Wal-Mart Stores has made no secret that it would like to build a Neighborhood Market in Bella Vista, just five miles from retailer’s home office in Bentonville, and also home to hundreds of Wal-Mart corporate employees.

Last month the retailer got one step closer to that goal with a $4 million purchase of 126 acres of property that sits on the Bella Vista line, but is located inside Bentonville because the acreage recently was annexed by the city. The deal for the 126 acres was completed earlier this year, according to a Jan. 30 deed filed at the Benton County Courthouse.

The retailer won’t be sneaking into the sleepy village as it will need loads of dynamite to clear the rocky bluff that greets passers-by at the intersection of Peach Orchard Road and U.S. 71 — the site Wal-Mart now owns. Lowe’s Home Improvement, McDonald’s and a Northwest Health clinic each sit just east of the Wal-Mart property, at the northern most edge of Bentonville’s city limits. While the retail giant has yet to present store plans to the city of Bentonville, city officials did rezone the property from agricultural to general commercial on Jan. 21.

Wal-Mart confirmed it purchased the annexed land in north Bentonville, but Erica Jones, corporate spokeswoman said Tuesday, (March 11) the retailer has no immediate plans to announce a store.

In late 2012, Wal-Mart abandoned plans to build a Neighborhood Market in Bella Vista following an unsuccessful attempt to get another traffic light installed on U.S. 71, and a property rezoning backlash.

GOING SMALLER
Bill Simon, CEO of Walmart U.S., said during a March 4 speech at the Raymond James Investor Conference that Wal-Mart grew its Neighborhood Market stores 40% last year and returned 4% comparable sales for the year, and 5% in the fourth quarter.

He said the retailer is doubling the planned growth this year with about 300 additional stores, and 200 of those will be Neighborhood Markets and 100 will be the smaller Express or convenience format. Simon said the Neighborhood Markets are a pull forward of stores from a pipeline that was scheduled for the next two years. The smaller Express Stores require less planning and are more easy to site.

He said the Express formats will be rolled out in accordance with the density plan that will allow Wal-Mart to capture more of the convenience trip market it is losing to small box competitors. That quick trip shopping market is worth an estimated at $415 billion annually, and Wal-Mart is capturing just 10%, according to Simon. The small formats are Wal-Mart’s answer to picking up their share of the quick-trip sales.

“It is exciting. We think that we have come a long, long way with these two formats over the last three years. We're excited about their opportunity. We believe they represent tremendous growth potential for the company in a retail space that is defined on one end by digital and on the other end by pure physical. These provide the ability to compete as I have talked, across a wide array of competitors and many, many different spaces,” Simon said.

Wal-Mart plans to roll out three of its fully tethered ecosystems by later this year. The ecosystem involves supercenters, tethered to distribution centers and smaller formats as well as physical stores being connected to Walmart.com. The Express Store could be stocked by from a local supercenter, a consumer could order an exercise bike online and pick it up at her local Walmart Neighborhood Market.

SImon said even employees would be interchangeable between the stores within a local ecosystem, perhaps working three shifts at a supercenter and then picking up two others at smaller format closer to their home.

LOCAL EXPANSION, TETHERING?
Wal-Mart’s store expansion in Northwest Arkansas has ramped up in the past year, with eight new stores already announced, including a new convenience store model that is expected to open in the next few weeks. The majority of the announced projects are for Neighborhood Market formats, with the exception of the large supercenter under construction in Springdale and the convenience store in Bentonville.

The retailer’s real estate division has actively looked for other parcels across the region in addition to the recent purchase in north Bentonville and six other deals made in 2013 totaling more than $8.819 million, according to Benton County real estate records. This activity begs the question if Northwest Arkansas is one of three regions setting up for tethering.

Wal-Mart has revealed one of the three regions set up for tethering is in North Carolina where it built a number of stores last year, including Neighborhood Markets and Express formats. Northwest Arkansas has four of the retailer’s 20 smallest formats, soon to be five when the convenience store opens in Bentonville.

Simon said the retailer is testing density and the early data sources show that Wal-Mart captures new sales dollars, new trips and new customers when it puts small format stores between supercenters.

When a “Neighborhood Market is built in proximity to a supercenter we see an additional $300 a year from customer spend based on traceable tender. So this is additive to our business — because they are different trips, because they are shopped differently. A stock-up trip at the supercenter on the weekend; fill-in trip at the Neighborhood Market during the week,” Simon said.

He indicated during questioning at last week’s investor conference that the initial roll-out of the first wave of small formats would capitalize on the company’s strength and support system nearby in rural markets and go out one concentric ring further. That describes what is happening in Northwest Arkansas, with Pea Ridge, Farmington, Centerton and Siloam Springs all on tap to get new Neighborhood Markets this year.

Bell Buckle, Tenn., doesn’t sound like the launching pad for the career path of a CEO for the world’s largest protein company and one of Arkansas’ largest employers.

However, it provided the foundation for a storied career for Tyson Foods CEO Donnie Smith, 54, who started with the Springdale-based meat giant in 1980 when he was fresh out of college.

“I was a broiler service man calling on growers and trying to help them do a good job growing chickens,” Smith recalls.

Bell Buckle is smack-dab in the middle of Tennessee. It boasts a population today of 500 residents and is known for its annual RC Cola and Moon Pie festival. The land surrounding the town – as its name might suggest – is fertile farm and pasture land with a lot of activity in the cattle and poultry business.

The lessons learned by Smith in tiny Bell Buckle proved instrumental for guiding his career to the top post of Tyson Foods, a dominant worldwide brand and business founded three generations ago by the legendary John Tyson.

GETTING TO TYSON FOODS
A pre-vet major at the University of Tennessee, Smith figured out by his sophomore year that he ought to consider a different pursuit. Guided by his college advisor, a poultry science extension service representative, Smith pivoted to a degree in animal science.
His advisor noted that Tyson Foods had a complex in Shelbyville, Tenn., about an hour-and-a-half from where Smith grew up.

“I started working them really hard my last year of school,” Smith said.

He graduated from UT on Dec. 12, 1980; married his wife, Terry, on Dec. 20; and started working for Tyson Foods on Dec, 28. It’s been that kind of pace for Smith’s entire career.

After a few years as a broiler service rep, Smith was promoted to feed mill manager in Shelbyville before then-CEO Leland Tollett called Smith to Tyson’s headquarters in Springdale in 1987 to work with the company’s grain purchasing group. Smith mastered the challenge and by the mid-1990’s he was in charge of additional purchasing groups – not just grain feed, but bags, boxes, food ingredients, maintenance items, and more.

In 2008, Smith was asked to take another role in Tyson’s retail group working with the poultry and prepared foods divisions – two of Tyson’s four major business silos.

By 2009 – after his early mentor Leland Tollett returned for an interim CEO stint – Smith’s broad and balanced skills made him a natural selection for the role he has today. Smith, however, says he really didn’t see it coming.

TURNING IT AROUND

It won’t take 10 seconds into a conversation with Smith to recognize his enthusiasm and animation, not to mention his endearing Tennessee twang. Throughout our talk, Smith is self-deprecating and humble, quick to credit his management team and employees, but full of zest for the subjects at hand.

High-energy is another adjective that leaps to mind. He is intense in his personal engagement with others. As we walk briskly through the corporate headquarters on a tour, Smith interacts often with employees in the hallways, kitchen areas, and research and development division.

The Springdale headquarters has a large volume of masterpiece art adorning its hallways. A whimsical statue of a chicken-cow – an artist’s rendition of a morphed animal with a chicken’s comb, beak and tail attached to a cow’s body – would make the perfect prop for a hilarious cover photo, especially if Smith would agree to sit on top of it and wave like Bronco Billy.

“I’ll do it,” Smith says after I suggest the shot. We have a good laugh as his PR handlers wisely encourage us to “move along” to the next destination.

When Smith took over as CEO in late-2009, Tyson Foods was struggling – like most businesses – from the recession that reshaped the American and world business landscape. Tyson finished that year with a $547 million net loss. Its debt was massive and it had only invested $368 million in capital expenditures, a significant drop-off from the previous year.

