Esterer to Open Development Company in NW Arkansas

Paul Esterer, president and CEO of First Security Vanadis in Little Rock, confirmed his commercial real estate development and consulting company plans to open a Northwest Arkansas office.

Vanadis has already been a partner in the development of Rogers’ ongoing 1.2 million-SF Pleasant Crossing commercial real estate enclave, but this expansion signals an even greater presence for Vanadis. The new office will start with “a couple of people.”

Named for the Norse goddess of “youth, love, beauty and the dead,” Vanadis has done more than $60 million worth of projects and has another $40 million to $50 million in the pipeline for the next year.

Esterer said additional work in Northwest Arkansas will focus on retail and office space and multi-family developments.

First Security’s Crews and Associates, the full-service investment-banking arm of Searcy-based First Security Bank, has an ownership interest in Vanadis.

Reynie Rutledge, chairman and CEO of the bank’s holding company, First Security Bancorp, is the brother-in-law of Fayetteville real estate and multi-family building mogul Jim Lindsey.