Haybar Properties LLC of Little Rock announced in a Tuesday Facebook post that it has sold The Residences at Gracie Mansion downtown.
The buyers are Mark Brown and Jill Judy, owners of Downtown Dwellings of Little Rock, who are known for acquiring, restoring and managing dozens of historic properties in the area.
The sellers are Haybar owner Bryan Hosto, Hank Kelley of Kelley Commercial Partners of Little Rock, architect Tim Heiple, and investor Bo Briggs, who each owned a quarter of the property.
Downtown Dwellings purchased the property for $5.7 million, Judy exclusively told Arkansas Business in a Thursday phone call. The property was sold through a national auction.
The transaction was not yet listed in online property records Thursday morning.
“Local landlords are better for a neighborhood because they are on site, seeing what needs to be done and taking care of tenants or residents,” Judy said. “Gracie Mansion went out for auction nationally, and there are just a lot of companies, investment firms, that buy these sorts of properties for the income potential. But that’s not necessarily great for a neighborhood we love.”
The 75-unit apartment complex was acquired by the four local developers in 2011 at a bankruptcy auction for $1.11 million. The property was appraised this year at $3.1 million.
Hosto said that the property was in a state of disrepair when they purchased it. At the time, he owned the adjacent Rainwater building, which is now owned and managed by Downtown Dwellings.
“I used to be able to see the building out my back window and always admired such a beautiful place, but at that time, it was run down, it was horrible,” he said.
The four took two years to renovate the 3-acre property, which includes the historic Absalom Fowler House, built in 1840, and multiple apartment buildings built in the 1970s. Kelley Commercial Partners has served as the property manager for the building since.
Hosto said there was no specific reason for the sale, just that they wanted to be able to “affect other things.”
Kelley, along with Richard Cheek of the Multifamily Group and Austin Ehrat with Newmark served as agents on the sale.
“We’re particularly glad the buyers are wonderful and caring local people with a track record of first class restoration and management,” Haybar’s Facebook post said.
Downtown Dwellings normally purchases properties that are in much worse shape, Judy said in the phone call. The company plans to do some slight renovations like removing carpet and updating some broken stairs.
The company also plans to replace the foundation of the Absalom Fowler House within the “next year or so.”
“It’s a perfect fit for Mark and I,” Judy said. “And it’s a way to make sure that downtown continues its upward success.”
Downtown Dwellings owns several adjacent properties, including the River Market Flats, Cromwell Court, the Kramer School and the aforementioned Rainwater Flats.
Absalom Fowler House
The site was originally purchased by Absalom Fowler for $1,200 in 1837 and a two-story Greek Revival-style mansion was built as his residence in 1840.
Fowler was a prominent attorney and politician in Arkansas. He served in the Territorial legislature in 1835, helped draft Arkansas’ first state constitution in 1836 and ran as the Whig candidate in the state’s first gubernatorial election, losing to James S. Conway.
Outbuildings included a two-story brick kitchen, a hothouse, and a law office, though the office was demolished in 1876. Some of the original interior features like marble fireplaces, plaster ceilings and moldings remain intact.
Upon Fowler’s death in 1859 the property was sold three times, and the last owner to use the mansion as a residence was the Gracie family. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, John M. Gracie owned a plantation at New Gascony (Jefferson County) and used the Fowler House as his town home.
Gracie owned three cotton plantations totaling 26,000 acres, which supposedly made him the largest individual owner of cotton land in the world. The Gracie family lived in the house until 1923 when they sold the property to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock. According to Haybar’s Facebook post, the Catholic Diocese used the house for the St. Andrews Catholic School and Daycare Center until 1976.
The Absalom Fowler House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places June 4, 1973.
Transition to Apartments and 2011 Renovation
According to the post, the property was purchased in 1976 by local developer Dickson Flake of Barnes Quinn Flake & Anderson. Under the Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Plan, which zoned the MacArthur Park neighborhood for high-density housing, the developers created Fowler Square, a 2.44-acre apartment complex.
Completed in 1977, the restoration replaced the roof, shutters, balustrade and widow’s walk, and separated the kitchen from the main house. Five new two-story red-brick buildings were placed on the site’s perimeter, aiming to emphasize the Fowler House as the focal point and designed to “ensure compatibility with the mansion.” The mansion itself was renovated into six apartment units.
The development also included 92 parking spaces and an added pool, which Downtown Dwellings plans to add Wi-Fi capabilities around. In 1977, the complex had 68 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, including the six units in the restored mansion.
The property was sold and acquired a few times, but by the mid-1990s was in decline, eventually falling into bankruptcy and going to auction in February 2011 under the management of Fowler Square Limited Partnership. That entity had purchased the property in 1997 for $1.9 million .
The group of four investors invested heavily in restoring the property. Hosto said the location was in such a state of disarray that they had to hire 24/7 security to protect the renovation equipment.
“As we were remodeling, some of our items got stolen,” he said. “So it was a it was a heavy lift for a couple of years before we were able to get it into good shape.”
They also renamed the complex from Fowler Square to “The Residences at Gracie Mansion,” receiving permission from U.S. Rep. French Hill, who is a descendant of John M. Gracie. The renovation was completed in 2013.
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