A little over a year ago, speculation bubbled that Jonesboro real estate developer Josh Brown of Haag Brown Commercial was leaving northeast Arkansas for northwest Arkansas. At that time, Brown denied he was leaving his longtime home base of Jonesboro, but things have changed.
This month, Brown said in a letter to friends and clients that he is moving to northwest Arkansas full time to lead his company’s operations out of its new office in Bentonville. In the letter, Brown said he would still spend time in Jonesboro but that the time was right to “plant permanent roots — with a full-time office, a dedicated team, and leadership on the ground” in northwest Arkansas.
Brown, who said he has already completed more than 20 projects in northwest Arkansas, said the area is booming and that he believes that will continue. “Many of the largest stakeholders believe we’re only in the second inning of a very long ballgame,” he said.
Brown started the real estate brokerage and development company with Greg Haag in 2010. The company has had a hand in bringing more than 100 restaurants, retailers and industries to the Jonesboro area, Brown said.
Brown has been openly critical of Jonesboro’s elected leadership and said last year that he would advocate for dismantling what he called the “good ol’ boy network that poses a threat to the city’s prosperity.”
Despite Brown’s move across the state, he said the company’s Jonesboro office is growing and that there are more projects in the pipeline there. And Brown plans to stay active in northeast Arkansas. “We are going from living in Jonesboro and doing a lot of work in NWA to living in NWA and doing a lot of work in Jonesboro,” Brown told Whispers.
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