Marty Cook

4 days ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Marty Cook

Nothing says success like continued construction, right? Anyone who has flown out of — or, like me, picked someone up at — Northwest Arkansas National Airport knows all about the ongoing construction at the airport, best known as XNA. The airport is redoing its terminal to accommodate the remarkable increase in business it has seen since it opened in 1998. All the construction can lead to some headaches, of course.

4 days ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Marty Cook

Northwest Arkansas National Airport celebrated a record year in 2024 and hopes to build on that success even during the uncertain economic environment of 2025. The airport, best known as XNA for its location identifier, surpassed 1 million annual enplanements in 2024 for the first time since it opened in 1998. The 1.14 million enplanements — a key metric that records how many passengers board a plane at the airport — was a 15.5% increase from 991,489 in 2023.

1 week ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Marty Cook

It may not be much, but officials at Arkansas universities are hopeful that a new Arkansas law can provide some extra money for their athletes. Act 305, signed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in March, allows for the state’s universities to hold 50-50 raffles at sporting events with 50% of the proceeds going to the raffle winner and the remaining half going to the university’s NIL coffers. Arkansas joined several other states — including Missouri, Kentucky and Florida — to allow such raffles.

2 weeks ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Marty Cook

Washington Regional Medical Center paid $5.6 million for a medical office in Fayetteville. The 19,000-SF office is on Bob Younkin Drive, adjacent to the medical center; it is home to several medical facilities, including a sleep disorder clinic and wound center. Washington Regional is led by CEO Larry Shackleford. Arvest Bank provided a loan of slightly more than $5 million. The seller was Surgery Clinic North Hills Investment LLC, led by Dr. Jeffrey Kellar.

2 weeks ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Marty Cook

In a time of big banking, the residents of some small towns in Arkansas are still doing business with their local bank. Five Arkansas towns with fewer than 13,000 residents are home to two chartered banks. McGehee, a small town in southeast Arkansas, boasts McGehee Bank and First NaturalState Bank, whose main bank offices are within two blocks of each other.