Legacy Building in downtown Fayetteville adds tech tenant

You can add a new owner to the tax rolls of downtown Fayetteville’s Legacy Building at 401 W. Watson St.

A limited liability company managed by Julia Youngblood recently paid $1.7 million for approximately 8,000 square feet of office space on the second floor of the seven-story building, which has 38 condo units on floors three through seven.

Youngblood’s husband, Fawaad Welch, is the founder and CEO of the new tenant, Slipstream Creative, a computer software firm based in Fayetteville that targets new car dealerships.

Slipstream Creative will occupy the entire second floor, save for a fitness area and lounge space. The company was founded in 2008 and has 25 employees.

The sale represents the final transaction for the previous owner, The Legacy Investors Group LLC, managed by Mitchell Massey of Fayetteville. Massey led a group of investors who paid $3.6 million for a portion of the building in 2016. Their purchase included 13 of the 38 condo units (the remaining 25 were independently owned) and the second-floor office space, which was built-out but not finished.

Massey, who’s also a member of the building’s Property Owners Association (POA) board, says he has since sold all 13 of the residential units. He estimates about 30% of the building’s 38 condos have full-time occupants.

“We did what we came to do,” Massey said. “I am proud of the improvements we have been a part of at the Legacy Building.”

Massey’s investment group acquired the portion of the Legacy Building that previously had been owned since January 2013 by The Broe Group, a Denver-based private investment firm. The company took over the distressed asset when it paid $4.26 million to three other banks that helped Springdale lender Legacy National Bank fund the building’s $17 million construction — First National Bank of Fort Smith, First National Bank of Green Forest and Little Rock lender Metropolitan National Bank. (MNB was acquired by Simmons Bank of Pine Bluff in 2013).

The 84,000-square-foot Legacy Building was built in 2007 and was a notable development of convicted developer Brandon Barber, who pleaded guilty in July 2013 to three charges — conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud — and was sentenced in October 2014 to 65 months in federal prison.

A former restaurant space on the first floor of the Legacy Building remains independently owned and for sale. The 4,377-square-foot space is owned by Clint Boutwell of Oxford, Miss. He opened a casual fine dining restaurant called The Grillehouse Steak and Seafood in the fall of 2015 and was originally leasing the space from Kyle Naples.

Through his Steakhouse Holdings LLC, Boutwell bought the space in July 2016 for $808,426. The restaurant closed in May 2017.