Mark Zweig wants a nicer drive to work.
Zweig runs two businesses full time in Fayetteville: Zweig Group is a full-service consulting firm for the architecture and engineering industry; Mark Zweig Inc. is a property development company best known for resuscitating dilapidated homes in the downtown Fayetteville area.
Zweig’s current quest is rehabilitating North College Avenue, a main corridor that connects downtown Fayetteville with central and north Fayetteville.
“We have a huge problem with North College: It looks like shit,” Zweig said. “I tell people how great Fayetteville is to live in, and then you drive them down North College, and they look at you like, ‘You’re kind of wacky, aren’t you?’ It’s embarrassing. It’s a shame; we shouldn’t have to live like that.”
Zweig, through his building company, renovated a 6,800-SF building at 1200 N. College that is now home to his Zweig Group. In late 2015, Zweig paid $150,000 for the thoroughly run-down Twin Arch Motel at 521 N. College.
His grand plan is to raze the structure and rebuild an upscale condominium complex on the site. Zweig has demolished the structure but is still waiting for permits to lay the foundation.
Zweig chafes at the bureaucratic delays but understands the complexities of the commercial building process. It’s one reason Zweig has begun using outside architecture and engineering companies to assist his commercial and multifamily projects because they are better versed in the approval minutiae.
Zweig made his building bones buying up single-family residences and rebuilding or renovating them into high-priced classical homes. That was simple compared to building commercially.
“It always takes longer than you think,” Zweig said. “Commercial stuff is a lot different. A lot of the problems come from our ignorance.”
Zweig said the approval process can be frustrating, too. One project was delayed because of a gate design.
“We’ve forgotten really what we’re trying to do here,” Zweig said. “They literally hold you up for two weeks until the next meeting. That is when it gets silly. I think everybody’s intentions are good. We just need to figure out a way to streamline things.”
Builder at Heart
Zweig did his first rebuild at age 8, when he took apart his own bicycle, painted it purple and reassembled it.
He has been fascinated with the art of the build ever since. Even when the allure of the business world called him away, Zweig has always been a builder of things.
He began to work repairing bicycles and motorcycles when he was 12 in St. Louis. Word of his skill soon spread, and he was recruited to work at bigger and better-paying shops throughout his teenaged years.
The money was good. Minimum wage was $1.50 at the time, but Zweig said he was earning $700 a week, heady figures for a teenager.
“I started making so much money,” said Zweig, 58. “I had more money than any of my friends as a kid. I had three cars and two motorcycles at all times. I got really good at it. It was crazy.”
Zweig left bicycles and motorcycle work behind when he went off to college at Southern Illinois University, where he earned an MBA. He went to work as a consultant for the architecture and engineering industry and founded Mark Zweig & Associates in Boston in 1988.
He sold the company in 2004 and moved to Fayetteville, where he had been commuting from Boston to teach an entrepreneurship class one night a week at the University of Arkansas. Zweig, who is now an executive in residence at the university, formed his building company the next year.
He bought his consulting company back in 2010 and is CEO of the renamed Zweig Group. Zweig now enjoys the best of both worlds, running a consulting and publishing firm as well as a building company.
Zweig estimated that Zweig Group will generate $6 million in revenue this year, while Mark Zweig Inc. will generate $5 million. He said Zweig Group has approximately 35 employees and Mark Zweig Inc. has 10.
“People are really confused about what I do,” Zweig said. “I have two completely different businesses that are not intermingled, and I also teach at the University of Arkansas. I’m full time with all of them.”
Fixing Up Fayetteville
Zweig’s consulting work takes him all over the country — and sometimes overseas — where he advises architectural and engineering firms on how to be more successful. He is in high demand, charging $500 an hour for his expertise, and the Zweig Group also issues reports and surveys while publishing its own newsletter and magazine.
Mark Zweig Inc. takes Zweig all over Fayetteville, where he relishes the chance to scoop up run-down homes in prime locations. Recently, though, Zweig has purchased commercial and multifamily properties such as the 20,000-SF University Village he bought for $2.25 million.
Zweig is branching out from his previous focus on buying and rebuilding single-family homes.
“Mark Zweig Inc. is evolving, too; we focused on the downtown area,” Zweig said. “We bought the most dilapidated wrecks we could get. My daughter was quoted once about me in the paper saying I don’t buy anything that doesn’t smell like piss. We would buy wrecks, completely rebuild them and then sell them at very high prices in the downtown area.”
“Everyone thinks we make a killing because we get really high prices. I could tell you houses I’ve lost money on. We don’t always make money. On most of the very expensive ones, we make very little money.”
Why do it then?
“I love it, and I want to transform this place,” Zweig said. “People think developers are all just greedy bastards. I like creating jobs; I like making the city better. I like showing people what you can do if you really want to do a good job.”
Zweig considers himself an entrepreneur as opposed to a small-business owner, which is one reason he loves teaching at the university. He said entrepreneurs want to build something that creates long-term value.
“My primary goal has always been to build,” Zweig said. “I’m a builder.”
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