Alan Sims, vice president of sales at the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa in Hot Springs, has been chosen to be the seventh general manager of the 93-year-old hotel.
Sims succeeds Bob Martona, who is retiring after eight years at the Arlington and nearly 50 years in the hotel and hospitality industry, according to a news release.
Sims joined the Arlington in September after six years working for the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau. He has also led sales efforts for convention and visitors bureaus in Dallas and Oklahoma City, and hotels similar in size to the Arlington under the Hilton, Omni, Fairmont and Westin brands.
The change in management comes five months after the hotel was acquired by Sky Capital Group, which is headed by Al Rajabi, and an ensuing dispute between Rajabi and city officials over the safety of the historic hotel.
The hotel now is undergoing what the news release said was its most extensive renovation since the current 485-room building opened on New Year's Eve 1924. Renovations now are estimated at $43 million over the next five to seven years.
-- Noel Oman
Polk County family earns farming honor
Luke and Deedee Alston of Mena, who have a cattle and vegetable farm in Polk County, were named Thursday as the 2017 Arkansas Farm Family of the Year, according to the Arkansas Farm Bureau.
The Alstons, along with two sons, farm the "Holly Springs Homestead." They have Angus cattle, an eight-house broiler operation, an agritourism enterprise with a variety of fruit and vegetable crops, and a commercial hay and haylage service.
The Alstons will compete in the 2018 Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year program. A winner will be named from among 10 southeastern state winners next October in Moultrie, Ga.
-- Stephen Steed
Arkansas Index rises 0.74, ends at 402.06
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 0.74 to 402.06 Thursday.
The index, which has flirted with its all-time high of 408.14 set in 2015, is up 11.53 percent for the year.
Eleven index stocks rose Thursday, six fell and one was unchanged.
Uniti Group climbed 3.9 percent on average volume.
Windstream lost 2.6 percent on above-average trading.
Total volume for the index was 23.4 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 12/08/2017