Nabholz Rides Economic Boom of NWA

Whether it was blind luck or incredible foresight, the dividends Nabholz Construction Co. has reaped from opening a division in Rogers have been nothing short of phenomenal.

Nabholz opened its Rogers office in February 1990 after purchasing the former Kanark Construction Co. Kanark’s final year of existence produced about $10 million in sales. In 2000, Nabholz did $84 million in sales. That ranks the Rogers plant at No. 2 among Nabholz’s six divisions for sales volume.

Even so, Nabholz CEO Dan Nabholz of Conway said his company is not “sales-oriented.”

“We don’t like to measure our company in terms of sales,” Nabholz said. “Those companies that are sales-oriented tend not to stay around long. Our Rogers office is great for what we measure … client satisfaction. Rogers probably measures our highest in our company.”

Nabholz moved into the Northwest Arkansas market during what Executive Vice President Matt Bodishbaugh calls the “pre-boom” era of Benton County. In proving just how Nabholz has grown with today’s continuing boom in Rogers and Bentonville, the company recently tripled the original size of its Rogers offices. Ron Montgomery, president of the Rogers office, said that when Nabholz opened there in 1990, the office was “too big.”

“In the early 1980s, [Northwest Arkansas] was a pretty tough market. You had high interest rates at about 17 percent,” said Montgomery, who was president of Kanark when Nabholz bought out that company.

Nabholz had about 33 percent more sales in Northwest Arkansas than second-place APAC-Arkansas/McClinton-Anchor Division of Fayetteville in 2000. Some of its latest projects include the St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Rogers and the American Freightways Corp. headquarters in Harrison.

Tom Hopper, who has developed the upscale Pinnacle Country Club residential area as well as the commercial Scottsdale Center in Rogers, said Nabholz’s reliability is second to none.

“[Nabholz] delivers on time and within budget,” Hopper said. “I’m not saying others don’t, because I have good relationships with others, but that’s why Nabholz is so successful.”

Rogers Explosion

After Nabholz made its move to Northwest Arkansas, other central Arkansas and Tulsa contractors such as Baldwin & Shell, May Construction and Kinco followed suit.

“I don’t think the real boom hit Benton County until the early ’90s,” said Bodishbaugh, who came to Nabholz from May Construction. “That was about the time the lid blew off.”

Nabholz’s timing could not have been better. Pinnacle Country Club brought upscale residential appeal to Benton County, and with vendors moving to the area in droves to be near the Bentonville headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the need for new commercial space was far greater than the supply. It was a pleasant problem for Nabholz and other local contractors.

And in the last 18 months, Bodishbaugh said, Rogers succeeded in its effort to generate the criteria to draw national retailers, hotels and restaurants. “They’ve started dropping out of the sky,” he said.

Nabholz already had a strong client base in Northwest Arkansas when it established the Rogers office, and today as many as 10 of its key management personnel remain from the Kanark days. The Rogers office has about 265 employees, but that figure rises closer to 350 in the summer.

“A lot of our people have been a part of the community for a long time,” Bodishbaugh said. “All we’ve done is just re-letter the banner.

“We’ve made a conscious decision not to focus on buildings but customer relationships. A lot of salesmen focus on bricks and mortar. We focus on our clients. The building is just a byproduct of that service. We’re an extension of their staff. We’ve got the total package. We’ve got more production muscle.”

There are six different divisions of Nabholz — Conway (the corporate headquarters), Little Rock, Fort Smith, Rogers, Tulsa and Springfield, Mo. However, they are all under the same ownership of 67 stockholders.

“We’ve got one company, so as a stockholder, I have just as much interest in another division as I have in this one,” Montgomery said. “All of our key managers are stockholders.”

In fact, CEO Dan Nabholz doesn’t refer to Conway as the home office.

“The home office is me and my secretary and wherever we are,” Nabholz said.

Montgomery manages far more than just the Rogers division, which is actually a collaboration of seven sub-companies: Nabholz Client Service in Rogers, Nabholz Client Service in Fayetteville, Northwest Excavation, Nabholz Industrial Service in Springdale, Nabholz Cranes and Rigging, Conark Builders and Nabholz Construction.

“When one market segment is down, another is up, so that helps us diversify our resources,” Bodishbaugh said.

Near, Yet so Far Apart

Northwest Arkansas’ four major cities are about as different as the East and West coasts.

“Different cities with different populations have different needs,” said Montgomery, who is originally from Kansas. “Rogers doesn’t have the university, so the industry here is different than [Fayetteville’s]. Springdale is probably more industrial-driven than any other town. And there’s not another Bentonville on the face of the earth with what is soon to be the world’s largest company.”

Montgomery said Rogers has benefited from Wal-Mart as much as or more than Bentonville. Rogers’ large commercial projects such as Pinnacle Country Club, Pinnacle Hills, Pinnacle Point, Village on the Creeks and Scottsdale Center are testaments to its influence.

Bodishbaugh, who lives in Fayetteville, knows well the differences in Northwest Arkansas’ city governments.

“My perception is that Rogers has done a better job than any other town in Northwest Arkansas in that it has a unified government and business community,” Bodishbaugh said. “It has a structured growth. I attribute that to Mayor [Steve] Womack. Rogers has a unified front. A lot of other cities in Northwest Arkansas can’t say that.

“We’ve grown so fast [in Northwest Arkansas] that somebody’s backyard that was once a cow pasture is now being considered a car lot. I wouldn’t want that either. But, these are great problems to have. Go over to the Delta, and see what’s going on over there.”

Dan the Man

Nabholz was founded in 1949 by Bob Nabholz, whose son Dan now runs the company.

It is Dan’s hands-on approach that many feel has made Nabholz so successful.

“He certainly knows what’s going on,” Montgomery said. “And, he’s a great visionary.”

Nabholz said Northwest Arkansas’ unique character made the Rogers office the success it is.

“If you look across our industry, it’s about a 50-50 proposition of success merging with an existing company like we did with Kanark,” Nabholz said. “And only about one time out of 10 will it turn out spectacular like it did in Rogers.

“We’ve taken a different strategy. Most contractors dream of getting bigger and doing bigger and bigger jobs farther and farther from home. Most of them get that big job craziness.

“We wanted to take care of a client’s total account. We have service centers in local communities where those clients are located. We had been able to do a lot of big projects in Northwest Arkansas, but we weren’t able to do all of the projects from the small jobs to major repairs. And the people didn’t see us going to local churches, to high school games and out shopping. It was our mindset to get within a community, get involved and get to know our clients.”