News in brief

Downtown LR hotel

to be AC by Marriott

Investment group 201 W. Capitol LLC said Friday that the hotel it is developing in the historic Hall and Davidson buildings in downtown Little Rock will be affiliated with the Marriott brand.

The 112-room AC Hotel Little Rock will be the first in Arkansas to carry the AC Hotel name.

The buildings, purchased last year for $2.3 million, will feature a 5,000-square-foot restaurant in addition to the AC Lounge, which will serve cocktails and tapas plates.

The AC Hotel will take up the five-story Hall building, built in 1923, and the three-story Davidson building, built in 1947. Both are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Construction is underway and is to be completed in the summer of 2019. The developers took out a $13.6 million construction loan from Bank of the Ozarks.

VCC Construction is the contractor for the hotel. John T. Campo and Associates of New Orleans is the interior designer and architect for the project.

-- David Smith

Tyson keeps option

to buy venture firms

In an interview published Friday by Food Dive, a food industry news outlet, Tyson Foods Chief Executive Officer Tom Hayes said he considers Tyson's recent investments in new companies to be "lead-ins" to acquisitions.

"If [the company] does become something that we feel is best for our shareholders, then we can pull the trigger on [a purchase]," Hayes said.

Springdale-based Tyson, along with other food producers, has shifted toward the creation of plant-based products. It recently invested in Beyond Meat, a company that makes veggie patties look like meat, and Memphis Meats, a California-based startup company that's trying to grow animal cells into edible meats.

While Tyson's cash flow relies on chicken, beef and pork, the company also wants to invest in startup companies that are bringing new products to market.

-- Nathan Owens

Windstream shares

help lift state index

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 4.34 to 413.53 Friday.

Fourteen stocks rose, two fell and one was unchanged.

Windstream shares jumped 20.8 percent in heavy trading.

For the week, six stocks advanced, nine declined, and two were unchanged.

America's Car-Mart had the best week, gaining 11 percent.

Total volume for the index was 26.5 million shares. The average volume for the week was 48.8 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 02/24/2018

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