CULTURE FOCUS
Smith says a focus on two primary areas helped the company move forward since the bumpy years when he inherited the CEO mantle. Number one was culture.

“I think creating a culture where people are willing to take some risks – not crazy risks, but reasonable, controlled risks – not afraid to fail, knowing that we’ve got to try different things, we’ve got to try to innovate … we knew we had to create a culture where people know we care about them, and they were willing to take a chance and try something new,” Smith said.

As an example, he points to a time in 2009 when light truck weights were eating into the profitability of the company’s poultry business. He says Tyson was averaging about 24,000 lbs. a truck. Smith and his management team made the decision to enlist ideas from the customer service representatives who were on the ground dealing with the light truck weight issue. They were asked how to improve transportation efficiency, says Smith, and in return ideas ranging from shifting order patterns to re-working production plant operations emerged.

“Now we average close to 34,000 lbs. a load in that business,” Smith notes. “The bosses didn’t do that. It was the bosses turning the people loose.”

He underscores that listening to clients and customers and responding with solutions has been a part of the culture, too.

“I think God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason, so we try to shut up and listen,” he jokes. “It’s hard to tell through this interview because I’m talking like a machine gun.”

CONTROLLING COSTS
The other half of the equation leading to Tyson’s turnaround financial performance centers on a commitment made in 2010 when Smith was in his first full year as CEO. He said there was broad consensus that a realignment of the company’s cost and capital structures had to be brought in line.

“I remember not long after they put me in this job, I brought the senior team together and said okay we’re going to have our first strategy talk. And here’s our strategy: we’re not going to talk about strategy for at least a year. We don’t need a strategy. We need to fix this business. Forget about grandiose ideas about who we could be in five years because if we don’t fix this thing, there ain’t going to be five years. Just go get good at what we do,” Smith told the troops.

He emphasized that the turnaround investments and changes he’s helped guide have little to do with controlling grain and feed costs related to the beef, poultry and pork industries. As important as they are, Smith says Tyson Foods has spent the last four years fixing its internal operations in order to become more efficient and profitable.

“I’m talking about things that we had complete control over that we just weren’t focusing on at the time,” said Smith, who highlighted changes in line efficiencies, labor resources, plant spending, and yields as examples.

In four years, Tyson Foods has shaved more than a billion dollars worth of debt from its balance sheet and lowered its debt-to-capitalization ratio from 44% in 2009 to 27.9% in 2013.

Sales have climbed nearly 29% higher during that time and net income has reversed from that $547 million loss in 2009 to a $778 million profit in 2013. Its stock price has climbed from a low of $4.40 per share at one point in 2009 to a high last year of $31.83. It has approached $40 per share so far in 2014.

“It’s been about getting back to the fundamental basics of blocking and tackling of running a good business,” said Smith, who is also quick to point out that he is undeserving of any individual accolades for the improvements.

“I don’t think any one person can ever get credit for what a team or group of people accomplishes,” he said.

Wal-Mart Chief Financial Officer Charles Holley said Tuesday (March 11) that the retailer failed in three of its five main operating objectives last year — sales growth, leveraging its expenses and operating income growth. And while he promised the retailer will do more to leverage expenses this year, Holley said the biggest focus from its U.S., Sam’s Club and International segments will be to improve dismal same-store sales.

Holley, speaking at the Bank of America Consumer and Retail Conference in New York, said sales have rebounded strongly in recent weeks now that the snow is melting and the sun is shining.

Wal-Mart has forecast flat comp store sales for the 13-week period ending May 2, after citing sluggish January traffic because of weather-related store closures and SNAP (food stamp payment) reductions, which mean less money to spend for roughly 20% of the retailer’s shopper base.

He said Wal-Mart’s agenda this year is highly focused on accelerating its small format and linking them up with expanded digital and mobile capabilities. These two initiatives comprise more than half of the company’s $12.4 billion in capital expenditures for the fiscal year.

He said expanding new brand offerings is also key in driving shopper satisfaction and ultimately traffic and sales. Wal-Mart added several brands last year including active wear clothing from Avia and Russell, and Calphalon and Faberware cookware. Holley said more brands are coming and the retailer will only use private label to fill gaps in value within certain categories.

HEADWINDS, HEALTH CARE
While Holley is optimistic this year will be more profitable than last, he did mention several headwinds the retailer is likely to face, with the primary hits being foreign currency fluctuations and added costs for ongoing compliance issues.

Oddly enough, Holley said Wal-Mart was taken by surprise that more than 100,000 additional employees signed up for health care under the Affordable Care Act. He said that was an unexpected cost increase of $300 million this year.

When Analysts asked Holley why Wal-Mart was surprised didn’t anticipate the expense, he said Wal-Mart is not aware of every employee’s situation and what other insurance they may or may not have outside the plan that Wal-Mart offers.

Wal-Mart has said it financially performs better in times of slight inflation as opposed to deflationary climates. Holley said deflationary pressures could hurt sales revenue in 2014. That will likely remain true in certain competitive categories such as electronics or laundry detergent, but food and fuel inflation is on the rise.

A new report from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations shows the food price index rose sharply in February driven rising commodity prices across the globe. The index, based on the prices of a basket of internationally-traded food commodities, saw price upticks in all commodity groups, with the exception of meat, which fell marginally. The largest increases since January have been seen in sugar (6.2%) and oils (4.9%), followed by cereals (+3.6%) and dairy (+2.9%).

Analyst said the higher commodity costs take about six months to reach the consumer, except for meat and dairy, which is passed to the market within two weeks.

GROWTH OPPORTUNITY
Holley said Wal-Mart is in a strong financial position to invest in future growth which will occur at the “intersection of physical and e-commerce.” He said the small format acceleration married to improving e-commerce and digital services is the winning prescription. 

Retail analysts warn that the value shopping channel is already a crowded space, with Amazon and other online retailers taking market share from big box, small box and warehouse clubs.

That said, Holley told the group that there was still room for hundreds, if not thousands more small format Wal-Mart stores. He added that the small formats offer fuel and pharmacy along with an in-store kiosk that allows shoppers to order any product Wal-Mart offers elsewhere. The tests underway in home delivery, storage lockers and depot pick-up locations are going well, according to Holley.

“You are going to see a lot more of these pick-up stations built here in the U.S.,” Holley said.

The Fort Smith Planning Commission passed a set of planned zoning districts Tuesday (March 11), both of which faced opposition from residents in neighborhoods surrounding the proposed districts.

The PZDs, one located along Massard Road and another at the site of Fianna Hills Country Club, must still go before the Fort Smith Board of Directors for final approval on April 1.

The Fianna Hills PZD is necessary for developer Lance Beaty with Fort Smith-based FSM Redevelopment Partners to turn the aging country club into a four-story facility that will revitalize the property at a cost of about $20 million.

At issue for many in attendance were the guest suites to be included in the new facility. The suites, Beaty said, would only be available for use by members and their guests and would not be available for use by the general public.

Resident Jerry Rusnick asked specifically how such a rule, which is written into the PZD ordinance, would be enforced. According to Planning Director Wally Bailey, Beaty's application for the PZD included information stating that a governing body at the Fianna Hills Country Club would enforce such requirements, though he said should the PZD regulations not be followed, the city would have the option of pursuing legal action against Beaty's company after initial attempts to resolve the situation non-legally.

Sebastian County Justice of the Peace Danny Aldridge, whose home is the second home along Essex Drive leading away from the country club, said he did not want the PZD approved because of what it could do to his home value, as well as his contention that his view would be obstructed by the larger building. Aldridge also argued that permitted uses within the UDO could open the facility to other uses beyond what Beaty has proposed should the development ultimately fail.

"The PZD has many permitted uses that is spelled out and has a number that's conditional and some that are (not)," he said. "And it is dually noted that the country club and the golf course are permitted uses. But also in there, a permitted use that they've asked you to do is have a group home for a family and defined by the city's own people, that is a residence that can house up to eight mental or physical state custodial inmates. Now I do not want that kind of facility two doors down from my home. If that was in there as a conditional use, where it would have to come back to you, it would be different. But it's not. It's a permitted use."

