Arkansas Business and the Best Companies Group on Wednesday honored 29 Arkansas companies with "Best Places to Work" awards, which honor firms that have exceptional workplace environments.

Among the winners was United Federal Credit Union, which received the 2016 Benchmark Award, given to the company whose workplace goes above and beyond in offering employee benefits, professional development programs and other perks.

The Michigan-based institution operates five locations in Alma, Fort Smith, Van Buren and Springdale. In 2015, the company reported over $2 billion in assets, $17.5 million in income and 140,000 total members.

"That would not happen without a satisfied workforce that advocates for us and the goods and services we offer," Noel Andrew Sanger, the company's market vice president, said of the its growth. "As the Arkansas market vice president, I follow two guiding principles: 'Leadership takes care of the team and the team takes care of the member,' and 'Teamwork divides the task but doubles the success.'"

UFCU’s focus on the employee has driven turnover to just 6 percent in the Arkansas region, well below national turnover rates of between 15 and 22 percent. Sanger credits operational elements that address its 49 local employees as individuals first as one big reason why.

Award winners are determined by a set of criteria set forth in the Best Places program, through which companies survey their employees about workplace satisfaction, corporate culture and company leadership. This year's honorees were recognized at a luncheon at the Embassy Suites Little Rock.

The event recognized two other companies as overall "Best Places to Work" in the small and large company categories.

Saatchi & Saatchi X of Springdale, an advertising firm, won in the small company category. 

"We transcend fun to make this a joyful place to work," said Jessica Hill, the firm's talent director. "We celebrate every success, birthday and anniversary. We have a committee that finds different ways for us to give back to the community; we've held fundraising events and internal games or competitions to raise money, as well as donating our time. Additionally, we have a secret committee called X-Files that creatively executes fun activities throughout the year."

Amid the entertainment value of crawfish boils, Halloween costume contests and charity Texas Hold 'Em tournaments, the company is also achieving important team building benefits that show up most clearly during times of stress.

Rockfish, a digital media agency founded in Rogers in 2006, won in the large company category. 

The firm, with offices in Little Rock, Dallas, Cincinnati and Atlanta, marked its fourth consecutive year as a Best Place to Work honoree. Lisa Bridgers, senior vice president for talent acquisition and human resources, said Rockfish wants its employees to do their best in the office and at home. 

This year, the company deliberately focused on employees' overall well-being. The goal was a happier, healthier and more productive workplace.

Other winners for Best Place to Work in the small category were:

• Braswell & Son Pawnbrokers
• C.R. Crawford Construction LLC
• Clark Contractors
• Delta Dental of Arkansas
• Harrison Energy Partners
• Kimbel Mechanical Systems
• Optus Inc.
• Perks.com
• Rainwater Holt & Sexton PA
• RevUnit
• Team SI
• The Good Earth Garden Center
• Travel Nurse across America LLC
• WELSCO Inc.

Other winners for Best Place to Work in the large category were:

• ABC Financial Services Inc.
• Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield
• Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp.
• Arkansas Federal Credit Union
• CaseStack
• City of Siloam Springs
• Delta Plastics
• Rockfish
• Rural Sourcing Inc.
• St. Bernards Medical Center
• Total Quality Logistics
• United Federal Credit Union
• USAble Life
• VCC LLC

More information about the Best Places to work program, including profiles of each company and how to register for next year's program, is available here.

A 45,952-SF St. Vincent West medical office building in west Little Rock tipped the scales at $14.1 million.

DOC-16221 St. Vincent Way MOB LLC, an affiliate of Physicians Realty Trust of Milwaukee, bought the project at 16221 St. Vincent Way from St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center.

The 4.22-acre site was purchased in December 2009 as part of a $4 million transaction with Deltic Timber Corp. of El Dorado.

Commercial Sale

An 82,474-SF office-warehouse project in North Little Rock weighed in at $2.2 million.

NL Ventures X East 13th Street LLC of Austin, Texas, acquired the 400 E. 13th St. project from Cedar Creek LLC, an affiliate of Cedar Creek Wholesale of Broken Bow, Okla.

The property was bought for $1.1 million in May 2011 from the Newman Family LLC, led by Dwain Newman.

AutoZone Acquisition

A 5,400-SF AutoZone in Little Rock changed hands in a $1.01 million sale.

401 (K) LLC of Newport Beach, California, purchased the 515 E. Roosevelt Road project from AZH Roosevelt LLC, led by Kevin Huchingson, and Scott Proctor.

The deal is financed with a seven-year loan of $1.5 million from Talmer Bank & Trust of Troy, Michigan.

The 0.6-acre development previously helped secure an April 2016 mortgage of $2.2 million held by Arvest Bank of Fayetteville. The location was acquired for $135,000 in April 2003 from Baird Inc., led by John Schlereth.

Office Buy I

A 5,125-SF office building in Little Rock is under new ownership after a $400,000 deal. Goodwitch Properties LLC, led by Chad Millard, bought the 2121 Watt St. project.

The seller is 100 Queensway LLC, led by Justin Muller.

The 0.34-acre development previously was tied to a February 2014 mortgage of $340,000 held by Simmons Bank of Pine Bluff.

100 Queensway purchased the property for $400,000 in October 2011 from Farmers Bank & Trust of Magnolia.

Office Buy II

A 2,300-SF office building in west Little Rock rang up a $220,000 sale.

Thomas and Lori Schneider acquired the Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics project at 10014 W. Markham St.

The deal is funded with a seven-year loan of $176,000 from Simmons Bank.

The seller is 10014 W. Markham St. LLC, led by Lee Stephens.

The 0.3-acre development previously was linked with an April 2016 mortgage of $163,780 held by One Bank & Trust of Little Rock.

The property was bought for $160,000 five months ago from Solomon Enterprises Inc., led by Barry Solomon.

Pharmacy Transaction

A 3,200-SF retail project in Little Rock drew a $175,000 transaction.

CAEB Properties LLC, led by Charlie Turner, purchased the Arch Street Pharmacy at 11200 Arch Street Pike. The seller is MAM Enterprises Inc., led by Mark McMurry.

The deal is backed with a five-year loan of $270,000 from Peoples Bank of Sheridan.

The 0.92-acre development previously helped secure a February 2012 mortgage of $630,000 held by Metropolitan National Bank of Little Rock.

MAM Enterprises acquired the property for $255,000 in April 2001 from Robert Cotton and his wife, Kristine.

Estates Purchase

A 6,845-SF home in The Estates neighborhood of west Little Rock’s Chenal Valley development sold for $923,000.

The Kimberlyn W. Binkley Trust bought the house from Scott and Erin Schoen. The deal is financed with a 15-year loan of $738,400 from Arvest Bank.

The Schoens purchased the property for $842,000 in July 2001 from the namesake trust of Raymond and Linda Skelton.

Woodland’s Abode I

A 4,397-SF home in the Woodland’s Edge neighborhood of west Little Rock changed hands in an $875,384 deal.

Joey and Leslie Wiggins acquired the house from Chenal Valley Construction Inc., led by James Miles.

The deal is funded with a 30-year loan of $696,000 from Arkansas Federal Credit Union of Jacksonville. The residence previously was tied to a September 2015 mortgage of $552,000 held by BancorpSouth Bank of Tupelo, Mississippi.

The location was bought for $160,000 in April 2015 from Kenneth Meachum.

Heights Home

A 3,399-SF home in the Heights neighborhood of Little Rock is under new ownership after a $795,000 sale.

John and Nena Busby purchased the house from the Rhodes Family Revocable Trust, led by Noah Rhodes Jr.

The deal is backed with a 30-year loan of $636,000 from Simmons Bank. The residence previously was linked with a June 2014 mortgage of $500,000 held by BancorpSouth Bank.

The property was acquired for $700,000 more than two years ago from the Diane Davenport Wilder Living Trust.

Cypress Point House

A 5,020-SF home in west Little Rock’s Cypress Point neighborhood rang up a $629,000 deal.

Derek Stafford bought the house from Rob Herndon III and his wife, Tami.

The deal is financed with 30-year loans of $417,000 and $86,200 from Bank of Little Rock Mortgage Corp.

The Herndons purchased the property for $630,000 in April 2007 from Robert and Angela Belk.

Millers Residence

A 3,500-SF home in Sherwood’s Millers Pointe neighborhood drew a $550,000 transaction.

