ROGERS — Gary Combs said he would rather borrow money from Russians or Arabs — anyone but Americans.

Recent ordeals with Arkansas banks shed light on his attitude.

During the recession, which took hold in Northwest Arkansas about 2007, Combs had numerous court tussles with the banks that loaned him money.

In some cases, the banks said Combs, a developer and builder, was in default on loans. In others, lenders reassessed his developments and devalued them. Combs responded with lawsuits accusing banks of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of good faith and deceptive trade practices, court files show.

Regardless of who claimed what, Combs faced the prospect of coming out of the recession holding millions in bad debt, he said.

Combs said he couldn’t accept that, so he took his fight to the banks. In his word, he “forced” them to take back the properties he used as collateral in exchange for full satisfaction of the loans. He was aggressive, too. At the height of his legal offensive, Combs sought a collective $280 million in damages, according to court documents from Benton and Washington counties.

“I’ve counseled many people to sue,” said Combs. “The banks have a mystique that they’re doing the right thing, that they’re honest and acting in good faith. Then I come along and say, ‘No you’re not.’”

The hard-nosed strategy appears to have worked. Combs reached confidential settlements with the seven banks he sued. He also avoided bankruptcy, which cannot be said of several other Northwest Arkansas developers.

These days, Combs doesn’t build much. The longtime owner of Basic Construction in Springdale prepares himself for the future. He studies American politics and policy, American foreign policy, world oil and stock markets, American financial history, and anything else that will equip him for the next move.

“I’m just waiting to see what happens,” he said. “I don’t know if I want to get back into [development] in this area.”

Even as he looks to the future, however, he can’t help but think of the past.

In the heyday of Northwest Arkansas development — from the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s — builders like Combs bought and sold huge parcels, brokered monster deals, built office buildings and subdivisions. They thought in terms of millions, not thousands. In just a few years, they built up the Interstate 540 corridor with commercial and residential properties.

“The deals were a big part of this,” he said. “To make a phone call and tell them you needed $10 million and there were few questions asked — it felt good.”

These days, things are different.

“I was friends with just about every bank president in town, but I’m [no longer] getting invited to their parties and getting Christmas cards,” he said.

TOUGH AND TALENTED

Combs was one of the original circle of developers who kicked off the Northwest Arkansas boom.

In the early days of the upturn, Combs was well positioned. He owned Basic Construction, a contracting firm, and Basic Block Group, a manufacturer of bricks and concrete blocks.

Through his 1994 marriage to Carla Tyson, daughter of Tyson Foods Inc. majority shareholder and former executive Don Tyson, he had valuable business contacts and access to a large chunk of land west of I-540 in Rogers, said Collins Haynes, an architect who was active in Northwest Arkansas development. That land, which Carla Tyson bought after her father’s company acquired it from Hudson Foods Inc., Haynes said, became Pinnacle Hills, an upscale retail-office complex in Rogers. Combs and Tyson later divorced.

Combs was on the short list with the likes of Haynes, Bill Schwyhart, Tim Graham and J.B. Hunt — developers who helped turn Northwest Arkansas into a commercial power. In Rogers, Combs built Pinnacle Hills Parkway, a north-south corridor lined with office and retail space. He developed the J.B. Hunt Parkway Tower, an upscale office building, and The Peaks, a high-end mix of homes, condominiums and commercial space. In Centerton, he built the Sienna Estates subdivision, and in Springdale the Electric Avenue Apartments.

Haynes remembers meeting Combs in the early 2000s. The two were partners for a brief time in The Peaks in south Rogers. They knew a lot of the same people and attended the same parties. During the big development years, Haynes got a good look at Combs and his world.

Haynes said he saw the hangar at Springdale Municipal Airport, the jet, the helicopter and the fleet of hot rods. He saw the art Combs had commissioned, heard stories of travel and saw Combs’ Porsche parked on Dickson Street with the keys left in the ignition. Besides these details, there were things that made Combs different from other developers, Haynes said.

First, he was a great storyteller who could make people laugh.

“You couldn’t tell if he was making it up or if it was true,” said Haynes.

Combs was tough, too.

“You didn’t want to mess with him because he’d get even with you,” Haynes said.

He said he and Combs were never really friends.

