Execs Whistle Dixie

It could be argued that the heart of Dixie has moved to the corner of Joyce Boulevard and Old Missouri Road in Fayetteville.

Dixie Management & Investment Co. has expanded into seven different companies and, in the process, has picked up some of Northwest Arkansas’ top talent in those respective areas.

The company now includes Dixie Management, Dixie Development, Dixie Real Estate, Dixie Construction, Dixie Excavating, Dixie Building Products and Dixie Tree Transplanting Services.

“We’re really growing,” said Ben Israel, president and CEO of the corporation.

Dixie recently moved from its former south Springdale location with 3,500 SF to its north Fayetteville offices at Commerce Park with 16,000 SF. Israel predicts the company will need more space within a year.

There are about 25 employees at the corporate office and about 25 more in the field, but the company has grown so fast that Israel admitted he was not sure “exactly how many employees we have.”

Israel said he has his eye on about 60 Washington County lots, mostly in Springdale, to be the initial residential properties of Dixie.

Pam Jones joined the Dixie team as its project manager after working for years privately with individuals on residential drafting and interior designs.

“I like projects and pulling the right people together to do projects,” Jones said. “One day Ben asked me what I was doing and I said, ‘Not enough.’ I like coordinating projects, but I like doing it with someone else’s money. And anything Dr. Israel has ever been involved in he has done so with integrity and quality.”

Jones has been with Dixie for about four months and has worked strictly on the commercial projects thus far. But she said the company will soon be on the cutting edge of of its homes’ interior and exterior.

“We’re hoping to gain about five of the best real estate people to represent our company in the housing market,” Israel said.

B.W. Dykes, who recently sold his share in the real estate firm of Dykes Bassett Mix & Associates, was already running Dixie’s commercial interests.

And a number of others have joined the Dixie team.

Jan Davidson had been a CPA with Arkansas Best Corp. of Fort Smith.

Trey Trumbo, a Fayetteville native, was working with Carparts.com Inc. of Los Angeles.

Linda Keefer came from Dallas. Rose Knowld joined Dixie after it purchased a Bentonville tree farm. Dixie Tree Transplanting Services has about 4,000 trees — oaks, maples, red buds and pines — as well as the machinery to move mature trees to commercial and residential sites.

Dixie Building Products manufactures metal studs out of its Rogers plant at the former Emerson Electric building on 13th Street.

“Commercial development is still the mainstay of the business,” Israel said.