Clark Contractors is nine months into an $18 million project at the Pleasant Valley Country Club while celebrating its 15th year in business. The Little Rock construction company is overseeing the massive makeover of the membership’s 55-year-old clubhouse in advance of a weeklong professional golf tournament.
The heavily remodeled clubhouse will be finished in time to be showcased at the inaugural Simmons Bank Championship on Oct. 21-27. The 2024 tournament is the starting point of a five-year agreement between the Pine Bluff bank and the PGA Tour to host the seniors event at the Pleasant Valley Country Club.
Expectations are the tournament will draw daily crowds of 15,000 to see 54 of the top players aged 50 and up compete on the west Little Rock course.
With a tee time set in stone for this fall’s PGA event dovetailing with a second coming-out party for Pleasant Valley’s clubhouse, completing the major facelift on schedule takes on added gravitas.
William Clark, CEO of Clark Contractors, is reminded constantly about the added significance of the deadline.
“We’ll finish in September,” Clark said. “I’ve heard every bad joke about finishing on time, and I’ve laughed at every one.
“Speaking as a member of the Country Club and of the board of directors at Simmons, who is sponsoring the tournament, I’m not nearly as nervous as I thought I would be at this stage in the game because everything is going so well.”
Clark said the PV leadership considered focusing on a much-needed update of the clubhouse essentials. That proposed endeavor to replace the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems and patch the building back together generated an estimated tab of $10 million.
Instead, members voted to back an $18 million overhaul of the clubhouse. That entails basically gutting the 44,550-SF structure while retaining some of its original accents.
“We even looked at tearing down and building new,” Clark said. “That would’ve cost even more, and the bones of the building are good.”
The clubhouse was closed on July 5 and furniture and equipment were moved out. Construction began about three weeks later, with asbestos abatement as the first order of business.
Two of the biggest configuration changes will be the transformation of the Lakeview Dining Room into the men’s grill and an expansion of the ballroom to accommodate larger gatherings.
In addition to internal change, the exterior is undergoing extensive restyling featuring a new roof line. Gone is the original flat roof design, replaced with a pitched roof sporting attic dormers.
“The skin of the building is going to be totally different and have a modern look, not 1968 architecture,” Clark said. “We’re getting the club in shape for modern membership.”
Work on the social hub of the Country Club has provided occasion for some nostalgic reflection.
“I remember coming here as a kid,” Clark said. “This is where I learned to play golf. It’s been pretty special remaking it into a new clubhouse for our grandkids to hopefully enjoy someday.”
He recalls the first time he broke 50 was on Pleasant Valley’s front nine back in 1979. When Clark made a 4-foot put on the ninth hole, his dad, Bill Clark, had to point out his accomplishment of shooting a 49.
“That was back in the day when things could go sideways quickly,” Clark said of his pre-teen golf skills.
2009 Launch
Clark and Shannon Earls, president of Clark Contractors, have shared a professional path since June 1991 when they joined CDI Contractors on the same day. They left the company founded in 1987 by Clark’s father in partnership with Dillard’s Inc. to launch Clark Contractors back in 2009.
“Fifteen years,” Earls said about their partnership. “How about that?
“William and I have been literally together for nearly 33 years. We did not know each other in the beginning at CDI. We kind of grew up together there.
“We tried but couldn’t buy the company from Dillard’s after William’s father died [in 2007], but Plan B turned out to be pretty good.”
Instead of selling CDI, Dillard’s Inc. exercised its option to buy the Clark family’s half.
“We started the company on blissful ignorance blended with blind optimism,” Clark said. “Starting a business in a recession, I did not realize how hard that was in the moment.”
He remembers a milestone phone call that occurred while he was coaching first base for his son’s baseball team at a Junior Deputy game. Clark learned the company had landed a contract for a big elementary school project in Bryant.
“That job, we knew, was going to put us in the black in 2012, for the first time,” Clark said. “I ran down the first base line between batters and told my wife that we had gotten the job, and we were about to turn the corner because it had been a hard three years. I’m not sure if my feet even touched the ground, I was so excited.”
Clark Contractors opened shop in rented space and bought its current 10,800-SF quarters for $1 million at a foreclosure sale in May 2010. The payroll stands at 140 these days, and scouting for a new location is in motion.
“We’re now looking for a bigger building,” Clark said. “The growth has really been unbelievable. Where the company sets up new is uncertain. The main driver is finding a building we can grow into.”
Earls and Clark are both 55 years old and working on a succession plan.
“I’m not sure what it will look like, but we’re both going 100%,” Clark said. “It’s been rewarding watching the younger guys we hired in their 20s evolve into the VPs and leaders of the firm.”
“We both have sons in the business, and our desire is to see a smooth generational transition,” Earls said. “I love being a mentor to our guys, and I’m trying to pour my life into theirs for them in turn to do the same for the next generation.”
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