EP. 46: Paul Gatling Reveals the Evolution of Arkansas Living

Curious about the explosive growth of Northwest Arkansas and how it's balancing a small-town vibe with big city excitement? Join us as we welcome the insightful Paul Gatling, a seasoned journalist who has witnessed the region's transformation firsthand. Raised in Bald Knob, Arkansas, and carrying an extensive background in journalism, Paul shares his journey and the area's evolution, shedding light on the intricate dance of development and community. From bustling corporate giants like Walmart and Procter & Gamble to the unique cultural touchstones that define the region, dive into how Northwest Arkansas is solidifying itself as a hub of opportunity and innovation.

Learn about the fast-paced growth and the challenges that come with it, such as housing affordability and infrastructure needs. We'll discuss the strategic efforts by local stakeholders to create vibrant, walkable communities and tackle housing shortages head-on. Get the inside scoop on how major cities like Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville are interconnected through ambitious projects and planning, making room for a forecasted population boom. Whether it's the potential for international flights or real estate investments, Northwest Arkansas is on the cusp of becoming a vital player on the global stage.

We also explore the lively intersection of business, leisure, and lifestyle in the region. Discover how activities like golf and pickleball are not just pastimes but networking powerhouses that drive unexpected business opportunities and ventures. From luxury car condos to strategic real estate investments, the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and flourishing. As we tour the unique and underrated towns of Northwest Arkansas, we'll touch on the region's growing diversity, the need for increased density, and the exciting prospects of making communities more vibrant and connected. Don't miss this engaging episode that captures the essence of Northwest Arkansas's ongoing metamorphosis.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to NWA Investing Podcast.
We have a wonderful guest withus today, paul Gatling.
We're so excited for your touchand your heartbeat on the area.
You've done a lot of work forNorthwest Arkansas as a whole
and we love the work you've putout over the years.
We're really happy to have youwith us.
We have, of course, brianWagers with us, brandon Still

(00:31):
Thank you guys for continuing totune in.
We just wanted to have a reallyfun, relaxed conversation with
Paul today and just kind of goover his heartbeat for the area
a little bit about him, and sowe're really thankful for you
coming on the show, paul.
Thank you so much.
I'm looking forward to it.
I appreciate the invitation.
Yeah, give us, because I guess,growing up five, six,

(00:54):
seven-year-old version ofyourself, did you envision
yourself as a journalist, orwhat were you thinking at that
age and then what led you intogetting into journalism?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
So five-year-old, Paul was in Bald Knob, arkansas
Okay Half and half of the peoplewho've heard of where Bald Knob
is near Searcy Yep, and myparents were public school
educators.
My dad was a principal, my momwas a school teacher.
So after the eighth grade wemoved to Bryant.
My mom got a job in Bryant, sothat's where I went to high

(01:27):
school.
I went to college at HendersonState and played golf, okay.
So we had a work-study job aspart of your going to school
there.
My work-study was in the sportsinformation department, okay,
and so my mom was an Englishteacher.
So, you know, I could always,you know, put a sentence
together and I enjoyed writingand I read the newspaper every
day and enjoyed sports.
So I just worked in the sportsinformation department, yep, and

(01:48):
my degree was in communications, so not necessarily a
journalism degree, or I mean, Idid, you know, write some
stories, sports stories for theschool newspaper, but those were
just, you know, the sportspress releases that we put out
anyway, yeah.
So that's kind of how I came tojournalism.
After I graduated, I had acouple of jobs there in

(02:09):
Arkadelphia.
I worked for the university,yep, I worked for the Daily
Newspaper there as just ageneral or assignment reporter.
The last thing I was doing wasdoing some constituent work and
was on the staff for PercyMalone who was the state senator
from Arkadelphia.
Yeah, and was on the staff forPercy Malone, who was the state
senator from Arkadelphia.
And then in late 2000, my dadcalled me and said he saw an ad

(02:31):
in the newspaper for a job asthe sports editor for the Benton
County Daily Record and mostpeople might not know that was
the daily newspaper inBentonville.
We had a seven-day-a-weeknewspaper that sadly does not
exist anymore Now, called theRecord.
Yeah, and that's why the recordvenue downtown Bentonville is
called the Record.
That's where the newspaper was.
I didn't know that before.

(02:51):
Yeah, you told me, there you go.
And so you know, late 2000 wasabout the time that Northwest
Arkansas started to get areputation of growing and
opportunities and jobs and therewere people moving here, um,
and so my dad said you need tolook into that, you should, you
should, uh check that out.
So I did and uh came up hereand interviewed for the job and

(03:15):
a couple days later they calledme with the job offer and I, uh
was kind of on the fenceinitially.
I mean it sounds so silly tothink, but at the time I'm
moving from arcadelfia tobentonville, may as well have
been moving from Arcadelphia toAlaska.
Yeah, it's not something I canget my head around, but yeah, I
had a mentor of mine atHenderson.

(03:35):
He kind of talked some senseinto me and said you're going to
take that job and you're goingto move up there.
So that's what I did.
And so in January of 2001, Imoved to Bentonville for that
job as the sports editor of theDaily Record and did that for
about 10 years and eventuallyfound my way to the Business
Journal and did that for 13years and a lot of fun and

(03:57):
that's that's right and thatword is right Incredible, just
such incredible growth.
I mean, you guys have been hereand grown up here and the things
that we have seen, yeah, andhow towns have transformed and
how the region has transformedand and dropping a billion
dollar museum right downtown andthen oftentimes overlooked yeah

(04:20):
, how incredible, yes, looked,yeah, that's how incredible it
is.
Yes, and then you know a threeor four billion dollar corporate
campus in Bentonville.
It's just uh, it's uh, it's uhreally incredible the growth
that's happened here and I'vebeen fortunate to um to have a
very good uh view and a verygood seat for a lot of that
development over the years anduh, even going back to the

(04:41):
sports riding days, that was alot of fun.
I mean it's kind of a foreignconcept to a lot of people to go
back to the sports writing days.
That was a lot of fun.
I mean it's kind of a foreignconcept to a lot of people to go
back to one school towns.
There was no Springdale Harborat one point.
There was no Bill West at onepoint, there was no Rogers
Heritage.
It was a little bit smallertowns, a little bit more of a
community focused on sports forthat sort of thing.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
You touched on something there.
Do you still feel like I saythis out of town clients when
they call in?
Is North of Sarkin Stall stillto me feels like small town
enough where if you do somethingwrong, your name will get
around.
If you do something right, yourname will get around.
I tell people I love it becauseit still feels kind of small

(05:26):
town enough right now.
Do you still feel like it'ssomewhat?
Are we?
Do you feel like the trend'sedging out of that realm or how
do you feel about that?
That's?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
a great thought and a great way of putting it.
It is that way, you know.
I feel that way because I'velived here 23 years and I know
there's far more many peoplethat I don't know than I do know
, but I feel like you know, umthe same amount of people you
know in each of the, each of thedifferent towns, and there is
more of a.
That's a.
That's a good anecdote, yousaid, of what you do is going to

(05:55):
get out and what you don't dois going to get out.
Um, so, yeah, I, I I do agreewith that.
What are we?
650,000 people in this part ofthe world.
It sounds big, but it doesn'thave that big feel of other,
maybe similar size metros Like aDallas or a Justin, oh yeah,
nothing, nothing like that.
I mean, those are cities withincities within cities.

