NWACC Attack

Whispers recently heard an interesting tidbit about the ongoing effort to build a new Northwest Arkansas Community College building in Springdale.

Whispers knew that the NWACC Foundation had signed a purchase agreement with Taldo Properties LLC — as in real estate executive Phil Taldo — for acreage just west of Arvest Ballpark, and that the Taldo location had been chosen from among more than a dozen through a rigorous selection process.

But what surprised Whispers were the big twists and turns that came up after Taldo and the foundation had seemingly sealed the real estate end of the deal.

After a 2013 announcement that NWACC was indeed coming to the Arvest area, former college president Becky Paneitz announced her retirement and was replaced shortly thereafter by Evelyn Jorgensen. After having looked at the issue for quite some time, Jorgensen decided it would be best if the college, not the foundation, purchased the Taldo site.

Now, the property purchase has to be approved by the college’s lands and facilities committee, the college board of trustees and the state board of higher education in Little Rock.

As a private entity, the foundation didn’t need approval from any of those governing bodies. But while the property purchase now must go through the public meat grinder, it’s probably the right thing to do.

The foundation board of directors is laden with heavyweights such as Dennis Smiley of Arvest Bank, civic leader Janet Hendren, Kay Palmer of J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., and famed glad-hander and NWA rainmaker Dick Trammel. If any group of folks could have raised funds for a multi-million land purchase, that was the one.

But the college has something the foundation doesn’t — the ability to issue bonds guaranteed by tuition revenue, and that’s exactly how the school intends to pay for the Taldo plot, said Steven R. Hinds, the college’s executive director of public relations and marketing.