Dixie Suffers Collateral Damage

Dixie Management CEO Ben Israel has faced a number of property foreclosures lately, now creditors are coming after his furniture.

On Dec. 14, Rogers attorney Tina Damron filed a suit on behalf of Bank of Arkansas NA for the unpaid balance of an $80,000 promissory note Israel signed in April 2004. Israel used “furniture, fixtures and equipment” as collateral and the filing states he still owes $35,183 on the five-year loan.

It’s not immediately clear where this furniture is located or what it includes. Several companies have filed suit against Israel in the last month for unpaid bills for equipment rentals from office furniture to step ladders to stereo speakers.

Dixie moved from its offices on Business Drive across the parking lot to swanky digs at Commerce Park II this summer before clearing out just weeks later and setting up shop at the Dixie Construction offices on Rolling Hills Drive in Fayetteville.

Whisper readers may remember an auction scheduled for Nov. 13 by R-M Auction & Appraisal Co. that was set to sell some Dixie office furniture from the fourth floor of Commerce Park II. That auction has since been postponed indefinitely and we’re not sure what furniture is what.

The Bank of Arkansas suit is against Israel and his company Israel Enterprises LLC, which listed 2323 S. Old Missouri Road as its address in a UCC amendment from the Arkansas Secretary of State Web site attached as an exhibit in the suit.

UCC, which stands for Uniform Commercial Code, protects a security interest in personal property used as collateral and establishes priority in case of debtor default or bankruptcy. 

The UCC filing indicates the debtor status was changed to Israel Enterprises from Hispanic Holdings LLC, another Israel company with the same Old Missouri address that has since been dissolved.

At the Old Missouri address is Signature Plaza II in Springdale, which was recently hit with a $2.9 million foreclosure action by First State Bank of Lonoke.

We couldn’t help but find Israel’s choice of name for his company noteworthy given the property is in Springdale and the number of Mexican restaurants and discos that have come and gone in that development during the last few years.

It hasn’t just been Hispanic-geared businesses that haven’t made it, though. The most recent tenant we could find was the distinctly Anglo-Saxon named Dad’s Hideout, which no longer has a working telephone number.