 base salary, a $155,000 bonus and stock awards of $102,420.

Other executives and their compensation:

C. Randall Sims, Home BancShares' president and CEO, received total compensation of about $308,000, down from about $607,000 the previous year. The 2015 total included a $275,000 base salary and a $10,000 bonus. In 2014, he received a $390,000 base salary and a $195,000 bonus.

Brian S. Davis, CFO and treasurer, received total compensation of about $1.7 million, which includes a base salary of about $225,000, a $75,000 bonus and stock awards worth $738,200. Davis became a named executive officer after being promoted to the position in July following the retirement of Randy E. Mayor, the previous CFO.

Mayor's total compensation was $213,000 in the first half of 2015, which included a base salary of about $192,000. His total compensation in 2014 was about $462,000.

Kevin D. Hester, chief lending officer, was $1.6 million, including a base salary of $300,000, a bonus of $150,000 and $738,200 worth of stock. It is his first year as a named executive officer.

Allison was the only named executive officer who exercised stock options last year.

Home BancShares will hold its annual meeting at 6:30 p.m. April 21 at the Wyndham Riverfront Little Rock, at 2 Riverfront Plaza in North Little Rock.

The company will ask shareholders to vote on five proposals:

• to elect five nominees to its board of directors.
• to set compensation for named executive officers.
• to increase the number of authorized shares of common stock from 100 million to 200 million.
• to increase the number of shares issued under its stock option and performance incentive plan to 5.6 million.
• to ratify the appointment of BKD LLP as its public accounting firm.

Steve Ragland has joined Stone Bank, the Mountain View bank formerly called Ozark Heritage Bank, as chief financial officer. He lives in Little Rock, where Stone Bank maintains loan production and management offices.

“Steve is highly credentialed and brings decades of outstanding experience and a terrific work ethic to our bank,” CEO Marnie Oldner said in a press release. “Steve will make an immediate impact on our bank and is a tremendous asset we’re adding to an already exceptional management team.”

Before joining Stone Bank, Ragland was the senior director of corporate financial planning and analysis at Acxiom Corp. in Little Rock. His banking experience includes service as vice president of accounting at Bank of the Ozarks and as an assistant vice president with the former Twin City Bank of North Little Rock, assisting that company as it merged with Mercantile Bank of St. Louis (which is now U.S. Bank.)

A native of Searcy County who graduated from high school at Leslie, Ragland received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and earned an MBA from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. A certified public accountant, Ragland also has the chartered global management accountant designation.

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

Tammy Tompkins has been hired as manager of the mortgage department of First Arkansas Bank & Trust of Jacksonville. A graduate of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Tompkins worked in commercial property management in New Orleans and Dallas. After moving back to Arkansas in 2003, she has worked in real estate sales, construction and development.

Mike Gibbons and Patti Rofkahr have been chosen to staff First National Bank at Paris’ new loan production office in Ozark. Gibbons, senior vice president of lending, is a veteran banker and member of the Ozark School Board. Rofkahr, his loan assistant, also has loan and banking experience.

William “Will” Fisher has been hired as a senior vice president of Arvest Bank’s commercial banking division in Morrilton. Fisher most recently worked as a location compliance inspector for Southwestern Energy Corp., but he previously spent 10 years at Petit Jean State Bank, where he was a vice president and loan officer.

Johnathon Welch has been promoted to bank senior examiner at the Arkansas State Bank Department. Welch worked as a trust coordinator for Merchants & Planters Bank in Newport before joining the Bank Department in February 2013. He is a commercial examiner in the agency’s northwest Arkansas office.

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

This is Sunshine Week, the American Society of News Editors & Reporters’ annual reminder of the importance of public information. Arkansans have had the legal right to know more about what all levels of our government are saying and doing for longer than most other Americans, but legislators do keep chipping away at the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act — and refusing to adopt technology that could improve its service to taxpayers.

This week we bring you alphabetical lists of new restaurants licensed in Little Rock and North Little Rock and hotels ranked by number of guest rooms. In the past, we could deliver much more satisfying lists of restaurants and hotels ranked by revenue, as reported to local Advertising & Promotion Commissions. But we can’t do that anymore because state Rep. Micah Neal of Springdale succeeded in getting his fellow legislators to exempt local-option taxes from the FOIA last year. Neal says restaurant and hotel revenue is “nobody’s business.”

Meanwhile, Rogers Rep. Jana Della Rosa’s bill to require electronic reporting of campaign contributions languished in committee. Rep. Bob Ballinger of Hindsville voted against it because, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported, he “would have to beg” his “old accountant” to learn a new way of filing.

