EL DORADO — Austin Barrow escaped from El Dorado just after high school, pledging never to return. “I didn’t even wait the summer; I was gone,” he says, but he was just taunting fate.

“I made the mistake of saying it out loud too many times; that guaranteed I’d be back.”

Now president and COO of nonprofit El Dorado Festivals & Events Inc., Barrow’s job is attracting people to his hometown and keeping residents here. And in a town where an oil gusher a century ago set off one of the wildest booms in American history, transforming El Dorado into south Arkansas’ richest town, Barrow presides over a boom in downtown construction.

A $54 million first phase is on time for a five-day grand opening of the Murphy Arts Center, named for one of the city’s leading oil families, starting Sept. 27. Phase 1 focuses on the historic Griffin Building, once a car showroom and assembly center for Model T’s. Nabholz Construction Corp. of Conway is carefully reshaping the 1929 structure into a restaurant, cabaret and 2,000-seat music hall overlooking an 8,000-capacity outdoor amphitheater and a 2-acre children’s playscape. Murphy Oil Corp. has its headquarters five blocks to the north.

The $32 million second phase will remake the 1930s-vintage Rialto Theater, an old bus depot and the four-story McWilliams Building into an art gallery, exhibition hall and residence hall for artists.

“This is a quality-of-life initiative to make the town attractive to visitors and to residents,” Barrow said, citing recent studies that found that half of the downtown district’s 800 white-collar workers spend more than half of their weekends out of town, and that 150 jobs paying better than $75,000 a year are unfilled because “people won’t move to El Dorado to fill them.”

Barrow says the town is constantly exporting the cash of residents who keep condos in Hot Springs, Dallas and New Orleans. “I’m hoping our project will keep these people home more, and increase the likelihood of other companies relocating here with a large employee base.”

The overall $100 million project, based a few blocks south of Union Square, is an “arts story, a construction story, a historic preservation story and an economic development story,” said Festivals & Events Chief Marketing Officer Bob Tarren. Seeking to turn El Dorado into “the Festival City of the South,” the initiative struck a chord not just with Barrow and Mayor Frank Hash, but also with top business leaders in this town of 19,000, which has lost more than a quarter of its population since 1980.

“This is a venture with a purpose,” Hash told Arkansas Business last week. Beyond visitors, it targets employees at Murphy Oil and its publicly traded spinoffs, gasoline retailer Murphy USA and Deltic Timber. Chemical workers and other well-paid employees abound in town, Hash said. “It’s important that El Dorado has enough sophistication to keep those folks here, having a good time.”

The city has committed millions in economic-development tax proceeds, and the federal government is providing basically 25 percent of construction costs on the Griffin project in the form of historic preservation tax credits.

A 1 percent city sales tax approved by voters in 2007 produced some $34 million over eight years, with about $9.5 million of that going for the Arts Center, Hash said. The tax was renewed in 2015, leaving a 2.25 percent city sales tax burden on top of the state’s 6.5 percent and Union County’s 2 percent. The extension is expected to yield $50 million over 10 years. How much of that will go to the Arts Center will be determined after Phase 2 is underway.

City sales tax proceeds have fluctuated since rising from $3.45 million in 2007 to $6.42 million in 2008, the first full year of the economic development tax, according to figures from the state. El Dorado’s total slipped below $6 million in 2010 and 2012, and fell to a troubling $5.46 million in 2015 before rebounding to $6.83 million last year, the best revenue year ever.

A September Opening
But the bulk of the budget for the arts initiative, known as the Union Square project before it took the Murphy name, has been raised from donors. “We’ve raised about $65 million of our $100 million goal so far,” Barrow said. “I have no doubt that we’ll reach our target.”

The grand opening Sept. 27-Oct. 1 will feature events at the Griffin restaurant and cabaret, the attached music hall and the amphitheater. The weekend marks the 30th anniversary of MusicFest El Dorado, and the children’s playground opening and a large free outdoor concert are set for Sunday, Oct. 1.

Madison Murphy and Claiborne Deming of the Murphy Oil family were instrumental in initiating the Arts Center project, as was Edwin Alderson, another son of an Arkansas oil pioneer.

Murphy, a former chairman of the Arkansas State Highway Commission, has led efforts to get four lanes of highway all the way from Little Rock to El Dorado, and Barrow pointed to the 15 miles of orange construction barrels lining U.S. 167 north of town as evidence. The 2 1/2-hour drive has been cut closer to two hours, and the Highway & Transportation Department is working on plans to widen and improve Hillsboro Street, a major east-west artery in town, using a model imported from the streets and roundabouts near Hendrix College in Conway.

Roads are one of the four legs of Madison Murphy’s platform for economic development, Barrow said. Next is “taxing yourself to help yourself,” an ideal fulfilled by the economic development levy.

Then comes education, exemplified by construction of a new high school several years ago and by the El Dorado Promise, a program guaranteeing that Murphy Oil will pay college tuition costs for graduates of El Dorado High School. In the decade since its inception, the Promise has become a model, and the percentage of local graduates attending college has shot up, with some attending South Arkansas Community College just up the hill from the Arts Center site.

The economic development ingredient is quality of life, which is where El Dorado Festivals & Events fits in.

“The city had done a lot, winning awards with Main Street El Dorado’s renovations, building the El Dorado Conference Center to attract outside conferences and let our big publicly traded companies hold meetings,” Barrow said. “But there was more to be done.”

The city hired Destination Development International Inc., led by community marketing guru Roger Brooks, who spent months in El Dorado and noted similarities with Ashland, Oregon, home of a popular Shakespeare festival.

“What he found, quite earnestly, is that El Dorado has a very old and impassioned history in the arts,” Barrow said.

“The South Arkansas Arts Center [on East Fifth Street], for example, is celebrating its 53rd year. The South Arkansas Symphony has turned 61.”

Bringing It Home
So when Barrow came home for a Christmas visit in 2010, a group led by Murphy and Alderson took him to lunch.

“Brooks had suggested building a Shakespeare theater similar to Ashland,” Barrow recalled. “I said that was the craziest thing I’d ever heard, and I hoped that they had an enormous endowment because nobody was going to come; there were already three major Shakespeare companies within 200 miles of El Dorado.”

Later, Barrow got a call from Alderson. “I didn’t realize the lunch had been an interview; I just thought they wanted me to vet an idea. But he said, ‘Hey, you were the crazy guy that told us we didn’t know what the hell we were doing, so we want to hire you.’