Randy and Betty Ort acquired the house from E-Co Residential Builders Inc., led by Jerry Ester.

The deal is funded with a 13-year loan of $392,000 from Regions Bank of Birmingham, Alabama. The residence previously was tied to a September 2015 mortgage of $401,710 held by Little Rock’s Bank of the Ozarks.

The location was bought for $80,000 a year ago from the Carol Ann Davis Trust No. 1.

Woodland’s Abode II

A 4,337-SF home in the Woodland’s Edge neighborhood of west Little Rock sold for $534,000.

Josh and Sydney Smith purchased the house from Mark and Brooke Sumby. The deal is backed with a 10-year loan of $544,680 from Simmons Bank.

The residence previously was linked with an August 2014 mortgage of $392,000 held by IberiaBank Mortgage Co. of Little Rock.

The Sumbys acquired the property for $490,000 more than two years ago from The Wilson Co., led by Janet Dillon.

Marabel House

A 3,675-SF home in the Marabel Court neighborhood of west Little Rock’s Chenal Valley development changed hands in a $519,000 deal.

Albert and Debra Zimmerebner bought the house from J. Martin Homes Inc. of Bryant.

The residence previously was tied to a December 2015 mortgage of $404,000 held by Arvest Bank.

The site was purchased for $82,000 nine months ago from Deltic Timber.

Multimillion-Dollar Construction

Pinnacle View Middle School    $34,332,724
5701 Ranch Drive, Little Rock
Baldwin & Shell Construction Co., Little Rock

Stribling Equipment    $5,300,000
10600 Interstate 30, Little Rock
Peoples Construction Corp., Flowood, Mississippi

Cornerstone Clinic    $4,898,690
9500 Baptist Health Drive, Little Rock
Bailey Construction & Consulting LLC, Little Rock

Sarah and Jorge Gutierrez are bringing a Latin flair back to the River Market location that once housed Juanita’s restaurant with their plans for Little Rock Salsa, a private club focusing on salsa dancing, naturally, along with other Latin dances like bachata, cumbia, cha-cha and meringue.

The Little Rock couple have just applied with the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division for a private club license and are working on their application with the city for a zoning change.

Little Rock Salsa is a kind of club-dancing school headed by the Gutierrezes that for the last seven years has partnered with local restaurants and clubs to hold Friday night salsa nights. Among those partners were Browning’s before it became Heights Taco & Tamale, Juanita’s and the Metroplex Event Center.

“It will be Arkansas’ first dedicated site for ballroom dancing and salsa and other Latin types of dancing,” said Sarah Gutierrez, who heads Aptus Financial, a Little Rock financial planning company. A “light menu” will be served, and Little Rock Salsa will feature a full bar, she said.

They plan to be open every Friday and may be open other nights as well for special events like “tango night.”

Sarah and Jorge, who manages a chemical plant in Jacksonville, met salsa dancing. “It’s just great fun,” Sarah Gutierrez said. “We met salsa dancing in Little Rock. We fell in love doing that. And now we teach together.”

Little Rock Salsa hopes to be open by December.

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer confidence in September rose to the highest level in nine years, a hopeful sign that economic growth will accelerate in coming months.

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

SPRINGDALE - Tyson Foods Inc. says it's voluntarily recalling more than 132,000 pounds of chicken nuggets after receiving reports that "hard, white plastic" was found in some nuggets.

The Springdale, Arkansas-based company said Tuesday that the 5-pound bags of fully cooked panko chicken nuggets were sold at Costco stores nationwide. A small number of 20-pound cases of chicken patties, sold under the Spare Time brand, were sold to a single wholesaler in Pennsylvania.

Tyson says "a small number" of consumers contacted the company after finding small pieces of plastic in the chicken. Tyson says it's issuing the recall "out of an abundance of caution" even though it's only received a small number of reports of plastic. No injuries have been reported.

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

Tyson Fresh Meats Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale, said Thursday that it is investing $27 million to expand production capacity at its case-ready beef and pork plant in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The project will add 55,000 SF for new production lines and warehouse space, as well as 350 jobs, bringing total employment there to more than 1,400.  

The company said the move will increase the plant's capacity to produce fresh ground beef, beef and pork cuts, and meal kits for distribution to retail grocers. The expansion is underway and scheduled to be complete in July. 

Tyson Foods operates three plants in the area. The company has a pepperoni plant in Council Bluffs and a bacon plant in Omaha. In all, Tyson Foods employs about 2,000 people in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area.

"This project is great news for our plant, our community and our customers," said Steve Friedrichsen, complex manager of the Council Bluffs case-ready plant. "We are committed to the Council Bluffs community and look forward adding more jobs with this expansion, while also meeting the growing demand for case-ready products."

The Council Bluffs case-ready plant generated an annual payroll of $37 million in 2015, the company said.

For two decades, the Arkansas Legislature’s gift to the liquor industry, an onerous petition requirement to get the question of going from dry to wet (or vice versa) on a countywide ballot, functioned precisely as designed. It protected that peculiar patchwork of wet and dry counties that funneled the finite number of drinkers to as few retailers as possible.

Originally the signature hurdle was 15 percent of registered voters, as it is with other initiated acts. Then it was raised to 30 percent. And when that threatened to be inadequate to preserve the status quo, lawmakers raised it to 38 percent.

Finally, in 2006, Jim Wilson Jr., a justice of the peace in Marion County, proved that even that mountain could be summited with determination (and, in larger counties, money). Marion went wet, followed by Clark and Boone in 2010; Benton, Madison and Sharp in 2012; and Saline and Columbia in 2014.

Clearly the wall protecting the liquor industry was crumbling at an alarming rate. So in 2015, in an act to “clarify” the law concerning wet-dry petitions, the Legislature sneaked in another highly effective speed bump. Or, as Linda Bowlin, chairman of a committee that tried but failed to get a go-wet question on the ballot in Randolph County, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “We learned the law is fraught with land mines.”

The new law, you see, throws out a whole page of signatures if even one signer on the page is not a registered voter in the county. It happened in Johnson County. In Independence County, the signatures of the mayor of Batesville and the chairman of the chamber of commerce were invalidated that way.

Once again, the Legislature has saved the liquor sellers from the will of the people, but only by interfering with the right of the people to petition the government — a right the state constitution says “shall never be abridged.” Could an appeal on constitutional grounds fail?

After almost four years as CEO of Taziki’s Mediterranean Café, based in Birmingham, Alabama, Little Rock restaurateur Jim Keet was ready to give up his almost constant travel to “spend more time with family and build restaurants with the boys.”

Those boys are sons Tommy, 40, and Jake, 31; Tommy is president of JTJ Restaurants LLC, the Keets’ restaurant company, and Jake is vice president of operations. Jim Keet is chairman of the family business; Stephanie Keet, Jake’s wife, is marketing director; and Susannah Keet, recently wed to Tommy, is director of administration. For Jim Keet, spending more time with family isn’t code for abandoning the business world.

When Jim Keet became CEO of Taziki’s in September 2012, he told Arkansas Business that his goal was to “navigate into the future” the Taziki’s brand. He oversaw daily operations of the business while expanding the company, founded in 1998 by Keith and Amy Richards.

“I tripled the size of the company in three and a half years,” Keet said of his time leading the fast-casual chain with a Greek food-inspired menu. Taziki’s had 20 restaurants when Keet took the helm and, according to its website and Keet, is on track to have almost 80 locations open in 16 states by the first of the year. The chain is among the fastest-growing in the country, according to RestaurantNews.com.

“It was a great experience, but in 44 months I was on the road all but five weeks,” he said. “So I am just delighted to be back here building restaurants with my sons and working with my sweet daughters-in-law.”

Keet remains a minority stockholder in the Taziki’s chain parent company. His JTJ Restaurants owns six Taziki’s in Arkansas and is building a seventh at the Gateway Town Center at the intersection of Interstates 30 and 430. Keet, in fact, was an owner of the Town Center property — with developer Tommy Hodges and two others — and is still a “small owner” of it. “We’re excited to be going out there on property that we used to own all of,” Keet said.

The Keets and partner Mike Pierce also are working on opening a second Taziki’s in Tulsa.

The Keets’ restaurant enterprises employ about 150 people in Arkansas and 30 in Oklahoma, and with the opening of the new Taziki’s locations in Little Rock and Tulsa, that number will rise to 180 in Arkansas and about 65 in Oklahoma.