The D-G spent months researching paper filings to determine who made campaign contributions to judicial candidates in 2014. “One [state Supreme Court] justice listed donors in alphabetical order — by first name. Better to disguise names of families and throw reporters off the scent, we’d imagine,” a recent editorial pointed out.

Once upon a time, paper filings were as good as campaign transparency could get. But in 2016, not requiring electronic reporting feels designed to make it hard and expensive to follow the money. We may never regain access to hotel and restaurant revenue data, but surely no one can argue that campaign contributions aren’t the public’s business.

A 124,774-SF outpatient surgical center in North Little Rock changed hands in a transaction valued at $56.6 million.

Broadstone Ash Arkansas LLC, an affiliate of Broadstone Real Estate of Rochester, New York, bought the Arkansas Surgical Hospital at 5201 Northshore Drive.

The seller is A.S.H. Land Development & Development LLC, led by a group of 13 doctors. The group includes Scott Bowen, Zachary Mason, Kenneth Martin, James Adametz, David Rhodes, Reza Shahim, Thomas Hart, William Hefley Jr., James Billie, Jason Stewart, Jerry Lorio, Rhys Branman and Lawrence Ault III.

The 21.04-acre development previously was tied to a January 2008 mortgage of $12.9 million and an October 2014 mortgage of $1.5 million held by Little Rock’s Bank of the Ozarks.

The location was purchased for $1.46 million in January 2002 from Pfeifer Family Ltd. No. 1, led by Gene Pfeifer.

Downtown Deal

Ownership of a 28,000-SF office building in downtown Little Rock shifted in a deal valued at $5.14 million.

301 Main LLC sold its namesake project to Terraforma LLC. Both limited liability companies are led by David Bruning and Douglas Meyer.

Terraforma assumed an April 2015 mortgage of $3.94 million held by BancorpSouth Bank of Tupelo, Mississippi.

The 0.16-acre site, former home of Mr. Cool’s Clothing, was bought in a deal valued at $385,000 11 months ago from Crystal LLC, led by Doug and Sheree Kaufman Meyer.

SWLR Transaction

An 11,700-SF commercial project in southwest Little Rock tipped the scales at $1.35 million.

Green Bunn Herrington LLC of Texarkana, Texas, purchased IPawn Arkansas and Davita Dialysis at 6115 Baseline Road from the Steven J. Landers Jr. Trust.

The deal is financed with a $924,091 loan from Bear State Bank of Little Rock.

The 1.14-acre development, a former USA Drug store, was acquired for $825,000 in January 2014 from Stamja Ltd.-AR Properties LLC, led by Jason LaFrance.

Commercial Land I

A 2.49-acre commercial parcel in north Pulaski County is under new ownership after a transaction valued at $600,000.

BHL Financing LLC, led by Johnelle Hunt, took possession of the land at the southwest corner of Highways 89 and 5.

The deal was part of a global settlement that also involved the estate of Layton “Scooter” Stuart, the U.S. Treasury and One Bank & Trust of Little Rock.

The property was owned by Stuart’s Rivercity Energy Co.

The would-be convenience store site was purchased in April 1996 as part of a $167,000 deal with Robert and Lea Nevin.

Commercial Land II

A 5.9-acre commercial property in Cabot drew a $550,000 sale.

Rhinohawk LLC, led by Randy, Donita and Courtney Rinearson, acquired the 7216 T.P. White Drive project from the Lloyd A. & Marsha G. Friedman Living Trust.

The deal is funded with a one-year loan of $467,500 from First Community Bank of Batesville.

The property previously was linked with a December 2012 mortgage of $218,000 held by Centennial Bank of Conway.

The Friedmans entered the ownership picture more than three years ago at a $217,500 foreclosure sale.

Edgehill Manor

A 5,677-SF home in Little Rock’s Edgehill neighborhood weighed in at $1.29 million.

The 21 Edgehill Trust, led by Adam Dicus, bought the house. The seller is the Bartlett Family Trust, led by David Bartlett Sr. and his wife, Nancy.

The deal is backed with a 30-year loan of $1 million from Wells Fargo Bank of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The residence previously was tied to a May 2012 mortgage of $417,000 held by Simmons First National Bank of Hot Springs.

The Bartletts acquired the property for $1.1 million in August 2011 from Christopher and Heather Darby.

Prospect Residence

A 3,464-SF home in Little Rock’s Prospect Terrace neighborhood rang up a $775,000 sale.

