Pinnacle Group Had Huge Impact in 2003

Looking northwest out of The Pinnacle Group’s penthouse office suite, the view is changing. From the sixth-floor window of the Rogers investment group’s boardroom, a grassy expanse links the exclusive Beau Chene Farms subdivision to the west with the glistening glass towers of Pinnacle Point to the north.

A year from now, a miniature city will be growing smack in the middle of Pinnacle Hills.

The group’s principals — trucking mogul J.B. Hunt and entrepreneurs Bill Schwyhart and Tim Graham — facilitated delivery of, or built themselves, a combined $60 million worth of new Class “A” commercial space here this year.

Also in 2003, the triumvirate announced a litany of future projects that’s expected to create a $1 billion square mile of commercial opulence around the Interstate 540/New Hope Road interchange. For the investments they’ve already made, and the millions more to come, The Pinnacle Group is the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s 2003 newsmaker of the year. No other person or entity did more to keep the area booming this year.

“We have created a place to put Northwest Arkansas’ best foot forward,” Schwyhart said. “We’re going to promote the area’s entrepreneurial heritage.”

The firm’s projects, directly and indirectly, influenced the two-county area’s June ascension to the Milken Institute’s No. 1 performing metropolitan statistical area in America. Hunt, founder of Lowell truckload carrier J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., said all the group did was supply what’s in demand.

“There was a demand for Class ‘A’ office space,” Hunt said. “So we did that. Now there’s a demand for upscale retail, and that’s what we’re building. We’ve just found those little niches, and we’re not waiting to see what someone else is going to do.”

The entire Pinnacle Hills complex —which includes Pinnacle Point and Pinnacle Promenade — totals more than 150 acres west of the I-540/New Hope Road interchange and 75 acres on the northeast corner. There are more than 85 acres in Pinnacle Hills proper and 65 acres at Pinnacle Point.

Highlights from 2003 for Hunt, Schwyhart and Graham include:

• Reorganizing to start the year after the departures of former partners Gary Combs and Carla Tyson. The group bought back some pre-sold lots so Pinnacle Hills could be “master planned.”

• The same trio plus Robert Thornton, a former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive, led the Pinnacle Air Group to a strong first full year of operations. Beginning in January, it took delivery of three multimillion-dollar Learjets and became the largest charter service in Arkansas. Pinnacle Air bought several hangars and became the fixed-based operator at Springdale Municipal Airport. It also turned that facility into a prestigious Phillips Petroleum Performance Aviation Center.

• In March, the group opened the 100,000-SF J.B. Hunt Pinnacle Parkway Tower in Pinnacle Hills and moved its company office atop the $15 million investment.

• May saw the opening of the $45 million Embassy Suites in Rogers, a 250-room hotel facilitated by The Pinnacle Group and developed by John Q. Hammons Hotels Inc.

• A late-May announcement that Hammons will build a 250-room Marriott and 105,000-SF Pinnacle Hills Convention Center with 24,000 SF of meeting space adjoining the Rogers Embassy Suites. The additions were estimated at a combined $60 million investment.

• Plans to build a 300,000-SF upscale outdoor shopping facility in Pinnacle Promenade, which is being expanded. That facility was initially expected to be a $50 million investment.

• The master planning of more than 55 acres of commercial and 20 acres of multi-family property on the northeast corner of the I-540/New Hope interchange. Schwyhart said that commercial area is being developed for a “big box retailer.”

• The August roll-up of more than 300,000 SF of commercial space at Pinnacle Point from more than 20 LLCs into one entity controlled by the group.

“Everyone we’ve talked to about leasing space at Pinnacle Hills,” Graham said, “has either wanted to buy into our partnership, buy us out or come to work for us.”