(06:16):
We still have our little, youknow, our, our four big towns in
the region, and then, you know,other towns are, you know,
growing.
So I was visiting with themayor of Pea Ridge this morning
had never met him.
And we met and just had aconversation and there's 12,000
people living in Pea Ridge andyou know for people who've lived
here long enough to know andhe's a Pea Ridge guy and he

(06:38):
moved.
He said he moved to Pea Ridgewhen he was 12 years old and the
population was about 1500people.
That's's crazy.
That's so cool that he's themayor now.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Street superintendent for 20 years and then elected
mayor two years ago and it'sjust a really.
He's got a lot going on and areally good pulse of growth for
his town and now that fits intothe picture of Northwest
Arkansas, yeah, and reallyenjoyed our visit.
But the fact that there's um,and you real estate guys know
that there's seven and $800,000houses in Pea Ridge, 12,000

(07:10):
people and he said the guy justmoved from California out to the
golf course.
Who's going to work at themedical college in Bentonville,
the Alice L Walton, I mean justit's not a far drive over.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
You know the same lateral line.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, yeah, that's kind of what I told him.
I said I hadn't been out heresince probably.
I was at the newspaper, yeah,covering something.
And in my mind I told him itdidn't take as long to drive
over here as I thought it wouldfrom Bentonville, yeah, but he
would love to snap his fingersand have a four-lane road out
there.
Yes, because you don't want tobe driving out there early in

(07:43):
the morning, or especiallydriving into Bentonville in the
mornings bumper to bumpertraffic all the way.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
We're starting to see that in a few of these outlier
towns how the infrastructureneeds to get caught up along
those two-lane roads or outtowards Elkins, sometimes off
Huntsville, I mean it gets alittle snappy.
I mean you can see they'vestarted to put in the
infrastructure for it.
I love that you said that FourLane, because I think we're
going to see a lot moreinfrastructure needed in the

(08:08):
next.
I always spitball this fact,but what is it?
The area is supposed to doublein population in the next 15, 20
years.
It's somewhere in there, soit's going to have to happen.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Yeah they said 2045.
I think they moved it back to2050 for to catch up to austin.
Okay, that's crazy, a littlebit over a million.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But paul, paul, I want to knowtoo.
Uh, when you were first lookingat the job up here in benton
county, what did you think aboutnorthwest arkansas?
What was?
Was there any draw outside ofthe job for you?
I mean, we, we, I obviously was2001, 2001, right, yeah, I was
three years old.
So what did that look like whenyou were kind of coming up here

(08:49):
, and was there any draw outsideof the drought for you.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, it was a far distance, but at that time, you
know, 25-year-old Paul didn'trealize that there was, you know
, arkansas was Arkansas, wasArkansas.
This was just a little biggertown and it really was.
I mean, and to this day, thepeople down there you know
that's where my family lives inyou know Conway they think of
Northwest Arkansas, they thinkof one town, fayetteville.

(09:15):
I mean, most people they equateFayetteville to Northwest
Arkansas.
That's a great point.
So Bentonville was, you know,it was a big, a little bit
bigger town.
It was about 17,000 people.
When I moved here, um, and Ijust thought that there was an
opportunity, um, to go to workfor a newspaper that was, you
know, a thriving newspaper.
And there was, you know, therewasn't.
I knew, of course, walmart washere, but it wasn't like overtly

(09:39):
a huge company town in my mindwhen I got here, because you
could, you know, move around andWalmart just happened to be on
Walton Boulevard, just like, youknow, other companies happen to
be in town.
Um, so I I just thought therewas, there was an opportunity
here, um, to work for a goodcompany, um, walton affiliated

(10:01):
company back at that time period, owned by community publishers.
You know it wasn't a badownership either, but no, just
moving from Arkadelphia toBentonville, I thought was a
good move, and nobody tells youthat they think this would
happen.
23, 24 years later, yeah,absolutely not.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
You shared a photo earlier last year of Rogers.
That went pretty viral in 2000and 2024.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, yeah, so there was an aerial photo of this area
.
Yeah, that's right, thePinnacle Hills area, and you've
got the hotel, yep, and thenthat was it, and you can see
Pinnacle Hills Parkway.
I found that.
I got that video from a, or Igot that photo from a video that
they played when they had thegroundbreaking for this latest

(10:52):
office building.
Visionary, yeah, right overhere, tom's part of it and Mr
Hunt, brian Hunt, got up andspoke and they showed the video
and when I saw that it just itwas kind of jarring.
I mean, you know, know, likeeverybody that saw it, like you
said, it went kind of.
I put that on my linkedin pageand everybody can who's been
here for five years or two yearsor 20 years can kind of relate

(11:15):
to that and you see what thisarea has become.
Yeah, um, and even 10 years agoit didn't didn't look.
Look like this.
We've had a lot of developmenthere in 20 years, but a whole
lot in the last 10 years just inthis little pocket of Pinnacle
Hills.
But yeah, that was a prettycool image.
To do a comparison, what do youthink has contributed to that

(11:38):
growth in Northwest Arkansas.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
It seems like there's a lot of players in Northwest
Arkansas that live here, investhere.
There's a lot of players inNorthwest Arkansas that live
here, invest here.
You know the big.
You know Tyson, unson, theWaltons all invest back into the
community.
I think that you know it'sobviously a big factor.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
But I think there's one big thing that I say a lot
is.
You know there are.
There are, of course, otherareas of the country that are,
you know, growing and there'sdevelopment and there's a lot of
positive momentum and there'sexcitement.
I think what a differentiatoris here is that, um, that
private investment that you knowwhat you can call the hidden

(12:16):
hand, walmart, um, the Waltonfamily, and the fact that, uh,
uh, so many of them have chosento make this place their home
and invest their money here andlive here, and those types of
things don't happen everywhere.
When there's, you know, we needX amount of dollars, and you
know the term ROA doesn't enterinto it.

(12:39):
That's not part of it.
That's just what we're going tobuild.
We're going to do this.
We're going to build thismedical college.
We're going to build thisledger office building, which I
think is like to me.
It's not an office building, Ijust call it that, but to me
it's like the Empire StateBuilding of Northwest Arkansas.

