Precept Builders Out as Bellafont General Contractor

The first workers seen in weeks at the Bellafont in Fayetteville weren’t moving dirt or pouring concrete.

Instead, employees of Dallas-based Precept Builders Inc. were packing up filing cabinets and office furniture from the construction trailer on Nov. 29.

Citing nonpayment for months of work and saying litigation is likely forthcoming, Precept CEO Doug Deason confirmed he’s “moving on” from the Bellafont, leaving Barber without a general contractor and, apparently, his strongest partner in the project.

A spokeman for the Barber Group said, “there are two sides to every story” and said that Precept “has not fulfilled the obligations under the contract.”

“I’m very disappointed in how it’s gone,” said Deason, who declined to say how much Precept is owed other than to say it’s, “not an unpayable amount. If he paid us tomorrow we’d go back to work.

“We’ve worked very hard for Barber and been big supporters in the past. We just want to get paid on Bellafont. It’s a business decision,”

Deason bought two lots from Barber for $2.7 million on July 24, a significant development at the time because one lot is a 1.66-acre parcel set aside for tree preservation and the other is the planned site of the project’s office tower and parking deck.

At the time, Deason and Barber said they would be 50-50 partners on the tower construction, revised to 8 stories from the original plan for 12.

Barber also said at the time he’d secured $15 million to restart the project, which saw workers walk off the site in the spring because of nonpayment.

In August, Deason called Barber a “survivor” and said he admired him “a lot” for getting the project going again.

“He had his financing put together and I felt a lot better,” Deason said. “I thought it was going to get done. It’s going to be disappointing to own land surrounded by a skeleton.”

On Sept. 21, Precept purchased building permits valued at $4.2 million for the 53,000-SF, three-building retail center behind Mason’s.

Now the concrete walls lie flat at the site, waiting to be erected.

On Nov. 23 – ten days after he was sued by Mason’s owner Mason Hiba and 48 hours after he was sued by Bellafont tenant Helena Gadison of East Meets West Spa & Salon – Barber convinced Mellow Mushroom franchisor Kevin Kestner to give him one more month.

“We decided to stick with him for now,” said Kestner, who was originally promised to take possession of his 4,000-SF building on Vantage Drive at the end of June. “We thought of filing a lawsuit, too, but at end of day it was not going to accomplish anything.

“He doesn’t have money except for the project. He has until the first of the year or we have to look at going somewhere else.”

Kestner said Barber told him that his bank, located outside the Northwest Arkansas market, still supported him and had examined his books to approve the draws from the loan proceeds to date.

“He looked like a beaten man, but at this point we’ll give him a chance to work out his problems,” Kestner said. “We can leave when we want, so we have leverage, but it will be hard to find a spot as great as that location could be.”