Flake, Grooms honored at annual central Arkansas commercial real estate awards

The Commercial Real Estate Council of Metro Little Rock (CREC MLR) held its seventh annual Commercial Real Estate Awards on Tuesday, Feb. 25, to recognize significant achievements and the largest real estate transactions in metro Little Rock made by local brokers in the previous year.

The group also recognized developer John Flake and attorney Timothy Grooms with Legends Awards for their contributions to the commercial real estate industry.

Flake spent his entire career in the commercial real estate business. He helped found Barnes Quinn Flake and Anderson before he founded his firm, Flake & Kelley Commercial, in 1979. In 2020, he joined his daughter’s company, Flake & Company as chief real estate adviser.

Flake helped develop the 40-story Simmons Bank building, originally developed as Capitol Tower in 1986. Flake has successfully completed dozens of projects for health care institutions, as well as office, retail, and multiple energy solutions projects.

His client portfolio includes Baptist Health, Walmart, Dillard’s, Verizon, Acxiom, Entergy, and the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas.

Grooms is a founding member of Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull PLLC. He represents banks, health care managers, real estate developers, real estate brokers, and other clients in a variety of transactional matters.

Grooms has substantial experience in real estate and general commercial lending transactions and has negotiated hundreds of retail, office, and commercial space leases on behalf of major national retailers and numerous developers, landlords, and tenants throughout Arkansas and the Mid-South.

Among completed transactions, Grooms lists numerous retail shopping center developments, mixed-use horizontal property regimes, apartment complexes, office buildings, educational institutions, hotels, hospitals, related clinics and ancillary facilities, and charitable nonprofit developments.

As legal counsel to Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock, he assisted with property assemblage and condemnation and later handled all other legal aspects for the arena, including construction, management, and operational matters. He was real estate development counsel for Heifer Project International regarding land acquisition and development of its present world headquarters and represented the owners of the present site of the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Park.

Other CREC MLR award winners for this year included:

LEASES
Largest Industrial Lease: 1601 Gregory St./Priority Wire & Cable — Ted Dickey, Lighthouse Asset Advisors
Largest Medical Lease: 100 Four Paws Lane/Fresenius USA Manufacturing — Drew Holbert & Clark Irwin, Colliers Arkansas and Randall K Moore, Terry Moore & Associates
Largest Office Lease: 5 Allied Drive/Lyon College — Kim Battle, Justin Bentley, Mark Bentley, Kevin Huchingson, Bill Pendergist & Isaac Smith, Colliers Arkansas
Largest Retail Lease: 1200 Breckenridge Drive/Film Alley — Hank Kelley & Daryl Peeples, Kelley Commercial Partners

SALES
Largest Industrial Sale: 400 Murphy Drive/ACE Hardware Regional Distribution Center — William Callahan, CBRE
Largest Land Sale: Chenal Parkway & Rahling Road — Tract 1, Lots 8 & 9B — Leonard Boen, Commercial Realty and Ryan Gibson, Rick O’Brien & Jason Parker, Cushman & Wakefield / Sage Partners
Largest Multifamily Housing Sale: 11700 Pleasant Ridge Road-11810 Pleasant Ridge Road/Pleasant Ridge-Pleasant Ridge Pointe — Ted Bailey, III & Richard Cheek, The Multifamily Group
Largest Office Sale: 7773 Sloan/Lexicon — Hank Kelley, Nick Kelley & Gary Smith, Kelley Commercial Partners
Largest Retail Sale: 17711 Chenal Parkway/The Promenade at Chenal — William Callahan, CBRE

Additionally, the Commercial Real Estate Impact Award was given to the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Stella Boyle Smith Music Center. The Commercial Real Estate Project of the Year was awarded to Breckenridge Village.