(12:59):
I mean, it really is such aunique place and when you think
of Empire State Building, youimmediately think of New York,
and so when you think of Ledger,you immediately think of them,
and that's such a uniquebuilding, not just in Arkansas
but in the country.
So those types of things thathave all this private investment
that we have are one of themany reasons why we're growing

(13:25):
and why people continue to movehere.
And then the other things yousaid, I mean the big three and
the Fortune 500 companies whoare also set up here, and the
Procter Gamble's and theHershey's and the Heinz, I mean
just everybody else, and thenit's, you know, still relatively
low cost of living.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And when was that Walmart?
Like some people not innorthwest Arkansas the Procter
Gamble and Hershey's you knowWalmart made an initiative to
you have to have another officehere.
You know it doesn't mean youhave to be headquartered here,
but you have to have an officeand I think that was huge to the
growth too.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, I don, you have to be headquartered here, but
you have to have an office and Ithink that was huge to the
growth too.
I don't know when that was.
Another point to this wholething we're talking about is my
wife and I were doing a golfcart tour in downtown
Bentonville, which if you'venever done that, it's a lot of
fun.
That's kind of like stopping bya bar or stopping by a
restaurant and then take youaround and show you.
It's like my hometown tour thatI never knew facts of.
And they said that nine ofAmerica's 20 wealthiest people

(14:25):
live in northwest Arkansas and Iwas like that is a crazy stat
that I'm going to say every weekto my investor clients because
it's such a concentrated groupof a lot of money being poured
into a you know a lot.
The rest of the nation has apreconceived notion about
northwest Arkansas that we're abunch of hillbillies and, uh,
making moonshine and stuff anddoing beans and rice and like

(14:49):
really a lot of the state is youknow kind of that.
But, um, I mean, there's greatthings happening in little rock.
My dad just bought a company inlittle rock, um, conway's a lot
of great things happening downthere, but a lot of the state is
that and so it's so cool tohave this really concentrated
group of individuals and peoplesand companies that are it's

(15:11):
kind of a snowball effect.
You know, we, we kind of gotthe ball rolling and it's
attracting more and moreattention and we're kind of, uh,
we're seeing it, we're we'reseeing the projected future.
And so my clients ask like,well, what if Walmart goes to
Seattle?
Or I'm like, you know, we got,we've answered that question.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
You just have $4 billion to build their corporate
campus.
Exactly, the question is 0%because that has been a question
in the past and, um, you knowthe the story goes that a former
CEO back 20 years ago and youcan go look up and see who that
person is but uh wanted to movethe company to Dallas.
I mean that was a realconversation for you know five

(15:49):
minutes until the family waslike that's not good, but yeah,
they're probably more appealing.
You know, logistically, uhmakes more sense appealing
places to move the companyDallas, atlanta, chicago.
Very good, that question hasalways been in somebody's back
of their mind, at whatever levelhas been answered.
Going back to your question ofwhat's driving development and

(16:11):
growth, that I mean because nowwe know.
I mean, if there was ever a 2%chance that we didn't know, now
there's a 0% chance that we knowWalmart is not going anywhere
and so let's invest in NorthwestArkansas, let's go in on
Northwest Arkansas and ourcompany's presence there, and
you know that's why we have, youknow, an architecture firm from

(16:33):
Minnesota and an engineeringfirm from Dallas and a health
care provider and a bank fromKansas and you know a four-year
college from Conway.
You need to be plugged in toNorthwest Arkansas and you know
30,000 for you.
I mean thatyear college fromConway.
Yeah, if you need to be pluggedin to Northwest Arkansas and
you know 30,000 for a view, Imean that's why we're here.
I mean the same reasoneverybody else wants to be in
Northwest Arkansas to make thoseconnections and build those

(16:54):
relationships and strengthenexisting relationships.
I mean a lot of those servicesfirms have probably been doing
business here with their clientsfrom afar for a long time,
until you get to a certainthreshold where we need to
invest and we need to have abigger presence there.
We need to have an office therebecause you know, like you say,

(17:15):
you know we're at 650,000 andyou know the number is, you know
we'll be a million sometime inthe 2040s.
Yeah, I'm like that, that'scrazy.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah, there's not a cap on the growth here.
Talking circling around that,brandon, I guess I'm going to
say do you feel like we're goingto get international flights
here in the next 10, 15 years?
Because I just see, for youknow we got, we got a lot of
money being poured into thisarea.
You know, I've kind of I hadsome land listed by the airport
and I've seen the airport likebuying a strip that's like looks

(17:47):
a lot like an extra runway, andso I'm like, ok, the airport
has plans to expand eventuallyand I've had some conversations
there.
Do you, do you feel likeinternational flights may be
coming in the next, or do you?

Speaker 2 (18:00):
even have a pulse on you know when, when, when, when
somebody asked me a questionthat I, that I don't know, I
just simply say I've I'velearned never to discount
anything that I hear.
I'm sure if I hear somethingthat seems outrageous, it does.
It's not really outrageous.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Well, saying that out loud, I started going.
You know it'd be crazy for ourairport to be that size and have
an international flight.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
But it's really not.
I mean when you, you know, inthe next five years.
Probably not 10 years, I mean,but at some point centrally
located in the country.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
I mean, it makes sense yeah because we always got
to hop NWA to Chicago, chicagoto Dallas, before we can go over
how little sister lives inVienna, austria.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
You'd probably be better served to ask Andrew
Branch that question, you wouldknow.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
But I've, I've heard, you know, you know an extra uh,
extra runway, yeah, or maybecargo flights and yeah, cargo uh
transportation, something likethat, yeah, um, but again, I
wouldn't, I wouldn't discountthat yeah possibility somewhere
down the totally yeah, just justwas going back to that point

(19:05):
you were making about you know,the Waltons kind of setting
their foot here, and I thinkthey've obviously solidified
themselves as a world leader andthe stock continues to split
and double, and split and double, it seems like.
And so I mean it feels like notonly have they continued to,
you know, get to stay at the topand continue to rise, but you

(19:27):
know, being able to attract toptalent is not going to likely be
an issue for us in the futuretoo, and so I think, just just
thinking about those kinds ofthings you know I assume that's
probably things that you'rethinking about that are
continuing to drive the arearight is the Waltons, obviously,
but you know, continued foottraffic and people come to the

(19:52):
area to work and play.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah, and even you know I go back to my
conversation this morning withthe mayor out in Piraeus, nathan
C.
He was talking about, you know,even there he's beginning to
talk about and have discussionsand planning for quality of life
amenities and things for peopleto do in Pea Ridge.
Let's say you live in Pea Ridge.
Let's say on a Saturday morningyou're not driving to