“I’m a guy from the arts, so of course the Arts Center idea resonated with me,” said Barrow, who has an undergraduate degree in theater from Louisiana Tech University and ran the fine arts division at Andrew College in Georgia after earning an MFA at the University of Arkansas. “But I was surprised that these very powerful, wealthy men were saying, you know, this has some merit.”

Barrow moved back to El Dorado in May 2011. “I think they wanted someone from here on the project,” Barrow said. “We’ve all heard of towns that commissioned big plans and never followed through.”

He was eventually joined by Terry Stewart of Cleveland, who became Festivals & Events’ CEO. “He’s the former president and CEO of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and he ran Marvel Comics before that. Terry’s been around the block, and he’s had a real hard life, as you can tell from his resume,” Barrow said with a sly grin. “We did our own study and found that entertainment and music were high on the list of what people wanted. Kids’ activities was also high, as were great places to eat. Food is actually entertainment now.”

After initial fundraising among “true believers,” the project acquired about eight blocks on the south side of downtown for about $2 million. “As they develop a property, the city buys it and leases it back for a nominal fee,” Mayor Hash said. “That lets Festivals & Events reinvest their money in the program.”

Architecture firm Westlake Reed Leskosky of Cleveland, led by managing principal Paul Westlake, identified several structures that could be renovated to serve the project, primarily the Griffin, Rialto and McWilliams buildings. Other structures will be coming down, with one notable exception — Hill’s Recreation Parlor on Cedar Street. “We can’t touch that,” Barrow said. “It’s the oldest continuously operating pool hall in the state.”

Star Amenities, and a Jail
Barrow turned to his knowledge of artists to aid in designing a hall to help the Griffin attract top acts. The huge stage can accommodate the largest touring rock shows, and amenities like a VIP dressing room only steps from the bus bay, and an artists’ elevator directly to the stage, should get music stars talking, Barrow hopes. “They’ll tell other artists, tell their managers and agents, and I think that will put us on these stars’ radar.”

Other features of the 70,000-SF Griffin are practical, including a central production suite and concessions and food service areas. “We have enough facilities down below to do shows in the cabaret, the music hall and out there [the amphitheater] at the same time,” Barrow said. There will even be a holding jail. “With the number of shows we’re going to have, you gotta have a jail,” Barrow said with a laugh. “There will always be a few crazies.”

El Dorado Glass, which owned the Griffin building, moved to another site in town, as did Delta Press, a magazine and book publisher in the area. That cleared the way for Nabholz to start, along with Milam Construction of El Dorado, the general contractor on the amphitheater, and the Weber Group, general contractor on the playground.

“Milam has done more ground work around El Dorado than anybody else, and an amphitheater is about 90 percent grounds, so that made sense,” Barrow said over the hammering and roar of construction equipment while leading a reporter on a tour. “Nabholz, with its experience at Crystal Bridges in Bentonville, we definitely wanted them involved. And Weber, out of Indiana, is known for its work with Great Wolf Lodge [a chain of indoor water parks] and other huge entertainment projects for kids.”

Lance Wright, the project manager for Nabholz, described the Griffin as a unique challenge. “It’s a great project, and working on a building from the 1920s has been exciting,” he said, though requirements for the historic restoration tax incentives were exacting. “We couldn’t significantly alter the structure, so we had all of this electrical and plumbing and hundreds of feet of conduit that had to go into a limited space. With a new project you can adjust, raise ceilings, do other things, but all this had to fit into what space was there.”

Wright, who said construction is on time and on budget, was given a priority of working with local subcontractors, including Glenn Mechanical for HVAC and plumbing; El Dorado Roofing; El Dorado Glass; Storey’s Floor & Carpet; and the Systems Group for steel fabrication and erecting.

Many supplies came from local vendors, including Barker Steel, Ken’s Hardware, Hays Rental and Artattack Graphic Design. Union County Solid Waste handled construction debris.

Merchants Hopeful
Merchants around the courthouse square, where streetlight banners announce “It’s Showtime!” are hoping the Arts Center will stimulate business. “Traffic has been down this spring,” said Sandra Vaughn, owner of Jefferson Street Books, a bright, tidy shop filled with popular titles, volumes on philosophy and politics and book-related plush toys. “Business is slow, and if it weren’t for out-of-town customers, people from nearby towns that make a trip out of it, we would be worse off.”

Nick McKinney, who relocated from Monroe, Louisiana, about a year ago to open an antiques shop around the corner, praised El Dorado’s beauty and friendliness, but agreed that business could be better. “Hopefully the Arts Center will bring a big boost to the entire community, but of course visitors don’t really buy antiques.”

Barrow has no illusions that his mission will be easy. He doesn’t expect concerts and exhibitions to bring 40,000 people running to El Dorado overnight as the Busey No. 1 gusher did in January 1921.

“El Dorado isn’t a big crossroads, but we have spent years refining a plan, and our $100 million fundraising goal should give us a cushion,” he said.

Barrow said that people don’t like to talk about it, but “arts centers lose money; they all do.” The books of any entertainment district will reveal a contributed line and an earned line, he said. “The contributed line is about 60 percent and the earned line is about 40. We would love to correct that model, but when we hit our funding goal, and if we operate with success, we’ll have about five years to close up about a $2 million annual hole. And we have lots of ideas for doing that.”

Further enhancing the downtown Little Rock coffee scene will be the folks who own At the Corner, the diner at the southeast corner of East Markham and Scott streets.

Helen Grace King said the restaurant, which has a retro look but which emphasizes local foods and fresh ingredients, had bought an espresso machine and will soon be offering specialty coffees — lattes, cappuccinos and the like.

King, who owns the restaurant with her sister, Leila King, their mother, Helen, along with Kamiya Merrick, the executive chef, said she and her sister were starting barista training.

“We just think it’s going to add something to our breakfast that we offer during the week and our weekend brunch,” Helen Grace said.

There’s no timeline because “we don’t do things until we’re completely ready,” though she hopes by summer.

“This continues to make us competitive,” King said, now that the long fancy-coffee drought downtown is over.

At least four specialty coffee shops have opened in the last few months or will open soon downtown: Starbucks at the Little Rock Marriott, Blue Sail Coffee at the Little Rock Technology Park, Zetêo Coffee and Nexus Coffee & Creative, scheduled to open later this year.

