Fast 15: Maggie Owens

Maggie Owens hooked a U-Haul to her Volvo and drove 27 hours from the mountains of Utah to Northwest Arkansas — and didn’t even know if she’d gotten the job.

That should tell you all you need to know about Owens: She has lots of energy, isn’t afraid to take risks, and knows how to accomplish a goal.

She wound up being hired as the director of leasing at The Cardinal at West Center in Fayetteville, a 471-bed student housing complex just south of the University of Arkansas campus, but had to build the job from scratch.

“It started from nothing,” Owens said. “I had no staff, no office, no marketing material and no website. They didn’t give me any direction. They just said, ‘Go.’”

Less than a year later most everything’s in place, including a staff of 11, all of them students at the UA, and a smart marketing package aimed directly at the undergrads who, beginning in August, will call The Cardinal home.

“It’s made me feel like I can do anything,” Owens said, referring to the willpower it’s taken to lift The Cardinal off the ground.

A native of Hot Springs, Owens headed out to Utah on her own for college and has her degree in speech communication from Utah Valley University in Orem. In addition to school, Owens went to Utah for recreation.

“I was always interested in the West,” she said. “I liked cold weather and I wanted to learn how to snowboard.”

Owens got a season pass to Park City Mountain Resort and, when she wasn’t in school, she was on the slopes. She also delivered newspapers five days a week.

Her plan after graduation was to head east to Washington, D.C., and find work there. But she answered an online ad for a position as a leasing agent in Fayetteville. After two phone interviews, she made the decision to head back to Arkansas. On her last day in Utah, she delivered the newspaper and took a final exam before rolling out of town. Two days later she was in Fayetteville, arriving with a handshake and a smile.

“I literally came as soon as I could,” Owens said. “I always told everyone that if I came back to Arkansas that it would be to Northwest Arkansas. This is where the business is at.”