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.”