Terminella Tackles Projects via Six Ps

Maps and renderings litter both sides of the conference table at the headquarters of Terminella & Associates in Fayetteville. Like the sunbursts that top the metal signs advertising his various developments, Tom Terminella has plans in all different directions.

“We are in two counties and six cities and blessed to be here,” Terminella said.

Terminella is developing more than 600 lots in Benton County in four different subdivisions: the 160-acre Cornerstone Ridge in Bentonville, the 80-acre Ridgewood subdivision in Cave Springs, a 212-acre Lakewood subdivision spread between Lowell and Rogers and Rogers’ 67-acre Creekwood subdivision.

And that doesn’t include developments planned for Washington County. Terminella is hesitant to talk too far in advance about future deals.

“Offer and acceptance signed by both parties and money in escrow, that’s when it’s real,” Terminella said. “We typically are tightlipped about our activities or acquisitions.”

Terminella is the managing partner of the 115-acre Creekside Place development, which contains a 25-acre tract to the north and a 90-acre tract to the south split by new New Hope Road. Terminella is a principal in Creekside Development LLC, along with Greg Nabholz of Conway, Tom Mourter of Mourter Chiropractic and Terry Johnson of VeriSource Inc., both of Rogers.

With so much going on, Terminella said he wasn’t worried about getting spread too thin because he follows “the six P’s” mantra:

“Prior proper planning prevents poor performance.”

Terminella eyed the Creekside property for more than five years.

Terminella eventually sold his share of the property in 2000 to Clary Development Corp. of Little Rock. Four years later, he purchased the property back from Clary with a team of investors rounded up by Mourter.

“I think that whole section of Rogers is one of the hottest prospects in the country,” Mourter said. “So we put together those four principals and started construction.”

The northern portion, which borders and hinges on the completion of New Hope Road, has purchase commitments from several financial institutions, including Pinnacle Bank and Simmons First Bank of Northwest Arkansas. Simmons is financing Creekside Place.

The lending institutions, Terminella said, have the biggest presence right now. Construction has begun on Financial Parkway, the road that will wind through the middle of the development’s northern portion. Creekside has been in negotiations with retailers including a fueling center, a national drug chain and hotel operators, Terminella said. Lease rates haven’t been determined yet.

Site work has already started, and construction is set to begin on the new 65,000-SF Pinnacle Bank building within the next 120 days. It is expected to be complete by the fall of 2006. Nabholz Construction Corp. is the general contractor on the building. Creekside was designed by Crafton Tull & Associates Inc. of Rogers.

Terry Johnson, CFO of VeriSource, said the technology solutions and consulting company will move into the Pinnacle Bank building from its current headquarters in Pinnacle Hills. Pinnacle Bank will occupy about 10,000 to 15,000 SF of the building.

“I do expect technology to be a key point because VeriSource is going to be in there,” Johnson said. “I mean we were over here in the beginning of Pinnacle Point. We’ve learned a lot about what a development needs to have.”

Johnson said Verisource hopes to provide technology services for the different firms that will office in Creekside.

“We are going to be close by and a good alternative for those companies,” he said.

Residential Reality

“You have 1,000 to 1,500 to 2,000 monthly in population gravitating to both of these counties,” Terminella said. “The whole nature of it is being driven by demand. The demand is there, but the supply is lacking. People are moving here, and they’ve got to have a place to live.”

Aside from Centerton, Terminella said, an ample supply of homes priced from $175,000 to $250,000 along the I-540 corridor is lacking from Fayetteville to Bentonville.

Terminella’s biggest Benton County venture is the 350-lot planned residential and commercial development, Lakewood. He is the managing partner of Lakewood along with other silent partners.

Plans call for a 17-acre lake, an 11-acre commercial center and four residential neighborhoods offering homes in varying price points from $250,000.

“On a development that size it helps to have different price points,” said Doug Gibson, a broker with Terminella. “There are so many builders out there that just do larger or a specific size of home, that way we can bring a variety of builders in.”

Terminella said he just received single family residential zoning approval from Rogers on Sept. 7 for the Rogers portion of Lakewood and will be moving through with the city of Lowell for planned unit development approval in the next month.

The 77-lot Ridgewood subdivision in Cave Springs will offer homes in two price points from $350,000 and up.

Construction started in June on homes that will sell from $200,000 to $260,000 in Terminella’s 61-lot Abington subdivision off Dixieland Road in Rogers. Landmark Construction, Matt Miller Construction, Wellborn Construction and Wellborn Homes are the exclusive builders in Abington.

Gibson said the firm plans to have lots available for construction in their other Benton County subdivisions by the first quarter of 2005. They have made agreements with several undisclosed builders for the future lots coming online.

Northwest Excavation, a division of Nabholz, is the exclusive site contractor of Terminella Inc.

The larger subdivisions, such as the 200-lot Creekwood subdivision off Garret Road in Rogers and the 325-lot Cornerstone Ridge off Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard in Bentonville will have 100 lots available at a time. Terminella is master-planning Cornerstone Ridge with Mark Foster, the developer of Fayetteville’s Summersby subdivision and others.

Mr. T in Training

A Fayetteville High graduate and the youngest of eight children, Terminella earned his real estate license at the age of 19 and has been in the business for 17 years.

Before founding Terminella & Associates 10 years ago, he got his start working under Bill Lazenby. He worked for seven years for various firms including: Dave Fulton of Century 21, John Taylor of Taylor & Associates, George Faucette of Coldwell Banker Faucette.

“I had good direction and good guidance from all of them,” Terminella said. “I tried to take the best of what I learned from them and put it into my company.”

Terminella caught the subdivision bug about 10 years ago when he partnered with a land owner to develop Windy Hill Estates, a 51-acre tract off Butterfield Coach Road in Fayetteville. He’s been involved in or represented at least 30 subdivisions to date.

Terminella & Associates, his real estate company and Terminella Inc., the development arm, employ 16 people including 12 real estate agents.

In February, Terminella hired Jack Climer, formerly with big hitter The Killian Group of Springfield, to be his chief operations officer.

“I needed the help, and he was looking for a change,” Terminella said. “We just had so many wonderful opportunities that I felt I needed to acquire some help to monitor all these projects.”