The Jeffrey D. Utecht & Tracey A. Schmucker M.D. Living Trust purchased the house from James and Brandy Wood.

The deal is financed with a five-year loan of $280,500 from One Bank & Trust.

The residence previously was linked with an October 2014 mortgage of $500,000, a December 2014 mortgage of $64,301 and a May 2015 mortgage of $92,615 held by BancorpSouth Bank.

The Woods bought the property for $295,000 in November 2013 from Donald and Lessa Renshaw.

Cliffewood Home

A 2,898-SF home in Little Rock’s Cliffewood neighborhood sold for $585,000.

John and Savanna Baxter acquired the house from William and Jane Peek.

The deal is funded with a 30-year loan of $417,000 from Bank of Little Rock Mortgage Corp. and a 15-year loan of $51,000 from BankcorpSouth Bank.

The residence previously was tied to a December 2011 mortgage of $375,440 held by First Security Bank of Searcy.

The Peeks purchased the property for $470,000 more than four years ago from Neil and Leah Elenzweig.

Oaks House

A 3,786-SF home in The Oaks neighborhood of west Little Rock’s Chenal Valley development changed hands in a $565,000 deal.

Lloyd and Carolyn Hughes bought the house from the Jerry M. Spears & Donna Sue Spears Trust.

The deal is backed with a 15-year loan of $417,000 from Simmons First National Bank of Pine Bluff.

The property was acquired for $560,000 in July 2013 from Edward Hanson and Shirley Rockenbaugh.

Country Club Abode

A 1,450-SF home near the Country Club of Little Rock is under new ownership after a $519,000 transaction.

Rhys Branman purchased the house from Melissa Bond and Matt Keil. The deal is financed with a 30-year loan of $415,200 from Simmons First National Bank.

The residence previously was linked with a February 2013 mortgage of $338,000 held by Delta Trust Mortgage Inc. of Little Rock.

The property was bought for $250,000 in July 2012 from the Virgie Garvin estate.

Heights Rebuild

A 2,581-SF home in the Heights area of Little Rock sold for $500,000.

Kenneth and Elizabeth Clark acquired the house from the William Ray Kemp estate.

The deal is funded with a six-month loan of $400,000 and a one-year construction loan of $704,000 from Peoples Bank of Sheridan.

The residence previously was tied to a May 2006 mortgage of $306,000 held by Homecomings Financial Network Inc. of Dallas and a February 2007 mortgage of $50,000 held by E-Loan Inc. of Pleasanton, California.

The property was purchased for $185,000 in February 1988 from David and Sheree Martin.

Bullwinkle Funding

Development of a 57-lot residential project in west Little Rock is in motion with a $2.47 million construction loan.

Bullwinkle LLC, led by Kris Upton, obtained the financing from First Security Bank.

The 14.9-acre tract is north of The Courts neighborhood along the LaMarche Drive extension. The property was bought in January 2014 as part of a $700,000 deal with NCC Financial Arkansas LLC of Houston, Texas.

Seven-Digit Construction

Renovation    $1,500,000
Dee Brown Library
6325 Baseline Road, Little Rock
Flynco Inc., Little Rock

Rebuild    $1,200,000
McDonald’s
4008 E. McCain Blvd., North Little Rock
L.R. Mourning Co., Little Rock

Remodeling    $1,150,000
Sam’s Club
900 S. Bowman Road, Little Rock
GRB Service Systems Inc., Fort Worth, Texas

Two Arkansas banks generated Texas Ratios above 100 at year-end 2014. Twelve months later, the number grew to three, with Heartland Bank of Bryant (112.28) joining Pinnacle Bank of Rogers (139.3) and Allied Bank of Mulberry (183).

The ratio compares the number of loans at risk and the amount of OREO (“other real estate owned”) with the amount a lender has on hand to cover any losses, in the form of equity capital and loan loss reserves.

The numbers drop off severely for the next tier of four lenders in a ranking of Texas Ratios. All are below 45 percent, and lower is better.

*In thousands.

A southeast Arkansas lender has made a second home in Saline County. Merchants & Farmers Bank of Dumas (Desha County) is converting its loan production office in Bryant into a full-service branch.

The $114 million-asset lender has operated a loan production office there for more than four years.

The bank’s total book of loans has grown from $49.5 million in 2012 to nearly $56.8 million in 2013 to almost $64 million in 2014 and more than $78 million in 2015.

Bryant “exceeded all of our expectations in finding loan volume and loan quality in central Arkansas,” said Michael Jones, CEO of M&F Bank.

