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Moses Tucker Real Estate Looks to Next Generation, Plans for Future

5 min read

Jimmy Moses didn’t have much of a succession plan when he founded his company in 1984.

Two decades later, with a change in partners behind him, he was more focused on his projects at Moses Tucker Real Estate than the legacy of the company itself.

It wasn’t until his sons — whom he had encouraged to work elsewhere — took an interest in the future of the company that Moses started taking a serious look at the future. What appears to an outsider as the simple passing of the family business from one generation to the next wasn’t the plan from the beginning, but it’s something that Moses is more comfortable with now.

“I think the most important thing is trying to figure out a way for the older leadership to relinquish the reins to encourage and create opportunities for younger people in the company. Otherwise, I don’t think the company will last very long,” Moses said.

Moses Tucker was founded as AMR Real Estate in 1984 and became Moses Nosari Real Estate when Jim Nosari joined the firm in the late 1980s. A decade later, Rett Tucker came on board, which again led to a name change: Moses Nosari Tucker.

When Nosari left, the company took on its current name of Moses Tucker Real Estate.

During all of those transitions, Moses said, the company remained closely held. Moses was the one constant over the years, but ownership remained with the partners as the executive leadership changed out.

Lessons Learned

Moses said he always told his sons to consider working somewhere besides the business he had started. He said part of that reasoning was based on his experiences working for his own father — at a music shop on Main Street that his grandfather started in 1917, Moses Melody Shop.

While working at the family business, he knew what he wanted to do was outside those walls.

“I just had this burning passion to be involved in real estate development in Little Rock downtown,” Moses said.

The elder Moses encouraged his sons to “follow what your heart tells you to do.” Both sons, Chris and Jamie, took their father’s advice and set out on their own.

Jamie went to college in Colorado and worked a series of jobs on the West Coast before he decided to move back home and get his real estate license. Chris went east, getting a degree at Clemson University in South Carolina, and working in Georgia and Florida, as well as spending some time in California.

But he, too, decided to move back home.

“It’s weird; Little Rock is one of those places that it kind of brings you back,” Chris Moses said.

In 2011, with both sons again working at the company, Moses decided it was time to sit down and lay out a plan for succession.

“I think it’s sort of natural for anybody that as they approach 65 — that seems to be the traditional benchmark for thinking about retiring and not retiring in years gone by. Though I’m not interested in retiring personally at this point, it is important in the evolution of a business,” Moses said.

Tucker said they were both interested in planning for the future.

“It’s just nice to have a younger guy handling the nuts and bolts of the day-to-day issues,” Tucker said.

Succession Plan

After starting off as a development associate, Chris Moses started taking on more responsibilities. It was part of a four- to five-year plan laid out by the older partners.

Jimmy Moses said his son is still in the middle of that transition, but now holds the title of chief operating officer.

“What we’ve tried to do is develop an acquisition strategy so he can acquire stock over time, while Rett and I continue to work in the business and be active in the business, but turn more and more over to him and perhaps to others,” Jimmy Moses said.

Jamie Moses, who said he would likely be interested in taking on a stockholder role at some point, is also in a leadership role as director of development.

Tucker said the succession plan they settled on also leaves the door open for his family — his daughter is a filmmaker and his son is a lawyer and state representative — to become stockholders in the future.

Working Together, Apart

The elder Moses said he crafted his succession plan to keep the brothers separated. Both brothers said they support the idea because it allows each of them to excel at their own ventures.

“It kind of eliminates some of the inherent brotherly competition,” Jamie Moses said.

Chris Moses said it’s sometimes difficult to go to work in a family business, especially when you’re being trained as a future owner. He said one of the first things he had to do was gain the respect of people who had been at the company longer.

“I’m very fortunate and very happy that I have this privilege, but I do put a lot of work in and I think people can see that,” Chris Moses said.

Meanwhile, both brothers said they continue to learn from their father, whose passion remains a goal and inspiration.

“His focus is on his business and downtown and building the city,” Jamie Moses said. “Probably the overarching thing [I’ve learned from him] would be just his persistence and focus on what it is the company was founded upon.”

The transfer of ownership is also being watched outside the company. In a city where so many projects have been tied to the same firm, what lies ahead at Moses Tucker could affect what is later seen downtown.

Sharon Priest, the executive director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, said she thinks the succession planning will give the elder Moses and Tucker “more time to play” with their projects.

“I really don’t think that Jimmy and Rett are going to be going away. I think this gives them the opportunity — it frees them up to continue to do the visioning while they have the younger generation doing the nuts and bolts,” Priest said.

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