Bailey addressed the issue, stating that "group homes" are permitted in all city residential zones, adding that the city is complying with federal law and the homes are not permitting the housing of criminal offenders but instead handicapped individuals.

While there was opposition to the PZD, with about half of the more than 50 in attendance raising their hands in opposition to the project, the other half of those in the room raised their hands in support of the project.

Resident John Higgin pointed out that if the PZD was not approved and FSM Redevelopment Partners is unable to move forward with the project, there is a chance the current owners could close the country club, leaving the golf course open to residential two zoning, which would permanently alter the golf course in a way he said was worse than any construction at the site of the current clubhouse.

Another resident, Champ Hinton, said he lives right next to the country club and was in favor of the development.

"I'm for these guys 100% and I totally understand what they're doing. I don't see how the city could put any objection to a $20 million facility that's going to be outstanding in the state run by a golf company that's a national organization that doesn't run anything but prestige courses," he said. "I think it will be a benefit to the city and I know it will be a benefit to Fianna Hills. And it will supply 75 to 100 jobs. That sure won't hurt. We need those in the city."

The commission approved the PZD in a vote of 9-0.

The other PZD approved Tuesday night included far less detail on the planned development to take place at 4401 Massard Road. The property, which is zoned for multi-family use, is proposed to be turned into an office and retail park.

According to property owner Cliff Cabaness, president and CEO of Trinity Multifamily, he has received a lot of interest from individuals more interested in the property for commercial use.

"Some high end medical and commercial (businesses) have made contact," he told The City Wire, though he added that no contracts have been signed for any construction on the property.

Many of the residents who spoke in opposition to the plan have said the noise of a commercial and office complex would disrupt the neighborhood north of the facility.

Resident Tim Post insisted that the Massard Road area was more residential than commercial. He was among a group of 42 residents who presented a petition to the commission asking that it restrict the types of businesses to be included businesses that he said would "not have any weekend or evening disturbance."

Restrictions included within the PZD include limiting building heights to no more than three stories to comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations (the PZD is in the flight path of Fort Smith Regional Airport), making all buildings have a pitched roof with no visible equipment on the top of the facilities, allowing a buffer between any development and the neighborhood of a few dozen feet and limiting any convenience store development to the south of the PZD and making sure any lighting only bleeds onto Massard Road and not into the neighborhood adjacent to the site.

The commission passed the PZD with eight votes and one abstention.

Dr. Mounir Farah from the University of Arkansas will present a lecture titled “The Hidden Factors in the Syrian Upheaval” on Thursday (March 13) in room 108 of the student center on NorthWest Arkansas Community College campus in Bentonville.
 
The presentation will be from noon to 1 p.m., and is open to the public. The event is part of the college’s themed semester focus on Syria.
 
Farah is a professor of curriculum and instruction and Middle East studies at the UA. Between 1993 to 1995, Farah was a consultant to the Ministry of Education in Jordan and to the World Bank project for educational reform and development in Jordan. He also served as a consultant/expert to a European Union project to upgrade practice teaching in four public universities in Jordan.

Between 2004 and 2005 he was Senior Fulbright Scholar to Syria, lectured at the University of Damascus and was a consultant to the Syrian Ministry of Education.
 
Farah holds a doctorate in modern Middle Eastern and European history from New York University, a certificate in educational administration and supervision from Connecticut, a master’s degree in history from the University of Bridgeport and a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Oklahoma City University.

The annual Henry Awards Banquet took place on Tuesday (March 11) during the 40th annual Arkansas Governor’s Conference on Tourism. The conference was March 9-11 in Rogers.

Highlighting the awards ceremony was the naming of Alice Walton of Bentonville as the Tourism Person of the Year. Also during the ceremonies, Ernest and Cathy Cunningham of Helena-West Helena were inducted into the Tourism Hall of Fame.

The other Henry Award recipients for 2013 include:
• Media Support Award: Paula Morell, North Little Rock

• Bootstrap Award: Miller’s Mud Mill, Dumas

• Arkansas Heritage Award: Arkansas Historic Preservation Program

• Grand Old Classic Special Event Award: Frisco Festival, Rogers

• Outstanding Volunteer Service Award: Twyla Gill Wright, Batesville

• Community Tourism Development Award: Fort Smith Convention and Visitors Bureau

• The Natural State Award: Grant County Museum, Sheridan

• Tourism Special Achievement Award: Andy Thomas, Russellville

The Henry Awards honor individuals and organizations which have made important contributions to the state’s tourism industry in the preceding year.

The Henry Awards have been a feature of the annual Arkansas Governor’s Conference on Tourism since their debut in 1981. The awards are named for Henri de Tonti, founder of Arkansas Post in 1686 and who is often hailed as the first “Arkansas Traveler.”

Sparks Health System is again looking for a CEO following the resignation this week of Charles Stewart, himself the second CEO to resign from the hospital since May 2013.

In a statement to The City Wire, Sparks Director of Marketing and Communications Donna Bragg did not disclose details of the resignation of now-former CEO Charles Stewart from the hospital in Fort Smith and its sister facility, Summit Medical Center in Van Buren.

"Charles Stewart resigned from his position as CEO of Sparks Health System this week. We appreciate his contributions to our health system and wish him well in his future endeavors."

Asked about circumstances regarding the resignation, Bragg declined to provide specifics.

Stewart started at Sparks in September, replacing former CEO Gary Blan, who lead the two hospitals for less than three months before he resigned.

Blan was hired by Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates (HMA) as the Arkansas Market CEO on March 19, 2013. According to HMA, Blan stepped down in late May, with the announcement made public on May 23, 2013. Blan was picked to succeed Melody Trimble who was promoted to president of HMA's Southern and Western Group, which includes 26 hospitals in seven states. Trimble’s promotion was effective Jan. 1, 2013. The seven-state region is Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington.

Prior to joining Sparks and Summit, Stewart had joined HMA's Poplar Bluff, Mo., hospital, overseeing the completion of a new $173 million HMA facility. His sudden resignation in Fort Smith comes as a surprise, especially considering comments he made when he first started at the two hospitals last year.

“Prior to that (Blan’s departure), Melody was here for a number of years. ... I plan to be here for a number of years. Most of the places I’ve been, I was there for several years,” Stewart said.

It is unknown whether the change in ownership for the hospitals made official early this year had any bearing on Stewart's decision to leave. The new owner, Community Health Systems, was almost double the size of HMA at the time of purchase. Its portfolio of hospitals includes four Northwest Arkansas facilities — Northwest Medical Center-Bentonville, Northwest Medical Center-Springdale, Siloam Springs Regional Hospital and Willow Creek Women's Hospital in Johnson.

Bragg said the company has not named a new CEO, adding, "Our work to identify a new CEO will begin immediately, and it will include input from our Board of Trustees and medical staff leadership."

She detailed what she said were attributes those searching for a new CEO would seek in a candidate for the position, which is now open for the third time in a year.

"In our search for our next CEO, we will look for an experienced and motivated hospital leader who will help Sparks Regional Medical Center and Summit Medical Center continue in our commitment to serving the community with excellent health services."

During the time without a CEO, Bragg said the hospital would continue to provide a high level of care for patients in both hospitals.

"We appreciate the dedication of our physicians and employees through this transition as they continue to provide high-quality, compassionate care for our patients."

Sparks Health System includes Sparks Regional Medical Center, Sparks Clinic (an employed multi-specialty physician group), Sparks PremierCare physician-hospital organization, Sparks Home Health and the fully hospital-integrated Marvin Altman Fitness Center. Summit Medical Center is a fully accredited, 103-bed acute care hospital. Its parent company leases the Van Buren facility in which Summit Medical operates.

Shares of Community Health Systems (NYSE: CYH) was trading mid-day Wednesday at $37.62, down $1.03. During the past 52 weeks, the share price has ranged from a $51.29 high to a $36.52 low.

Real estate is a local business, but two global marketers Trulia and Zillow have been hard at it transforming aggregated local data into booming businesses and brands of their own. However, the national players aren’t always supported by the local industry.

Harold Crye, president of Memphis-based Crye-Leike Real Estate, recently backed away from providing Trulia and Zillow with listing information in the Memphis market. He said the firm will continue to evaluate its Jan. 28 decision over the next few months in terms of any pushback from its customers.