(20:15):
Bentonville.
Roger, there's things to do inPea Ridge.
Yeah, you know, whether it'syou know, nature or hiking, or
they're about to build theirfirst pickleball court in peer,
really, and they're about tomake some of those type
investments.
So, yeah, so, um, it's triplingdown to all those cities who
are thinking like that um, thequality of life, the family,
quality of life, um, and youknow, I don't know if you guys

(20:39):
have been over the new waltwalmart campus yet or set foot.
I haven't said they appear,that's it.
Yeah, that in itself will be arecruitment driver like we've
never seen in this region andjust things like that.
And now, of course, the flipside of that is the issue that
you guys I'm sure are knee-deepin, and that's the people can't

(21:02):
afford a house here.
I tell people a lot if I wasoffered a job here.
Uh, now I'm not sure I couldmove here.
I mean, it can take a certaintype of job for you to be able
to, you know, afford to live, um, uh, in, you know, on the
corridor, you know in the big,in the big four cities and
central to Benton Washingtoncounties.
And so and that's a that's apuzzle, that that there are

(21:25):
people a lot smarter than methat are working on every day at
Northwest Arkansas council andother stakeholders to try and
figure out how can we increasethe inventory of houses for the
people that are moving here andnot just build apartments
Totally, even though they'rebuilding nice big apartments in
Pea Ridge too.
I mean, you can't keep buildingthe multifamily, I would think

(21:47):
and you probably have a greateropinion on that too but got to
have some single family housesand make them affordable.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
Yeah, I think, I think NWA is really ahead on on
the affordable affordability.
Like they're, they're seeing itand forecasting it.
You know Northwest Arkansasrelative to Arkansas, you know,
like you said it is, isn't asaffordable if you're coming from
Arkadelphia, but NorthwestArkansas, compared to the
country, is still so affordableif you look at it.
You know, compared to a Dallasor you know another major city,

(22:18):
right, right, same.
So I think we're, you know, youknow the NWA council groups are
, you know, ahead of the, aheadof the game on it.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Right and that's why I have.
I kind of use that as anexample.
When people ask about theaffordability factor and the
houses costing too much, and thehouses cost too much.
They see these outrageous listprices for some of these houses
and, to your point, that's notoutrageous in California or
Colorado or Texas and it justtakes one buyer, I mean.
So it's not outrageous if youcan put whatever number you want

(22:49):
to put on your house andsomebody's going to give you
that number.
It just takes one buyer.
It'll be unbalanced.
The other nine people out ofthose 10, will they have to keep
looking?

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah, keep looking.
It feels like there's stillenough areas that are
surrounding the big four thoughthat are still very affordable,
that are kind of continuing tokeep our affordability at a good
spot, because there's a lot ofpeople that I talk to every day
you probably as well that likethey're like I work here and I
want to be within 30 minutes, soI'm like, well, that's
basically the majority ofArkansas.

(23:21):
You know what this Arkansas,we're still kind of at a point
where you can I mean, especiallyif there's no traffic, you can
get from North Bentonville toFayetteville in 30 minutes.
But if there's traffic, youknow, then you got to kind of
think through those things.
But we're still.
I think that's what's helping usnow, and so that just has to
make you think like the only wayto go is out.
Pierre Ridge is going tocontinue to succeed.

(23:43):
Centerton, gravitt, farmington,all these cities that are
surrounding it.
It feels like and tell us too,you know, if you've talked to
other other mayors and folksaround those cities it just
feels like you know they'rethey're going to continue to
have the success that you, youknow, because they want to.
People want to be as close asthey can to the big four, yeah,

(24:04):
but still have the affordabilitythat the others offer you know?

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, I mean, everybody would like to live,
you know, two blocks away fromwhere they work.
Yeah, Something like that.
And I, you know, when I movedhere and bought my house, you
know, almost 20 years ago, Iwish I'd have bought five of
them.
But I bought my house inBentonville and when I worked at
the newspaper the Daily Record,I mean I was a quarter of a
mile away.
I mean that's a mile away.
I was right down the road and Itook that for granted.

(24:29):
Yeah, so then went to work atthe business journal and that
was all the way in Springdale.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
What a drive, what a drive.
And eventually Lowell and nowwith an office in Rogers with
UCA.
But yeah, the, you know the.
The transportation factor isanother, you know, quality of
life issue.
Everybody wants to spend a lotof their times trucking traffic
and in clogged roadways and,yeah, you know, all they can do

(24:57):
is keep working on theinfrastructure.
Yeah, and try and get um andtry and get as many roads
widened and new roads and as asuh, have the money for.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Well, north of arkansas is interesting as the
main vein goes north and southand we have a bunch of central
hubs along that main vein, asopposed to like a dallas and
austin.
You have your central hub andeverything goes out in a circle
from there and so it's in.
I think it's interesting how,as we progress in time, we're
seeing that a fayetteville, evenspringdale.

(25:27):
I've seen bumper stickers thatsays springdale doesn't suck
like the springdale rogersbentonville belt now belvis
doesn't suck Like SpringdaleRogers Bentonville Now Bellevue
doesn't have a downtown.
But these circles of thesethings are starting to touch and
overlap.
Now, as I'm just like so talkingto someone from out of town,
they're like North of Sargansaw,like now the people you said
you said people saidFayetteville back then.

(25:48):
Now they're saying North ofSargansaw, oh, I mean
Bentonville.
They're like forgetting.
I'm like, hey, fayetteville'sbig, they have a division, one
university.
It's like in the top 15 ofquickest growing universities in
the nation.
It's huge.
Probably the best place to cashflow on a home with college
students right now in all ofNorthwest Arkansas is
Fayetteville.
So we're starting to see theseoverlaps of these communities as

(26:11):
opposed to a lot of other areasof the country.
It's just a differentgeographic setup than a lot of
other places, which I like a lot.
So I think it intermingles alot of different communities in
with each other, which I like alot, which is kind of why I like
this area.
You get to intermingle with abunch of different people.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Well, that's why we're always Northwest Arkansas
on all those lists.
It's a bunch of cities and thenNorthwest Arkansas, I mean we
are the city, yes, we're aBellevue to the Fayetteville and
Arvington and Pea.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Ridge yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Pea.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
Ridge In between.
Yeah, I want to dive a littlebit back and kind of regress
back to you as the journalist,to you as the journalist.
Uh, what was there over yourtime period?
Was there a topic you likecovering the most one.
And then was there a crazieststory, uh topic, or a craziest

(27:04):
story that you remember?
Uh.
So one was there, what was yourfavorite thing to cover?
And then two, do you remember?
Just it doesn't even have to bethe craziest, but just a crazy
story that you covered.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
We'll define crazy.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
Just something that made you stay up at night.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
So my favorite was real estate.
I mean, what better place tocover business news?
But then, deeper than that,what better place to cover real
estate news the past 13 yearsthan Northwest Arkansas?
I mean, so much dirt changedhands and so many buildings
changed hands and you know theledger at one time was going to
be a WeWork building and justyou know the downtown

