ANB Failure Proves Costly

SPRINGDALE — The failure of Roger’s-based ANB Financial bank has cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $819.4 million as of March 31, the agency said.

But in terms perhaps less tangible, the region has paid in lost jobs, vacant real estate and a host of charitable contributions lost when the bank ceased operations.

Federal regulators descended upon ANB Financial a year ago, locked the doors, deemed the bank insolvent and sold its $235.9 million in local deposits to Pulaski Bank and Trust.

Pulaski Bank — through its parent company Iberiabank — purchased eight of the nine ANB branches. More than 200 people lost their jobs. Iberiabank retained 60 of ANB Financial’s branch employees, according to Beth Ardoin, spokeswoman for the bank.

“That was about the number working in the branches at the time of the purchase. However, we did not retain any of the mortgage company employees, corporate back-office staff or executives,” Ardoin said.

ANB and its subsidiaries employed around 283 at the time of its failure, according the bank’s last quarterly filing with the FDIC.

via The Morning News

Eminent Domain

The sign in the Walker’s front yard reads: “Welcome to Springdale, where they steal your land and ruin your dreams.”

“The purpose of the sign was to let everybody know that there are a lot of people losing a lot more than just a little bit of land,” says Alice Walker.

As crews began to widen Wagon Wheel Road from two to five lanes, the Walkers had to tear down the business they built next to their home.

“This is where we were going to have our last home and have our business next door. That’s what we wanted to do, we’ve been looking for a place to be able to do that for several years and we finally thought we had it,” Walker says.

The city offered the Walkers $117,750 as fair compensation for the land it took.

The Walkers rejected the offer, and now both parties are headed to court.

Senior Deputy City Attorney Ernest Cate says the city used the same equation it always does to determine the amount of fair compensation. Cate says the city even waited an extra three months before taking possession of the land.

The Walkers say they are not trying to stand in the way of progress, they just want what’s fair.

“I would like them to treat us how they would want to be treated if the roles were reversed,” Walker says, “I just want to be treated fair.”

The court system will ultimately decide what is fair.

No trial date is set.

via KNWA

2009 – Skyline Report

The 4th Quarter Residential Skyline Report has some good and bad news about the real estate market in Northwest Arkansas. Researchers found the amount of supply in the real estate market continues to drop and so do the price of homes. According to the report, Northwest Arkansas is slowly but surely absorbing it’s excess of new homes. However the absorbtion rate is much slower than the same time a year ago. “This is the first time we found out that there are subdivisions that have sat there for over a year already and no absorbtion is going on,” says Viktoria Riiman, a research associate who contributed to the report. For the first time since early 2005, there are fewer than one-thousand empty homes in both Benton and Washington Counties. And the prices for those homes continues to fall. Jerry Danehower, President of the Rogers Board of Realtors, says it’s a good time to buy. “Right now your typical buyers have a lot of choices, there’s a lot of inventory to choose from in their price range and that’s great for a buyer,” he says. If the demand remains steady and supply slow, the report says new home construction could begin to pick up again. “Northwest Arkansas will recover faster than most people in the country,” says Danehower. “They don’t call it a cycle for nothing. It takes a cycle, and we’ve been through the bottom cycle.”

Watch the Video via KNWA

Legacy Building auction set for Aug. 21

One of Fayetteville’s most anticipated luxury condominium buildings will be on the auction block in less than two weeks.

The Legacy Building is set for a foreclosure auction at the Washington County Courthouse on Aug. 21, County Clerk Bette Stamps said Thursday.

Springdale developer Brandon Barber and his partners in Lynnkohn LLC missed a Wednesday deadline to repay more than $ 18. 72 million outstanding in mortgage loans to Legacy National Bank of Springdale.

The bank’s attorney in foreclosure actions against Lynnkohn, Marshall Ney of Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard in Rogers, said he was unaware if any effort was made to make the required payment.

Legacy Building auction set for Aug. 21 – Arkansas Democrat