Bennett Always the Optimist About Northwest Arkansas

Being a commercial real estate broker in Northwest Arkansas for more than a decade has given Clinton Bennett a unique viewpoint of the market.

“I am really appreciative of the perspective the recession gave me,” he said. “Watching all that happen created a pretty profound respect for what a recession can do. I watched it first-hand and saw people get punished first-hand.”

And if a career change is ever desired, Bennett’s experience has also given him the chops to lead a local chamber of commerce. Of all the qualities that have helped him become one of the top leasing brokers in the state, optimism is almost always Bennett’s prevailing tone.

“Our [commercial real estate brokers] position is one that we get to feel like we play a role in helping the area grow,” said Bennett, a vice president at CBRE Inc., the world’s largest CRE services firm. “When there are new businesses that are looking to grow and expand into Northwest Arkansas, it’s fun to talk to them about this area. It’s fun to sell something that you love.

“I don’t feel like we’re selling real estate as much as we are selling this area.”

Bennett, who grew up on a 1,000-acre rice and soybean farm in Pocahontas in Arkansas’ northeastern corner, has been working the land in this corner of the state since 2004. He has completed more than 150 commercial real estate deals, and has earned a sterling reputation among industry colleagues.

Alan Cole, a principal with Colliers International in Bentonville, began his career in the business at the same time as Bennett. Despite the competitive nature of their industry, Cole said he and Bennett have worked together to complete several deals, and are good friends.

“Clinton knows the ins and outs of business and works it hard,” Cole said. “When we find ourselves chasing the same client or property listing, it is always a fair fight and there are never any hard feelings. Clinton is the type of guy you like to beat, but you don’t mind losing to. I’d say he is one of a few of the top real estate brokers in our market, and the state.”

Six years ago, when honored as a member of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s 2009 Forty Under 40 class, Bennett was a principal with Bentonville-based Solomon Partners, an affiliate of national firm Grubb & Ellis. He and three other business partners formed the affiliate two years earlier, after he broke into the industry working for Dallas Real Estate Services in Fayetteville.

Bennett built a successful company at Solomon Partners through the recession, before leaving to open the state’s first CBRE affiliate office in Fayetteville in early 2012. The groundwork, though, was actually laid several years earlier.

“I had talks with [CBRE] in 2007 about opening an office here,” Bennett explained. “I don’t know what their thought was for why we didn’t do it then, but in 2011 I had a chance run-in with [CBRE vice president] Rich Monaghan and we started talking about the fact that Northwest Arkansas was really growing up and how it may be time to look here again, and he said, ‘Well, it’s funny we ran into each other because we are thinking of doing that.’ ”

Bennett was in Tulsa the following week to meet with CBRE leadership, and the agreement was reached in February 2012 to open the Fayetteville office.

At CBRE, Bennett’s clients are local, regional and national, assisting them in a variety of ways including retail and office leasing, tenant representation and the acquisition of investment properties and commercial lots. 

He says he’s beginning to hear a few cautious murmurs from industry observers, questioning if the market is becoming overheated.

“It’s a valid question, but what we are seeing are offices expanding and small businesses growing their businesses,” he said. “At all levels — local, regional and international. I am optimistic that we have a good run in front of us here, and it’s not built on speculative growth right now. It’s being built on job creation. The deals we are doing now are created by demand.”

Bennett, 40, calls Fayetteville home and most free time is spent with his wife and their two children, ages 6 and 3.

Bennett is also close to completing the requirements to earn his private pilot’s license, a necessity, he says, for the future.

“I want to be able to get back to northeast Arkansas pretty regularly,” he said. “I will probably be more involved in our farm at some point going forward, and I would actually like to buy more [land]. I grew up [farming] so that’s just in my blood.”