(27:45):
Bentonville and all the otherdowntown.
You know Springdale is startingto percolate with downtown
investment and places to liveand go out to eat.
It's got some great food spots.
It's got some great food spots.
Yeah, springdale is the nextdowntown boomtown, I think
Rogers and Bentonville andFayetteville are there, and now

(28:05):
Springdale's coming along,definitely real estate.
I mean just seeing who's goingto build what.
And one of the last stories Iwrote that I guess, since has
been, they're's going to buildwhat.
And you know one of the laststories I wrote that I guess,
since has been, they're notgoing to do it because Mrs Hunt
bought the property.
They're going to build that17-story hotel where the old

(28:26):
Ruth's Chris is right now.
Wow, and you know, as you canimagine, when I came across that
document and saw the drawing Iwas like, oh my, wow, it's
different.
And so it was going to.
It's the guy from Fort Smith,lance Beatty, who does the
Temple Live venues, and he wasgoing to make a hotel and an

(28:46):
indoor music venue.
Wow, just like you know, not avery big footprint, yeah,
straight up, straight.
And so I guess that's, you know, been scrapped.
So that was, you know, juststuff like that.
I mean, it's just, there wereall kinds of real estate comings
and goings and news and deals,and just to try and keep up with
all of it was, um, was fun.

(29:06):
Yeah, never, you never knowwhere the rabbit hole was going
to lead you to.
Oh boy um.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
Totally so.
You currently.
I know you play college golf,Do you currently?

Speaker 2 (29:17):
play golf.
Still, it's got to be warmerthan 60 degrees.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
So we're right on your edge.
Right now we're right on youredge.
My wife was begging me to askyou does business actually
happen on the golf course, or isit just for fun?
So I like to ask that forsomebody that's been on the golf
course.
Or is it just for fun?
So I like to ask that forsomebody that's been on the golf
course a lot.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's it's.
You know both and I will tellyou I.
I got my job at the businessjournal because of a connection
on the golf course.
Hear that, torrey.
And so we uh uh, we were, uh, Iwas at the still at the daily
record as the sports editor andand they were having a grand
opening media event to drum upsome interest in a media

(29:55):
tournament out at Big Sugar, peaRidge when that opened in 2002
or 2003.
And I got paired with DarrenGray what a guy, what a guy.
And I'd never met him before.
And he was the owner.
He and his wife, tammy, ownedthe business shirt and he was a

(30:16):
Bryant high school graduate andI was a Bryant high school
graduate.
And, uh, we just had the besttime on the golf course, just
really got off and and so, um, Ididn't know, darren played golf
, yeah Well, he tried to play,best of my recollection, but we
just had a great time.
And not long after that hecalled me and asked me if I'd be

(30:40):
interested in coming to work atthe Business Journal and I was
flattered with the offer and Ipolitely turned him down because
I loved what I was doing at thenewspaper, at the Daily Record,
loved who I was working withand covering high school sports,
and over the course of the nextseveral years he offered me a
job on two occasions to comework for him.

(31:01):
And so you know there was youknow it used to be a newspaper
war in Washington County.
There were two competingnewspaper companies and you know
both of them losing money,competing newspaper companies,
and you know both of them losingmoney.
And so they formed a jointoperating agreement to form one
new company and they split theassets and our side got the

(31:23):
advertising and business controland the other side got the
editorial control.
Those two decisions there wereabout 120 people that got laid
off.
Wow, and I was one of those.
You know they didn't need twosports editors, they didn't need
two advertising directors, theydidn't need to.
You know, duplicate uh jobs,and so I was the odd man out.
Yeah, I probably would havemade the same decision if I was

(31:44):
on that side.
Yeah, yeah, so, um, when I,when I needed a job, you know
Darren was, he was there for me,and so that's how I ended up at
the business journal.
So we joke whenever we see eachother that the third time was
the charm.
But no, so that's probably thebest example I can give of doing

(32:07):
business on the golf course,and of course you hear all kinds
of things.
You're playing with whoeveryou're playing.
You're playing at the LPGApro-am with this person or that
and just kind of overhearingsome things and and all that
stuff is not to to be reportedor not to be.
You know, go write a story, butit just you just stick it in
the back of your mind for thatinstitutional knowledge and that

(32:27):
background.
So maybe when something doescome up, um, that you have, oh
well, that's why this happened,or this, this is the guy I need
to call to flesh that out, orthis is the, this is the, the
person who would know more aboutthat.
Just so I can't tell you howmany people I've made
connections with on a, on a golfcourse or through playing golf

(32:48):
or or just being out in thiscommunity and I don't use that
word lightly because sometimesthe word bothers me the
community, because we are650,000 people up here, right,
but to your point earlier, weare still kind of a community.
Yeah, and a lot there's a, youknow, not two or three or four
degrees of separation from a lotof people, uh, especially if

(33:10):
you've lived here for 20 yearsand and see a lot of the same
folks.
So, uh, yeah, I enjoy playinggolf for for both business and,
um, you know, when it's warmenough, and the sun is out.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, for pleasure brandon, you can maybe speak to
a little bit to this.
Brian, I know you don't loveplaying golf, but what I found
is it allows me to see somebodyand not like a business
environment, and allows me tolike that.
It feels like the the businessguard gets let down a little bit
and you're able to.

(33:41):
You know, not that I care, butsee if they're cheating a little
bit, see if they're say arethey fun to be around, are they
a fun person to be around?
And I've gone, done golfingwith a few wonders and I'm like
that wasn't really funny or thatwas.
That was a lot of fun, I likedthem a lot.
You know, it is like we justhad fun, but my subconscious

(34:04):
kind of synced a memory withthem on the golf course.
Would you, would you attest tothat?

Speaker 3 (34:10):
Yeah, I think the the true character of maine comes
out.
So, yeah, if you, uh, we're notall hitting the middle of the
club face every time, so I Iknow the character comes out of
lessons, so I think, uh, I thinkpickleball is a new golf.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
I mean there's a lot true, a lot of networking on the
pickleball.
I'm more of a tennis kind ofpickleball guy.
Yeah, it's a little morefast-paced who we golf to, but
pickleball is blowing up.
You know, you've got Matrix,you have the big deal that's
going in and Springdale and youknow, now Pea Ridge wants a
pickleball court.
So there's a lot of networkingon the pickleball?