The transformation of the Legacy Hotel at 625 W. Capitol Ave. in downtown Little Rock into a boutique lodging proceeds apace, says Kishan Patel, operations manager. And included in that remodel is a renovated restaurant space with a new name and new menu, although that’s yet to be determined.

The Legacy’s owners have given the restaurant space to Moses & Tucker to list, Patel said, and won’t be involved in the restaurant’s operations.

“We don’t have any set plans,” he said. “We know what we don’t want. We’re looking for just good American food.”

Patel noted that the Legacy is across from the federal courthouse complex, which houses a number of government workers. “We want to make sure that the restaurant’s really catering to an older generation but not leaving out the millennials,” he said.

The restaurant, whatever its character, should offer good wine, liquor and craft beer, to attract evening crowds.

The Legacy will be operated as part of the Ascend Hotel Collection, Choice Hotels International’s “network of historic, boutique and unique hotels that offer guests an authentic, local experience,” according to the Choice Hotels website. And, Patel said, the hotel company has its own guidelines for restaurants in its Ascend properties.

The Legacy’s owners — Jitendra Patel (Kishan’s father), Ankur Desai, Parimal Patel, Bhavin Patel and Jamak LLC — hope to have the restaurant remodel done in the next couple of months.

As for the conversion of the hotel itself, Patel said it was going well. “We should be done by Aug. 1, fingers crossed.”

The renovation involves new paint, furniture, room styles, etc., and will leave the hotel with 82 rooms. “It’s pretty much getting a makeover.”

The 65,000-SF Legacy, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was built by Fred W. Allsopp, business manager of the old Arkansas Gazette, in 1914 and opened as the Hotel Freiderica. Some may remember it as the Hotel Sam Peck. According to the Legacy’s website, the hotel will again be called the Freiderica when the rebranding is finished this summer.

Mini-storage in North Little Rock and two warehouses in Little Rock provide our trio of multimillion-dollar transactions this week.

• Modern Storage Maumelle Blvd LLC, led by Keith Richardson, bought its namesake 67,935-SF mini-storage project at 9100 Maumelle Blvd. in North Little Rock for $3.3 million.

Seller: JWL I Ltd., led by William Titus.

• Sage V Foods LLC of Los Angeles purchased the 59,404-SF cold storage warehouse at 6100 Lindsay Road in Little Rock for more than $1.7 million from Ben E. Keith Co. of Fort Worth, Texas.

• Pierce Smith LLC, led by Tyler Pierce and Blake Smith, acquired the 56,880-SF Golf Cart Wholesalers warehouse at 1515 E. Fourth St. in Little Rock for nearly $1.4 million.

Seller? 1515 Holdings Inc., led by Nick Pierce.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Monday announced the following appointments:

Pat Johnson, Pocahontas, to the Black History Commission of Arkansas. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2020. Replaces Joyce Gibson.

Brad Wooley, Little Rock, to the Auctioneer’s Licensing Board. Appointment expires April 15, 2021. Replaces James Bailey.

Doug Melton, Bella Vista, to the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission. Appointment expires March 29, 2021. Replaces Ann Henry.

Ken Griffin, Van Buren, to the Stadium Commission. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2024. Replaces Warren Simpson. 

Randy Woodard, Jonesboro, to the Stadium Commission. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2024. Replaces Charlie Holt.

Gene Pharr, Lincoln, to the Arkansas Beef Council. Appointment expires March 30, 2020. Reappointment. 

Gary Patton, Wooster, to the Arkansas Beef Council. Appointment expires March 30, 2020. Replaces Tommy Lalman.

Dennis Wiederkehr, Altus, to the Arkansas Wine Producers Council. Appointment expires March 1, 2020. Replaces Gary Wiederkehr. 

Michael Neal, Little Rock, to the Arkansas State Board of Athletic Training. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2020. Replaces Kenneth Cole. 

Breanne Davis, Russellville, to the Arkansas State Board of Athletic Training. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2020. Replaces Kelly Lasseigne. 

Thomas Anderson, Roland, to the Arkansas Workforce Development Board. Appointment expires May 1, 2021. Reappointment.

Melissa Hanesworth, Fort Smith, to the Arkansas Workforce Development Board. Appointment expires May 1, 2021. Reappointment. 

Holley Little, Benton, to the Arkansas Workforce Development Board. Appointment expires May 1, 2021. Reappointment.

Gary Sams, Morrilton, to the Arkansas Workforce Development Board. Appointment expires May 1, 2021. Reappointment. 

Lindsay Brown, North Little Rock, to the Arkansas Workforce Development Board. Appointment expires May 1, 2021. Reappointment. 

Brian Itzkowitz, Little Rock, to the Arkansas Workforce Development Board. Appointment expires May 1, 2021. Reappointment. 

Kelley Sharp, Farmington, to the Arkansas Workforce Development Board. Appointment expires May 1, 2021. Reappointment. 

Maria Markham, Little Rock, to the Arkansas Workforce Development Board. Appointment expires May 1, 2019. Replaces Brett Powell.

Stephanie Smith, Conway, to the Board of the Division of State Services for the Blind. Appointment expires June 30, 2019. Replaces James Caton. 

Lucas Pointer, Bentonville, to the Northwest Arkansas Community College Board of Trustees. Appointment expires Dec. 31, 2018. Replaces Steve Broughton.

Brooks Coatney, Fayetteville, to the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2019. Replaces Julie McQuade Heyes. 

Anna Grizzle, Brinkley, to the Mississippi River Parkway Commission of Arkansas. Appointment expires June 8, 2018. Replaces Phyllis Stinson. 

Jimmy Parkerson, Dermott, as a Justice of the Peace for the Chicot County Quorum Court, District 2. Appointment expires Dec. 31, 2018. Replaces Jerry Melton.

Donnie Davis, Glenwood, as a Justice of the Peace for the Pike County Quorum Court, District 6. Appointment expires Dec. 31, 2018. Replaces Verl Stovall. 

James "JD" Hayes, Rogers, as a Justice of the Peace for the Benton County Quorum Court, District 3. Appointment expires Dec. 31, 2018. Replaces Barney Hayes. 