The Keets hope to build 10 to 15 Taziki’s in Oklahoma with their eyes on Oklahoma City, Edmond, Norman and surrounding areas, Jim Keet said.

They also want to further expand in Arkansas, he said, and have been scouting sites for the last 18 months.

“We’re taking a very methodical approach toward our development,” he said. “We want all of our sites to be excellent.” They hope to build one or two yearly in Arkansas for the next several years, Keet said.

JTJ had revenue “well in excess of $10 million” in 2015, he said.

The family, he said, has been instrumental in the development of the Taziki’s brand, which had only three stores when they became involved as the first franchisee.

“The whole idea was for us to bring our expertise to the whole enterprise and to help develop the concept,” he said. “Tommy and Jake and Stephanie have added a lot to the success of corporate.”

In addition, the family, with partner Barkley Boyd, owns the I Love Juice Bar in Little Rock’s Midtown Shopping Center, which opened a year ago. I Love Juice Bar is a franchise based in Nashville, Tennessee.

Keet described I Love Juice Bar as a health-conscious concept — “everything’s natural, no preservatives, no sugar added, no ice. It’s all natural fruits and vegetables.” More I Love Juice Bars are a possibility.

Finally, Keet is joining with fellow restaurant industry veteran Louis Petit in Petit & Keet Bar & Grill in the former 1620 Savoy space at 1620 Market St., announced a couple of weeks ago. Petit founded Café Prego in the Heights but now works with his sons on the Florida Gulf Coast in the restaurants Louis Louis in Santa Rosa Beach and The Red Bar in Grayton Beach.

Petit’s restaurant experience in Little Rock goes back to the days of the legendary Jacques & Suzanne. Keet also is a veteran of the industry, having worked with the late Jerry Hamra to develop the Wendy’s of Little Rock franchise.

As for JTJ and his other ventures, Keet said he’s glad to be able to devote more time to the family business: “I am so delighted to be home.”

A collapsed egg market and a contract loophole with their integrator have some egg producers in northwest Arkansas and east Oklahoma worried about survival.

In November 2014, Arkansas Egg Co. of Summers sold approximately 35 egg-producing contracts with local farmers to privately owned Vital Farms of Austin, Texas. In the past few weeks, Vital Farms has informed some of those contracted egg producers that the company would “turn out” their birds — that is, Vital Farms would collect and kill the birds to prevent their eggs from reaching the oversaturated market. Several farmers, almost all of whom requested anonymity because their contracts are still active with Vital Farms, told Arkansas Business that their birds or those of fellow producers have already been turned out.

The farmers are those whose integrator contracts with Arkansas Egg had been purchased by Vital Farms. As integrator Vital Farms owns the birds and provides feed, while the farmers are responsible for everything else.

For egg producers who have tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in land, chicken houses and accessories, losing eggs to sell could amount to financial ruin.

Vital Farms was founded in 2007. It was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies with 2014 revenue of $28.7 million and a three-year growth rate of 496 percent.

According to producers who spoke to Arkansas Business, Vital Farms pays between 50 and 88 cents per dozen eggs; a producer with 5,000 chickens could lose the potential income of 4,000 eggs a day for weeks if not months, depending on how long each turned out flock had remaining in its laying life.

“It’s a bad deal for the farmers, I’m telling you,” said a northwest Arkansas farmer. “I don’t know how we can get it stopped or how we can get it fixed, but it’s not right. It’ll break people. There will be people who lose their farms over this.”

‘Tough Choices’

As recently as a year ago, the egg market was in fine fettle both for cage-produced eggs and the specialty egg market that includes cage-free, free-range and pasture-raised. But that was a year ago.

This summer, cage-egg wholesale prices — the most popular eggs on the market — fell to 55 cents per dozen, the lowest in 10 years. Specialty eggs, which generally sell from anywhere between $4 and $8 a dozen, couldn’t compete.

The glut was the result of prices that stayed high after the Avian Influenza scare of a year ago and caused many farmers to up their egg production to capitalize on the high prices. But when all those eggs hit the market, prices plummeted.

“I would say it’s the worst market since the late ‘90s; it’s hard to say if it is going to set up as one of the worst markets ever,” said Michael Cox, the president of Arkansas Egg. “Looking at the next 12 months it’s easy to see how things aren’t going to change much.”

Cox said he likes the long-term prospects for specialty eggs, but there will be short-term pain while the market remains flooded with cheap generic eggs. Vital Farms, with thousands of pricey eggs struggling in the saturated cheap market, decided to reduce production until the market rebounded.

COO and President Russell Diez-Canseco said Vital Farms had “tough choices” to make to keep the company sustainable long-term. Diez-Canseco said the company was using a clause in the original Arkansas Egg contracts that he said allowed Vital Farms to turn out birds when production was no longer profitable.

Diez-Canseco said Vital Farms would pay farmers 1 cent per day per turned-out bird for the rest of 2016. The 1-cent pay is the same as “pullet pay,” the amount Vital Farms pays farmers for birds before they start laying eggs, usually from 15 weeks to 25 weeks of age.

“We’ve never been in a situation before where we had more eggs than we needed,” Diez-Canseco said. “When you have too many eggs in a market like this, there’s not much you can do with them. So we’ve taken many steps over the last year to bring that supply more in line with our demand.

“As that problem has continued, we have had to take steps again — completely within the terms of our agreements with all of our growers — to bring that supply down. That’s what we did in this case.”

Cox wrote the original contracts and said the profitability clause was not meant to be used the way Vital Farms was using it, although Cox stopped short of directly criticizing the interpretation. Arkansas Egg still has a buy-sell contract for 30,000 chickens with Vital Farms, meaning Arkansas Egg owns and controls the entire laying process until selling the eggs,.

Cox said the clause was originally meant as a corrective measure for farmers whose birds were not producing enough eggs to pay for themselves and their feed. It was not meant as a market correction tool, Cox said.

“As the authors, I can tell you our intent was more related to production,” Cox said. “If they were underperforming with their egg output is the intent of that clause. We interpret it to be strictly a measure of production and not a measure of the company’s profitability.”

‘Severance Pay’

Producers whose birds will and have been turned out said they had the same understanding of the clause when they signed with Arkansas Egg. They are reluctant to voice those opinions publicly because most still have flocks under contracts with Vital Farms, and the company has told them it won’t restock birds until profitable market conditions return.

“The hens are doing what they’re supposed to,” said a farmer in east Oklahoma near Siloam Springs. “That is what the clause is there in for. They’re twisting that clause because they’re losing money.”

Diez-Canseco said Vital Farms doesn’t believe the current market conditions will continue long-term. He said he wished the pullet pay Vital Farms is offering could be more.

“I could make choices that would be more comfortable now, but maybe we wouldn’t be in position 2-3 years from now to continue delivering on our commitments,” Diez-Canseco said. “I wish these choices were easier. I wish we didn’t have this kind of situation, but the reassurance I would give those growers is, as painful as this is, we’re being proactive about making sure this is sustainable for all of our stakeholders.”

One farmer who didn’t ask for anonymity said the pullet pay Vital Farms was offering amounted to “severance pay.” Mitchell Yancey said he invested $200,000 for two pasture-raised chicken houses that can’t easily be repurposed for other uses, and the pullet pay he will receive for 5,000 turned-out chickens wouldn’t even pay his insurance.

“They’re still selling their eggs at the same price,” said Yancey, whose farm is at Westville, Oklahoma. “They grew at 100 percent for two years in a row and they outgrew their market. Now the producers have to pay for that.”

Diez-Canseco said Vital Farms’ pullet pay was the only instance he knew of where a company was paying for absent chickens. But Cox said Arkansas Egg was doing even better by the owners of organic chicken houses that the company had depopulated because the organic egg market was depressed.

Among the farmers Arkansas Egg is paying are Derek and Tyler Amoth of Gentry, who are listed on the “Meet Our Farmers” page of Vital Farms’ website. Cox said Arkansas Egg is paying what the depopulated chickens had been expected to produce if they had laid eggs.

Other producers said the Amoths were among those whose chickens would be turned out by Vital Farms; Derek Amoth declined comment when contacted.

