Cooper Clinches Deals Bella Vista Company Sells One, Buys One

In keeping with its strategy of seeking out commercial properties, Cooper Realty Investments is set to close on a couple of deals soon.

Cooper Realty Investments is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cooper Communities Inc. of Bella Vista. A company reorganization gave the subsidiary a new name — it previously was the Cooper Commercial Properties division — and a new mission to pursue existing commercial properties in markets outside the villages developed by Cooper Communities.

Dewitt Smith, president of Cooper Realty Investments, says the subsidiary will have around $50 million to invest in commercial properties once its pending deals close.

One of those deals is the sale of some multi-family housing Cooper owns in Atlanta. That property is under contract to sell and the selling price is $55 million.

Also, Cooper is about to close on a 70,000-SF retail development, Park Plaza, in Monticello. The property, for which Cooper has agreed to pay $5.5 million, is adjacent to a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

“We have bought that,” Smith says, “and we’re aggressively looking at some other things all over the state.”

Smith says Cooper officials investigated the possibility of forming a real estate investment trust but decided against it. The subsidiary will continue to operate as a real estate operating company.

But, in its quest to acquire commercial properties, the company could find itself competing against REITs, many of which have billions of dollars to invest.

Smith says he believes activities by such REITs have driven up property values in large markets.

“We feel like the REITs have driven prices up significantly” in major markets, he explains. For that reason, “We prefer to operate in secondary and tertiary markets.” Little Rock, Smith says, is considered a secondary market.

“We like Northwest Arkansas, but we’ve not really found anything” to purchase yet, Smith says.

In February, Cooper paid $13.2 million for property it acquired from Nabholz Properties Inc., which is affiliated with Nabholz Construction Corp. of Conway.

That property included 318,000 SF in 19 different parcels containing 75 businesses. All the property is in Conway with the exception of one parcel in North Little Rock and another in Arkadelphia.

Under the terms of the sale, Nabholz continues to manage the property.

The purchase was the first departure from what had been Cooper’s business strategy. Under the old structure, the president of each village managed all interests within the village. The reorganization replaced that system with one in which centralized management, based in Bella Vista, oversees all company holdings.

Previously, Cooper Commercial Poperties built and leased commercial property within the village borders.

Cooper Communities was founded in 1954 by John Cooper, who died in January. His son, John Cooper Jr., now serves as the company’s chairman and CEO.

Cooper has developed six communities, including Cherokee Village near Hardy, Bella Vista Village, Hot Springs Village, Savannah Lakes Village in South Carolina, StoneBridge Vilage near Branson, Mo., and Tellico Village near Koxville, Tenn.

Cooper, with assets estimated at $250 million, is one of the largest privately held companies in Arkansas.