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Yeah, there is.
Have you seen the sciencebehind a back-and-forth game on
how it like statisticallyincreases your lifespan on like
a back and forth tennispickleball?
That's for another podcast but,like, I did look into a little
bit and there's something ourbrain does with the left and
right side of our brain whensomething's going back and forth
that like cognitively, makes usa lot more there for a longer

(35:08):
period of time, which isinteresting.
Golf also uses left and rightside of your brain, which is
I'll have to.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
I'll have to be on the wrong side of the trade-off.
I know my limitation.
I know my Achilles limitations.
I've heard too many horrorstories about the Achilles
tendon, tennis and pickleball,so I'm out.
I'm not about that.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
We kind of wanted to go through rapid fire questions,
but we can take our time onthem.
Sure, I'd love to, just becausethis is something that a lot of
people listening don't usuallymaybe get to hear.
And so I'd love to start outwith what you've done.
You've done a ton of meetingsin Northwest Arkansas.
What is your?
Give us a top one or two bestlunch spots for having a meeting

(35:51):
in Northwest Arkansas, a go-to.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
It's funny you asked that question because when I
asked that question peopledidn't answer it because they
didn't want to offend anybody.
So now I'm in the seat of beinganswered that question.
You can give us three or four.
Best lunch spot, do you know,for a business meeting?
For a business meeting, I likeHugo's in Fayetteville Good spot

(36:19):
and Rogers Probably end up atBonefish a lot of times.
Man, that's a good spot, holdon.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Yeah, those are two really good ones.
Brandon, you got a go-to.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
Oh man, I love stone mill, yeah, actually.
Yeah, you'll love business downthere.
Yeah, honestly, it's quite aplace.
The older folks like to bethere, so it's nice and calm,
yep um brian, you got a spot uh,I live in rogers so I'm in
nukes or uh.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
walk-ons pretty close Easy.
I usually see a lot of peopleon both of those.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Um, you're our next question.
We're just going to kind ofgrow through these.
Who in NWA is doing somethingcool in business that more
people should know about?
Uh, Nick Dozier, Nick Dozier.
What is Nick doing?
What does?

Speaker 2 (37:08):
he not do Um, and it's really just kind of his
hobby.
Is the um?
I mean you know the, the mark,marquee, collection marquee?
Oh really, it's hard todescribe.
I mean it's, it's really luxurycar condos?

Speaker 4 (37:23):
yeah, really, but he's got some other developments
too, but that's one of thefirst luxury car condo in
northwest arkansas which alsotells you about our market.
You know you see us in Austinor Dallas, but yeah, or Miami.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Beach, miami Beach, it is, it's definitely unique to
Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
You know, I just saw I've been seeing over the last
four or five months, more exoticcars than I've ever seen.
I saw a Lamborghini Urus theother day I saw.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
I've seen a few McLarens and like you don't see,
there's no dealers, dealershipsfor those, and that's the
clientele and that's why he'sbuilding that and that's why he
sold all those units or most ofthose units already.
That's crazy.
And uh, he was telling me aboutum, you know, if you go, I get
it's the first Sunday of everymonth.
I may be getting the date wrongor the familiarity wrong.

(38:10):
First Sunday of every month,sunday morning, in the date
wrong or the familiarity wrong.
First Sunday of every month,sunday morning, in the parking
lot of the neighborhood marketright up here on Whitaker
Parkway.
Really, you'll find all kindsof those cars you're talking
about, just like showing off andrevving and everybody looking
at their cars, those types ofcars that are, you know,
becoming more prevalent in thismarket.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Brian, that was a great point you said it shows
the demographic of the people,kind of people moving here and
what we're trending towards andgetting plugged in different
sort of communities like that.
That's a great point.

Speaker 4 (38:43):
I think what's also funny you say it's his hobby and
how many business owners innorthwest Arkansas are
developing or investing in realestate?
We talked about the Waltons alot.
They're doing, you know,billions of real estate.
But the Hunts they have aFortune 500 transportation
company but they also like realestate development a lot.

(39:03):
Yeah, there's a lot of businessowners and players that are,
you know, doing the investing.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Well, and yes, what Nick does you know doing the
investing.
Well, and yes, what Nick does.
So Nick and Pat Lockridge, theyown a retail software company,
analytical company called Engine, okay, just right down the road
here on Pinnacle Hills Parkway.
He was also part of thedevelopment team for Southgate,
right across from Shadow Valley,didn't know the first thing
about real estate developmentbut saw an opportunity for that

(39:33):
land and that spot and found theright people and now it's, I
guess, super successful.
I mean sold out.
There were like 30 lots orsomething like that and, um,
seven figure houses and it'sdeveloped and he did that and so
he just in, is a rogers guy,born and raised in rogers, and
it's, um, it's just involvedwith a lot, of, a lot of really
neat things.

(39:53):
Does a risk taker?
Yeah, yeah, yeah that's.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
That's, yeah, cool if you had to live anywhere in NWA
besides where you currentlylive right now.
Where would that be if you justcouldn't live?
Or do you live in Bentonville,correct, I do.
If you couldn't live inBentonville and had to pick
another spot, you let you aVista guy, or are you going down
to Fayetteville, you know, Ithink?

Speaker 2 (40:15):
I would live in Fayetteville, fayetteville, yeah
, yeah, there was a time whenyoung Paul wanted to live in
Fayetteville.
Really, I mean that's anexample of when I moved up here.
You know, mid to late 20s, youknow there's nothing to go do
something fun, you know eat ordrink or whatever, and you'd go
to Fayetteville so I need tolive in Fayetteville.

(40:36):
And now it's just beencompletely.
I mean not to disparageFayetteville, it's still a fun
place, but I mean Bentonville isjust shot through the roof in
that category of things to do.
I mean we've got bars inBentonville.
I mean that was just the fourconcepts.
You know bars and nightlife andrestaurants and you know cool

(40:57):
stuff to do, really good food.
But yeah, I would like I couldsee myself living in
Fayetteville.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
You're on the east side of Fayetteville or west
side of Fayetteville.
I'm on the east side, downtownDowntown.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
Close to?
Yeah, I live kind of close todowntown Bentonville so I would
try to keep the downtown as muchas possible.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
It's so interesting how different the feel of
downtown Bentonville from thefeel of Fayetteville, from the
feel of even a downtown RogersI've talked to.
We've talked about this beforehow each one has their
individual identity anddepending on who you are, you
can go Fayetteville.
I have some clients that arelike hey, I'm going to push you

(41:35):
more towards Fayetteville.
I have some clients that'sgoing to be more towards
Bentonville, or some it's likehey, you might want to be.
Each individual downtown Ithink is unique to this area of
how unique the identity of eachone is and it's not like just a
copy paste.
And even Springdale is going tohave its own little feel in
downtown and different type ofperson that can go there.
I think that's pretty.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
I think that's intentional.
Yeah, you know that's a goodword for that.
Depending on what yourperspective is on Bentonville, I
mean, downtown Bentonville hasgotten to a really different
level.
Yeah, For lack of a better term.
But I mean, the Rogers downtownis I don't know what, I don't

(42:17):
know what the word would be, butyeah.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Just to your point there.