“I can tell you so far there has been a 99% approval rating in Memphis since we pulled the plug on Zillow and Truila — very little pushback,” Crye said. “Trulia has asked to meet with us on this issue, but it was postponed because of weather. We are supposed to meet later this month.”

He said for now there are no plans to cut the services in other markets while they evaluate the move in Memphis.

LISTING INACCURACIES
Crye said there are plenty of reasons to walk away from third party listing sites, and top of the list are the “glaring” inaccuracies.

“The information they provide is not clean, it’s not accurate and it’s not up-to-date. They have home listings on their sites that sold six months ago, sometimes a year ago. The listing price has been wrong on occasion and the estimated values are low in some cases or occasionally too high,” Crye said.

Trulia told The City Wire that it works with hundreds of brokers and multiple listing services to improve the accuracy of their listings.

“We are continuing to work with Crye-Leike in its other markets, to improve the accuracy of its listings on Trulia,” said Alon Chaver, vice president-industry services at Truila.

Chaver adds that firms like Crye-Leike can leverage the Trulia platform and the 35 million unique monthly visitors who are looking for homes and agents to deliver ever increasing value to their agents and the sellers they represent.

Zillow told The City Wire that accuracy and timeliness of listings are very important to the company.

“We work with MLSs, brokerages, agents and homeowners to get the most complete set of listings possible. We update listings every 15 minutes with new information we receive,” said Amanda Wooley, spokeswoman for Zillow.
 
Crye also doesn’t like that these platforms allow local real estate experts to be pushed aside by those willing to pay for exposure on third party sites. He said the listing real estate firm that gave them the data is scantly represented on these sites.

Dozens of firms from Minneapolis to Alabama have been walking away from Zillow and Trulia over the past 18 months, citing the inaccuracies and other concerns. One of the more vocal markets on this issue has been Austin, Texas. The Austin Board of Realtors recently announced that as of April 30, it will no longer distribute its members’ listings to third-party portals through the syndicator ListHub.

The Realtor board cited concerns about unethical business practices and inaccurate listing data on third-party sites. Agents who still want to use these sites can do so on their own.

Crye said he gave his Memphis agents that same option.

‘ZESTIMATE’ VALUE
One bone of contention among the agents surveyed for this story is Zilow’s zestimate.

“One of my agents had a client who asked that their listing be supplied to Zillow, the agent showed them the low zestimate value which was $20,000 below the list price of their home and the seller opted not to give Zillow the listing,” Crye said.

Nicky Dou, broker with Keller Williams in Bentonville, said the zestimate is “nonsense” as anyone can post home improvements to these sites, even if they are not made.

Zillow said the zestimate is calculated using an algorithm that looks at facts about the house itself from public records (square footage, beds/baths, tax assessments, last sale price of the home itself, timing of the sale) along with user-submitted data. Zillow encourages home owners to claim their home on Zillow and submit updated home facts, such as home additions or remodels.

Wooley said Zillow has undated information on 25 million homes. It calculates zestimate values three times a week and publishes accuracy statistics down to the county level on the site. Nationally, Zillow said it has a median error of 7%.

ENCROACHMENT
The Northwest Arkansas Board of Realtors (NABOR) is aware of issues with Zillow and has discussed steps it can address regarding accuracy and encroachment concerns from third party sites. NABOR does give local MLS data to Zillow, Truila and other third party sites.

“As a board we have a set of rules that third party aggregators are supposed to sign. Zillow has never signed it. These rules deal with keeping the data we supply up to date. The next step for our board will be to enforce these rules from the third party sites. The ball will be in Zillow’s court,” said Doyle Yates, president elect for the NABOR.

He serves on the National Board of Realtors and said the industry trade group is prepared to fend off further encroachment. Yates said efforts are being made to beef up Realtor.com, which is the industry’s own national listing service.

“The only way we will be able to keep third party aggregators like Zillow at bay is have a more accurate alternative like Realtor.com where we can direct buyers and sellers,” Yates said.

He said the industry is cautious about courting Zillow, after seeing what happened to the travel agency sector with the rise of online sites Hotwire and Expedia. Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff cofounded Hotwire in 1999, sold it to Expedia in 2003 and helped form Zillow in 2005.

NECESSARY EVIL
Kevin King, broker with Weichert Realtors King Realty Group in Fort Smith, said the local board of Realtors voted to provide the multiple listing data to third party sites.

“We felt like getting the most exposure possible for our clients was the right thing to do. It comes at a cost to the agent, and broker but we felt the clients deserve the exposure,” King said.

Zillow and Trulia garner heavy traffic from around the globe as these companies aggregate local MLS data into a more international database. 

“The downside is that we are providing the data free of charge to these sites, who then profit by selling leads and exclusive access to any agent willing to pay the fees,” King said.

King agreed that the data on the site can be in accurate, and said that’s why there is still a need for local real estate professionals.

Jason Smith, broker for Crye-Leike in Fayetteville, uses Zillow and Trulia and pays handsomely to get the leads and exclusive access that Zillow provides to Premier Agents. He admits that data on the sites are often inaccurate, but said Zillow is the No. 1 most visited site for real estate listings and he believes getting the most exposure possible for his sellers.

“Buyers and sellers still need to deal with a local professional, even though they may start their search on a national site. I advertise on Zillow to get the leads and for me it’s well worth the money spent,” Smith said.

He received two leads Wednesday morning (March 12) and one of those came from an interested buyer for his own listing. Smith said if that potential buyer purchases that listing his commission will be $15,000, versus $7,500 if another agent finds the buyer.

King and Smith said using the third-party sites for added exposure is a necessary evil today as so many consumers crave information.

‘NO, THANK YOU’
Dou, a top selling agent at Keller Williams in Bentonville, says “No thank you,” to supplying Zillow or Truila her listing information. She cited issues with the zestimates and other inaccuracies that keep her from using these third-party sites.

“I personally do not like Trulia or Zillow. We try to educate our buyers where to search online and where not to search. Both of these are on my ‘no’ list,” Dou said. “I have had several listings that appear on both of these sites as rentals when they are actually only for sale. Scam artists have hacked in and posted these as rentals.”

Instead of giving away her listings to a third party, Dou and her husband Jerry have set up her own sites that are tied into the local MLS and use other technology applications. She said marketing properties is the name of the game in real estate sales, but that doesn’t mean you have to play ball with inaccurate sites like Zillow and Trulia.

Dou also utilizes YouTube, Facebook, Craigslist, ActiveRain, Pinterest, Real Estate Blogs and many other portals to get her listings in front of as many buyers as possible. 
As for national real estate sites, she said Realtor.com is not too bad as it is usually up to date.

Tyson Foods CEO Donnie Smith took a seat on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” segment Wednesday (March 12) to discuss food inflation and any potential impact on the meat giant’s profits going forward.
 Company executives were in New York for the 18th Annual Goldman Sachs Agribusiness Conference.


Smith said he expects another record year for meat prices, and for Tyson profits as well.

“At the end of 2013 we saw beef cutout at about $2 a pound, it’s up to $2.40 now ... pork prices were about 97 cents a hundredweight, they are $1.17 now. These are significant price increases,” Smith said.


He explained that consumer demand for meat is still very good, which allows Tyson to pass along the higher prices. Smith added that as prices rise, consumers trade down from more expensive cuts toward those with higher value propositions. 
When fuel prices rise above $3 per gallon, Smith said consumers start trading down.

“Right now we are seeing consumers who might reach for the ground beef chose the chicken instead, because it’s a cheaper protein relatively speaking,” Smith said.


He reiterated that the company continues to shift away from commodity type products toward more value-added meal solutions that resonate with the Millennial generation. 


“They are not the core meal preparers that their previous generations were,” Smith said of the Millennials.

He expects Tyson will continue to pass along inflationary costs to the consumers as long as demand allows it. 


During the Goldman Sachs speech, company executives praised the work of Tyson employees who have adopted a “no excuses mindset” that has led to sales and earnings growth through a challenging operational climate in 2013.