“We chose to make good on what their income would have been,” Cox said. “It’s the right thing to do for one. A year ago, when they could have sold their eggs for 10 times the money I was paying them, they continued to sell their eggs to me. It’s a two-way street. When the ball was in their court, they honored their end of it. When the ball’s in my court I’m going to honor my end of it.”

One producer said he heard rumors that a second round of turnouts was in the works, but Diez-Canseco said the only contracts that allowed such action were the former Arkansas Egg ones. And those contracts, he said, are a “subset” of the company’s integrator contracts, which themselves were a minority of Vital Farms’ total contracts. He said Vital Farms couldn’t take more birds out of houses without breaking a contract.

“I don’t know who you’re talking to, but some of our integrator farmers have multiple flocks with multiple contracts,” Diez-Canseco said. “We’ve gone in and turned out one flock and left the other. By the way, that is my evidence that we haven’t broken any of our contractual commitments. If we just wanted to leave town, we would have shut them all off.”

A 250-unit apartment complex is planned in Centerton after a $2.2 million land purchase.

Can-Ark Diamond Centerton, led by Rich Richardson, bought 20 acres southwest of the intersection of East Centerton Boulevard and Greenhouse Road. Centerton Commerce Park LLC, led by James von Gremp, was the seller.

Jordan Jeter, a partner at Flake & Kelley Commercial Northwest, represented both parties in the acquisition, which just recently closed. Richardson, a builder and developer, is getting approval through the city for the large-scale development.

“It’s a phenomenal location,” Jeter said. “You couldn’t pick a better spot. It’s pretty prime property. We need more multi-family.”

Jeter said the area is a hot one because a Starbucks recently opened at the southeast corner of the intersection and two lots just north of the apartment complex site are under contract. The two lots, Jeter said, are scheduled to become a Taco Bell and a First Security Bank.

Jeter said he has four more lots adjacent to the apartment complex site and one has already received an offer from a restaurant.

The Walton family has fallen out of the top 10 of Forbes magazine's list of the country's 400 richest people.

The list, out this week, shows the members of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton's family — siblings Jim, Rob and Alice — coming at numbers 11, 12 and 13. Each is worth around $35 billion.

Last year, Jim Walton ranked No. 9 on the list. Alice and Rob ranked Nos. 12 and 13.

Other Arkansans on the list are: Warren Stephens at No. 290, worth about $2.4 billion — Johnelle Hunt at No. 309, worth about $2.3 billion; and John Tyson at No. 321, worth about $2.2 billion.

No. 1 on the list is Microsoft founder Bill Gates, worth an estimated $82 billion.

Property owners in downtown Little Rock’s Metrocentre Improvement District No. 1 are finally getting a break from decades of shouldering $12.5 million of debt.

Special improvement taxes on more than 200 properties were slashed by 85 percent in the aftermath of a final bond payment in March.

That $335,000 outlay extinguished the last in a series of bonds that financed revitalization efforts in a 45-block commercial area that included the ill-fated Metrocentre Mall.

For private property owners within the district, those annual assessments represented another layer of taxation on top of conventional property taxes. The added cost also created a disadvantage in the competition to lease space to tenants.

“It’s a $1 per SF difference,” said Hank Kelley, CEO and partner at Flake & Kelley Commercial.

Kelley and Warren Stephens, CEO of Stephens Inc., are among a group of downtown stakeholders hoping to dissolve the improvement district and be fully shed of its financial obligations that date back nearly 40 years.

“We didn’t think the improvement district was going to last as long as it did,” Kelley said.

The Metrocentre Improvement District commission agreed to dissolve the district subject to the consent of a majority of its property owners. The necessary signatures are said to be in hand, awaiting verification.

“That is the direction we’re heading,” said Millie Ward, an MID commissioner. “That seems to be the wishes of a majority of the members. It’s a complex undertaking to unwind it all.”

Once verified, the petition would then be presented to the city attorney as the basis for an ordinance to dissolve the district through the city board.

But there could be a hitch in the timetable for dissolving the improvement district. One last bond issue remains outstanding.

Until Walter Hussman retires the $6.3 million bond issue, the improvement district may not be able to close its books and fade into history. As it stands now, that won’t happen until 2025.

The 1985 bonds used by Hussman’s Little Rock Newspapers Inc. was the largest of 22 tax-free bond issues made through the improvement district over the years.

When he wanted to put a printing press in the Terminal Building at 500 E. Markham St., Hussman got unprecedented assistance from Metrocentre Improvement District commissioners.

That required a controversial vote to make the property, today’s Museum Center at 500 President Clinton Ave., part of the improvement district although it lies two blocks beyond its boundaries.

Hussman received the benefit of the improvement district’s bond-issuing capability without having to pay special improvement taxes on the property. It was a consideration unlike any other associated with bonds issued through the improvement district.

Until the Metrocentre Improvement District is closed, members will have to be content with the drastic reduction in property assessments.

The reduced assessments and income from the MID-owned parking deck on the west side of Scott Street between Sixth and Seventh streets chiefly fund the clean and green crew who wrangle trash and care for the trees and shrubs.

The parking deck is one of the two most significant assets of the special improvement district. The other is the 11-foot, 5-inch bronze Henry Moore sculpture, Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge, which was installed at Capitol and Main Street in 1978.

When the district is dissolved, the parking deck would likely be deeded to the city. The Arkansas Arts Center is mentioned as a leading candidate to receive ownership of the sculpture.

The Downtown Little Rock Partnership is paid $100,000 annually to administer the financial affairs of the improvement district.

“Most people think if the improvement district goes away the Downtown Partnership goes away,” Executive Director Gabe Holmstrom said. “That’s not true.”

The initial mission of the improvement district was to develop the Metrocentre Mall in hopes of stabilizing the migration of businesses from downtown Little Rock. The pedestrian mall was among a long line of similar projects in cities across the nation that failed to stem the move to the suburbs.

As Metrocentre Mall was languishing, the improvement district picked up the development of two parking decks, part of the original mission discussion.

The projected financial performance of the parking decks didn’t materialize. That situation improved over time but still left the improvement district saddled with more debt and extended the payout period.

Doug Meyer, an MID commissioner, is among those who believe the district’s perseverance over the years contributed to the more recent successes in downtown revitalization.

“In retrospect, if it would’ve been delayed, it would probably be a huge success,” Meyer said. “Timing is everything.

“Now you’re getting people working downtown, eating downtown, living downtown and shopping downtown. It will be interesting to see if another improvement district comes to fruition if this one is terminated.”

Timeline of Metrocentre Improvement District No. 1

December 1976: A $4.5 million bond issue funds the development of a pedestrian-friendly streetscape in the heart of downtown Little Rock. The project closed motorized traffic on Main Street between Third and Seventh streets and on Capitol Avenue between Scott and Louisiana streets.

In addition to building water features and planting greenery, asphalt pavement was replaced with brick paving for foot traffic. The bonds also financed the $185,000 (more than $800,000 in 2016 dollars) purchase of the Henry Moore sculpture: Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge.

October 1978: The pedestrian-only Metrocentre Mall opens.

December 1985: An $11.8 million bond issue refinances the $3.8 million debt remaining from the original bond issue and pays for the construction of two, 650-slot parking decks. The city made a special one-time payment of $500,000 to the improvement district to help the effort.

The city-owned parking deck sites are on the east side of Main Street between Second and Third and on the west side of Scott Street between Sixth and Seventh.

The Metrocentre Improvement District Commission approves adding Walter Hussman’s Terminal Building to the improvement district. The move allows Hussman’s Little Rock Newspapers Inc. to make a $6.3 million tax-free bond issue through the improvement district.

However, Hussman isn’t required to pay an annual assessment to the improvement district on the property, now known as the Museum Center at 500 President Clinton Ave. The special accommodation doesn’t sit well with some members of the improvement district.

January 1991: The city removes the pedestrian mall features and reopens Main Street to vehicular traffic, and the Henry Moore sculpture is moved from the center of Main and Capitol. The 1,200-pound bronze work eventually is relocated to the southeast corner of Louisiana and Capitol when the last piece of the pedestrian mall on Capitol Avenue is removed in 1999.

November 1997: A $7 million bond issue refinances the remaining debt from the 1985 bonds, reducing the interest rate from 9.33 percent to 5.17 percent. The new issue also includes the flexibility of selling the parking decks, something prohibited under the 1985 terms. The Statehouse Parking Deck at 201 Main St. is sold to the city for $2.1 million in connection with the refinancing.