Donald Ragland, Marshall, as a Special Judge in the County Court of Carroll County. CV 2016-02 Michael and Robin Phillips, et al. vs. Ryan Wilson. Replaces Carroll County Judge Sam Barr, who has disqualified himself from the case. 

Bob Estes, Fayetteville, as a Special Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Arkansas. CV-17-293 SEECO, Inc. v. Eldridge Snow. Replaces Justice Karen Baker, who has disqualified herself from the case. 

Scott Richardson, Little Rock, as Special Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Arkansas. CV-17-293 SEECO Inc. v. Eldridge Snow. Replaces Justice Courtney Hudson Goodson, who has disqualified herself from the case. 

A 35,520-SF office building in west Little Rock weighed in at $3.25 million.

Normandy Place LLC, led by Max Mehlburger, purchased the Markham Executive Center at 10201 W. Markham St. The seller is Security Plan Life Insurance Co. of Donaldsonville, Louisiana.

The deal is financed with a 21-year loan of $1.76 million from BancorpSouth Bank of Tupelo, Mississippi.

The 1.93-acre development was bought in October 2008 as part of the $8 million acquisition of Ozark National Life Insurance Co. by the parent company of Security Plan Life, Citizens Inc. of Austin, Texas.

Meadowcrest Purchase
A 122-unit apartment project in southwest Little Rock tipped the scales at $2.8 million.

Meadowcrest Apartments LLC, led by Don Marshall Jr., sold its namesake complex at 5315 Stanley Drive to Colonial Park RBG LLC of West Plains, Missouri.

The deal is funded with a five-year loan of $2.2 million from Arvest Bank of Fayetteville. The 7.57-acre development previously was tied to a June 2010 mortgage of $2.3 million held by One Bank & Trust of Little Rock.

The property was assembled in four transactions totaling more than $1 million.

The sellers were Zato Investments Ltd., led by Michael Rushin, $1 million in October 2003; Mahmood Qadri and Zohra Sharief, $48,000 in December 2003; Oldner Real Estate Management Inc., led by John Oldner, $15,000 in February 2004; and Habitat for Humanity of Saline County Arkansas Inc., led by Donna Bosley, $12,000 in March 2004.

Dollar Deal
A Dollar General Store in Little Rock is under new ownership after a $1.22 million transaction.

GRT Little Rock DG LLC of San Rafael, California, bought the 9,360-SF store at 4748 Springer Blvd. from Rosebud Springer LLC of Huntington Beach, California.

The 1.02-acre development previously was linked with a December 2014 mortgage of $720,000 held by Arvest Bank.

The project was purchased for $1.2 million in December 2014 from PB General Holdings (Springer) LLC, led by Leonard Boen.

Tandem Foreclosures
A pair of Little Rock retail projects changed hands in foreclosure sales totaling $985,000.

YN Investments LLC, led by Murad Mandani, acquired the 15,460-SF South Park Center at 7515 Geyer Springs Road for $640,000 and a 3,016-SF project at 10507 Stagecoach Road for $345,000.

The properties were owned by RWL Investments LLC, led by Ron Lazenby.

The 1.81-acre South Park development previously helped secure an April 2014 mortgage of $3.1 million held by First Community Bank of Eastern Arkansas in Marion and a July 2014 mortgage of $640,000 held by Centennial Bank of Conway.

The property was purchased for $424,000 in January 2001 from Whitestone Investment Group of Los Angeles.

The 0.69-acre Stagecoach development previously secured a March 2013 mortgage of $500,000 held by Centennial Bank.

The location was bought for $160,000 in March 2013 from RJ Properties LLC, led by Douglas and David Hendrix.

Retail Transaction
A 15,453-SF retail center in North Little Rock rang up a $950,000 sale.

Gosen LLC, led by Joseph Minkyu Park, purchased the Family Dollar Store, Subway and New World Beauty project at 4202-04 Camp Robinson Road.

The seller is James Family Properties LLLP, led by Judith Scherer.

The deal is backed with a 20-year loan of $760,000 from BancorpSouth Bank.

The 1.52-acre location was acquired for $230,000 in November 2003 from Fleming Cos. Inc. of Oklahoma City.

School Sale
A former elementary school in North Little Rock drew a $530,000 transaction.

I-40 Kerr LLC, led by Byron McKimmey, bought the Park Hill Elementary project at 3801 JFK Blvd. from the North Little Rock School District.

The 5.27-acre property was assembled in two transactions with Justin and Agnes Matthews for “the minimum legal consideration” of $1 in September 1924 and his Metropolitan Trust Co., $30,000 in May 1951.

Commercial Land
A 4.61-acre commercial site in North Little Rock sold for $425,000.

Richardson Properties LLC, led by Keith Richardson, acquired sole ownership of the land on the south side of 9300 Maumelle Blvd.

The seller is MGY LLC, led by Marc Yelenich.

The property was bought through RichMarc Development LLC in January 2002 for $215,000.

The sellers were Nancy and Robert Lott, Carlos Robinson Jr. and his wife, Thressi, McKinley and Sansanee Robinson, Ruben and Joyce Robinson, Arthur and Margaret Ellison Hubert, Treopia Bryant and Elsie Dodson.

Estates Home
A 4,330-SF home in the Somersett Estates neighborhood of west Pulaski County is under new ownership after a $730,000 deal.

Christie and Deno Grumbos purchased the property from Stuart and Mitzi Miller.

The deal is financed with a 30-year loan of $424,100 from Arvest Bank.

The 5-acre residential spread previously was tied to a June 2015 mortgage of $484,380 held by BancorpSouth Bank.

The location was acquired for $75,000 in February 2013 from Joey and Brandy Rhodes.

Mirabel Residence
A 3,700-SF home in the Mirabel Court neighborhood of west Little Rock’s Chenal Valley development changed hands in a $534,900 transaction.

Maroun and Kay Farah bought the house from Randy James Construction Co. The deal is funded with a 30-year loan of $418,410 from NFTN Inc. of Lewisville, Texas.

The residence previously was linked with a June 2016 mortgage of $368,000 held by First Security Bank of Searcy.

The location was purchased for $87,000 11 months ago from Crain Family Holdings LLC, led by Larry Crain Jr.

Chimney Rock House
A 5,280-SF home in Sherwood’s Chimney Rock neighborhood rang up a $525,000 sale.

Carl and Mary Peterson acquired the house from the Roby & Tonya Lambert Family Trust.