During the past four years, the bank recorded profits of $852,000 last year, $652,000 in 2014, $727,000 in 2013 and $546,000 in 2012.

At last count, 10 banks operate a dozen branches in Bryant. M&F Bank, which intends to build a new facility in Bryant, makes No. 11.

A Little Rock property owner recently turned to Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize its $8.6 million in debt.

RWL Investments LLC of Little Rock filed for the bankruptcy protection nine days after Centennial Bank of Conway filed a foreclosure lawsuit against it for defaulting on eight loans totaling $2.6 million.

Centennial also named RWL’s owner, Ronald W. Lazenby of Little Rock, as a defendant for personally guaranteeing the loans, according to the court documents in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

Lazenby referred questions about the bankruptcy to his son, Ryan Lazenby, who Ron said is running RWL Investments.

Ryan Lazenby didn’t immediately return a call for comment.

RWL’s bankruptcy attorney Kevin P. Keech of the Keech Law Firm in Little Rock, also didn’t return a call for comment on Thursday.

RWL’s bankruptcy filing shows it has 25 pieces of property and most of those are in Little Rock and available for rent.

One of RWL’s more famous properties is the historic Villa Marre in downtown Little Rock. RWL bought the landmark house at 1321 Scott St. for $480,000 in late December 2011. The first floor was available for soirées, while the upstairs served as office space for Lazenby’s real estate investing business.

RWL’s gross revenue was $750,000 in 2014 and 2015, according to the filings. Its revenue from Jan. 1 until March 8 was $125,000.

Downtown Little Rock has drawn the attention of three hotel developers who have invested more than $7.3 million to secure locations. The trio is poised to join an ascending hotel market powered by conventions, commerce and tourism.

A 140-room Hilton Garden Inn project, championed by Little Rock’s Pinnacle Hotel Group, is positioned to be the first to come on line: spring 2017.

“We’re hoping to have a show on the ground soon,” said Chet Patel, president of Pinnacle Hotel Group.

The status of the other two projects, a 140-room Aloft and 100-room Vib (pronounced Vibe), is less clear.

Clark Contractors LLC of Little Rock is prepared to start building the $12.5 million Hilton Garden Inn at 322 Rock St. Demolition of the vacant Rock Street Shops at 310-324 Rock St. will kick off site work.

William Clark, CEO of Clark Contractors, said the Hilton Garden is among 11 hotel projects his company is working on. Seven are in Texas.

“There’s a national boom going on with hotel construction,” Clark said. “Most of what we’ve been doing is associated with business travel. There’s a rush to build hotel rooms to capture the business segment.”

The Hilton Garden Inn will employ 50 and house nearly 4,000 SF of meeting space and a full-service restaurant and bar on the ground floor named The Garden and a top-floor venue called Posh.

The seven-story project represents the newest hotel in downtown Little Rock since the 116-room Homewood Suites by Hilton at 400 River Market Ave. opened on June 2.

The Homewood project completed a quartet of downtown Little Rock developments by McKibbon Hotel Group Inc. of Gainesville, Ga.

That roster includes the 120-room Marriott Courtyard, opened in 2004 at 521 President Clinton Ave.; the 119-room Hampton Inn & Suites, opened in 2008 at 320 River Market Ave.; and the 107-room Residence Inn, opened in 2013 at 219 River Market Ave.

The McKibbon hotels account for half of a group of hotels labeled the core downtown Little Rock market.

Occupancy among the eight hotels, which includes the Wyndham Riverfront in North Little Rock, climbed to 71.3 percent last year. Occupancy for the group stood at 68.8 percent in 2014.

Rounding out the eight are properties along a three-block stretch of downtown Little Rock: the DoubleTree Little Rock at 424 W. Markham St., Little Rock Marriott at 3 Statehouse Plaza and Capital Hotel at 111 W. Markham St.

The daily room rate among the group of eight averaged $126 last year compared with $123.75 in 2014. The eight hotels are home to 1,482 rooms.

Last year marked the biggest booking season for the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau since 2006.

Helping fill Little Rock hotels were events coordinated with the bureau: 137,549 room nights associated with 499,027 attendees during 2015.

“We’re achieving what we wanted to, especially on the convention and meetings front,” said Alan Sims, vice president of sales and services at the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau.

LRC&V hotel bookings in 2006 totaled 142,639 room nights.

Delays & Challenges

The Pinnacle Hotel Group hoped to have the Hilton Garden Inn open by the end of this month. Instead, the group expects to begin construction by April, something originally envisioned for December 2014.