November 2012: A $1.5 million private placement bond issue with Arvest Bank of Fayetteville refinances the remaining 1997 issue debt and reduces the interest rate to 1.99 percent.

March 2016: The final bond payment is made, and the Metrocentre Improvement District Commission approves dissolving the district subject to the consent of a majority of its property owners. The vote tally is tied to the valuation of property ownership within the district, not individual owners.

However, until Hussman pays off his 1985 bond issue in 2025, the improvement district may not be able to disband.

Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale has taken a 5 percent ownership stake in plant-based protein producer Beyond Meat, both companies announced Monday.

The investment, provided through a fundraising initiative by Beyond Meat, will provide additional capital to help the company expand its product portfolio and distribution. Beyond Meat will remain an independent, privately held company led by Founder and CEO Ethan Brown.

"This investment by Tyson Foods underscores the growing market for plant protein," Brown said in a news release. "I'm pleased to welcome Tyson as an investor and look forward to leveraging this support to broaden availability of plant protein choices to consumers."

As part of this or prior rounds of fundraising, Beyond Meat also has secured funding from investors including The Humane Society of the United States, Bill Gates and Kleiner Perkins.

"We're enthusiastic about this investment, which gives us exposure to a fast-growing segment of the protein market," said Tyson Foods' Executive Vice President of Strategy and New Ventures & President of Foodservice, Monica McGurk. "It meets our desire to offer consumers choices and to consider how we can serve an ever-growing and diverse global population, while remaining focused on our core prepared foods and animal protein businesses."

The terms of the agreement are not being disclosed. 

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Thursday said he will travel to China to meet with existing and prospective business contacts and with government officials about opening the country to Arkansas rice and poultry.

Mike Preston, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, and Mark Hamer, AEDC director of business development for Asia, will accompany the governor on the six-day tour, which will include stops in Shanghai, Beijing, Yanzhou District, Jinan, Jining and Suzhou.

The group leaves Saturday and will return Oct. 21.

Hutchinson said China has barriers to rice and poultry from the U.S. and that he wants to meet directly with government officials about changing that. The country still an avian flu ban on poultry, and an agreement to allow U.S. rice into China has yet to be approved by its government.

Hutchinson's group plans to meet with China's vice minister of agriculture and its secretary general of foreign affairs.

Also: Hutchinson weighs in Donald Trump's comments about women.

"Not only will be calling on prospective businesses that we hope to recruit to Arkansas over time, but we'll also be meeting with Arkansas businesses there, and also taking the case for Arkansas to the Chinese government," he said.

Hutchinson said the group will meet with Shandong Sun Paper Industry JSC Ltd., which earlier this year announced plans to build a $1.3 billion paper mill that will employ 250 people in Clark County. They will also meet with Arkansas companies that do business in China, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale and Cobb-Vantress Inc. of Siloam Springs.

Preston said maintaining relationships with companies is important for recruitment and other economic development efforts.

"When you're doing economic development, relationships matter, and this governor has proven that — that building these relationships are imperative to us doing business here in the United States but obviously also overseas," Preston said. "What we learned last time with China is that we have to have a presence there — we continue to have our office in Shanghai — and it's important for myself and the governor to make sure that Arkansas is known over there."

Preston said the state aims to continue momentum generated by the Sun Paper agreement. He said AEDC has seen an uptick in calls from Chinese companies interested in the state, which is giving Arkansas more reason to go and share its story there.

Preston said the Chinese are looking for new places to invest.

"They're looking for markets outside of China to invest in, and they look at the United States as the most stable market in the world in which to invest," he said. "So that tells us that Arkansas has an opportunity to be one of the first states there that can build those relationships to look for investments. So I think that's where you see a company like Sun Paper looking to invest in new markets and looking to the United States."

The trip will cost $45,000, according to the governor's office. It will be the governor's fifth international trade mission since taking office and his second to China. In July, Hutchinson and Preston led a contingent to Europe to explore opportunities in the aerospace and defense industries and open an AEDC office in Berlin. 

In November, the governor traveled to China and Japan. In 2015, he was the first governor to visit Cuba since the country re-established formal diplomatic relations with the United States. The Cuba missions also focused on promoting the state's rice and poultry industries.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Friday announced the following appointments:

Lloyd Freeman Wish, Clarksville, to the Academic Facilities Review Board. Appointment expires Aug. 6, 2019. Replaces Sandra Porter.

Daniel Barnes, Fayetteville, to the Academic Facilities Review Board. Appointment expires Aug. 6, 2018. Replaces Brad Hammond.

Mary Ann Winter Herring, Humphrey, to the Arkansas State Respiratory Care Examining Committee. Appointment expires Aug. 7, 2019. Replaces Dr. Erna Boone.

Dr. Patricia Knott, Conway, to the Arkansas Tobacco Control Board. Appointment expires June 30, 2021. Replaces J. Lacey.

Michael Lindsey, Fayetteville, to the Career Education and Workforce Development Board. Appointment expires June 30, 2017. Replaces Dr. Steven Collier.

Dr. Justin Moore, Searcy, to the Arkansas Board of Examiners in Counseling. Appointment expires Dec. 1, 2018. Replaces Dr. Penny Willmering.

Sharon Vogelpohl, Little Rock, to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Advisory Committee. Serves at the Will of the Governor. Replaces Curt Bradbury.

Dr. Joseph Thaddeus “Thad” Beck, Fayetteville, to the Oversight Committee on Breast Cancer Research. Appointment expires Dec. 31, 2019. Reappointment.

Katherine Beck, White Hall, as the Director of the Office of State-Federal Relations. Serves at the pleasure of the Governor. Replaces Alison Williams.

Griffin Golleher, Carlisle, to the Arkansas Milk Stabilization Board. Appointment expires Sept. 12, 2020. Replaces Bette Nicholson.

William Anglin, Bentonville, to the Arkansas Milk Stabilization Board. Appointment expires Sept. 12, 2021. Replaces Mike Fisher.

Travis Senter, Osceola, to the Arkansas Boll Weevil Eradication Committee. Appointment expires July 1, 2020. Reappointment.

Matthew Hyneman, Jonesboro, to the Arkansas Boll Weevil Eradication Committee. Appointment expires July 1, 2019. Reappointment.

Pace Hindsley, Marvell, to the Arkansas Boll Weevil Eradication Committee. Appointment expires July 1, 2019. Reappointment.

Richard Bransford, Lonoke, to the Arkansas Boll Weevil Eradication Committee. Appointment expires July 1, 2020. Replaces Laudies Brantley.

Marie Bane, Magnolia, to the Arkansas State Board of Sanitarians. Appointment expires June 30, 2018. Replaces April Jones.

Dr. Lenora Newsome, Smackover, to the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy. Appointment expires June 30, 2022. Reappointment.

Sam Whitaker, Monticello, to the Arkansas Agriculture Board. Appointment expires Aug. 15, 2020. Replaces Dewayne Chappell.

Landon Pool, Lonoke, to the Arkansas Agriculture Board. Appointment expires Aug. 15, 2020. Replaces Margie Saul.

Jennifer James, Newport, to the Arkansas Agriculture Board. Appointment expires Aug. 15, 2020. Replaces David Choate.

Lonnie Cagle, Conway, to the Arkansas Fire Protection Licensing Board. Appointment expires April 1, 2018. Replaces Richard Sims.

Kristi Davis, Little Rock, to the Governor’s Advisory Commission on National Service and Volunteerism. Appointment expires Feb. 12, 2017. Replaces Denver Landers.

James Floyd, Hardy, to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Aging. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2020. Replaces James Miller.

Matthew Hodges, Perryville, to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Aging. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2018. Replaces Robert Hodges.

William Vines, Fort Smith, to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Aging. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2020. Replaces Dale Carter.

Rickey Joyner, Morrilton, to the Professional Bail Bond Company and Professional Bail Bondsman Licensing Board. Appointment expires Sept. 30, 2023. Reappointment.

D. Brian Todd, White Hall, to the Criminal Justice Institute Advisory Board. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2019. Replaces James Davis.

William Green Jr., Cabot, to the Residential Contractors Committee. Appointment expires Oct. 1, 2019. Reappointment.

John Hales, Rogers, to the Residential Contractors Committee. Appointment expires Oct. 1, 2019. Replaces Todd Wilcox.

