Flake, Little Rock developer key in tech park, dies at 81

FILE - Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board member L. Dickson Flake during a 2014 meeting
FILE - Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board member L. Dickson Flake during a 2014 meeting

L. Dickson Flake, the commercial real estate developer whose 55-year career involved such landmark projects as the 30-story Regions tower, Breckenridge Village shopping center, Simmons Bank Arena and the Little Rock Technology Park, has died. He was 81.

Amy Meins, the spokeswoman for Colliers International/Arkansas, where Flake was managing partner and shareholder until 2002 and continued as an advisor and consultant, said he died peacefully Tuesday after a long illness.

In 1971, Flake helped establish the commercial real estate firm Barnes, Quinn, Flake & Anderson, which is now Colliers International/Arkansas. During his career, Flake developed more than 2 million square feet of office space and four large parking structures for many major Arkansas companies.

"Dickson was an Arkansas business legend, a service-oriented leader who gave his time to family, our firm and our community," Kevin Huchingson, chairman and chief executive officer of Colliers Arkansas, said in a statement announcing Flake's death.

His passing was one month after Flake was honored with the 2020 Business and Professional Leader award by Rotary Club 99 of Little Rock.

Flake was the youngest of the four principals at Barnes, Quinn, Flake & Anderson. The principals, including Cotton Barnes, Luke Quinn and Sam Anderson, worked on salaries rather than commissions, which Flake said fostered a collegial atmosphere.

"We've always been employees," Flakes said in a 2010 interview for The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History at the University of Arkansas. "We've always acted as a team. We share all information. We share ideas. We share solutions."

Their experiences also complemented one another.

"We didn't realize it at the time because we didn't, I don't think, give it this type of analysis," he said. "But we were -- the four of us were totally different, and we brought complementary contributions to the aggregate."

They tapped Barnes' relationship with First National Bank before its merger with Commercial National Bank to become First Commercial Bank -- and later Regions -- to develop Regions Tower at Capitol Avenue and Broadway.

"And so with that relationship, and they were convinced they needed a new headquarters, we assembled the block where the Regions Building is now and then were the leasing agents and managers of that building and helped in the development," Flake said "Were not the development managers, but we helped in the development. And then handled the leasing and management.

"And to this day we still manage the building. And handle the leasing for the current owners, which are successors to Regions."

In later years, he led the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce's effort to establish the Little Rock Technology Park, which he said in 2009 "may be the largest, single investment of the chamber in the past few decades."

The first phase of the park, a 38,000-square-foot complex, opened two years ago, and has remained close to capacity with as many as 54 tenants employing more than 100 people.

The city promised the park $22 million of the proceeds from a 2011 sales tax, which will expire in 2021, to help pay for capital costs. The tax hasn't collected as much as estimated, and the amount the tech park will receive is now estimated at $20.7 million.

The expected tax proceeds enabled the park to borrow the money to pay for the first phase of the park, designed to be a Silicon Valley-like incubator for high-tech startup companies.

Flake was one of the first people appointed to the park's board and was still active as late as its last meeting. Brent Birch, the park authority's executive director, said he last spoke with Flake three weeks ago.

"His unrelenting effort to bring the Little Rock Technology Park to reality was one of many selfless acts he did for the betterment of our community," Birch said. "Without Dickson Flake, there would be no Little Rock Technology Park."

Flake, a Little Rock native, almost made his mark elsewhere. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in business administration in 1960 and went to work for Burroughs Corp. in Detroit. He continued his education at the University of Michigan and obtained a master's in business administration in 1963, graduating at the top of his class.

His time at Burroughs left an indelible mark. In the interview, he recalled his boss, R.S. "Dick" McNeal, would counsel him by "asking questions. He was a great coach."

There was a change in upper management at the company and the new team wanted things done its way, much to Flake's consternation.

McNeal discussed it with him two or three times before the "light went on that this was just so shortsighted on my part and so stupid to handle it the way I was, and he taught me, without over lecturing, how to reach the same objective without going through the wall but goin' around it."

C.J. Duvall, a former Systematics Inc. executive, saw that aspect in his dealings with Flake, who he met not long after his arrival in Little Rock in 1986.

Flake helped develop Systematics Inc.'s Little Rock headquarters. Both men served on the Technology Park board together.

"He taught people without intentionally teaching them because he found ways to help us understand finances and ways of thinking without being overbearing," Duvall said. "He was a pretty gentle guy."

Flake was more than a businessman, he said.

"Dickson was a public servant, and he found ways to volunteer his knowledge to the community," Duvall said. "That is reflected in the work he did at the tech park. Way before the tech park, he was involved with envisioning what the tech park could look like.

"It's just not his work at the tech park, it's just not as career as a businessman in the community, it is the fact that he was a dedicated public servant."

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