In $3.25M deal, firm buys building in LR
The Ozark National Life building at 10201 W. Markham St. in Little Rock has been sold to Normandy Place LLC, a firm owned by attorney Max Mehlburger of Little Rock.
Normandy Place paid $3.25 million for the 35,550-square-foot building, which will be renamed Markham Executive Center.
The seller was Security Plan Life Insurance Co.
Mehlburger said he plans to convert the third floor into an executive office space that will offer a number of small offices of varying size, Mehlburger said.
Mehlburger was represented in the transaction by John Flake and Thomas Schmidt of Flake & Kelley Commercial in Little Rock.
-- David Smith
Texarkana Gazette exec Blair departs
Kirk Blair, general manager of the Texarkana Gazette, has left the newspaper to pursue other opportunities, its publisher announced Tuesday.
Terri Leifeste, president of the Palmer Group, a newspaper division of WEHCO Media, said a successor will be named soon.
Before becoming general manager in April 2014, Blair was the newspaper's marketing director for about 24 years. He replaced longtime General Manager Buddy King, who retired.
Blair also served as circulation director and advertising director during a career at the Texarkana Gazette that started in the 1970s, according to newspaper accounts published in 2014.
-- Stephen Steed
8 stocks gain, 10 fall as index climbs 0.32
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, gained 0.32 to 357.25 Wednesday.
"Equities recovered from an afternoon decline to close relatively unchanged following comments released from Federal Reserve officials indicating that an interest rate hike might be appropriate 'fairly soon,'" said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
Lants said stocks in the utilities sector fared well Wednesday while energy companies underperformed.
Eight Arkansas Index stocks rose during Wednesday trading and 10 posted losses.
Deltic Timber shares jumped 5.6 percent to lead the index, and shares of Dillard's Inc. rose 3.2 percent.
Shares of America's Car-Mart fell 4.42 percent a day after the company reported third-quarter profits that missed analysts' estimates.
Total volume for the index was 30.7 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 02/23/2017