Taylor Wynn, Berryville, to the Arkansas Geographic Information Systems Board. Appointment expires Aug. 1, 2020. Reappointment.

Matthew Charton, Morrilton, to the Arkansas Geographic Information Systems Board. Appointment expires Aug. 1, 2020. Replaces Glen Dabney.

Scott Foster, Benton, to the Arkansas Geographic Information Systems Board. Appointment expires Aug. 1, 2020. Replaces Randy Everett.

Judge Rickey Bowman, Ozark, as a Special Judge in the County Court of Conway County, Arkansas. CCR 2016-1 Henry Jones and Kay Jones, husband and wife vs. John Earl and Suzanne Earl, husband and wife. Replaces Conway County Judge Jimmy Hart, who has disqualified himself from the case.

Jay Scholtens, Jonesboro, as a Special Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Arkansas. CV-16-144 Marilyn Curry Troutman v. Ronald Troutman.  Replaces Justice Courtney Hudson Goodson, who has disqualified herself from the case.

David Hogue, Conway, as a Special Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Arkansas. CV-16-144 Marilyn Curry Troutman v. Ronald Troutman. Replaces Justice Robin F. Wynne, who has disqualified himself from the case.

Lauren Heil, North Little Rock, as a Special Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Arkansas. CV-16-435 Samuel A. Perroni v. David Sachar, Executive Director. Replaces Justice Rhonda Wood, who has disqualified herself from the case.

More than five dozen townhomes in Maumelle weighed in at $8.5 million.

EIIC LLC, led by Jean Eiler, purchased 61 townhomes in The Villas at Audubon near the northwest corner of Audubon and Club Manor drives.

The sellers are KJune Properties LLC, led by Kerri Elder, and Elder-Montagne Holdings LLC, led by Jim and June Swink.

The deal is financed with a five-year loan of $3.4 million from Great Southern Bank of Springfield, Missouri, and an $880,000 loan from Elder-Montagne Holdings.

The 7.53-acre development previously was tied to a July 2007 mortgage of $9.6 million held by Great Southern.

The site was acquired for $903,000 more than nine years ago from Gleneagles Inc., led by Frank Hickingbotham.

Office Acquisition I
Third-floor office space in downtown Little Rock tipped the scales at $2.7 million.

Business Boy LLC, led by Roberts Lee, bought the 9,362-SF home of the Meadors Adams & Lee insurance firm in the Arcade Building at 421 President Clinton Ave.

The seller is Clinton-Commerce LLC, led by Jimmy Moses and Rett Tucker. The deal is backed with a 20-year loan of $2.27 million from One Bank & Trust of Little Rock and a $409,000 equipment finance agreement with Enterprise Financial Solutions Inc. of Memphis.

The space previously helped secure a September 2012 mortgage of $5 million held by First Security Bank of Searcy.

The 0.48-acre location was purchased for $1.5 million in January 2009 from Arkansas-Democrat Gazette Inc., led by Walter Hussman Jr.

Warehouse Buy
A 48,257-SF warehouse complex in Little Rock changed hands in a $1.5 million deal.

Charles Whiteside III and James Osborne acquired the 6200-6210 Dividend St. project from S&D Realty Corp. of Monroe, Louisiana.

The 9.21-acre property was bought in March 1962 as part of a $98,000 deal with the Industrial Development Co. of Little Rock, led by R.A. “Brick” Lile.

Office Acquisition II
A 9,656-SF office building in west Little Rock is under new ownership after an $840,000 transaction.

Ellicort Holdings LLC, led by James Keane, purchased the property at 11412 Huron Lane.

The seller is H-C building Co. LLC, led by John Hudson.

The deal is funded with a seven-year loan of $714,000 from Simmons Bank of Pine Bluff.

The 0.74-acre property was acquired for $465,000 in August 1995 from Charles and Carolyn Ward.

Willow Creek Sale
A dormant 133-unit apartment project in southwest Little Rock rang up a $750,000 sale.

Willow Redevelopment LLC, an affiliate of Cross Equities of Addison, Texas, bought Willow Creek Apartments at 7515 Geyer Springs Road from City National Bank of Los Angeles.

The deal is financed with a three-year loan of $2.19 million from American Bank of Commerce in Wolfforth, Texas.

The bank recovered the 4.35-acre development at a $522,000 foreclosure sale in April 2015 from Little Rock Group LLC, led by Steven St. Clair.

Convenient Deal
A Jacksonville convenience store drew a $650,000 transaction.

MJ International LLC, led by Mi Jung Jeon, acquired the Citgo at 120 Marshall Road. The seller is Mid-State Distributing Inc., led by Khairunissa Mandani.

The deal is backed with a three-year loan of $501,500 from First Community Bank of Batesville.

The 0.65-acre property was bought for $60,000 in June 1986 from Kerr-McGee Refining Corp. of Oklahoma City.

Office Acquisition III
A small office building in Little Rock sold for $275,000.

Frizzell Investments LLC, led by Patrick and Kathleen Frizzell, purchased the 1,258-SF project at 1723 N. University Ave. The seller is 1723 North University LLC, led by Rebecca Bailey Kane.

The deal is funded with a five-year loan of $237,775 from Arvest Bank of Fayetteville.

The 0.14-acre development previously was linked with a September 2010 mortgage of $142,000 held by North Little Rock’s National Bank of Arkansas.

The property was acquired for $65,000 in October 1998 from Patsy Long.

Multifamily Purchase
A small apartment project in west Little Rock changed hands in a $235,000 deal

Khan Properties LLC, led by Muhammad Atif Khan, bought the four-plex at 11009 Mara Lynn Drive. The seller is Rainfall Properties LLC, led by QuioLi Lei.

The 0.18-acre development previously was tied to an $186,100 mortgage held by Nationstar Mortgage LLC of Lewisville, Texas.

The property was purchased for $235,000 in April 2007 from Stormy and Diane Smith.

Industrial Transaction
A 16,000-SF industrial project in southwest Little Rock is under new ownership after a $207,000 transaction.

Bushwacker Products Inc., led by Bo Richards, acquired the 7721 Distribution Drive project.

The seller is Lift Truck Service Center Inc., led by Carl Morehead.

The 1.07-acre development was bought for $132,500 in November 1990 from the Marion Jepson estate.

Heights Home
A 3,235-SF home in the Heights area of Little Rock sold for $835,000.

Nathan and Emily Sutterer purchased the house from Christopher and Christy Milligan.

The deal is financed with a 30-year loan of $668,000 from Delmar Financial Co. of St. Louis. The residence previously was linked with an August 2012 mortgage of $612,000 from Bank of Little Rock.

The location was acquired for $240,000 from An Teach Beag LLC, led by Michael Higgins.

Chi Funding I
A dormant Aloft Hotel redevelopment in downtown Little Rock is backed with a $4.52 million mortgage.

Chi Hotel Group LLC, led by Jacob and Jasen Chi, received the loan from Arkansas Federal Credit Union of Jacksonville.

The 12-story Boyle Building at 500 Main St. previously was tied to a June 2015 mortgage of $3.2 million held by IberiaBank of Lafayette, Louisiana.

Chi Hotel Group bought the 0.19-acre development for $4.5 million in March 2014 from Main Street Lofts LLC, led by Scott Reed and Wooten Epes.

Surgical Construction
Construction of a 10,450-SF outpatient surgical center in North Little Rock is in motion with a $4.3 million funding agreement.

BLK Properties LLC, led by Butchaiah and Lakshmi Garlapati, obtained the 23-year loan from Regions Bank of Birmingham, Alabama.

The 1.28-acre site for the Arkansas Pain Center project at 4331 E. 43rd St. was purchased in February 2015 as part of a $228,000 deal with DOW Investments LLC, led by Dow Worsham II.

Chi Funding II
A west Little Rock eatery is securing a $2.32 million financial package.

Rowan Development LLC, led by Jasen and Jacob Chi, got the loan from Arkansas Federal Credit Union.

The 0.77-acre La Madeleine development at 12210 W. Markham St. previously helped secure an April 2012 mortgage of $2.5 million held by IberiaBank.

The property was acquired more than four years ago as part of a $2.4 million deal with Crain Investments Ltd., led by Larry Crain Sr.