The deal is backed with a 30-year loan of $420,000 from IberiaBank of Lafayette, Louisiana.

The residence was bought for $735,000 in September 2005 from Jason and Ginger Ford.

Woodland’s Dwelling
A 3,485-SF home in the Woodland’s Edge neighborhood of west Little Rock drew a $508,000 transaction.

David and Amelia Bardwell purchased the house from River Rock Builders LLC, led by Keith Wingfield. The deal is financed with a 30-year loan of $457,149 from Wells Fargo Bank of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The residence previously was tied to an April 2016 mortgage of $392,000 held by BancorpSouth Bank.

River Rock acquired the location for $72,000 in January 2015 from Rocket Properties LLC, led by Ron Tyne and Lisenne Rockefeller.

Seven-Digit Construction

Kroger Remodel    $3,432,386
2509 McCain Blvd., North Little Rock
CDI Contractors LLC, Little Rock
 
Collision Center Remodeling    $1,945,000
10005 Col. Glenn Road, Little Rock
ITR Construction LLC, North Little Rock
 
New Home    $1,050,000
13900 Beau Vue Drive, Little Rock
Parkinson Building Group Inc., Little Rock

We asked for an update on Chef Shuttle, the restaurant delivery service based in Little Rock, and got this: It’s moving toward franchising by summer 2017.

Chef Shuttle, now three years old, recently marked its 500,000th order, a representative said, and has more than 450 restaurant partners in three markets. An average of 15 new restaurants are joining each month.

And there’s this: Chef Shuttle will be offering delivery service for items from the 33rd annual International Greek Food Festival in Little Rock May 19-21.

The festival benefits area charities, and the demand for its menu items is fierce.

The owners of Stoby’s, the popular Conway restaurant devastated by fire in March 2016, are shooting to reopen by July 21, the restaurant’s 37th anniversary, says Patti Stobaugh, co-owner with her husband, David Stobaugh.

The Stobaughs decided to raze the old, fire-damaged building and build a 4,000-SF new and improved Stoby’s at the same location, 805 Donaghey Ave.

The electrical wiring, HVAC and plumbing have been installed, and workers were shingling the new building last week.

The Stobaughs should be moving equipment in in early July.

“We don’t want to rush it and have a bad opening,” Patti Stobaugh said.

The restaurant’s new kitchen alone is bigger than the old Stoby’s, Patti said, and it should seat about 128 customers, in addition to those on the patio.

Speaking of the patio, it will be dog-friendly.

“We’re sticking with our old theme,” she said. “It will look very much like the old Stoby’s.”

After the fire, the Stobaughs opened Stoby’s Express at 1310 Prince St., offering strictly to-go service. They will probably close the Express for at least a couple of weeks while they’re getting the new Stoby’s up and running, Patti said. But not to fear, it will be reopened.

“It’s really been a hidden blessing that we would have never counted on or even really considered at this stage in our life,” she said of the Express location. “We’ve had so many people express that they want to keep that location open.”

Stoby’s Express has been so successful that the Stobaughs are considering opening a couple more outside of Conway, “but we’ve got to get Stoby’s up and running and get our sea legs underneath us before we do that.”

Visiting the state website listing business closure notices because of tax delinquencies is just a thing Whispers does.

Last week’s visit indicated that Vesuvio Bistro at 1315 Breckenridge Drive in Little Rock had been served with a closure notice May 4. But owner Bill Criswell says it was all a misunderstanding.

“We just got behind a little bit,” Criswell said. “They gave us a few days to pay it and we’re paid and going on forward.”

The Arkansas Department of Finance & Administration, as authorized by Act 360 of 2009, can close any business that fails to remit withholding taxes for any three months during a 24-month period, and lists those businesses served with closure notices.

The state doesn’t disclose how much in sales and use tax a business owes, and Criswell declined to provide the amount.

The Little Rock Advertising & Promotion Commission in July sued Criswell’s Bistro Group for $1,500 in sales taxes but that debt was settled within hours, filings in Pulaski County Circuit Court show.

Remember that Hooters we told you about a few weeks ago, the one coming to 6 Bass Pro Drive in Little Rock, near Bass Pro Shops and Outlets of Little Rock?

Well, we have a few more details.

Stanley Conrad of Hooters of Arkansas, the fellow who applied for a mixed-drink permit with the state, says he’s looking to open the restaurant sometime in 2018 and it will employ about 140 workers.

He has a 38-year history in the restaurant business, Conrad said, having been involved with Stubby’s BBQ, Pizza Hut and Casa Mexicana in Maumelle.

Hooters currently has locations in North Little Rock and Fort Smith.

Whispers has reached out to Hooters corporate PR but hasn’t heard back.

A grocery store in Vilonia, a church in Benton, Burger Kings in Cabot and Conway, a west Little Rock manor and an auto project in Sherwood have assembled for a six-pack of multimillion-dollar transactions.

• Harps Food Stores Inc. of Springdale sold its 31,500-SF store at 1086 Main St. in Vilonia for more than $4.9 million.

Buyer in this sale-leaseback deal: an affiliate of Cole Capital of Phoenix.

• Summit Church purchased Salem Baptist Church at 3069 Salem Road for $2.4 million. The deal included a pair of adjoining duplexes at 3141 Salem Road and a parsonage.

• Rowan Development LLC, led by Jasen Chi, bought a 9,326-SF home in the Chenal Downs neighborhood for more than $1.7 million.

Sellers: Steve Landers Jr. and his wife, Karmen.

• Flis Investments LLC, led by Christopher Flis, sold its Burger King at 1100 W. Main St. in Cabot for $1.7 million to Rachael JG LLC of West Hills, California.

• I-40 RV Exchange Holdings LLC acquired the Evans Motors project at 6701 Warden Road in Sherwood for more than $1.4 million.

Seller? Evans Properties, led by Paul, Darrell and Ralph Evans.

• FRP Cantrell Falls LLC, led by Dominic Flis, purchased the Burger King at 905 U.S. 65 in Conway for nearly $1.4 million from Arkaproperties LLC of North Platte, Nebraska.

The ranch wrangling continues in Conway.

That would be the legal tussling over a ranch-and-restaurant complex that led to foreclosure proceedings against Joanie White-Wagoner, administrator and vice president of Baptist Health Medical Center-Conway.