The original plan was to build the hotel on an adjoining parking lot, purchased for $1.1 million in January 2014. But the site was flipped to the neighboring retail property acquired for $950,000 a month earlier.

The Hilton Garden Inn project is the most ambitious among PHG’s 10 developments to date.

“There’s been challenge after challenge after challenge,” Patel said of the delayed timetable. “We’re finally to the point where we should be breaking ground soon.”

Solidifying the composition of the investor group and working through the intricacies of a syndicated construction loan package were among the challenges.

“The market is shaping up for us,” Patel said. “It’s an exciting time. The last big announcement is the technology park. We are thrilled with that.”

Three blocks to the west, work on the first phase of the $100 million Little Rock Technology Park is set to begin in April. Plans call for a five-phase development to encompass more than 600,000 SF that will become a magnet for business travelers.

Like the Hilton Garden Inn, the development timetable of the Aloft Hotel at 500 Main St. didn’t go according to plan.

Cast as an $18 million project by Jacob Chi, the redevelopment of the 12-story Boyle Building has gone dormant for 14 months and counting. The Chi Hotel Group paid $4.6 million for the property in March 2014.

Renovation work was supposed to start in September 2014 and be complete during the first quarter of 2016.

The continuing delay is linked partially with the financial travails of a neighboring developer, Scott Reed. His inability to pay the general contractor on the Main Street Lofts project led to the filing of a lien that tied up several properties, including the M.M. Cohn Building at 510 Main St.

Renovation work on the M.M. Cohn Building remains at a standstill in the financial tiff between Reed and Little Rock’s AMR Contractors. Chi wants to buy the 62,688-SF building as part of the Aloft redevelopment, but a sale can’t occur until the dispute between Reed and AMR is resolved.

The Aloft plans call for a 3,500-SF upscale restaurant, 4,000 SF of meeting space, a rooftop pool and lounge plus a ground-floor coffee shop.

According to a source familiar with the project, the building has been gutted, and only the load-bearing columns remain.

Construction work to convert the historic office building into a hotel would take about 15 months in its current state, he said. That’s if design documents are complete and in hand.

Chi couldn’t be reached for an update on the Aloft project.

Arkansas hotelier Feroz Patel couldn’t be reached to talk about his plans for a Vib hotel at 219 E. Sixth St. Patel acquired the site along with adjoining land for $699,000 in July.

Lindsey’s Resort has a fresh start after foreclosure last March completely shut down the quaint attraction on the Little Red River at Heber Springs, just as the resort was marking its 50th anniversary.

“At that time we had no idea that we were ever going to be a part of anything reopening,” said Lindsey White, the resort’s general manager.

Three generations of the family that owned the trout fishing mecca for half a century are still on the property, but now it is owned by Brown Trout Inc., a corporation formed by the hoteliers at Conway Management Inc. specifically to buy Lindsey’s Resort out of foreclosure on July 1.

The business was still family-owned in 2012 when the decision was made to take out a loan guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration in order to upgrade facilities.

“To keep up with what our clients and our customers wanted we needed to improve, and to attract more people we wanted to improve the property,” Lindsey White said. “We did it hoping that things were going to start turning up.”

However, bad weather the next few years and slow business meant the improvement plans didn’t have the desired results. In addition, heavy snow on Christmas Day 2012 collapsed the resort’s dock on the Little Red River, requiring expensive repairs.

“That really hurt,” Lindsey White said. “Things didn’t really start picking up like we hoped that they would. It was a slow process, but it eventually led to the bank foreclosing on the property.”

The property’s lender, Centennial Bank of Conway, sued to collect more than $3.12 million on defaulted loans.

Lindsey White’s mother, Terri White, has lived on the property since her parents, Bill and Mavis Lindsey, founded the resort in 1965, when Terri was 6 years old. The foreclosure hit Terri White and her mother especially hard.

“I was the one in here working when the papers were served. It didn’t end in a great way. But that’s to no fault of my mom and dad,” Terri White said, wiping away tears. “I always hoped that somebody as wonderful as the people that bought it would end up with it — people that wanted to see the Lindsey traditions and my father’s legacy continue.”

The Legacy Lives

Conway Management investors visited the property in May and formed Brown Trout Inc. to buy Lindsey’s from Centennial in a $1.6 million transaction that closed on July 1. Conway Management owns 11 hotels: four in Conway, three in Little Rock, two in North Little Rock, one in Benton and one in Monroe, Louisiana.

“We are in the hotel business, and I think it is very similar to that industry, but just a more relaxed atmosphere,” Brown Trout President Ken Patel said.