Seven-Digit Construction

Mini-Storage    $6,191,803
1620 Brookwood Drive, Little Rock
Greenbar LLC, Greenwood, Indiana

Pharmacy Renovation    $3,584,783
Arkansas Children’s Hospital
1 Children’s Way, Little Rock
Nabholz Construction Corp., Conway

New House    $1,350,000
4900 Stonewall Road, Little Rock
Jon Callahan Construction Inc., Jacksonville

In the shadow of the $70 million Robinson Center renovation, the DoubleTree Little Rock is undergoing its own transformation.

The hotel, at 424 W. Markham St., began millions of dollars in renovations in May. It will modernize all the guest rooms and public spaces, including the lobby and restaurant. General Manager Tina Fleming said most of the work will be complete in time to coincide with Robinson Center's grand re-opening next month.

The hotel declined to release the cost of the project. FAC-W Markham LLC, a partnership of affiliates of Fifth Avenue Capital of New York and Waterford Hotel Group of Waterford, Connecticut, purchased the hotel in January 2015.

"We want to keep current for our guests and make sure we have the most cutting-edge amenities, look and feel," Fleming said. "It was an opportune time to do the renovation and tie in with the Robinson space — to be able to present both of our facilities at the same time and just wow all of our guests."

The 288-room hotel's changes are mostly cosmetic: new carpet, sheers, seating, wall vinyl and furniture. All double-full rooms are being converted into double-queen rooms, and all single-queen rooms are being converted into king rooms. The hotel also added a connection to the adjacent Robinson Center so guests can walk from one building to the other without stepping outside. 

But the biggest transformation will be the lobby and restaurant. The lobby will get new finishes and fixtures, as well as a more open front desk and additional lobby seating to make the space "more social," Fleming said.

The hotel is rebranding the restaurant with a new menu and floor plan. Its new name, "Bridges," is a nod to the bridges across the Arkansas River in Little Rock, specifically the nearby Broadway Bridge, which is being rebuilt in a massive undertaking of its own.

"We want to make sure we have a great amenity for our in-house guests, but we're also inviting to people in the downtown area who are visiting, staying at other locations, etcetera, to come eat there," Fleming said.

Bridges' menu will include casual, Southern cuisine with a "unique flair," Fleming said. 

"It's going to be a little more upscale than just a typical fried food option; we'll have a little bit of everything and some healthy food, too," she said.

The restaurant bar will triple in size to seat 18. Wendy Russell, director of sales and marketing, says she hopes it will attract locals. 

The renovation has also updated the hotel's public spaces and hallways. The hotel's exterior will be power-washed and get a fresh coat of touch-up paint when the interior renovations are complete. Fleming said conference rooms likely will be updated in a future renovation. 

The DoubleTree has timed the debut of its new restaurant and renovations to coincide with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's Opus Ball on Nov. 12. The event will be the Robinson Center's first since closing in 2014 for renovations.

Fleming and Russell said the hotel construction — and surrounding construction on the Broadway Bridges and Robinson Center — hasn't had a significant effect on business.

"What's nice about it is that we do a floor at a time, so really, to our guests, they don't even know that it's happening; it doesn't impact their stay at all," Russell said. "When a floor is done, we open it up and then we take down another one."

The last round of upgrades came to the DoubleTree in 2008. The hotel was built in the 1970s and became the DoubleTree in 1995, Fleming said.

"Renovations are a regular process," Russell said. "There are different projects you have to undertake at different year benchmarks."

With this renovation, the goal is to attract bigger conventions and handle more groups in conjunction with the Statehouse Convention Center and the Robinson Center, she said.

"We're hoping to upgrade our status for sure," Russell said. 

The job applicant had a brilliant resume and precisely the technical skills the company wanted. But when her interviewer asked how she handles conflicts with co-workers, the surefire prospect lost her sizzle.

“She says, ‘I just send them a text’; I say, ‘Next!’”

That was the assessment of Tim Orellano, president of the Human Resources Team, a Little Rock-based consulting firm, playing a hypothetical interviewer. “This is how companies identify people with so-called soft skills, in the interview process,” he said.

“Skills gap” discussions often pivot on abilities or qualifications that employers find in short supply, but broader communication and human interaction traits are more likely to determine success or failure on the job, human resources experts say.

“Companies ask behavioral questions, and the interview is key,” said Orellano, who spent years as an HR executive. “An employment application basically tells employers what they want to know; a resume tells them what the applicants want them to know. To find out about teamwork, dedication, flexibility or handling a rude customer, you have to ask questions that can’t be answered yes or no.”

Though soft skills aren’t often listed on resumes, a CareerBuilder survey found that 77 percent of employers find them just as important as hard skills, and 16 percent see them as more important. A 2015 survey of 750 business managers by Instructure, a software company, discovered that most prefer hiring people with strong interpersonal skills and training them in technical areas rather than vice versa. Eighty-five percent listed a strong work ethic as the most desirable attribute in job candidates.

“The best-practice companies are willing to take a hardworking person with people skills and say, yes, maybe you don’t have the experience in a certain area that would be ideal, but we have a training program for you, or they step up in some other way to get that person,” Orellano said, using Southwest Airlines as an example. “They’ll hire more for attitude than just skills. Now, if you’re a pilot, you’re going to need to know how to fly a plane. But if you have a good work ethic and a great attitude, for most jobs they can train you the Southwest way.”

The National Soft Skills Association lists some of the most highly sought-after people skills, including speaking and listening well, excelling on a team and managing conflicts, adapting in changing environments, and working diligently with a sense of self-reliance. LinkedIn evaluated valuable soft skills by analyzing attributes listed by its members who changed jobs between June 2014 and June 2015. The four most in-demand traits were communication, organization, teamwork and punctuality.

Basic traits like good hygiene, regular attendance and punctuality are considered soft skills, but they aren’t the stuff of MBA programs. “We flunk them if they don’t show up,” said Jane P. Wayland, dean of business at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, laughing at the idea.

Still, colleges and business schools take soft skills seriously. “We’re stressing more development in communication skills, not just writing but in presentations,” Wayland said.

In UALR’s MBA program, a boot camp measures communication skills, leadership qualities and critical thinking and works to improve them. On the undergraduate level, UALR’s Career Catalyst program stresses soft skills as one of many job-hunting tools in its resume and interviewing workshops and networking events. It even offers tips on how to dress as a job applicant. “Students come in with different levels of ability. Not all are great or terrible at communication, but everybody does better with some practice,” Wayland said.

Kathleen McComber, who oversaw thousands of employees as assistant vice chancellor for human resources at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences until her retirement in June, teaches soft skills in a Webster University graduate course in career management.

“We help students focus on skills associated with behavioral or situational interviewing,” said McComber, now president of the Heart Group, a human resources consulting firm. “Today’s workplace is very complex, and having a job means dealing with people; customer service and the service industry are the big areas. Some prospects find these social situations difficult to navigate, and that’s why businesses are offering courses on teaming, customer service, telephone skills and those sorts of things.”

‘A Double-Edged Sword’
While older workers certainly aren’t known for perfect interpersonal skills — every experienced worker seems to have had colleagues who made sexist comments or threw tantrums with subordinates — younger employees bring a different interpersonal dynamic to work, Orellano and McComber said.

“Technology has become a double-edged sword,” Orellano says. “Millennials have technical abilities you wouldn’t believe, but many would rather text than talk.”

Direct discussion is important, he said, because text messages can lack nuance and lead to misinterpretation.

“Texting rather than talking, even among two people who are sitting right next to each other, I think has hurt teamwork. Talking fosters collaboration and a willingness to learn from one another.”

McComber noted another downside for those raised in the age of computers and mobile devices. “They’re great at short responses, but if they need to state a position, define a situation or describe something in detail, their ability to put that into writing can be lacking.”

Mike Harvey, interim president and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Council, urges high school students to get into “project-based learning environments where they’re picking up some of the soft skills that all employers want: the ability to effectively communicate with others, problem-solving, working in teams, how to collaborate. All employers want that.”

The council is holding its Northwest Arkansas Workforce Summit on Nov. 7-8 in Springdale, bringing together business leaders, educators and more than 700 students, including sophomores and juniors from every school district in northwest Arkansas, at a Career Exploration Expo. Soft skills will be part of the agenda.

“You have to have good work habits and understand how to work,” Harvey recently told Arkansas Business. “I tell kids that’s the DNA of success. If you have good people skills, you can do just about anything.”

