Schwyhart Reaches the Pinnacle of Rogers

Three days in September changed Bill Schwyhart’s life.

It began on the morning of Sept. 13, 1998, with the baptism of his son. That afternoon, the 41-year-old Schwyhart got married. The next day, he made the biggest real estate deal of his life — $5 million for what would become Pinnacle Point in Rogers. Then he and his bride left on Sept. 15 for a honeymoon in Europe.

Not bad for a boy who grew up working in his father’s gas station in Stockton, Calif., and left home at 17 to begin his business career.

After being a car dealer for almost two decades, Schwyhart returned to Rogers from his honeymoon to find that he was now a real estate developer as well. Construction began on Pinnacle Point in December 1998.

Since then, Schwyhart has been instrumental in the 600-acre, $1 billion development going on at the intersection of Interstate 540 and Arkansas Highway 94 in Rogers.

Schwyhart, who owns Hart BMW/ Volkswagen in Rogers, is a partner with Collins Haynes and others on the Pinnacle Point development. He refers to himself as a “facilitator” of the Pinnacle Hills development next door, which is to be the site of a 10-story, $40 million hotel being built by John Q. Hammonds, the Springfield, Mo., hotel magnate.

California Dreamin’

As a boy, Schwyhart, now 43, did the usual chores at his father’s gas station. He filled cars with gas, washed them and changed oil.

In 1975, he graduated from high school and left home. He attended community college, stocked shelves at the local Sears store and worked in a savings and loan as a management trainee — all at the same time.

Schwyhart credits Mr. and Mrs. Bill Chapman, owners of the savings and loan, for getting him interested in business.

With the jobs and college, Schwyhart still found time to buy, recondition and resell cars.

“It was meager beginnings,” Schwyhart said. “I learned the value of a dollar early.”

In 1977, Schwyhart loaded his 1967 Mercury Cougar with all his belongings and moved to Springfield, Mo., where he invested $10,000 he had saved to buy one-third interest in a Chrysler dealership in nearby Marshfield. His father, Joe Schwyhart, was already in the Ozarks, having moved to Springfield when he retired.

“Chrysler was a real tough brand, but I was young,” Schwyhart said. “I didn’t know. I said, ‘Looks good to me.'”

Schwyhart said he was virtually a “one-man show” at the Marshfield dealership, which also had one mechanic. Schwyhart sold, serviced, washed and prepared cars for delivery.

In 1979, Schwyhart attended Chrysler dealer school in Detroit for six weeks. While there he and another student went to visit Lee Iacoca at his home — unannounced. Iacoca invited them inside and spent an hour talking with them. It was the day before Iacoca went to the federal government to request a loan to rescue Chrysler from bankruptcy.

“I went back to Marshfield ready to slay the world,” Schwyhart said. “But [the Chrysler dealership] just wasn’t a viable operation, so we closed the business.”

From a Buick 6

Schwyhart sold some of the dealership’s equipment to Jim Sargent, who owned the Dodge dealership in Rogers at the time. Sargent kept trying to hire Schwyhart to run the dealership for him and finally succeeded with an offer of $700 per week.

Schwyhart moved to Rogers and lived in the Jan-Lin Motor Inn for a year.

Schwyhart turned the business around, and Sargent, who had been trying to sell the dealership to Schwyhart, decided he no longer wanted to sell.

So, in 1982, Schwyhart bought the Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealership next door instead (Bridger’s Motor Co.). His father and Robert Thornton, a former executive with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., came in on the deal with him as partners. At the age of 23, Schwyhart was the youngest Buick dealer in America.

The day he opened the new dealership, Schwyhart had six cars on a gravel lot. The carpet in the offices was worn out, so he spent about $100 to buy the old blue, shag carpet from the Holiday Inn (now the Ramada Inn) after the hotel was recarpeted.

The early days were difficult, Schwyhart said, but he had his standards.

“We didn’t like to trade for anything that eats,” he said. “No livestock or anything like that.”

Schwyhart used the last part of his name for his new business, Hart Buick, Pontiac, GMC. The dealership was incorporated as Hart Motor Co.