A lawyer for White-Wagoner and her husband, Darren Wagoner, who are accused by Centennial Bank of defaulting on a $2.5 million mortgage and other loans, said in a statement to Arkansas Business on Thursday that his clients are the victims of fraud by the previous owner, Letitia McMaster.

Attorney Beau Wilcox of Conway said that financial data provided by McMaster before the sale was inaccurate, and “was in fact manipulated to mislead and induce them into the purchase” of the 45-acre Back Achers Ranch and Legends Bar & Grill on College Avenue, which includes a 47,000-SF arena and a house on nearby Shock Loop.

Wilcox said the business ventures were already failing before the sale, and that misrepresentations by McMaster constitute “outright fraud.”

In an April 27 motion in Faulkner County Circuit Court, Wilcox said the Wagoners had filed a third-party complaint against McMaster alleging fraud and breach of contract.

He asked the court to order Centennial to amend its complaint to include McMaster as a defendant. The bank responded that it had no obligation to do so, and that it had seen no evidence of fraud.

In a filing last week, McMaster’s attorney, Otto R. Fry, said she had “not breached the contractual agreement in any manner,” and that the “allegations of fraud and misrepresentation are wholly without merit and should be dismissed.”

Fry also claimed that the Wagoners had defaulted on a separate promissory note to McMaster, failing to make a single $409 monthly payment on the note’s $62,000 debt.

‘Eager to Foist the Loan’
Wilcox said that Centennial, which filed its original lawsuit on Dec. 29, seven months after the Wagoners assumed McMaster’s mortgage, was also misled and defrauded.

But, Wilcox said, “the bank continued to modify loans to the prior owner based on misinformation, and then when my clients took over, the bank was overly eager to foist the loan onto them and then foreclose quickly when things went sour.”

McMaster did not respond to a phone message before press time Thursday.

Attorney Vaughan Hankins of Sherwood, representing Centennial, confirmed that the bank has requested a trial date on the foreclosure and said the Wagoners had “surrendered the property.”

Wilcox characterized the Wagoners as honorable and intelligent people who were “victimized in this ordeal.” They had agreed for the bank to take possession of the property to secure it for a possible sale.

Buyer interest is high, he said, but “obviously it is an expensive and unique piece of property” with a “limited range of possible investors.”

In other filings, the Wagoners confirmed that they have moved off the property.

Wilcox said his clients had tried to work with Centennial, “but to be frank, we are disappointed that they have chosen to so aggressively pursue my clients.”

The bank says the Wagoners, who were operating as Inception Management Group LLC, have not made a payment since late September.

Joanie White-Wagoner, who managed a Texas hospital before moving to Arkansas in 2016, has run Baptist’s hospital in Conway since its opening in September.

The decline of the Fayetteville Shale cost jobs in Faulkner County, but a diverse economy led by sales, office and administrative professions continued to keep the unemployment rate near historic lows, according to data presented at Outlook Conway on Tuesday.

The event, presented by the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce, examines local economic trends. This year's event included panel discussions featuring leaders in real estate, energy and health care.

During remarks at the beginning of the event, Brad Lacy, CEO of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce, outlined the county's employment picture, comparing Faulkner County with surrounding counties and two others he considers its peers: Craighead and Saline.

The three counties are roughly the same population size, although Faulkner is biggest, with about 122,000 people, and it has about 58,000 jobs. Craighead is the smallest, at about 106,000, but its jobs number is bigger, at 63,000, Lacy noted.

That's because of the mix of job sectors in each county, Lacy said. Faulkner relies heavily on employment in management positions; jobs in the computer and math arena; and business and financial professions.

For example, Faulkner County computer and math jobs — many tied to publicly traded data services provider Acxiom Corp. of Conway — amount to 1,800 jobs. That compares to 500 such jobs in Craighead, he said.

But Craighead makes up ground with jobs in health care and related fields, with 4,500 jobs versus Faulkner's 2,500. That owes to Craighead's long-term status as a key health care hub for northeast Arkansas, drawing workers from a larger area than does Faulkner County, which also must compete with Little Rock for those occupations.

In all, Conway posted a 3.1 percent unemployment rate in March, down from 3.4 percent in March 2016. Faulkner County's unemployment rate stands at 3.3 percent, down from 3.9 percent. Arkansas' March unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, down from 4 percent last year.

Lacy expects the county to see a boost in computer and math sector jobs, beyond 2,000, in light of Acxiom's decision to move its headquarters back to Conway. Acxiom, founded in Faulkner County, sold its Little Rock headquarters in March to Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff. Acxiom plans to maintain a small office at Main and Third streets in Little Rock, with the bulk of its Arkansas workers in Conway.

Jobs in construction and energy extraction have also been a strength, Lacy said. Southwestern Energy Co., the third largest natural gas producer in the country, has a regional office in Conway and 600 workers in the area. Nabholz Corp. is also headquartered in Conway.

Lacy said the total value of building permits in Conway rose to $159.1 million in 2016, up from $114.8 million in 2015. He said the largest commercial project by value was Acadia Healthcare's $18 million behavioral health hospital, which broke ground in October. 

The second biggest was the new $13 million Sam's Club at Lewis Crossing. But Sam's was the biggest project in terms of size, at 136,000 SF, he said.

Arkansas' unemployment rate fell in April to a new record low, 3.5 percent, down one-tenth of a percentage point from March and six-tenths of a percentage point from April 2016.

"For the fourth month in a row, Arkansas' unemployment rate has declined to record setting lows," BLS Program Operations Manager Susan Price said in a news release. "Starting the year at 3.8 percent, the rate has decreased one-tenth of a percentage point each month to 3.5 percent in April."

The state Department of Workforce Services said Arkansas' civilian labor force rose by 6,782, the result of 7,693 more employed and 911 fewer unemployed Arkansans. In April, the U.S. jobless rate stood at 4.4 percent, down one-tenth of a percentage point from March.

Arkansas was among three states that hit record lows last month. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor said Colorado and Oregon reported the lowest unemployment rates since 1976. Colorado's rate, at 2.3 percent, was the nation's lowest. In all, 19 states had unemployment rates lower than the national average.  

Compared to April 2016, nonfarm payroll jobs in Arkansas increased by 19,700. Seven major industry sectors added jobs, while employment in four sectors declined slightly.

