Goliff Gets Going

Remember William Goliff, whom we told you about in July of 2001? He’s the former Boeing Satellite Systems scientist who’s semi-retired in Fayetteville and had an idea to start VBI Broadcasting — a subscriber-based business that would use the existing spectrum between the pictures on analog television sets, or, the vertical blinking intervals (VBI), to broadcast 10 channels of video and six channels of music.

Boeing has agreed to provide initial funding for the project. New patents for the technology and a mass market receiver are in the works. The total funding estimate is $1 million, although Goliff said the final tally might be lower.

Currently, the analog VBI spectrum is seldom used because it creates interference for regular channels. But value is built by stringing a number of weak VBIs together.

The real potential is as a third-generation technology that would offer global 100-megabit-per-second, two-way mobile Internet access over the digital spectrum.

(Eight megabits equals one megabyte, the standard measure for Internet connectivity).

The company would be headquartered in Los Angeles. But much of the development work could be done at a facility like the University of Arkansas’ Genesis Technology Incubator.

Pianomania

So how many piano bars does one town need?

We heard that a piano bar is planned for Fayetteville’s Dickson Street (see food column, Page 22). Then, just before we went to press with this issue of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, we learned that another one is in the works a couple of miles away.

Tracy and Celeste Hoskins are expanding their 15,000-SF Cool Water Village Cafe by another 5,000 SF to add a piano bar.

The concepts are very similar. “Dueling pianos,” as Tracy Hoskins calls it.

Hoskins said his piano bar, which he described as a “theater” of sorts, will be open by October. At this point, he hasn’t named the piano bar, but customers there will also have access to the restaurant, bar and billiards room in the Cool Water complex at 2223 N. College Ave.

Best for Bentonville

Best Motor Co. is apparently looking at moving its operations from U.S. Highway 71-B in Rogers to Bentonville.

Bryan Hunt, son of trucking mogul J.B. Hunt, owns Best Motor Co.

The Rogers Planning Commission wouldn’t let Bryan Hunt move his Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealership to the northwest corner of the intersection of Interstate 540 and New Hope Road. It now appears Best Motor will relocate to Moberly Lane in Bentonville, across from the new Links at Bentonville apartment and golf complex.

Meanwhile, the Bentonville Planning Commission recently denied KFC another franchise on Walton Boulevard.

Taxed Like Yankees

Arkansas ranked 45th nationally in a recent study by Kiplinger’s personal finance magazine of the most tax-friendly states for retirees. Two of our neighbors, Mississippi and Louisiana, were among the best at No. 7 and No. 12, respectively.

The only states that put more of a tax burden on its retirees than Arkansas were Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maryland and Wisconsin.

The study measured the total annual sales tax, property taxes, and income taxes for a retired couple living in the capital city of each state and the District of Columbia. The study assumed the couple had an annual income of $60,000 and lived in a home worth the median market value of 2,000-SF houses in their city.

Arkansas’ average total tax bill was $5,186, or nearly 10 times that of first-placed Delaware’s $543 annual tab.

Garner Sounds Bell

Garner Asset Management in Fayetteville has added a third chartered financial analyst to its staff, giving it the most in Northwest Arkansas.

James Bell, 27, a Springdale native, joined Garner Asset in June and will help manage the firm’s 70 equity clients alongside fellow CFA Kerry Watkins.

Bell and his wife, Shelli, moved back to the area from Tulsa where he was serving as an analyst for oil and gas exploration and production firm Samson Cos.

Bell earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Tulane University in 1996. He passed his CFA exam in 2001. Bell fulfilled the industry experience component of the certification as a research analyst from 1997-2000 at M.A. Greenwood & Associates Inc. in Fayetteville.

Garner, Greenwood and Longer Investments Inc. are the top investment advisory firms in Northwest Arkansas. During 2001, they combined to manage more than $435 million.

Glenn Atkins is Garner’s third CFA. The company’s president, Rebecca Garner, said no additional hires are planned at present.

“We want to stay lean and mean,” Garner said.

Heath’s Homested

New University of Arkansas basketball coach Stan Heath has already changed his mind about where he wants to live. But Razorback fans need not worry, he’s just moving down the road, literally.

Soon after Heath and his family relocated to Fayetteville, he bought a $368,000 home at 2415 Candlewood Drive, or lot 1 of the Candlewood subdivision in east Fayetteville. That financing, through Arvest Mortgage Co. in Lowell, closed June 5.

However, just three weeks later on June 26, Heath purchased lot 26 at 2710 Candlewood Drive for $89,500 through Arvest Bank of Fayetteville. He plans to build a new home there soon.

True Fabrication

Van Buren Bridge Co. is one of two subsidiaries that may be affected by the change in ownership in the works at Little Rock’s Afco Steel Co.

W&W Steel Co. of Oklahoma City is set to close on the deal before the end of July. There’s no official word on the transaction price, but we’ve heard the figure $60 million.

W&W Steel describes itself as one of the five largest steel fabricating companies.

Founded in October 1945, the firm has plants in Oklahoma City and Lubbock, Texas, that employ a combined 440 workers. W&W also has offices in Albuquerque, N.M., Phoenix, Arizona and Laguna Hills, Calif.

Based on employment, Afco is the larger of the two companies. Established in 1909, Afco employs 372 production workers at its two Little Rock plants, 100 in Van Buren and 75 at its other subsidiary — Platte River Steel Co. in Greeley, Colo.

Industry estimates place annual revenue at both firms in the $50 million-$100 million range.

DAC Update

It hasn’t done much for the company’s thinly traded stock, but DAC Technologies Group International, the Little Rock supplier of gunlocks and other security products, recently announced that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has ordered supplies of five new products.

DAC, named for founder and former Little Rock bond broker David A. Collins, is officially headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, where Collins lives. But most of its operations are at 1601 Westpark Drive in Little Rock.

Wal-Mart has ordered three new gunlock designs, a small safe and a two-pack of sport accessory locks, according to a DAC news release dated June 24. The value of the sales to Wal-Mart was not disclosed, although Collins said the orders would “add significant revenues and profits in the future.”

All five items have been assigned fixed locations in Wal-Mart sporting goods departments, DAC said.