NEWS IN BRIEF

— Target purchases land in LR for $6.75 million

Minneapolis-based Target Corp. paid $6.75 million for about 8.48 acres of land at the Park Avenue development that will replace the demolished University Mall in midtown Little Rock, according to a filing with the Pulaski County Clerk's office.

Target announced Sept. 14 that it is going ahead with plans to put a 137,000 square foot store at the Park Avenue site, a mixed use development being built by Strode Property Co. of Dallas.

SPC Park Avenue Limited Partnership is listed as the seller in the Sept. 15 filing.

Strode also developed the nearby Midtowne Little Rock shopping center, which contained the state's first stores in the Container Store and Pottery Barn chains.

The Target is scheduled to open in October 2010.

Fayetteville trust gives lender property in suit

Metropolitan National Bank and representatives of the Bob L. Gaddy Trust agreed to a consent judgment in a $27 million lawsuit filed by the bank on Sept. 22, leaving the lender in possession of pledged properties and an additional $2 million owed by the estate.

The consent judgment was filed Friday in Washington County Circuit Court.

Metropolitan National Bank filed the lawsuit seeking more than $27 million from the estate of Bob L. Gaddy for nonpayment of four loans, plus court costs and attorneys' fees.

Gaddy, a Fayetteville businessman and philanthropist, died Sept. 21, 2008.

The lawsuit says the loans were executed between 2004 and early 2008 and were modified several times.

Named as defendants in the suit were Jeff L. Gaddy and Linda A. Gaddy, representatives and trustees of the Bob L. Gaddy Estate and Bob L. Gaddy Trust;

Gaddy Investment Co.;

Gaddy Properties LLC;

and Vestamerica Inc., a real estate firm incorporated in Colorado but with its primary place of business in Washington County.

Arkansas Index jumps;

all banking stocks rise

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 2.82 to 161.48 Monday.

All of the state's banking stocks moved higher with shares of Simmons First National jumping 5.8 percent, said Chris Harkins, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.

Volume on the index was 30.3 million shares;

the average is 35.5 million.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business, Pages 19 on 09/29/2009

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