• Jobs in educational and health services rose by 7,000, mostly in health care and social assistance. 
• Employment in professional and business services increased 5,700. Administrative and support services posted a majority of the growth. 
• Manufacturing added 3,500 jobs, with expansions in nondurable goods offsetting losses in durable goods. 
• Moderate gains were reported in leisure and hospitality (+2,500), trade-transportation-utilities (+2,400) and other services (+1,300). 
• Jobs in government decreased by 1,900, with most of the decline in local government, which the report attributed "in part to reported staff reductions" at public school districts.

Chick-fil-A is definitely expanding in Rogers, the popular restaurant chain confirmed. Whispers reported April 10 that the restaurant was scheduled to go into a spot adjacent to the Chuy’s and Pei Wei restaurants on Pauline Whitaker Parkway in the Pinnacle Hills area.

A Chick-fil-A spokeswoman said groundbreaking at the site will be this fall and the restaurant is scheduled to open for business in the spring of 2018. The location will employ at least 80.

The Pinnacle Hills location will be Chick-fil-A’s third in Rogers and eighth in northwest Arkansas. The restaurant chain had also planned an expansion to Springdale but a preliminary location fell through.

Morrow said the chain still has the goal of opening a Springdale location by the summer of 2018.

Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Little Rock, with revenue doubling in the past five years to nearly $2.5 billion, has taken the top spot on Arkansas Business’ annual list of the state’s largest private companies.

As always, that comes with an asterisk: Stephens Inc., the ultra-private investment bank in Little Rock, dropped to No. 2 based on a revenue that continues to be estimated at $2.25 billion. It is the least reliable number on the list and one of only six that have been estimated.

The price of entry to the list increased to almost $117 million from $100 million last year.

ABCBS, a nonprofit that dominates the state’s health insurance landscape, was led from the beginning of 2009 through 2016 by Mark White, who retired at the end of the year. He was succeeded by Curtis Barnett, formerly senior vice president of external operations.

Barnett inherited a company that had $1.27 billion in revenue in 2011. The $2.5 billion it reported in 2016 is not a record for the list: Truman Arnold Cos., which is no longer eligible for the list after moving its executive offices to Dallas, topped $3 billion in 2011 when the price of its main product, aircraft fuel, was sky-high.

The 75 companies on the list generated total revenue, self-reported and estimated, of $37.5 billion, an increase of almost 10 percent from last year’s list. But more than half of that growth is attributable to the highest-ranking debut of any company in the 30-year history of the list: McLarty Automotive Group of Little Rock, led by Mark McLarty. It reported $1.76 billion in revenue in 2016 after having been formed in 2014 to acquire existing auto dealerships and open new ones. (See Dealership Acquisitions Fuel McLarty Automotive Group.)

In what may look like a sibling rivalry, MAG took the No. 4 spot from RML Automotive, which dropped to No. 5 despite revenue growth of almost 13 percent last year. RML was formerly known as RLJ McLarty Landers Automotive Holdings, and was co-founded in 2004 by Mark McLarty’s father and brother, Thomas “Mack” McLarty and Franklin McLarty, with Mark joining as a shareholder.

MAG is the only newcomer to the top 10, displacing Bruce Oakley Inc., the bulk transporter based in North Little Rock, which dropped from No. 7 to No. 12 on a 22 percent decrease in revenue.

Companies whose fortunes are tied to the agriculture industry saw revenue generally flat to lower in 2016, while those working in the health care industry — like ABCBS, Baptist Health (No. 8) and list newcomers Unity Health of Searcy (No. 17) and Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute Inc. (No. 62) — saw revenue growth. (See $1.02 Billion Keeps Baptist Health High on List and Letter Reveals CARTI’s Plan for Improving Finances.)

Welcome Back
McLarty Automotive Group, Unity Health and CARTI are the only true newcomers among the 75 companies on this year’s list. All three should have been on last year’s list but were not surveyed.

Two more companies have returned after being dropped last year:

• No. 59 Parker Automotive Group of Little Rock, which last year submitted an incorrect revenue figure for 2015 that was too low to make the cutoff. It has been corrected.

• No. 74 Multi-Craft Contractors Inc. of Springdale, which entered the list at No. 75 in 2015 but didn’t make the cutoff last year. (See Springdale's Multi-Craft Contractors Stays Flexible, Diverse.)

Making Room
Five companies that were among last year’s 75 had to drop off to make room for the five additional names. They are last year’s Nos. 72-75 — Arkansas Valley Electric Cooperative of Ozark, Mid-South Sales Inc. of Jonesboro, Lewis Automotive Group of Fayetteville and Dyke Industries of Little Rock — as well as SF Holding Corp. of Little Rock, the holding company for joint investments of Warren Stephens and his cousins, Witt Stephens Jr. and Elizabeth Stephens Campbell. Since the Stephenses sold Stephens Media in February 2015 for $102.5 million, SF Holding’s revenue is no longer estimated to be large enough for the list.

Finales
Two companies are making their final appearances on the list: No. 35 Vestcom international Inc. of Little Rock and No. 41 Ridout Lumber Co. of Searcy. Vestcom, which produces the shelf-edge price labels for retailers like grocery stores, was acquired in December by out-of-state ownership, Charlesbank Capital Partners. Ridout, family owned since 1971, was sold in January to US LBM of Buffalo Grove, Illinois.

30th Annual List of Arkansas’ Largest Private Companies

JONESBORO — After graduating from college, Rachel Cain decided she wanted to complete a year of service.

"I wanted to give back to various communities," the Maryland native told The Jonesboro Sun.

She is now seven months into her 10-month term with the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, a full-time national service program that has up to 2,200 adults, age 18-24, serving nationwide each year.

Cain's eight-member team has been in Jonesboro since May 1, working 40 hours a week regardless of the weather. They are building a community garden and preparing a greenhouse for the 109 residents of the Jonesboro Human Development Center to use.

The center is located on about 300 acres alongside Southside Softball Complex off of Stadium Boulevard and provides 24-hour residential services for adults with intellectual challenges. Previously, it only included a sensory garden for residents, who have already shown interest in the new garden spaces.

"It's fantastic," Cain said. "We've been able to meet a few of the residents. They'll come out and help. It means a lot for them to come and help, and for us to get to know who we will be directly impacting. They are appreciative."

Once complete, residents will have the chance to continue working in the gardens and to sell any produce grown at farmers' markets. Cynthia Wilson, the Jonesboro site's volunteer coordinator, said they are always looking for opportunities to teach their residents new skills to improve their lives.

