In The News

Flake & Kelley Commercial plans to build a $10 million medical office building on the Baptist Health campus in Little Rock, the first such building near the hospital since the 1980s, the developer said Friday.

The 40,000-square-foot building will be located on what is now a parking lot at the eastern edge of the campus at the intersection of Baptist Health and Emergency drives.

The development will be the first medical office building on the main Baptist Health campus since Medical Towers II was completed in 1986, said John Flake, chairman of the Little Rock commercial real estate firm.

Flake also is managing member of Emergency Drive LLC, which acquired the 5-acre site from Baptist Health in August for almost $873,000.

The building should have tenants committed to 70 percent of the space before construction begins, which is expected to be early next year, said James Harkins, a partner with Flake & Kelley.

Harkins declined to name tenants who will be in the building, although he said a couple are in different stages of commitment.

“I hope that by the first part of the year, some of the tenants will be making their own announcements,” Harkin’s said. “I’ll leave that up to them.”

There is a major demand for space at the Little Rock campus of Baptist Health, said Mark Lowman, a spokesman for the hospital.

“That’s why some of the other buildings [on the campus] have multiple use [of space] in them,” Lowman said.

It is uncertain how many physicians will locate in the building because it is unknown how much space each tenant will need, Harkins said.
The medical office building will be split level, providing patients with floor-level access to all suites. There will be several different physician specialties in the building, Harkins said.

There has been growth in the medical office sector nationally, Harkins said.

“I think a lot of it was driven by the changes in the health care laws,” Harkins said. “A lot of doctors are coming together to increase their referral base. These doctors can get efficiencies from a billing standpoint, an accounting standpoint and a compliance standpoint! .”
B eing on the Baptist Health campus is a huge benefit! , Harkins said.

The building will include state-of-the-art technology, Flake said.
“Everything now is electronic,” Flake said. “If you go back to the 1980s, doctors, of course, had [paper] medical records on their patients.”

The focus on having electronic medical records has been in the works for at least five years, said Paul Cunningham, executive vice president of the Arkansas Hospital Association.

“More and more hospitals and physicians buildings are moving to the use of electronic health records,” Cunningham said.

“It is definitely a trend nationwide.”

The building will allow physicians to maximize their patient flow and the efficiency of their space, Harkins said.

“A lot of the physicians’ offices have an antiquated flow based on the previous need for record storage,” Harkins said.

“We’ll have a more efficient layout here.”

Flake & Kelley will be the development manager of the project. Williams & Dean Associated Architects of Little Rock will be the project’s architect. VCC Construction will be the general contractor.

It will take about 10 months to construct the building, Haitham Alley of VCC said in a prepared statement.

Arkansas Democrat – Business Section on 12/13/2014

Print Headline: Offices going up at Baptist Health

JONESBORO, AR: Haag Brown Commercial is pleased to announce Gigi’s Cupcakes will be joining Uncle Maddio’s Pizza Joint and Aspen Dental in the new retail center currently in construction right off of Jonesboro’s main retail artery at 2203 Red Wolf Boulevard.

This approximately 8,600 square foot retail center facing Red Wolf Boulevard on the Fairgrounds Re-Development is situated between Panera Bread and Cheddar’s Casual Cafe. Construction is expected to be complete by this fall to allow for tenants to open simultaneously.

Beginning in Nashville, Tennessee in 2008, Gigi’s Cupcakes is the world’s largest gourmet cupcake company having 95 stores in 23 states. With Gigi’s motto of spreading love one cupcake at a time, the company has expanded to share even more love by offering cheesecakes, stuffed cookies, mini cupcakes and even gluten-free desserts.

“Gigi’s is to cupcakes like Starbucks is to coffee; they are the national cupcake leader and one of the most exciting names in retail right now,” said Haag Brown Commercial Principal Josua Brown. “Gigi’s is in line with the quality of companies that are part of the Fairgrounds Re-Development making it a major destination in Northeast Arkansas. We’re very excited to have our company’s leasing agent Garrett McPherson leading the way on this Gigi’s project. We have been working with Brooke Miller from Flake & Kelley Commercial, who represents Gigi’s as their leasing agent, for well over a year, so we are all glad it ended with a deal happening.”

The word that Starbucks is coming to Wedington Drive in west Fayetteville is now official, and the coffee shop is bringing some dental care, too.

Haag-Brown Development LLC of Jonesboro announced it would build a retail center at the corner of Weddington and Timberland Lane, in front of the Walmart Neighborhood Market. Haag-Brown paid $803,464 for 1.19 acres.

Principals Joshua Brown and Greg Haag said the retail center would include a Starbucks and an Arkansas Braces. The Jonesboro office of IberiaBank of Lafayette, Louisiana, provided a construction loan of $1.65 million, and Haag-Brown said work would begin soon at the site at 3485 Weddington.

Clinton Bennett of CBRE Northwest Arkansas represented Haag-Brown, and Hank Kelley of Flake & Kelley Commercial of Little Rock represented Starbucks.

Click here to read the full article written by Marty Cook with Arkansas Business.

Congratulations to Hank Kelley and John Flake for making the Arkansas Business 2014 Power List. The Arkansas Business Power List debuted in 2006 and is updated in the pages of Arkansas Business every three years. It is a useful compendium of the people who are running the largest business, professional and nonprofit entities in the state. Search the Power List by industry category and read profiles to learn about the most powerful people in Arkansas.

Hank Kelley has helped amass and oversees more than 5.2 million SF of commercial space, one of the largest commercial property portfolios in Arkansas.

Perhaps his most recognized works are the tech-related developments for Acxiom and Arkansas Systems in west Little Rock. He became a 2012 member of the Counselors of Real Estate, a professionally prestigious invite.

Kelley started his climb with appraising work followed by an associate partnership at Barnes Quinn Flake & Anderson.

To view Hank Kelley’s full profile on Arkansas Business.

John Flake made his reputation as a deal-maker with a string of apartments, office buildings, medical space and retail projects primarily in Arkansas.

He was a leading player in making the tallest office building in Arkansas happen: the 40-story Simmons Tower in downtown Little Rock, which opened in 1986 as Capitol Tower and later was called TCBY Tower and Metropolitan National Bank Building. He established Flake & Co. in 1979, the foundational firm of today’s Flake & Kelley Commercial.

To view John Flake’s full profile on Arkansas Business.