Schwyhart’s business became the leading General Motors dealer in the area, winning several national awards from the company.

Thornton brought with him some ideas about customer service that he had learned from Sam Walton at Wal-Mart. Schwyhart said he tried to incorporate Walton’s philosophy into his automobile dealership.

That dedication to customer service has even included buying cars back from customers who decided they had made the wrong decision.

“I’ve always looked at it like this,” Schwyhart said, “our customers’ time is more important than ours.”

In 1988, Schwyhart bought out his father’s interest in the business, and Joe Schwyhart retired again to Missouri.

New Morning

That same year, Schwyhart bought the BMW dealership in Springdale from Don Nelms. He moved the dealership to Rogers in 1992.

“That was a calculated move,” Schwyhart said. “Pinnacle Country Club was just getting started. We thought the market would be better in Benton County for BMWs.”

One of the most expensive automobile lines available in the area, BMWs are in the upper 3 percent of the car market, Schwyhart said.

In 1997, Schwyhart sold his Buick, Pontiac, GMC and Suzuki lines to Bryan Hunt. That made Hart Motor Co. exclusively a BMW dealer.

At the time, Schwyhart was selling about 80 new BMWs a year.

“It was tough,” he said. “That was just barely enough to make it.”

The dealership sold 120 new BMWs last year, and Schwyhart hopes to sell 150 this year. That’s in addition to used car sales.

Wheeler Motor Co. of Fayetteville closed around 1990, leaving the area without a Volkswagen dealer.

Schwyhart coaxed he German car manufacturer back. He landed the Volkswagen dealership in early 1998, just before the new Beetle rolled off assembly lines.

“It made us all look like geniuses,” Schwyhart said.

The spring of 1998 was important for Schwyhart for another reason. On Easter day, he was rebaptized. Now a member of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Schwyhart said his relationship with God has changed his approach to business and family. After a first marriage that ended in divorce, Schwyhart felt he was ready to try again.

“When I got my spiritual priorities right, marriage was something I felt I could be successful at,” he said. “When I got my spiritual life in order, my financial life fell into place.”

He married Carolyn Corter that September. Schwyhart has a son, Alexander, 14, from his first marriage. His wife has a daughter, Kimberly Steerforth, from a previous marriage. Schwyhart and his wife also have a grandson, Riley Roy Steerforth, who is six months old.

Over the years, Schwyhart purchased about 60 acres of property along U.S. Highway 71B in Rogers. Almost all of it fronts the highway on the west side adjacent to his auto dealership at 2104 S. Eighth St., which was originally the site of a fruit stand.

Hart BMW/Volkswagen was recently certified as a “Center for Excellence” by BMW. Schwyhart said his business is in the Top 10 out of 335 BMW dealerships nationwide. Schwyhart credits Jim Carter, service manager, and Rick Taylor, sales manager, for helping win the certification.

Hart BMW/Volkswagen had sales of about $15 million last year. Schwyhart expects that number to be about $18 million this year, and he’s shooting for $20 million in 2002. The company has 22 employees.

In May, Schwyhart hired Jan Shelton, former national logistics manager for Hudson Foods Inc. of Rogers, to be general manager of the dealership. Schwyhart will still be involved in the car business, but this will free up his time to work on the development of Pinnacle Point and Pinnacle Hills.

The Times They Are A-Changin’

You could say Schwyhart has put his heart into Rogers. He served as chairman of the Chamber of Commerce board in 1995 and as Rotary Club president in 1995-96. He has been on the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority since its inception in 1992.

“I’ve got a real love for this area, this region and its growth,” Schwyhart said. “We’ve got to work together … for a common goal.”

Schwyhart said the area is poised for growth with the new airport in Highfill, the completion of Interstate 540 and a water supply made possible by the Benton/Washington County Water Association (known as Two-Ton).

Benton County appears to be on the verge of passing Washington County in population. Official census figures from 2000 show Benton County behind Washington County by 4,447 people, 153,406 to 157,853. But census figures also indicate Benton County is growing more rapidly, by 57 percent from 1990 to 2000, as opposed to 39 percent for Washington County. The two-county population is now 311,259.