Tyson shares rose 73 cents on Wednesday closing at $40.47. The company stock price has ranged from a low $22.47 to a high $40.80 over the past 52 weeks. 
The Springdale-based meat giant will next report earnings on May 5, analysts expect 62 cents a share. The company executives reiterated guidance between $2.78 and $2.89 per share for the full year. The company does not provide quarterly guidance.
 

Mother Nature has not been kind this winter to many business sectors from retail to airlines, and certainty not trucking and logistics firms who lose money every day trucks and trains are idle.

Analysts with Stephens Inc. said weather disruptions in the first quarter are likely to have a negative impact on J.B. Hunt’s intermodal operations, which was the basis for a 10-cent reduction in expected first quarter earnings per share. (Stephens provides investment banking services for J.B. Hunt Transport and is compensated accordingly.)

“We remain Overweight with an $87 price target on shares of J.B. Hunt Transport, but we are lowering first quarter estimates,” Brad Delco, analyst with Stephens, writes in March 12 note to investors.

Shares of J.B. Hunt Transport (NASDAQ:JBHT) closed Wednesday (March 12) at $72.75, down 33 cents. For the past 52 weeks the share price has ranged from $67.97 to $79.89.


Delco expects J.B.Hunt to earn 60 cents per share in the first quarter, reduced from 70-cents. He said the transport company’s exposure on the BNSF railroad in/around the Chicago area are creating service disruptions due to the recent string of severe weather. He adds that reduced volumes reported by BNSF will directly impact Hunt’s intermodal segment.

“We lowered our first quarter intermodal volume estimate from 11.5% to 6% and lowered our fiscal 2014 estimate from 11.2% to the low end of the 10% to 14% guidance range. In addition to volume disruptions, we believe that Hunt has lost some potential momentum on pricing, as recent service disruptions impede the likelihood of near-term pricing gains,” Delco noted.

Despite the recent headwinds, Delco said Hunt still provides a solid long-term growth potential from the following:
• Further load conversion to intermodal;
• Improved intermodal pricing;
• More contracts for the dedicated services segment;
• Better earnings from recent expansion in the brokerage segment; and
• Better truckload efficiencies following recent management restructuring.

Even though the economy has been slow to recover since the start of the Great Recession in 2008, it has not stopped Arkansas’ budding entrepreneurs from not only having dreams of building their own business, but putting those dreams into writing in the form of a business plan.

One event helping young entrepreneurs develop their business plans is the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup, billed as “the premier statewide business plan competition for college students.”

Sam Walls, president of the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation (AEAF), the annual event’s sponsor, said the competition, founded in 2001, is about more than just helping business majors write a well-formed business plan.

“If you look at the great stories in Arkansas — Wal-Mart, Tyson, Stephens, Acxiom, J.B. Hunt — those have been a large economic driver for us. The question is where is the next one? You want to see as many of those businesses as you can.”

According to Walls, the competition is about encouraging students to think outside the box and even if their initial idea does not place in the competition, to continue pursuing an interest in entrepreneurship down the road.

“You hope it plants the seed, drives the interest for them, to be an entrepreneur, to at some point down the road step up with the next big idea for our state.”

One business plan that has gone from an idea to an award-winning business plan to an actual company is TrustedWills.com, the brainchild of Ouachita Baptist University student Lindsey Fowler and her faculty advisor Bryan McKinney.

Fowler, who competed in the Governor’s Cup last year as a junior, presented the idea for a website that would allow individuals to create legally-binding wills online. And even though she still had a year of school to complete, Fowler said it was far from her first business plan competition.

“Bryan McKinney came to me and had this vague idea for what became Trusted Wills and he had seen me participate in the freshman year business plan competition at OBU and he thought it would be a really great partnership for us to do this business, so we started working on it last year,” she said.

The vague idea from McKinney, who is an attorney and the dean of OBU’s Hickingbotham School of Business, landed Fowler with a first-place win in the school’s business plan competition, as well as first place in another business plan competition hosted by OBU that included entries from the school’s cross-town rival, Henderson State University in Arkadelphia.

“The next step was the Governor’s Cup. Throughout the process, we were getting feedback from the judges that really helped prepare us for the Governor’s Cup and for the statewide level,” she said.

Using that feedback to update the company’s business plan, Fowler was able to take TrustedWills.com to the Governor’s Cup, where she finished as a finalist and also won a competition known as the Elevator Pitch, where the various competitors are able to pitch their business plans to a group luncheon, with those in attendance choosing a winner of the competition.

McKinney said he believed one advantage Fowler had as she presented was being able to have a product that was live and able to be shown in service.

“The thing that I’ve seen win at these competitions are things the students are passionate about and actually intend to do, instead of just a class project.”

Since launching in June 2013 and using the feedback from the competition judges to refine the company’s business plan, TrustedWills.com has logged 5,368 visits and 11,659 page views (as of February 2014). And while the numbers may seem light when imagining an online business, McKinney said the company had already recovered its startup costs, again emphasizing that he and Fowler had taken the advice of competition judges in re-tooling the site.

“We significantly exceeded our start-up costs immediately upon our launch in June of 2013, shortly after the Governor’s Cup competition. We had initially planned to launch initially in Arkansas and Texas, but we were surprised to see the level of interest from beyond those two states,” McKinney said. “Some of the judges in the competitions along the way had strongly encouraged us to go to every state as soon as we are able.

Their advice was spot on. We are currently working to have each state live within the next two months.”

There are dozens of teams in this year’s Governor’s Cup attempting to take an idea and use the feedback to build their business, just as Fowler and McKinney did. According to AEAF Executive Director Marie Bruno, 38 teams from 10 universities filed intents to compete by the January 31 deadline, with business plans due for the competition on February 21, with winners to be announced April 9.

Among the students taking part in this year’s competition is John Brown University student Chase Skelton, who is one of a four-person team. Skelton’s idea, he said, came from his time interning for a Wal-Mart vendor in Benton County in the summer of 2013 and having a conversation with a co-worker who used to work for a company that produced dolls targeted to pre-teen girls.

“She was just talking about her experience in the company and kind of the reason that she left was after she had a daughter, she kind of thought that their products really weren’t about the healthy values she would want to share with her daughter.”

Skelton added that he and his classmates were also being bombarded by messages from their peers on social media decrying certain dolls for young girls as not portraying realistic self-image and realistic beauty, adding to the perceived need for a values-based doll.

“Talking with my classmates, we thought there was a real opportunity here for a real accurate representation of beauty in like girls’ dolls, girls’ toys, and with that also healthy values,” said Skelton.

As a result, their plan calls for not only the physical production and sale of the dolls, but also an interactive component online for children and their parents to craft the doll’s characteristics in a positive way.

“And so that was the idea behind our product — kind of a custom doll that they like built together with the girl and the mother’s perception of what is real beauty,” he said. “And through that, like prompts about (the doll’s personality). Like what does the doll do for fun? Like activities that she’s a part of? And we’d have like different pre-set prompts that comes up as they’re creating the doll out of these like modular pieces and all of these different aspects that promote values conversations for the mom and the daughter to kind of have naturally.”

Eva Fast, Skelton’s business instructor and faculty sponsor for the Governor’s Cup competition, said while it may have sounded easy for Skelton and his team members to come up with the idea, it was a challenge to develop the right idea for a business.

“That was not their first idea at all,” she said. “They went through probably…they probably had three or four other ideas that they actively researched before they landed on this one.”

Fast said her role as a business instructor and advisor is not to form the students’ ideas and subsequent plans for them, but to get them to start noticing openings right in front of them.

“What I do is I meet with the juniors once right before summer time just for an hour and I tell them you need to become aware of your environment and you need to become alert to opportunities. So I give each of them just a really small notebook that they can keep in their back pocket.”

The goal, she said, is to get the students to not only find challenges in their community but to see if there is a way to solve those challenges through business.

“I encourage them not even to think first of the product, but to think first of the problem. A solution — you can write down a solution, but until you identify a real problem and a real need that people will pay for, then you don’t need to spend any time working on the product.”

Another group competing in this year’s Governor’s Cup competition did just that. Danielle Clark, a senior business major at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, is part of a group of four students who tackled the problem of individuals on bed rest — mainly pregnant women — who have back and neck pain as a result of being immobile for extended periods of time.

