BENTON -- It's not often that a cemetery changes hands.
Earlier this month, Jeff and Leslie Smith, owners of North Little Rock-based Smith Family Funeral Homes, bought the New Rosemont Cemetery in Benton from Ron Ebbert, son of the cemetery's founder, the late J.E. Ebbert. The 16-acre cemetery was established in 1956. The Smiths' acquired it for $120,000.
"I wasn't looking to make a cemetery acquisition, but when I learned that it was for sale and began to look into it, the opportunity was obvious," Jeff Smith said.
"There's not many people who want to own cemeteries. There's just not a big market," he said.
The transaction adds to the Smiths' other holdings: Smith Benton Funeral Home, Smith North Little Rock Funeral Home, Smith Westbrook Funeral Home and an adjacent cemetery in Beebe. The couple renamed the Benton cemetery Smith Rosemont Cemetery.
Between the three funeral homes and two cemeteries, the company is on track to serve up to 800 families this calendar year. Gross revenue from the businesses should be roughly $5.5 million in 2015, up from roughly $4.3 million in gross sales each of the three previous years, Smith said. The company employs more than 40 people among the all locations.
Smith said he bought the cemetery to save it as a historic landmark and to raise the Benton funeral home's profile in the community. About 75 people are buried there each year, he said.
Jarrod Hambric with First National Title in Benton said the cemetery transaction was the first time the property had sold and was the first cemetery sale in which he served as closing agent.
"We don't close a lot of cemeteries, to my knowledge," Hambric said.
More and more, funeral homes are interring more urns than caskets. Two-thirds of the people who die will be buried and the rest will be cremated, Smith said. If not for pre-death planning, the ratio of burials to cremations would be about half and half, he added. Families who choose cremation without burial later regret the decision, he said.
"Within the funeral industry across the country, funeral homes are hearing back from families that when they don't lay their loved one to rest, closure becomes a real issue," he said.
Having the cemeteries in Benton and Beebe allows Smith to handle all funeral arrangements -- down to the final disposition -- from one room, said Sam Ballard, general manager of Smith's Benton funeral home.
"We see that it takes a lot of strain off families," added Ballard, who once owned his own funeral home in Benton.
Smith estimates that there is room at Smith Rosemont Cemetery for about 2,000 more plots, plus space for mausoleums and lawn crypts. Mausoleums are independent above-ground structures built to hold the remains of one or more people. Lawn crypts, also known as an under round mausoleums, consists of pre-installed vaults that allow remains to be stacked in a cemetery lawn space.
Though Smith Rosemont Cemetery may look full to the average visitor, "there's still a lot of property available," Smith said. Even with traditional, single-file burial, up to 1,000 people could easily be buried in an acre, Ballard said.
The cemetery is half a mile away from the Smith Benton Funeral Home with just a couple of turns to get there.
Upkeep of a cemetery requires more than one might think.
"Just keeping the grass cut and the trees trimmed and keeping it looking beautiful is a lot of work. Sixteen acres is a lot of grounds to manage," Smith said. Debris and overgrowth around some the cemetery's edges made it appear neglected in recent years.
Jeff Smith got into the funeral home business like many others -- he was born into it. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the company's first funeral home, the North Little Rock location, by Smith's grandfather, Clifford Smith. Jeff Smith took the reins of the company from his father, John Smith.
John Smith said it has become commonplace in the industry over the last 25 years for funeral homes to have their own cemeteries. It's not only a matter of convenience, it's an indicator of sentiment, he said.
"Cemeteries are important to people," Smith said. "I don't [often] go to the cemetery where my parents are buried, but when I do go out there I like to see the grass mowed and I want it to look nice.
"It makes me feel good," Smith said.
Jeff Smith grew up playing hide-and-seek in the family's North Little Rock funeral home. During breaks from college, he drove the funeral limousine for services.
"I always knew that I wanted to work at the funeral home, but when I finished school, my dad encouraged me to go do something else," the son said. "He actually said I was not welcome to come work at the funeral home yet."
Armed with a degree in small-business management and a minor in social work from the University of Arkansas and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Memphis, Jeff Smith and a cousin started Cornerstone Mortgage in 1999. They got out of the business and Smith went to work for his father in 2006, just months before the home-lending market started to crack and eventually collapse.
SundayMonday Business on 05/31/2015