Lindsey Team Enters Management Market

It would’ve been safe to characterize the decision to launch a local commercial property management operation in the middle of 2009 a curious one.

In June, after all, there was more than 1 million SF of retail space sitting empty in Northwest Arkansas. Commercial real estate agents were leaving no rock unturned in their searches for tenants.

Undeterred by the sorrowful scene, however, Jerry Horton and Bill Gray decided it was the perfect time for Lindsey & Associates to enter the arena. Fast-forward about six months, and the two have more than 128,000 SF under management and another 146,000 SF coming on line in the near future. Horton said they also had more than $15 million in sales in 2009.

The leasing total would’ve ranked the duo among the top five among all listing agents in Northwest Arkansas in 2008. The total also paints their thinking as more progressive than peculiar.

“If the buildings and properties were all full, it wouldn’t be a very good opportunity, would it?” Horton, a vice president in his second year with the company, said with a grin.

Gray added a dose of more straightforward logic.

“We had all the components,” he said, alluding to Lindsey’s accounting department, construction company, maintenance staff, etc. “The real question was, ‘Why weren’t we doing it before?'”

Thus armed, Gray and Horton pitched the idea to company president Jim Lindsey.

“We said you’ve got all these people in place to do all these things, and we want to do commercial property management,” Horton said. “He said, ‘OK, we’ll call it Lindsey Commercial Property Management.'”

Horton and Gray oversee all of it, sharing a corner office with Melissa King. Horton, though, downplayed any talk about numbers.

“I think right now we just need to emphasize our company – who we are, and what we do,” he said.

Lindsey’s commercial property management team doesn’t employ any groundbreaking services. Like many of its competitors, Lindsey offers marketing and screening services, handles tenant relations and collections, and deals with maintenance issues, among other support efforts.

“We do everything there is to do with commercial property,” Horton said. “Whatever fits the tenant.”

What Horton and Gray hope separates Lindsey, though, is its established name and top-shelf service. One would be hard-pressed to find a real estate company more deeply rooted in Northwest Arkansas than Lindsey.

“When it comes to real estate, or any facet of, I haven’t met the first person who doesn’t know who Lindsey is,” Horton said.

Gray, who moved to Lindsey about a year ago after retiring from the University of Arkansas’ athletic department, said that’s especially true on the local and state levels, if not the national stage.

“They know who we are, and that opens doors,” he said.

Once a door is opened, Gray added, it gets the Lindsey team’s full attention.

“We try to get one property at a time, do a great job, and let word-of-mouth work for us,” Gray said.

Horton agreed, and reiterated his belief that while some still see now as a sketchy economic time, Lindsey’s commercial management group is taking a more forward-thinking approach.

“We all know where we are today, the occupancy rates and all of that,” Horton said. “But, to me, there is no better place than Northwest Arkansas for recovery.

“And if I were an investor and didn’t know much about it, I would feel far more comfortable at this given time in turning it over to Lindsey than trying to do it myself.”