“Basically, in the past, (pregnant women) have just had to stack pillows on their side or if you’re in the hospital, they just had to stack pillows on the side of your bed. You’re uncomfortable, plus the nurses can’t even maneuver,” Clark said. “So this pillow is shaped in a wedge and you don’t have to move or anything like that. It just provides support for anybody on bed rest. And it also helps with bed sores.”

The prototype Clark and her team members will present at the competition will cost about $500 each and will only be available through hospitals, she said, and was developed through surveying a variety of potential users in their region, reinforcing that the business plan was right for their target market.

As part of the business plan, Clark’s group — Launch Pad Invents — estimates that it would need about $125,000 in startup costs. The group also included in the plan a sales projection of 85 pillows a month by August 2015, just more than a year after the company expects to launch in July of this year.

Clark and Skelton said they hoped to follow in the footsteps of Fowler in launching a successful business, possibly while still in school. The process could be made easier should either place in the competition, as first prize is a $30,000 cash prize, with second receiving $20,000 and third receiving $10,000. Additionally, first and second place winners in the undergraduate and graduate categories will go onto the Tri-State Business Plan Competition later this year at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.

As for Fowler, she is in the process of finishing her studies at OBU and plans on using earnings from TrustedWills.com to help finance her ultimate dream — law school. She is also encouraging Arkansas students to pursue their dreams in business and to make competing in the Governor’s Cup a part of that journey.

“There’s few things in life more satisfying then seeing an idea taken from the very first stages of just discussing it to having a vague idea to getting feedback from business professionals from across the state,” said Fowler. “The Governor’s Cup did such a wonderful job of bringing in people to encourage you and give you really healthy, helpful feedback to say you can take your idea from the beginning stages all the way to where we are right now with Trusted Wills, where we are a launched website, a working business.”

Foreclosures continue to be a smaller part of the local housing markets of Northwest Arkansas and the Fort Smith metro area. Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac reports just 398 foreclosure filings across the entire state last month, down 50% from a year ago.

There were 254 new foreclosures started and another 144 completed at the state level in February. Starts plunged 63% and completions decreased 44% from the year-ago period.

• County Statistics (February)
Benton County: 50, down 62%
Washington County: 26, down 59%
Sebastian County: 11, down 54%
Crawford County: 8, down 60%

RealtyTrac reports 112,498 new foreclosure filings for February, down 27% from a year ago, the lowest monthly total since December 2006.

“Cold weather and a short month certainly contributed to a seasonal drop in foreclosure activity in February, but the reality is that new activity is no longer the biggest threat to the housing market when it comes to foreclosures,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said in the report. “The biggest threat from foreclosures going forward is properties that have been lingering in the foreclosure process for years, many of them vacant with neither the distressed homeowner or the foreclosing lender taking responsibility for maintenance and upkeep of the home — or at the very least facilitating a sale to a new homeowner more likely to perform needed upkeep and maintenance.”

Blomquist refers to these vacated properties as “zombie foreclosures.” The report shows roughly one in four homes in foreclosure across the U.S. has been vacated by the owners. While Arkansas is not among the states with the most “zombie foreclosures,” it did record the longest foreclosure time for owner-vacated homes (1,128 days).

Experts say when vacated homes linger it’s a drain on the neighborhood valuations and they contribute to a climate of uncertainty and low inventory in local housing markets.

Jim Long, agent with Crye-Leike Real Estate in Bentonville, said there are 273 foreclosure filings in the local multiple listing service which includes all four of the counties in this report as well as Madison County and McDonald County, Mo.

Long said the number of new foreclosure listings continues to dwindle. This time last month there were 301 properties for sale, down from 322 in December. He said since the moratorium was lifted in 2012 foreclosure listings peaked in August of last year at 373 and continue to decline.

“The foreclosure listings we are seeing today are for homes in the $100,000 to $125,000 range on average. This is quite a bit higher than the $50,000 to $99,000 range we getting in the past two years,” Long said.

MODIFICATION RESETS
Some experts warn that the lull in foreclosure filings across much of the country during early 2014 is the calm before the storm. There are plenty of eyes on the estimated 800,000 U.S. homeowners who took advantage of mortgage loan modifications in 2009 who are facing loan resets this year. This will require once-financially strapped borrowers to come up with a higher mortgage payment — in some cases up to $302 per month over the term of the reset, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

This report estimates between $400 billion and $500 billion in modified loans at risk for redefault. In Arkansas there were 1,825 homeowners with active modifications, and 81% of those are subject to payment increases within five years of their original modification. 

While the economy is on stronger footing than in 2009, the report warns that consumer balances sheets have little buffer to absorb higher mortgage payments as they have taken on more debt. Consumer indebtedness rose to $11.52 trillion as of Dec. 31, up 2.1% from the third quarter, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Board of New York. That report found that 2013 was first four quarters to register a net annual increase ($180 billion or 1.6%) in debt since 2008.

PwC reports that mortgage delinquencies are improving, but at 10% the loans aren’t recovering as quickly as other consumer loans.

Mercy Northwest broke ground Thursday (March 13) in Centerton on a new 7,351-square-foot clinic. The site is located on 6.2 acres of commercial frontage property on Highway 102 at 1225 E. Centerton Boulevard. The land was donated by Johnelle Hunt, according to Mercy NWA spokeswoman Jessica Eldred.

“The convenience of driving only a couple of miles to see your family physician or a dedicated specialist is a commitment we want to make to this community,” said Dr. Steve Goss, president of Mercy Clinics. “We cannot thank Ms. Hunt enough for donating the land and making this possible. Her generosity is something that will truly bless many.”

The $3 million multi-specialty facility is slated to open later this year. The building iwill house five providers, including two internal medicine and two pediatric physicians, one family medicine doctor, and two family medicine nurse practitioners, with a focus on caring for the entire family. 

The clinic also will offer rotating specialties based on the community’s needs, like cardiology, endocrinology and diabetic education. Patients will also benefit from radiology and laboratory services. Mercy opened its first clinic in Centerton in the summer of 2004, with Dr. Lance Faddis serving as one of the physicians.

“One of the reasons I enjoy family medicine is you get to know entire families and watch them grow over the years; that’s a connection we have with many in Centerton,” Faddis said in a statement. “With the new high school planned and many new families moving in, this is the perfect time for Mercy to make an even bigger commitment to this community.”

Celeste Williams, a family medicine nurse practitioner with Mercy, and Dr. Elinor Bunde, will be part of Mercy Centerton’s core care team.

Arvest Bank in Fayetteville is pleased to announce that Mike Malone, the President and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Council, has joined the bank’s board of directors.

Established in 1990, the Northwest Arkansas Council works to identify regional challenges and solutions for the region. Malone has served as the council’s president for more than eight years. 

“We are very pleased that Mike has agreed to join our board,” said Arvest Bank in Fayetteville CEO and President Donny Story. “He has demonstrated key leadership and a deep concern for the betterment of the region while serving at the Northwest Arkansas Council. We know he will bring the same type of concern and leadership to our board.”

A 1987 graduate of Fayetteville High School, Malone is a 1992 cum laude graduate of Hendrix College with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He completed a master’s degree in public policy at the University of Minnesota in 1999.


Before joining the Northwest Arkansas Council, Malone was employed by the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. He worked at the White House for six years under the Clinton administration performing several roles including Deputy Assistant to the President for Management and Administration. 

Malone is a member of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Arkansas program. He also serves on numerous state and local boards including the Northwest Arkansas Community College Foundation’s Board of Directors, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors, the Area Health Education Centers-Northwest Advisory Board, the Arkansas Capital Corporation’s Board of Directors, Accelerate Arkansas’ Executive Committee and the Northwest Arkansas Naturals’ Advisory Committee.


From 2009 to 2013, Malone served as a member of the Arkansas Lottery Commission. He has also previously served on the Fayetteville Public Library’s Board of Trustees and the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Healthcare.

He and his wife, Allyson Malone reside in Fayetteville with their two daughters, Olivia and Mia

It didn't take long for Sparks Health System to name an interim CEO while the organization conducts a search for a permanent replacement.