The foreclosure and the downturn in business that led to it didn’t worry the Brown Trout investors, Vice President Umang Patel said.

“Once we talked to the family and kind of figured out why it got to that point, it was pretty apparent [the resort] fit right into our model, even if it is a little outside of what we normally do,” Umang Patel said. “It didn’t require too much work on our part to get it back to where it needed to be.”

According to Umang Patel, he and Ken Patel are the owners of Brown Trout and Lindsey’s Resort and have a few minor investors he declined to name.

Mavis Lindsey, whose husband, Bill, died in 2009, said she is very glad the resort is open under Brown Trout ownership.

“It was devastating there for a while, but I’m happy about the way things are working out and I’m just tickled that my legacy lives on,” Mavis Lindsey said. “I’ve got a lot of good memories out here.”

The 81-year-old matriarch still lives in the original house on the hill where she and Bill Lindsey began the resort.

Like his mother, Lindsey White grew up at the resort, and he had been managing the Pot O’ Gold restaurant on site since his freshman year of college.

“At the point at where everything sort of started to fall apart here and when the bank took over, I didn’t really know where my future was. I didn’t know if I was going to be a part of this anymore,” Lindsey White said.

His uncle, Billy Lindsey, decided not to return to the enterprise. He had been general manager of Lindsey’s Resort, but after the foreclosure he took a job as assistant superintendent of Mount Magazine State Park. When the resort reopened under new ownership, Billy Lindsey decided to stay at Mount Magazine.

According to Umang Patel, Brown Trout had not originally planned to hire the family to manage the resort. However, it became evident that they were passionate about the place and possessed a depth of knowledge no outsider could bring.

“Lindsey [White] saw some of the things that needed to be done — the online marketing and social media — and they just weren’t able to do it,” Umang Patel said. “He had a lot of good ideas, and we thought he would be the perfect general manager. He was born and raised there and knows it inside and out.”

Lindsey White was hired as general manager in July and recommended that Brown Trout hire his mother to work the front desk.

About half of the old staff returned to work for the new owners. Lindsey’s currently employs about 12, but that number will double during the summer season.

Changing With the Times

Since the purchase, Brown Trout has worked to enhance its new property. The cabins have a rustic look, but with the amenities of modern hotel rooms. One row of log cabins overlooks the river while others are further back from the water. The resort itself is tucked away on a back road and away from noise from passing cars.

The main office and restaurant are in the newest building on the property, the only one not designed by Bill Lindsey. The large windows of the Pot O’ Gold restaurant allow diners to enjoy a view of the river and boat dock.

Beyond the look of the resort, a lot of the work that Brown Trout has done has been to help Lindsey’s Resort “change with the times,” Umang Patel said. Those updates include a new website with the ability to make reservations online, which was not previously available. The new ownership is also emphasizing online marketing, particularly on Facebook.

Lindsey White said the marketing is aimed at the Memphis, Dallas and St. Louis areas. Since the marketing campaigns began, he said, the resort has started to see more bookings from corporate groups.

In addition to increasing social media marketing and advertising, the new owners continue to make physical changes to the property.

“When you come in, you’re at Lindsey’s, and it’s very obvious when you walk in,” Terri White said. “It’s also very obvious the upgrades and just the facelift. It’s like a beautification. [Brown Trout] has come in and picked it up and said, ‘Let’s take it to the next level.’”

Most improvements have been minor across the resort, including new lighting fixtures, bathroom fixtures and updated TVs, giving the cabins a more modern feel. The new owners also have replaced the motors on all the fishing boats and purchased two party barges, mainly for corporate groups.

Of the 43 cabin and motel-style units on site, Lindsey White said, only nine are still undergoing changes. The resort will also update and “refresh” the pool before the summer.

“Our plan is to continue to improve on the property,” Ken Patel said. “We’re in the slow season, but now it’s starting to pick up, and we are prepared for that.”

The main portion of the resort sits on 16 acres, but Brown Trout also owns 40 untouched acres across the road. Although there is no timeline, he is considering adding more attractions on this second piece of property.

“We’ve thought about putting in a walking or biking trail, but we just have to wait and see how business is first,” Ken Patel said.

Umang Patel said that once everything else is “up and running successfully” they will look more seriously into what can go on the land.

‘A Strong Winter’

Since the reopening, changes have also come at the Pot O’ Gold restaurant. In the past, the family closed it during the slow season, but this year the restaurant is open a couple of nights a week, and Lindsey White said locals who are not staying at the resort will come just to enjoy a meal. The restaurant also applied for and received a beer and wine permit, giving guests an easy, accessible option for drinks in the dry county.