"I think it is going to be an awesome opportunity for our residents to learn how to maintain gardens in their own houses and for employment opportunities," she added. "... The main goal is to provide skills for them to be successful in life."

The work began after AmeriCorps volunteered services to the Arkansas Department of Human Services Division of Development Disabilities. That meant working to help design, construct and begin planting sustainable garden spaces that will serve the state's five human development centers by providing agricultural education and outdoor recreation while encouraging healthy eating and lifestyles.

This is the first AmeriCorps team to volunteer with the state division.

Prior to Jonesboro, the AmeriCorps team arrived April 11 to train in Conway and spent two weeks at the human development center in Booneville. They will spend two weeks each at the human development centers in Conway, Warren and Arkadelphia. They leave Arkansas on July 7.

The work marks Cain's first visit to Arkansas. She said her team is getting to see the state as they travel to various human development centers.

It is her team's final project before they graduate from AmeriCorps on July 14. Their work has ranged from community gardens to helping low-income individuals with their taxes.

Diane Keith, interim superintendent of the Jonesboro site, is thankful they were able to help. She said their work will make a difference for all residents.

"Eventually, a farmers' market will be set up near the road to sell," she said. "It's going to be great."

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. — A Kansas food distributor is voluntarily recalling nearly 100,000 pounds (45,360 kilograms) of precooked sausage that might contain metal.

Armour Eckrich Meats in Junction City announced the recall Wednesday of more than 8,000 cases of 16.6-ounce (460-gram) packages of "Eckrich Smok-y Cheddar Breakfast sausage, Naturally Hardwood Smoked." The labels have the case code "27815 17984" with a use-by date of Aug. 17. The products also have the number "EST. 3JC" inside the USDA mark of inspection.

The products were distributed to foodservice customers in Kansas, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. Armour Eckrich says the pork, turkey and beef breakfast sausages were never distributed to retail customers and that the recall came after a single report of trace amounts of metal.

No injuries from consuming the meat have been reported.

All contents © copyright 2017 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Gary "Bud" Roberts resigned as director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division on Thursday. His resignation is effective in three weeks.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson released the following statement: "I want to thank Bud for his work at ABC over the past two years. His willingness to stay on longer than he originally planned to assist with the implementation of medical marijuana voters passed in 2016 is much appreciated. I wish him the best of luck in any future endeavors.”

J.R. Davis, a spokesman for the governor's office, said the governor would make replacing Roberts with another appointee a priority but he couldn't offer a timeline for that decision.

In his resignation letter, provided by Department of Finance & Administration Spokesman Jake Bleed, Roberts wrote, "I am proud of the agency's accomplishments. When I accepted your appointment, I expected to serve for two years. With the advent of medical marijuana, I decide to stay a bit longer, to oversee the rule-making and application formation processes. These matters are so nearly complete that I feel comfortable with the timing, at this point."

Roberts' salary was $89,857, and Feb. 23, 2015 was his start date.

Two other ABC staffers, attorneys Mary Casteel and Milton Lueken, have also resigned, although Lueken submitted his notice on Monday and Casteel submitted her notice on Friday.

Casteel was paid a salary of $73,407 and had worked there since 2013. Lueken made $83,741 and had been there for almost 35 years.

Casteel's resignation is effective June 16, Davis said. Davis said she resigned for personal reasons like wanting to spend more time with her family. He also she had been with the division for many years and done a good job.

He said he didn't know why Lueken resigned, but that he had heard the attorney is in his 70s. Davis speculated that Lueken may have felt it was time to retire.

Although the opening of Bark Bar is a couple of weeks out, Elizabeth Michael thinks she and business partner Cara Fowler may have a winning formula that can translate to other locations in Arkansas.

Michael hopes that her dog-welcoming restaurant/bar and off-leash dog play area at 1201 Spring St., in a former church in Little Rock’s SoMa neighborhood, will be open by the week of June 12 (but where building and renovation are concerned, timetables must be flexible).

Michael and Fowler blew way past their $5,500 Kickstarter goal to raise money for the dog play area, bringing in $13,536 from 146 backers. That means an upgrade for the area, which will include a turf section, a gravel section, a small pool, rock features and an agility course. (See Bark Bar To Bring Hair of the Dog to SoMa.)

“We think it will really be a fun and lively place,” Michael said. National Greens, a provider and installer of synthetic grass, is creating the yard.

The Kickstarter response signaled a warm public embrace of the project. “Everyone’s so excited,” Michael said. “I think I get around 20 Facebook messages a day, and most of them are ‘When are you going to open?,’ and the rest of them are ‘Can I work for you?’”

For those planning to bring their hounds, Bark Bar has several different membership plans, a $5 day pass, a $20 monthly membership and a $150 annual membership, with an annual membership for an additional dog costing $25. In addition, dog owners must provide details of their pets’ vaccinations to ensure they’re current. The membership fees go toward upkeep of the dog play area, record-keeping and ensuring that the play area is safe. (For membership and other information, visit BarkBar.com.)

“The biggest metric for our success is definitely the number of dog memberships,” Michael said, “and our profit margin for food and beverage. But for dog memberships, just looking at that metric of success, we’ve already doubled the first-year projections.” As of mid-May, Bark Bar had 122 memberships, not including additional dog memberships.

Running the gauntlet of city and state agencies to get the permits and requirements for a dog-friendly restaurant/bar is an agility course for humans, but Michael said she and Fowler have “gotten their blessing every step of the way.”

And having gone through that process, she said, they’ve realized that “we’ve got a good business plan and model in place that’s pretty easily repeatable. Now, we’ve got to get open first,” she acknowledged, laughing.

Michael, director of content and social strategy for Little Rock ad agency CJRW, is the daughter of entrepreneur Paul Michael, founder of the home décor chain the Paul Michael Co., and grew up in her father’s business.

Michael said she and Fowler, who based their projections not only on national industry benchmarks, but also surveys of local businesses, discovered something unexpected.

“What’s interesting is that a lot of folks have said they hope to meet their next boyfriend or girlfriend at Bark Bar,” Michael said. They first had thought their target customers were millennials with an annual household income of $60,000 and who own at least one dog. “And now, our focus has kind of shifted to that single relationship status, because what’s an easier icebreaker?”

Fido would agree.