Schwyhart said Rogers is the third-fastest-growing city in the nation next to Las Vegas and Naples, Fla. And rapid growth requires hotels, offices, restaurants and retail shops.

In addition to Schwyhart and Haynes, Pinnacle Point LLC includes Terry Johnson (of VeriSource) and Rich Donckers (a former Wal-Mart executive). Schwyhart had brought Gary Clay in on the deal, but Clay is now deceased. Some of the property at the site has been purchased by Schwyhart and Haynes alone as Hart & Haynes LLC.

Schwyart is quick to note that Haynes is the “master planner” of Pinnacle Point.

Workers finished a five-story, 50,000-SF office building at Pinnacle Point in late 1999. Known as Pinnacle Tower, it is now home to doctors, dentists, Wal-Mart vendors and other Fortune 500 companies.

The 25,000-SF Market at Pinnacle Point was finished at about the same time. The 24,000-SF Community Bank was completed about eight months later. Then the 30,000-SF Kodak/Hoover building was completed.

The 13,000-SF Church at Pinnacle Hills, a division of First Baptist Church of Springdale, is nearing completion at Pinnacle Point and is scheduled to hold its first service on August 19. The church will seat 850 initially.

Schwyhart said more than $30 million has been invested in Pinnacle Point so far and the figure is approaching $50 million. Schwyhart said Pinnacle Point will take about two years to complete.

A prime spot at Pinnacle Point had been reserved for a hotel. Schwyhart got a group of investors together and landed a $15 million, six-story, 170-room Sheraton Four Points hotel and convention center.

“Little did I know at the time that Gary Combs and Carla Tyson Combs were acquiring 90 acres right next to it for a hotel,” Schwyhart said.

The couple, along with Tim Graham and J.B. Hunt, the trucking magnate, had formed a development company called Great Northwest and acquired the land for the hotel.

Gary and Carla Tyson Combs went to Schwyhart and told him John Q. Hammonds was interested in their hotel project at Pinnacle Hills. Also, the Pinnacle Hills site had better visibility from I-540.

So Schwyhart teamed with the couple to form Pinnacle Hospitality Group, which also included Haynes, James T. “Red” Hudson (former head of Hudson Foods), George Westmoreland of Merrill Lynch and Gerald Johnston (a former Tyson Foods executive).

But Hammonds wanted a bigger hotel than what any of the local developers had imagined. He wanted 10 floors, 245 rooms and 30,000 SF of meeting space. The project would cost about $40 million and would be the tallest building in Northwest Arkansas.

Schwyhart figured that with 140 projects in 40 states, Hammonds knew what he was doing.

So the 7.5-acre hotel site was sold to Hammonds for $3.6 million ($11 per SF). It will likely be developed as a Marriott Renaissance hotel, but that could change. A groundbreaking is planned for July, and the hotel is expected to open in January 2003.

A six-story, 100,000-SF office building called Parkway Tower is also planned for Pinnacle Hills. It will be owned by Great Northwest and Hammonds. The remainder of the Pinnacle Hills development is currently owned by Gary Combs, Carla Tyson Combs and Gerald Johnston.

Now, Schwyhart works as a liaison for Hammonds concerning the Pinnacle Hills development. In the meantime, Schwyhart’s hotel site in Pinnacle Point will be home to an office building instead.

Pinnacle Point consists of about 100 acres. Pinnacle Hills west of I-540 is about the same size. Great Northwest also has 200 acres on the east side of I-540 they plan to develop later as Pinnacle Hills east, which is between the 70-acre site planned for a new St. Mary’s Hospital and 100 acres being developed by Steve Clary of Little Rock. Construction is expected to begin at Pinnacle Hills east next summer and take about five years to complete.

The entire development area will benefit from a new four-lane Pinnacle Hills Parkway that is scheduled to be completed in mid June. The parkway is being built by the developers to connect the area with Pinnacle Country Club.