Speaker 4 (42:21):
I'd love to hear what your word is no, I have a word
your point they're.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
They'd love to hear what your word is.
No, I have a word.
So.
So we've talked about this andand extensively on our podcast
of like what was a word, we eventalked what is a word we would
use for downtown rogers.
I said the word like gritty.
I think gritty or grunt, no,but like there's like mid, like
30 and 40, like older, 30, young, 40s feels like type of people
that are cool, but you don'tfeel like they're uppity, but

(42:50):
they're like in the middle typepeople go to downtown Raw.
I don't know, it's just likeit's a different vibe.
It's like I don't know, I don'tthink it is.
It's the brick streets.
Yes, what are they?
It's like a dip plane.
You hit those brick streets.
It's not super polished, youjust feel like it's that little
thing.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
You're like.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
I'm in downtown I can't think of I don't even
think gritty is the right wordto describe it, but most of my
real estate is closer todowntown Rogers.
I love downtown Rogers and Ireally couldn't even say why,
besides, they have great freeconcerts in the summer, they
have Lake Atlanta right there.
Then you couldn't even say why,besides, like they have great
free concerts in the summer, uh,they have, like atlanta right
there.
Then you have beaver lake andthey have great places to eat.
Like it's just a, but likeother downtowns, onyx, down onyx

(43:33):
is great, um, it's just areally good.
And which onyx is probably myfavorite place to have a
business meeting here locally,yeah, but yeah, I would, we'll
think we'll, we'll conspire fora new word for down rogers
gritty.

Speaker 4 (43:44):
What's unique about Rogers, though, is it has a
downtown, and it has what youwould call an uptown.
I don't know if anyone'sclassified.
It's like we're in uptown.
You know what I would sayuptown Dallas has that.
Dallas has an uptown and adowntown and they're kind of
distinct.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
So I think it's cool that Rogers has two different
Rogers is very unique in thatway.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
Yeah, rogers has two different.
Rogers is very unique in thatway.
Yeah, we're in the downtown ofNorthwest Arkansas?

Speaker 1 (44:13):
Yeah, the Switzerland of Memphis, arkansas my dad
calls Lowell.
The Switzerland of Memphis,arkansas, yeah, what is your
most underrated NorthwestArkansas town?
I know you're just talking tothe mayor of Pea Ridge.
You've got Siloam.
There's interesting things evenhappening in Siloam, I think.
Maybe eventually that big gapbetween Tawny Town and Siloam,

(44:34):
maybe something happens in there.
What would you say is anunderrated town?
I don't even think we couldthrow Elkins in there.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
No, I would put I'll answer that this way.
I would put Farmington and PeaRidge and then my same answer,
but then my B answer would beGravitt Mm-hmm, that's a great.
There are great people, atleast of it.
They have great leadership inGravitt and they have a great
school system in Gravitt that'sgrowing just like every other

(45:08):
school system around here.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
What's your favorite way to network in Northwest
Arkansas?
Is it grabbing a beer?
Is it a round of golf?
Is it going?
I started going on walks.
When someone wants to take someof my time, I'll say, hey,
let's go walk at LakeFayetteville or something like
that.
What's your favorite way tonetwork?
I don't know if it's the one tohave a cup of coffee with
somebody.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
Yeah, a specific spot .
I like going to Ledger becausethere's never anybody there and
you can get a seat.
It's a good spot, yeah, andthen you just walk in and
there's no tables and chairsthere.
It's not really loud.
If you go to Leisure, you getyour airship coffee over here
and then you've got places.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
You can hear the person talking to you.
That's a great point, and maybewe can exit that out so it can
stay quiet.
Onyx man, I love Onyx, butanytime I have a business
meeting there I'm like I can'thear that.
Do you want to go walk at LakeAdelina and talk, or something
like that?
But that's a great point.
You want to be able to hear.
You guys have favorite quietspot.

Speaker 4 (46:08):
I mean, I like a good coffee meeting.
There's so many cool coffeeshops around here.
I think there's a lot of.
You know, I'm part of them, butthere's a lot of networking
events that are popping uparound Northwest Arkansas.
So I think that you'reintentionally going there and
shit.
You know, shaking the hands ofmore than just a one on one on
one conversations are greatCause you you get to know each

(46:29):
other better, but thesenetworking events, you can, you
know, meet multiple people.
I like, yeah, brandon's, yougot a spot.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
Hail, fellow, well met.
Yeah, it's an on experience,off, but actually quiet.
For the most part you canalways find a seat, no matter
what the time.
In my experience, um, johnson'sa cool johnson and easy on easy
.
I wanted to answer thatquestion too on the most
underrated nwa towns.
I love, of course, johnson,it's not super underrated.
And then lol.

(46:55):
I think lol is the future, lol,lol, yeah, so you have to
pronounce it, lol, it can't below, low or anything.
My other town people say lowelllowell yeah so iell, I think
it's going to be a really niceextension of Cave Springs.
Yeah, I think they got a lot ofthings to figure out city-wise
because it's grown like crazy.
But Cave Springs is another onewe didn't talk about.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how those
develop over the coming years,sister JB Hunt referred to
Lowell as the center of theuniverse.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
That's right, the center of the universe.
People love that yeah that'samazing.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
We're going to transition out of that.
We're going into the last parthere.
If you could make one law orrule in real estate, what would
that be Rather?
Maybe we can spin it like thisIs there something you would
like to see in NorthwestArkansas in real estate?
Whether that be more affordablehousing, rent prices being more

(47:52):
affordable?
Would you rather see moresingle family townhome style
homes?
Is there 17 story hotel?
17?

Speaker 2 (47:58):
story hotel, more hotels.
You know I was going to say, um, density, yeah.
But I just think we need moredensity, yeah, to manage the
people.
I mean, the affordabilitydiscussion is a whole other one
from that.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
But just, we've got to find a way to be more dense
and that's yeah, yeah, I wouldsay so as well I think that's
something that, uh, I foundunique in like a nashville area
is that you've got all thesekind of dense pockets of like
communities that are half walk,almost walkable too, and where

(48:37):
you could like eat at some greatrestaurants around or do some
fun things around shop and stuff, but they're like away from the
city, you know, and, uh, Icould see that happening here
one day.
For sure.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
We're working with the city of Springdale on a
multifamily project and they'regoing to let us go.
It's a new initiative.
They're going to let us go fourstories on the multifamily.
You know, before you could onlydo garden-style three stories,
but if you go four stories andyou keep, you know 20% of the
units affordable to 80% of theAMI.
They're going to let you gofour stories For our listeners

(49:08):
listening.
What does AMI mean?
Average median income.
So if you're making $100,000,if the average median income of
the area is $100,000, if it's80% of AMI, it's affordable to
people making $80,000 a year.
You allocate a certain amount.
So I think the cities theycould do that.
You know Springdale is just nowcoming out with that initiative

(49:29):
.
But you know density is goingto help.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's.
That's great.
One of our, one of our wrappingup questions is you're, you're
going to play golf.
You got three other guys youcan invite.
Who?
Who would you love to have aconversation with?
Three guys you'd like to have aconversation with in Northwest
Arkansas, Maybe even someonewith your tenure, someone you've
already had a conversation with?

