River Mountain Investments LLC, a Little Rock limited liability company, paid $3.6 million last month for the building and property where a North Little Rock O’Reilly Auto Parts distribution center sits.
The auto parts store and distribution center is at 4350 Stockton Drive in North Little Rock near Springhill Drive.
The seller was Crain Investments, which owned the property since 1997.
The 5.6 acres and the building last appraised for $3 million.
Phani Sridhar Edala is president of River Mountain Investments.
River Mountain financed the purchase with a $2.7 million mortgage with Bank of the Ozarks that matures in 2022.
A spokesman with O’Reilly Auto Parts’ headquarters in Springfield, Mo., said O’Reilly leases the distribution center’s building.
A message left for Larry Crain Sr. and Larry Crain Jr. was not returned.
TERRA VISTA
An affiliate of Toronto-based Republic Funds bought its fourth central Arkansas apartment complex in recent months, bringing the total it has spent to $25.2 million.
Republic Terra Vista bought Terra Vista Apartments in Little Rock for $3.3 million last month.
Terra Vista Apartments at 4811 Arbor Place Circle was the fourth multifamily project in Pulaski County purchased by Republic Funds. The complex, which last appraised at $2.8 million, has 205 units. They were built in the 1970s.
The purchase of Terra Vista Apartments was financed with a $2.3 million mortgage from Bank of the Ozarks. The mortgage matures in 2020.
Republic Funds has also acquired the 120-unit Wilmington Apartments in North Little Rock for $4.9 million and the combination of Spanish Rock and Spanish Jon apartments for a total of $17 million. Spanish Rock and Spanish Jon, both in Little Rock, have a total of 482 units.
“We are value-add buyers which is to say that we buy properties with low occupancy or high expenses, and fix those issues by improving the properties,” said Jeff Baryshnik president of Republic Funds. “It might cost us $30,000 to bring a nonrentable or ‘down’ unit back online whereas new construction could be $100,000-plus per unit, so it’s an economical way to increase the housing stock.”
The only Arkansas apartments Republic Fund owns are in Pulaski County. But the company wants to buy more properties in Arkansas, Baryshnik said.
Republic Funds buys and improves “workforce housing,” Baryshnik said.
“We saw Arkansas as a business-friendly market for employers to expand or relocate — potentially increasing the demand for affordable housing — much like Texas and Georgia where we own a few thousand apartment suites.”
The company plans to invest additional capital to improve these properties and to make them more energy efficient, Baryshnik said.
TRUCK CENTER
BCR Investments LLC paid $875,000 for the buildings and property of the Tri-State Truck Center at 4614 Thibault Road in Little Rock.
Tri-State plans to move this month from the Thibault Road location to a $13 million state-of-the-art facility at 8901 Diamond Drive in North Little Rock near Interstate 40, said Rodney Maddox, co-chairman of Tri-State.
The new center, at the Galloway exit off the north side of Interstate 40, is more than 82,000 square feet, making it one of the largest of Memphis-based Tri-State’s nine dealerships, Maddox said. The Diamond Drive facility will house a parts warehouse, a service department and a sales department for Mack and Volvo trucks.
Tri-State has been at a disadvantage with the size of the Thibault Road center and its location, Maddox said. The old location didn’t have enough room for inventory storage, didn’t have enough parking area for new truck and used truck inventory and didn’t have sufficient parking for employees, he said.
“We should have done this four or five years earlier,” Maddox said. “We’re going from 33,000 square feet to 82,000 square feet. We’re hoping that helps us with not only our overflow, but give us a little room for growth as well.”
The old facility, which opened in 1985, didn’t have good exposure, Maddox said.
“Being right on I-40, we’re hoping it will generate a little bit more activity for us,” Maddox said. “We’re real bullish about what we think is going to happen [at the new location].”
Tri-State has locations in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. Tri-State also has a location in Jonesboro.
BCR Investments’ officers are Ben Davis II, Cindi Mathis and Ronny Davis.
BCR financed the purchase with a $875,000 mortgage from Central Bank in Little Rock. The mortgage matures in 2022.
JACKSONVILLE LOTS
ARG Little Rock LLC paid Rausch Coleman Mid-Ark LLC $535,000 for several lots on Palm Street in Jacksonville that will be part of the Graham Woods Phase II subdivision.
Rausch Coleman Mid-Ark, based in Fayetteville, is the largest home builder in Arkansas, with homes in Northwest Arkansas, Sherwood, Cabot, Beebe, Bryant, Alexander, Conway and Jacksonville. It recently opened a branch in Jonesboro.
The firm starts about 400 houses a year.
Rausch Coleman has been in business for 60 years and built more than 20,000 houses. It also builds houses in the Kansas City, Mo., area, Oklahoma City, Tulsa and in Texas.
David Frye is manager of ARG and an executive with Rausch Coleman.
ARG Little Rock financed the purchase with a $455,000 mortgage with First National Bank of Fort Smith. The mortgage matures in 2020.
SCHOOL BUILDING SOLD
KLS Leasing LLC, an affiliate of the Walton Family Foundation of Bentonville, bought the former Garland Elementary School in Little Rock and a half-acre adjacent tract for $425,000 last month.
The Walton foundation is one of the country’s foremost advocates of independently operated, taxpayer supported charter schools.
Garland Elementary School, which closed in 2000, is at 3615 W. 25th St.
The school will be operated as Einstein Charter School by the Einstein Group Inc. of New Orleans. Einstein will begin with 300 students in kindergarten through third grade and grow through eighth grade.
KLS also purchased the Mitchell Elementary School in April for $440,000. The Little Rock School District closed Mitchell in 2003.
BIRD & BEAR
Bird & Bear Properties Inc. paid $360,000 to buy a service center for Legacy Termite & Pest Control at 7701 Cantrell Road.
Legacy had leased the space on Cantrell Road from the previous owner, said Jay Heflin, an owner of Legacy and a member of the family that owned the largest Terminex pest control franchise in Arkansas for years.
Bird & Bear Properties is another Heflin family entity, Heflin said. Legacy now leases the property from Bird & Bear, Heflin said. Heflin is president of Bird & Bear Properties.
The seller was TPC Management LLC.
Legacy has been in business since 2009.
The family ownership behind Legacy owned the Terminex pest control franchise for much of Arkansas from 1938 until 1999. In 1999, the Heflin family sold the rights to their Terminex franchise to Terminex International.
When a 10-year noncompete agreement expired in 2009, the Heflin family started Legacy Termite & Pest Control.
SundayMonday Business on 10/08/2017