Orellano suggests that job applicants put their soft skills on display rather than putting them on a resume. “I’ll let you in on a secret: People have been known to lie on resumes.”

So it’s better to show, not tell, he says. “If you can’t smile in an interview or can’t make eye contact, or if you’re checking your phone in an interview, you’re not going to get the job. These cases sound extreme, but they happen. And you’re not going to be the applicant they want.”

In order to remain competitive with other retailers, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced early last year that it was going to start paying its workers at least $9 an hour and raise the minimum to $10 this year.

At the time of the announcement, a number of the Bentonville retailer’s competitors were already paying at least $9 per hour, and in some cases more. Turnover was becoming an issue for Wal-Mart as workers left for higher-paying jobs.

The increase in pay and improved training for workers, though, has paid off for the retailer, said spokesman Kory Lundberg. The stores are performing better on a number of metrics, including same-store sales and customer traffic.

“This is a journey, and there’s still a lot more work to be done,” he said. “But we feel like we’re on the right path.”

Wal-Mart certainly wasn’t alone in losing workers to companies that pay better.

All industries, from health care to manufacturing, have faced a shortage of workers, said Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business & Economic Research at the Sam M. Walton School of Business at the University of Arkansas.

Deck said that increasing pay would be the first action she would suggest when companies can’t find the right workers to fill positions. “I’m going to say compensation matters a great deal,” she said. Workers start searching the job boards if they feel that they can’t get paid more at their current company, she said.

Kara Simmons, vice president of the staffing division at The Hughes Agency of North Little Rock, agreed that companies may need to raise their pay to attract qualified candidates. Simmons said currently there’s a demand for industrial workers, such as machine operators, welders and forklift operators. But some companies are willing to pay only $8.50-$9 per hour for those positions, she said — at or barely above the state minimum wage.

“And we have to give them that pep talk of, ‘OK, you get what you pay for,’” she said.

In addition, the labor market is tight in Arkansas. For September, the latest data available, the statewide unemployment rate was 4 percent, while it was 5 percent in the nation, according to the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services.

In northwest Arkansas, the unemployment rate is less than 3 percent. “There aren’t lines and lines of unemployed people waiting to take those jobs,” Deck said. “And so this should be the time economically when we see employers under pressure to raise wages.”

When the companies raise their employee wages, they “absolutely” find better workers and keep the workers they have, Simmons said.

TJX Cos. of Framingham, Massachusetts, which operates T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores, raised its minimum wage to $9 an hour in 2015. And workers who have been with the company for at least six months began earning at least $10 an hour this year.

“We believe our wage initiative has been well received and is helping us attract and retain talented store associates,” TJX spokeswoman Erika Tower said in an email statement to Arkansas Business.

Still, Deck said that she has heard from employers in the region that are handcuffed on raising workers’ pay. Those companies are part of national chains, which won’t let the Arkansas managers raise pay for their workers.

“That exacerbates the problem with turnover,” she said. “And it makes it very difficult for them to attract folks who are going to stay for any length of time, particularly when you do find very large companies like Wal-Mart increasing pay.”

For the jobs that are available, the potential candidate isn’t going to take one that represents a pay cut from unemployment benefits, Simmons said. Or workers would prefer to stick it out at unsatisfactory jobs rather than take otherwise more fulfilling jobs that pay less. “Money has a strong influence,” Simmons said.

While money is an important element, it’s not the only way to attract and retain workers, said Ellen Davis, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation, a trade association. Retailers also are looking at ways to improve the training and education of employees.

Those efforts should show up on the bottom line. “They’ll either help you because it’s reducing turnover, or it will help you because it’s increased sales in your store because customers are having a better experience,” Davis said.

Wal-Mart’s Finding
With about 1.5 million workers in the United States, Wal-Mart is the country’s top private employer.

But in 2014, Wal-Mart was coming under attack by unions over its worker pay. Making matters worse, its same-store sales numbers in the United States were flat at best. Same-store sales are considered a key retail metric because they offer a comparison unaffected by new store openings.

Lundberg, the Wal-Mart spokesman, said coming up with a strategy to improve U.S. sales included quizzing some 23,000 employees about what they wanted from their employer. The top answers were higher pay, more consistency in scheduling and better training. Wal-Mart decided to spend $2.7 billion on its domestic workforce to target those areas.

In addition to the increase in pay, Wal-Mart made adjustments in scheduling and broadened training.

Wal-Mart has opened three training academies for department managers and will have 200 across the country by the middle of next year, Lundberg said.

The training academies are two-week programs that teach managers about retail and their departments. So far, 8,000 people have graduated.

The entry-level employee also receives more training. “They are being exposed to understand where they could go from an entry-level job to wherever they’d like to go at Wal-Mart,” Lundberg said. “That’s been something that’s been very successful as well, to help people see that there is a path for a career at Wal-Mart.”

In about 650 of Wal-Mart’s Neighborhood Markets, the company is testing a program giving the employees the same hours and days every week.

The initiatives have helped in Wal-Mart’s recent success, Lundberg said.

Walmart U.S. has had eight straight quarters of positive same-store sales. For the fiscal year that ended in January, same-store sales at Wal-Mart’s U.S. stores increased 1.2 percent over the previous year.

In September, Wal-Mart said 99 percent of stores received performance bonuses based on how well they performed. The company paid out more than $201 million in bonuses.

In September 2014, only 76 percent of the stores received performance bonuses, resulting in $128 million being paid out.

With the programs, Wal-Mart has created “the right type of work environment,” Lundberg said. “We think we really make a difference for both our associates and our customers.”

Some months back, several standing banners appeared in the offices of Arkansas Business Publishing Group — quotes from JFK, Vince Lombardi and the like. At first I dismissed them as the kind of rah-rah stuff aimed at salespeople, not cynical journalist types like me, but some of them have started to grow on me.

One of them is an unattributed list of “10 Things That Require Zero Talent”: being on time, work ethic, effort, body language, energy, attitude, passion, being coachable, doing extra, being prepared.

Now, the cynic in me wants to point out that there are people — even people who have boasted of great success and developed large popular followings — who display few of those abilities. The kind of person who isn’t coachable because he’s already the greatest at everything, even things he’s never attempted. The kind of person who can’t control his body language even when it matters, who finds it impossible to prepare even for the biggest tests of his life.

For the rest of us mere mortals, these are known as “soft skills” — learned behaviors that are important in all business settings and which add tremendous value to harder skills and innate talent.

Most of us who have been in the workplace for a while have encountered the most frustrating kind of co-worker: the one whose hard skills are good, or good enough, but whose soft skills create tension. Years ago, I worked with a talented reporter whose attitude was so poor, so combative, so toxic that several of us literally cheered when our editor announced that he had been fired. The news product suffered slightly and temporarily while his replacement got up to speed, but the work environment improved tremendously and permanently.

In this issue, we’ve taken a look at the problem of the “skills gap,” the catch-all phrase being used to describe the problem employers are having in finding the right employees to fill the jobs that are available. While nothing we’ve written is remotely like “breaking news,” the experts our reporters consulted with may at least validate what the Arkansas Business audience is experiencing on the front line. And maybe there are some tips here that can help you find better candidates in the first place and then make them more productive sooner.

One of the articles, No Surprise: Higher Pay Helps Attract, Retain Employees, is the one that managers are most loath to accept: You get what you pay for. During the Great Recession, people only left jobs involuntarily. Few businesses were hiring, so you could count on keeping your best people without having to fight off poachers. Or, if you were hiring, you could count on having the field wide open. (I personally waded through 105 resumes for a single job opening on my reporting staff a few years back, a truly humbling exercise.)

But those days are over, thank goodness. Unemployment is low nationally and even lower in Arkansas. The Census Bureau’s report that median household income surged by a record 5.2 percent in 2015 has been heralded in ways that make me uncomfortable — most Americans did not get a raise that big — but it certainly is more evidence that the fundamentals of supply and demand are changing the job market.

Which reminds me of another one of the signs in our office, a quote from John F. Kennedy:

“Change is the law of life. Those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.”

My favorite of the signs is a long quote from Theodore Roosevelt, one I’ve read many times before but which has taken on new meaning in this ugly political season — and in an age when those of us who put our names on our work are regularly attacked online by those who have only the fierce courage of anonymity:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

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