According to a statement Thursday (March 13) from Marketing and Communications Director Donna Bragg, Tim Schmidt has been appointed to lead the organization and Summit Medical Center in Van Buren on an interim basis beginning March 20 following the resignation of Charles Stewart earlier this week.
www.thecitywire.com/node/32166

"While the search for a permanent candidate is underway, Tim will provide support to physicians and employees as they continue their work to deliver quality care to patients at Sparks Regional Medical Center and Summit Medical Center," Bragg said.

Schmidt, who has more than 20 years experience in hospital administration, previously served as CEO at hospitals in Illinois, New Mexico and Texas.

Sparks has experienced a tumultuous year, with the hospital having had two CEOs resign within six months of their hirings.

Stewart, who became the top dog at Sparks in September 2013, was hired to replace former CEO Gary Blan, who resigned in May 2013 after having been on the job for less than three months.
www.thecitywire.com/node/28006

Blan was picked to succeed Melody Trimble who was promoted to president of Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates' Southern and Western Group, which includes 26 hospitals in seven states. Trimble’s promotion was effective Jan. 1, 2013. The seven-state region is Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington.

Sparks and Summit were part of the sale of HMA to Community Health Systems, a company whose portfolio of hospitals was nearly double the size of HMA's portfolio. Locally, CHS owned four Northwest Arkansas facilities — Northwest Medical Center-Bentonville, Northwest Medical Center-Springdale, Siloam Springs Regional Hospital and Willow Creek Women's Hospital in Johnson. Shares of Community Health Systems (NYSE: CYH) were trading mid-day Thursday at $36.58, down $0.76. During the past 52 weeks, the share price has ranged from a $51.29 high to a $36.39 low.

In announcing Stewart's resignation Wednesday (March 12), Bragg said the company would be looking for a CEO with a high level of experience.

"In our search for our next CEO, we will look for an experienced and motivated hospital leader who will help Sparks Regional Medical Center and Summit Medical Center continue in our commitment to serving the community with excellent health services."

Following is Bragg's complete statement regarding the appointment of Schmidt as interim CEO, as well as the complete announcement Wednesday announcing Stewart's departure:

• "This morning, Sparks Health System announced that Tim Schmidt has been appointed our interim CEO, effective March 20. While the search for a permanent candidate is underway, Tim will provide support to physicians and employees as they continue their work to deliver quality care to patients at Sparks Regional Medical Center and Summit Medical Center. Tim has more than 20 years of hospital administration experience and has served as CEO of hospitals in Texas, Illinois and New Mexico."

• "Charles Stewart resigned from his position as CEO of Sparks Health System this week. We appreciate his contributions to our health system and wish him well in his future endeavors. Our work to identify a new CEO will begin immediately, and it will include input from our Board of Trustees and medical staff leadership. In our search for our next CEO, we will look for an experienced and motivated hospital leader who will help Sparks Regional Medical Center and Summit Medical Center continue in our commitment to serving the community with excellent health services. We appreciate the dedication of our physicians and employees through this transition as they continue to provide high-quality, compassionate care for our patients."

Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc. announced the promotion of Rick Thomason to president and general manager of Tyson de Mexico, the company’s oldest international business. In his new role, Thomason will oversee all of Tyson de Mexico’s daily business.
 
“Rick played a critical role in Tyson Foods’ international growth over the last several years,” said Rob Tanksley, senior vice president of Tyson’s Latin America business unit. “He was instrumental in driving our international business to achieve strong earnings growth. In Mexico, he will be part of a very successful team and make a crucial contribution to its success in the future.”
 
Thomason joined Tyson Foods’ corporate cost accounting group in 1991 and has held several positions within the finance and accounting group during his career with the company. Before his promotion, he was vice president of accounting for Tyson Foods’ international businesses.
 
He grew up in Union City, Ind., and earned a bachelor’s degree from Missouri State University.
 
Tyson Foods has had a presence in Mexico for more than 20 years. Tyson de Mexico is a vertically-integrated poultry producer and marketer employing approximately 5,400 employees. Tyson de Mexico holds the No. 3 market-share position and is the country’s leading value-added chicken company. It processes approximately 2.7 million chickens per week at three processing plants.
 
Tyson de Mexico markets products under the Tyson, Del Dia and Granja San Martin brands. The company exports chicken to Vietnam and Guatemala. The company recently expanded into central Mexico to accommodate customers in that region.

A second shot at attempting to legalizing medical marijuana in Arkansas, notes on the new PR chief at the University of Arkansas, and the estimated growth of small business in Northwest Arkansas are part of the Northwest Arkansas Friday Wire for March 14.

NOTES & ANALYSIS
• Legalizing the weed
Could the second toke be the one that loosens up the Arkansas body politic to say “Alright,” and give a thumbs up to legalizing medical marijuana?

Folks with Arkansans for Compassionate Care believe that their second push for ballot approval of an amendment to legalize medical marijuana could win approval.

"I think with these changes, I think we're a shoe in. I really do. I thought we would win last time, but I really truly believe we will win and win by a large margin this time,” said Melissa Fults, campaign director for the group.

Irrespective of what one thinks about the issue, Fults’ optimism can’t be discounted. A similar 2012 ballot issue failed, but by a slim 51.44% to 48.56% margin. Possibly more troubling for those who believe marijuana should not be legalized in any way is that voters in the historically conservative belt that stretches from Fort Smith to Northwest Arkansas supported the 2012 measure. Combined, the proposal to allow medical marijuana was supported by 51.5% in Benton, Crawford, Sebastian and Washington counties. However, the measure failed in Benton County (47.4% for, 52.2% against) and Crawford County (47.7% for, 52.6% against).

Many polls since 2012 show a growing willingness of voters around the country to support an open or limited legalization of marijuana. If that proves true in Arkansas, well,   it may not be by a large margin, but The Natural State could have a second meaning after November 2014.

ICYMI
Following are a few stories posted this week on The City Wire that we hope you didn’t miss. But in case you missed it ...

• The Supply Side: Good stuff sells
Good-for-you products once again dominated the most successful consumer packaged goods (CPG) launches last year, according to the 2013 New Product Pacesetters report from IRI Worldwide. The consumer marketing firm evaluated 190,000 new products and 9,500 new brand launches that hit retailer shelves in 2013.

• Wal-Mart land buy near Bella Vista
Wal-Mart Stores has made no secret that it would like to build a Neighborhood Market in Bella Vista, just five miles from retailer’s home office in Bentonville, and also home to hundreds of Wal-Mart corporate employees.

• The new UA PR chief
If she'd had a career goal starting out two decades ago, Laura Jacobs met it a month ago.

NUMBERS ON THE WIRE
$195 million: Estimated investments out to 2016 among the 529 Northwest Arkansas businesses surveyed as part of a Northwest Arkansas Council report.

24: Number of new commercial construction projects in the planning stage in Northwest Arkansas, according to the January edition of a report from CBRE Northwest Arkansas.

50: Number of Benton County properties in a phase of foreclosure during February, down 62% compared to February 2013.

OUTSIDE THE WIRE
• The political push against Sen. Pryor
Americans for Prosperity is launching a major ad buy hitting Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) on Thursday, pushing the group’s advertising spending in the race to more than $1.4 million so far this year.

• Drug testing Welfare recipients
From written tests designed to flag drug users to singling out people with recent drug convictions, state lawmakers across the country are pursuing novel strategies to deny welfare benefits to drug users without running afoul of a recent federal court ruling.

• Track bus and truck driver hours
Commercial trucks and buses that cross state lines would have to be equipped with electronic devices that record how many hours the vehicles are in operation, according to a government proposal Thursday aimed at preventing accidents by tired drivers.

