Marquess Building Homes, Family in Wake of Recession

Mark Marquess has the seasoned eye and the crow’s feet of a man who’s seen a lot in his time. And indeed, he has. A realtor and homebuilder who came to prominence during the great Northwest Arkansas boom, Marquess watched as almost everything slipped away when the market crashed in 2008.

By then a developer who thought he’d put homebuilding behind him, Marquess was sitting on the 80-lot Spring Creek at Garrett Road subdivision in Rogers, and a few other developments, when the economy imploded. Things got so bad that Marquess had to sell just about everything, including
the family home, to keep from going under.

But one thing he didn’t do was quit. He formed Riverwood Homes LLC in August 2009 and started building again, at Garrett Road, and a short time later, at Cobblestone Crossing in Fayetteville. Dabbling as a Walmart vendor went away, and so did the flirtation with condo real estate in Florida. It was time to knuckle down and do what he did best — build affordable homes here in the Ozarks.

In the stress and strain of the recession, Marquess found a winning formula — take a large luxury home and shrink it down so that young singles, young married couples and empty-nesters could become buyers. The formula seems to have worked. Marquess built only 20 homes in 2009, but last year, he built around 150.

“That’s what really launched our company,” he said. “It took off and gave us the blueprint for what we’re now doing across Northwest Arkansas.”

“Her biggest virtue is tenacity,” he said. “Don’t give up. You need to be in it for the long haul. This is not get-rich quick.”

Since forming Riverwood Homes, the business has increasingly become a family affair. Both of Marquess’ parents, his wife, mother-in-law and nephew are part of the business. And his
son Taylor, currently enrolled in the MBA program at the Rogers campus of John Brown University, is being groomed to take command of the Riverwood enterprise at some point in the future.

Marquess, 55, was president of BMP Development Inc. in 1998 when he was honored as a Forty Under 40 by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. In 2002, he shut BMP down and moved into development and commercial construction under various LLCs for about seven years before returning, out of necessity, to homebuilding.

Marquess moved to the region from Colorado with his family in 1968. He cut his teeth selling farms and rural acreage in and around Decatur before opening an office in Bentonville in 1982. He entered the Fayetteville market with the completion of Fiesta Park, a 102-home subdivision, in 1990. Since then, he has built about 1,000 homes in Northwest Arkansas.

He admits that he and plenty of others got a bit cocky during the boom, when construction loans were plentiful, and demand and prices were high. But when the economy screeched to a halt, and when people started going broke, Marquess had to reevaluate, regroup, and reprioritize his values. He came out of the recession with a narrow focus, and that focus defines his life.

“Outside of golf, my work and my family are my hobbies,” he said.

These days, there are dozens of subcontractors linked to the fortunes of Riverwood Homes, and Marquess said he feels a deep responsibility to all of them. Paychecks every Friday, one-to-three-year business plans, employee appreciation, and above all, a healthy dose of humility.

“Those that stayed and made it — it’s our responsibility to share what we learned,” he said. “Be yourself, keep your ego in check, and don’t try and be bigger than the community.”