Heading into the busy season will give a better gauge of how the resort is doing, but Terri White said it has been a “very strong winter.”

“Our old customers are just ecstatic that the place is back,” she said. “What I hear all the time is, ‘We are so happy that you’ve reopened and that the family is still there.’”

After being unemployed last March and having no idea what his next career move would be, Lindsey White now has a job that he loves, and said he has no plans to move on.

“Really, Brown Trout Inc. and everybody associated have made it incredibly easy for us to do what we need to do,” Lindsey White said. “They’ve been supportive; they know what they’re doing; they know the hospitality industry. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of owners to have come in and purchased it. It’s really the best outcome that could’ve happened.”

A new creditor recently became a late entry in the financial freefall of alleged serial fraudster John Rogers.

Little Rock’s Bank of the Ozarks sued Rogers and his ex-wife, Angelica, to recover more than $200,000 owed on two June 2007 loans secured by two North Little Rock properties:

• A 1,995-SF commercial project at 3125 JFK Blvd. that once housed Sports Cards Plus back when John Rogers was a small-time sports memorabilia collector. The property, owned by the Rogers family since 1998, originally secured a $152,000 mortgage.

• A 3,844-SF day care center that housed Pike View Preschool at 5103 Locust St. The property, once part of a small string of local day cares operated by Angelica Rogers, originally secured a $184,000 mortgage. The Rogers family has owned it since 2001.

According to the foreclosure complaint, no payments have been made on the loans in more than a year.

The restructuring of IberiaBank’s multistate branch network, in motion since 2012, is visiting Arkansas this quarter. Nine branches will be closed by the end of March.

Six are the $19 billion-asset lender’s lone presence in as many northeast Arkansas communities. These half dozen represent more than $100 million in deposits for IberiaBank, of Lafayette, Louisiana.

The list includes Tuckerman (Jackson County), $27.2 million in deposits; Lake City (Craighead County), $20.5 million; Hardy (Sharp County), $19.8 million; and Corning (Clay County), $16.7 million. Two others are in Lawrence County: Imboden, $15.1 million; and Hoxie, $8.5 million.

Three other branches to be pruned are in Springdale, 3942 Elm Springs Road ($61 million); Fayetteville, at 2710 Mission Blvd. ($29 million); and Little Rock, at 4900 W. Markham St. ($18.5 million).

“Six branches are in rural communities, where the impact is felt the most,” said Pete Yuan, IberiaBank’s regional president in Arkansas. “But it became harder and harder to financially justify those branches.

“It was a very, very tough decision as relates to the Arkansas branches.”

Yuan said IberiaBank’s Arkansas franchise continues to grow in terms of loans and deposits.

“The hard part is making sure the public and our clients understand that we’re not lessening our commitment to Arkansas,” he said.

During the past three years, IberiaBank has closed 51 branches and added 50 new branches, largely through its merger and acquisition activity.

During 2015, the company closed or consolidated 11 bank branches, acquired 36 more and opened five new locations.

The nine Arkansas branches are among 19 that IberiaBank will close by March 31.

WASHINGTON — The financial world is awaiting the Federal Reserve's response to a critical question: How stable are the world's economies and financial markets?

Whatever picture the Fed sketches will help shape expectations of when it will resume the interest rate increases it began in December. That's when the Fed raised its key rate from record lows to reflect an economy finally strong enough 6½ years after the Great Recession ended to withstand higher loan rates.

Yet in the ensuing weeks, stocks and oil prices tumbled and China struggled to manage a sharp slowdown. Now, with investors having regained some of their losses, with the U.S. job market improving and major overseas economies still-weak but stable, the Fed may be inching closer to raising rates again.

Just not yet.

Most Fed watchers think the central bank wants more time to assess the financial landscape. Resuming its rate hikes too soon could slow growth or rattle investors again. In a policy statement and a news conference Chair Janet Yellen will give after its latest meeting ends Wednesday, the Fed will likely nod to improvements since it met in January but also stress uncertainties that still loom.

"Financial markets have stabilized a bit, but the situation abroad still looks worse than in the United States," said Diane Swonk, chief economist of DS Economics. "The Fed will give some signals that they feel better about where things are now compared to January but also signal that they don't have an itchy trigger finger in terms of raising rates."

The Fed has two mandates: To maximize employment and keep prices stable. It has essentially met just one: In February, the United States added a robust 242,000 jobs — roughly the monthly average for the past six months. And the unemployment rate is a low 4.9 percent, close to the rate the Fed associates with full employment.