WORD ON THE WIRE
“I remember not long after they put me in this job, I brought the senior team together and said okay we’re going to have our first strategy talk. And here’s our strategy: we’re not going to talk about strategy for at least a year. We don’t need a strategy. We need to fix this business. Forget about grandiose ideas about who we could be in five years because if we don’t fix this thing, there ain’t going to be five years. Just go get good at what we do.”
— Tyson Foods CEO Donnie Smith about his early effort to right the financial ship at the Springdale-based company

“We started 11 years ago with four people and two trucks, today we employ 85 and have 45 pieces of equipment. We do commercial and business relocations. Regionally we see a lot of inbound growth to Northwest Arkansas, even though Arkansas is a neutral state. Enough people are leaving Little Rock and the Delta area to make the state appear neutral, but I can tell you this MSA is a vey inbound area.”
– Bill Locke, owner of Fayetteville-based Admiral Moving Services, about how his business growth has been tied to the growth of Northwest Arkansas

“The information they provide is not clean, it’s not accurate and it’s not up-to-date. They have home listings on their sites that sold six months ago, sometimes a year ago. The listing price has been wrong on occasion and the estimated values are low in some cases or occasionally too high.”
– Harold Crye, president of Memphis-based Crye-Leike Real Estate, when asked why his firm cut its ties in Memphis with Zillow

A second shot at attempting to legalizing medical marijuana in Arkansas, a prediction on severe weather in the early Spring, and a planned union vote at Fort Smith-based O.K. Foods are part of the March 14 Friday Wire for the Fort Smith region.

NOTES & ANALYSIS
• Legalizing the weed
Could the second toke be the one that loosens up the Arkansas body politic to say “Alright,” and give a thumbs up to legalizing medical marijuana?

Folks with Arkansans for Compassionate Care believe that their second push for ballot approval of an amendment to legalize medical marijuana

"I think with these changes, I think we're a shoe in. I really do. I thought we would win last time, but I really truly believe we will win and win by a large margin this time,” said Melissa Fults, campaign director for the group.

Irrespective of what one thinks about the issue, Fults’ optimism can’t be discounted. A similar 2012 ballot issue failed, but by a slim 51.44% to 48.56% margin. Possibly more troubling for those who believe marijuana should not be legalized in any way is that voters in the historically conservative belt that stretches from Fort Smith to Northwest Arkansas supported the 2012 measure. Combined, the proposal to allow medical marijuana was supported by 51.5% in Benton, Crawford, Sebastian and Washington counties. However, the measure failed in Benton County (47.4% for, 52.2% against) and Crawford County (47.7% for, 52.6% against).

Many polls since 2012 show a growing willingness of voters around the country to support an open or limited legalization of marijuana. If that proves true in Arkansas, well,   it may not be by a large margin, but The Natural State could have a second meaning after November 2014.

ICYMI
Following are a few stories posted this week on The City Wire that we hope you didn’t miss. But in case you missed it ...

• U.S. Marshals Museum opening delayed to 2017
The U.S. Marshals Museum, a more than $50 million museum to be built along the banks of the Arkansas River, will still have a September groundbreaking, but the opening of the museum will be delayed one year to 2017.

• The pitch from Altes and Pitsch
The May 20 primary is little more than seven weeks away and the area's first political debate of the 2014 political season took place Monday afternoon (March 10). Republicans Bobby Altes and Mat Pitsch, the only two candidates for the District 76 House seat, debated nearly an hour on topics ranging from teacher pay to tax cuts to the Private Option in a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Fort Smith.

• Falling foreclosures
Foreclosures continue to be a smaller part of the local housing markets of Northwest Arkansas and the Fort Smith metro area. Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac reports just 398 foreclosure filings across the entire state last month, down 50% from a year ago.

NUMBERS ON THE WIRE
9-0: The vote of the Fort Smith Planning Commission when deciding whether to approve a proposed Planned Zoning District at the site of the Fianna Hills Country Club. The PZD was necessary for Fort Smith-based FSM Redevelopment Partners to turn the aging country club into a four-story facility that will revitalize the property at a cost of about $20 million. The PZD will come up for a final vote before the Fort Smith Board of Directors in April.

$530 million: The Congressional Budget Office estimate of how much it would cost to fully implement House Resolution 2413, the Weather Forecasting Improvement Act of 2013. The legislation would fund research which could lead to warning times for tornadoes in excess of one hour. The bill has made its way out of committee and is awaiting a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.

965: Number of reported tornadoes in Arkansas between 1980 and 2009, ranking the state 15th for the number of events, according to federal data.

OUTSIDE THE WIRE
• The political push against Sen. Pryor
Americans for Prosperity is launching a major ad buy hitting Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) on Thursday, pushing the group’s advertising spending in the race to more than $1.4 million so far this year.

• Drug testing Welfare recipients
From written tests designed to flag drug users to singling out people with recent drug convictions, state lawmakers across the country are pursuing novel strategies to deny welfare benefits to drug users without running afoul of a recent federal court ruling.

• Tracking bus and truck driver hours
Commercial trucks and buses that cross state lines would have to be equipped with electronic devices that record how many hours the vehicles are in operation, according to a government proposal Thursday aimed at preventing accidents by tired drivers.

WORD ON THE WIRE
"I'm for these guys 100% and I totally understand what they're doing. I don't see how the city could put any objection to a $20 million facility that's going to be outstanding in the state run by a golf company that's a national organization that doesn't run anything but prestige courses," he said. "I think it will be a benefit to the city and I know it will be a benefit to Fianna Hills. And it will supply 75 to 100 jobs. That sure won't hurt. We need those in the city."
— Fianna Hills resident Champ Hinton about a plan to renovate the Fianna Hills Country Club

"Right now, they have a one to one relationship. The employer holds all the chips. All the employee can do is quit. We don't feel that that is right. We feel they should reform. We want to help these workers to fix OK Foods and make it a more fair workplace — with better insurance, a better retirement package. We want a more fair future."
– Anthony Elmo, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Unioin (UFCW), explaining why the organization is still pursuing unionization of OK Foods' Fort Smith facility, along with two locations in Oklahoma

Organizers are seeking volunteers and donations to assist with GiveCamp Northwest Arkansas, a 54-hour, weekend event to assist nonprofit organizations needing the help of technology professionals.

Phyl Amerine, who is on the team planning the event, said the event April 11- 13 on the NorthWest Arkansas Community College campus allows designers, developers, database administrators, marketers, web strategists and other technology-focused volunteers to immerse themselves in projects that benefit about seven nonprofit organizations.

GiveCampNWA is part of a national initiative begun by a Microsoft executive in 2007. Today, nearly 30 GiveCamps throughout the country benefit hundreds of nonprofits every year worth millions of dollars. The economic value of this give-fest is typically $5,000 to $20,000 to each charity, depending on the project that’s accomplished.

The last event held in Northwest Arkansas was in 2012 with a financial impact valued at over $100,000, Amerine said.

For additional information, to donate or to volunteer to be involved, the GiveCamp Northwest Arkansas website is www.GiveCampNWA.com. A YouTube video highlights a few of the volunteers and nonprofits involved.

Nonprofit organizations looking to help manufacturers bring back business to the U.S. or looking to help grow businesses in the U.S. can apply for grants from Wal-Mart Store, the Walmart Foundation and the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM).

Together they launched the Walmart U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund, announced March 13 at the retailer’s Year Beginning Meetings underway in Orlando, Fla.

The program allows eligible non-profit organizations to apply for grants up to $100,000 or more, funded by the Walmart Foundation. This money can be used to help companies trying to onshore or grow their U.S. manufacturing operations.

The first year of the initiative will focus on innovation in textiles manufacturing and common manufacturing processes that apply to a broad range of consumer goods, including small motor manufacturing and tooling for injection molding, the release notes.

“Through the Walmart U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund, we hope to help remove the barriers to revitalizing and growing  U.S. manufacturing, creating jobs and building a stronger American economy,” said Cindi Marsiglio, vice president of U.S. sourcing and domestic manufacturing for Walmart. “This is part of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation’s broader commitment to foster new ideas and jobs to promote strong communities and grow America’s manufacturing footprint.”

The announcement is part of the retailer’s 10-year commitment to buy an additional $250 billion in products that support American manufacturing.

The Boston Consulting Group estimates the initiative will add 1 million jobs in the United States over the next decade.

Applications are due April 22. Selected proposals will receive grants ranging from $100,000 and above for award periods of at least one year, with the option of reapplying for continued funding. Each applicant will need sponsorship from the mayor of a USCM member city.