Speaker 2 (49:56):
or you think would be a good group to take out on the
course.
Give me 10 seconds.
No, you're good.
You're good.
Let's see Three people that Iwould like to go play golf with.
I like playing.
We would go play at Pinnacle.
I just like playing Pinnacle.
That was one of my questionsyour favorite course?
There's a lot of differentcourses, obviously up here and I

(50:16):
just like Pinnacle.
It's playable, it's good allthe time.
One person that immediatelycomes to mind, because we well,
I would see him, everybody wouldsee him everywhere on the golf
course, and he's no longer withus Cameron Smith.
I would like to play golf withCameron.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
These can be people that are good and not good at
golf.

Speaker 4 (50:44):
Yeah, well, and Cameron Smith, for those that
didn't know, he had a largerecruiting agency here, you know
, which was huge for Vinderville.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
Yeah, cameron was a Northwest Arkansas rainmaker who
died of cancer a couple yearsago.
Yeah, he was Mr NorthwestArkansas Gosh.
Let's see who would I like togo play golf with.
You know I'll go play golf withDarren Gray.
Yeah, you know it would be goodto see him and catch up with
Darren again.
Yeah, darren and Cameron.

(51:15):
And just because he is a MrHospitality person, is my good
friend Chris Weirich.
Yeah, I don't know if you guysknow Chris Weirich, I don't.
He works for Mrs Hunt at HuntVentures.
He owns and developed from backof a napkin idea and developed

(51:36):
and built equity storage over onthe corner of Ajax and Bellevue
.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
Yeah, Really good friend.
That sounds like a great day.
Yeah, we're going to wrap up,wrap up here.
We got about five minutes left,um, for somebody listening and
I.
This happens a lot, brandon, Ithink you're gonna test this as
well.
They go, hey, zach, what's?
What do I need to do to get afeel for northwest arkansas?
What would you say to someonelistening if they were to fly

(52:04):
into the area?
What's something they need todo or a place they need to visit
to get a feel for the area?
You know, it's an interestingquestion on how to get a feel
for this very drasticallydifferent area.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Go to nwabusinessjournalcom Rate the
business journal.
That's, you know, obviously anod to my former place of
employment, where I still havegood friends there.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
It's an interesting question because you could say
just drive up and down 49 andstop by the downtowns.
I'd love your take on somethinglike that.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
I would just drive to the downtowns.
I would drive to downtownBentonville and drive by the
museum and drive by the museum,drive by all the, because you
would see all of theconstruction and the development
.
And to your point earlier wherewe are perpetually typecast as
arkansans for better and worse,I think that would probably open
some eyes to some people whoare new to the area.

(52:58):
Yeah, see all the tower cranesand see all the construction and
and uh, and they'll ask thequestion that's a medical
college, they're building amedical school, and they're the
construction?
And they'll ask the questionthat's a medical college,
they're building a medicalschool, and they're doing what
here?
And they're just, I would go toall the development in, you
know, drive around Benton Countyand see all the dirt and the
machines and everything and justkind of open people's eyes that

(53:20):
it's not a sleepy town.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
There's things happening here daily that are
pushing the region forward For aquestion for all of us.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
would you feel like and I don't know if I'm pushing
one side or another do you thinksomeone coming into town
running like an electric bikeand going up and down the
greenway, do you think thatwould maybe give them a feel?
Or would it just be tootouristy type of thing for
someone to get a feel?

Speaker 3 (53:49):
I'd probably get them to the downtowns too.
So maybe take one arounddowntown or something like that.
But yeah, greenway is I mean,you're not going to catch up.
You're saying about your prettystuff.
Right, exactly, which is great.
The green spaces are awesome.
Yeah, they are really cool.
Yep, which is great.

Speaker 4 (54:04):
the green spaces are awesome yeah, that they are
really cool, yep, but yeah, Iwould say downtown bentonville
is the most bikeable.
I mean all you know, all ofnorthwest arkansas.
But if you're going to get abike, you know, go around
downtown bentonville, check outthe mountain biking.
You know, skis like it remindsme of like a ski, like a ski
town, like when you go to thesemountain biking courses it's
like you're going to a skiresort, yeah, with the, the

(54:24):
double black, the black, likehow they have it graded, and
just feel for it.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
So, yeah, oh, no doubt it's built to a t to a t
strider vans and through thelicense plates from everywhere.
And I've met people, um fromyou know there's an airbnb house
that's next to mine and lastfall a couple came down from
Maine, a man and wife, and itwas his birthday weekend and he

(54:52):
wanted to come ride mountainbikes in Bentonville.
So that's what she did for him.
They came to Bentonville fromMaine.
That's crazy.
Ride mountain bikes, yeah,that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
I'll hear that.
Yeah, Paul, where's a place orsomething that people can look
at to follow you, your work orwhat you're doing?
Or do you even want them?

Speaker 2 (55:11):
Absolutely, I love LinkedIn.
That was almost my answer whenyou said what's your favorite
place to go network?
I network on LinkedIn.
When I was at the BusinessJournal, I would see and read
and hear so much on LinkedInthat led to this story or led to
this question or this interview, and just, I'm a big LinkedIn
person, so please follow me onLinkedIn and that's where I also

(55:33):
now share all the excitingthings that are happening at UCA
and how we are trying toincorporate that profile to a
higher degree in northwestArkansas.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
Yeah, that's the push I needed to get my LinkedIn
page updated.
You're like a thirdconfirmation in a week.
There you go.
That's like because I'm likeInstagram, Facebook kind of guy,
I'm like I'm knowing onLinkedIn.
Linkedin's got some crazy reach.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
It does have some crazy reach, I think.
If you look at my timeline too,it's like my post a repost to
Paul Yadling and my post andrepost to Paul Yadling and my
post to Paul Yadling.
So always appreciate your, Iappreciate that appreciate you
guys.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Anything else, Paul, thank you so much.
I really appreciate you comingon.
Your time is very valuable andwe appreciate you, you bet.
Thank you, see you next time.
See you on episode 47, 48, 49something like that.