But inflation has been stuck below the Fed's 2 percent target rate for nearly four years. Too-low inflation tends to lead people to postpone purchases, which slows consumer spending, the economy's main fuel. Subpar inflation also makes the inflation-adjusted cost of loans more expensive.

Before further raising rates, the Fed wants to see more evidence that inflation is picking up. Its preferred inflation gauge did rise in January to a 12-month increase of 1.3 percent, faster than the scant 0.7 rise over the 12-month period that ended in December. But that's still well below the Fed's target.

Recent comments from Fed officials indicate that they differ on how to interpret inflation prospects.

Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said last week that the Fed may "be seeing the first stirrings of an increase in the inflation rate — something that we would like to see."

Fischer suggested that two factors that have been depressing inflation — lower oil prices and a strong dollar, which reduces import prices — may be starting to wane.

But another Fed board member, Lael Brainard, said last week that she saw "troubling indications" that inflation could dip again. She also said she worried that weakness in China, Japan and other places could slow the U.S. economy.

In December, when the Fed raised rates for the first time in nearly a decade, it signaled the likelihood of four additional hikes in 2016. But as market turmoil and global economic slumps escalated concerns, most analysts revised their predictions to two rate hikes this year, perhaps beginning in June.

Part of the dilemma the Fed faces is the disparity between an improving U.S. economy and persistent global weakness. Other major central banks have been acting in the reverse direction — to ease borrowing rates to encourage spending and support their economies.

Last week, the European Central Bank unveiled a broad package of measures intended to energize tepid growth in the 19 nations that use the euro currency. The ECB, the Bank of Japan and other central banks have also deployed negative interest rates — essentially charging banks for holding onto their money. In doing so, they hope to prod those banks to make loans and deliver an economic stimulus.

Chinese officials, meantime, are struggling to convince global markets that they're capable of managing a slowdown in the world's second-biggest economy.

Against that backdrop, some economists think the Fed might even decide to leave rates unchanged for the entire year.

"Globally, economic growth and inflation expectations are moving in the wrong direction," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University, Channel Islands. "Under these conditions, the Fed should not be raising interest rates at all."

But others worry that while inflation is low now, it could eventually start surging more quickly than expected. That could force the Fed to raise rates faster than it wants and potentially trigger another recession.

"This is a concern that some Fed policymakers will certainly raise" this week, said David Jones, an economist and the author of several books on the Fed.

(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve is keeping a key interest rate unchanged in light of global pressures that risk slowing the U.S. economy.

(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

The annual compensation of the top executive at Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff doubled last year, according to the company's proxy statement, filed Monday.

George Makris Jr., chairman and CEO of the $7.5 billion-asset bank holding company, received total 2015 compensation of $3.1 million.

The largest components of the increase were boosts in stock option awards valued at $591,759, stock awards of $538,861 and future payouts of $299,420 associated with the company's non-equity incentive plan.

Total compensation for Robert Fehlman, chief financial officer, and Marty Casteel, senior executive vice president, nearly doubled to almost $1.5 million.

As with Makris, stock option awards, stock awards and non-equity incentive plan compensation were the biggest contributors to the gains for Fehlman and Casteel.

Makris received a salary of $595,000 last year compared to $502,500 in 2014, an 18.4 percent gain. Fehlman and Casteel each received $334,000 in 2015, reflecting raises of about 8.9 percent for Fehlman and 9.8 percent for Casteel.

Matthew Reddin, executive vice president, received total compensation of nearly $1.1 million during 2015. Reddin joined Simmons in February 2015 after leaving Little Rock's Bank of the Ozarks Inc. where he was director of community bank lending.

The two largest Simmons shareholders are BlackRock Inc. of New York, which holds an 8.88 percent stake worth $117.5 million; and The Vanguard Group of Malvern, Pennsylvania, with a 5.14 percent stake worth $67.2 million.

The proxy statement also disclosed that the Simmons board of directors is contracting from 13 members to 11. The move is following the exodus of two directors.

Harry Ryburn, 79, a retired orthodontist, is stepping down after 40 years as a Simmons director. David Bartlett, 64, retired from the company as a director and president and chief banking officer on Jan. 15.

Bartlett's total compensation climbed from $915,697 in 2014 to more than $1.1 million last year. Bartlett's 2015 base salary was $382,960.

The Simmons annual shareholders meeting will be held at the banquet hall of the Pine Bluff Convention Center on at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, April 19.