Whatta Catch

Developer Gary Combs, owner of Basic Construction Co. in Springdale, may have recorded the steal of the new year. He has lured Jim Hawkins away from Tune Concrete Products Co. after 25 years with the Fayetteville firm.

Hawkins, the current president of Fayetteville Country Club, will be president and part owner of Comb’s new Basic Block Group brick plant that’s under construction on Arkansas Highway 265 in east Fayetteville. The 40,000-SF fully-computerized facility will employ 30 people and have the capacity to make 250,000 to 300,000 bricks and 40,000 concrete blocks per day. The plant’s computerized coloring system will also allow it to make bricks that are any color in the rainbow.

Hawkins has been general manager of Tune and is a past associate president of the Northwest Arkansas Homebuilders Association. He was the state associate of the year in 1994, an inductee to the association’s Hall of Fame and a longtime board member.

He’s also a former president and co-founder of the Razorback Swatter’s Club, the booster organization for the University of Arkansas baseball team; president of American Legion Baseball for Zone 1 in Arkansas and is a well known business leader in the area.

Combs will be chairman of Basic Block Group LLC. The company will service Northwest Arkansas, Western Oklahoma and Southern Missouri.