“But I can respect someone who just doesn’t give a damn,” said Haynes, referring to Combs’ pronounced individualism.

Most importantly, said Haynes, Combs was a good contractor. He was into dirt work, concrete, retaining walls, utilities and infrastructure, commercial and residential construction, trucking, mining and real estate speculation.

“He liked construction and he liked all aspects of construction,” said Haynes. “People think that what he’s got was given to him, but that’s not the truth. He busted his butt for everything he has. He knew how to make money.”

And make money he did.

WATERFORD AND SUNDOWNER

At the height of his power in the mid-2000s, Combs was worth well above $200 million in cash and equity, he said in a June interview.

But things turned sour.

And nowhere is that more evident than with subdivisions called Waterford Estates in Goshen and Sundowner Ranch in Prairie Grove. What began as two of Combs’ premier projects devolved into a $108 million lawsuit that ended with Bank of the Ozarks seizing lots at Waterford and Sundowner, and Combs dropping claims against the bank for breach of contract and deceptive trade practices, court documents say.

But back in 2004, times were good.

When Waterford was getting started, Combs said it would be the nicest subdivision in Northwest Arkansas. Planned for 202 lots on nearly 400 acres on the north bank of the White River, Waterford was to resemble an exclusive housing development in Aspen, Colo., “where they’ve built houses on the riverside and the highway, then left the rest of the land in its natural state,” Combs said at the time.

Spread out on rolling land south of Arkansas 45, Waterford is a tranquil mix of large brick homes and natural beauty. That’s where Combs lives.

His dark-brick, 6,700-square-foot mansion rises more like a manor. Combs, described by peers as extremely creative, chose the species of wood and the design styles for the interior.

Sparkling water cascades off the southern end of the swimming pool. His personal clubhouse — with billiards, a wet bar, leather furniture and art — is Asian-inspired and sits in contrast to the traditional, European-style home.

From the back porch of the home, there are views of the White River, hills and open sky.

But Waterford is a lonely place, too. The subdivision was never fully developed. Empty lots that Combs once expected to sell for as much as $175,000 now are listed by real estate firms at $55,000. And most of the land is owned by Bank of the Ozarks, not residents, according to Washington County land records.

The same can be said of Sundowner, which was started in early 2006. The 195-acre subdivision, by far the largest in Prairie Grove, offers excellent views of the Boston Mountains. The land just east of the development is a scenic flood plain of the Illinois River. But three-fourths of the lots are vacant and are owned by Bank of the Ozarks.

And that was the root of the problem, Combs said. He sued the bank in May 2009, claiming breach of contract and deceptive trade practices.

In his suit, filed in Washington County Circuit Court, Combs said bank officials, among other things, forced him to assume all the debt on Waterford instead of the one-third interest he’d had in the project when it began. His partner, Ronnie J. Hissom, held the remaining two-thirds, and when he died in 2005, that interest shifted to the Ronnie J. Hissom Trust. But under the trusteeship of Signature Bank of Arkansas CEO Gary Head, Combs said, the trust became insolvent. Bank of the Ozarks pressured Combs into assuming the Hissom debt on Waterford, Combs said in the suit. If Combs didn’t agree to shoulder 100 percent of the obligation, then the bank would not renew his loans on Sundowner, Combs argued.

Combs said in court documents that bank officials “engaged in unconscionable, false or deceptive acts in the practice of commerce” by making renewal of the debt on one subdivision contingent on assuming more debt on the other.

Bank of the Ozarks would not comment for this article.

In a separate but related lawsuit against Signature Bank and Head, Combs alleged Head broke the Hissom trust by making disbursements to beneficiaries of the trust without Combs’ knowledge. But according to the suit, Head was duty-bound to “fully disclose any financial issues that would affect the trust or the partnerships.”

When Head became trustee of the Hissom Trust, Combs said Head told him that the trust had $20 million in assets and could continue to meet its two-thirds obligation regarding Waterford Estates, according to the suit. Based on that assurance from Head, Combs said he agreed to stick with the Waterford project even though he wanted to sell out and walk away after Hissom’s death. At Head’s request, Combs in 2005 moved the Waterford loans from Community Bank of North Arkansas to Bank of the Ozarks, Combs said.

But in January 2007, Combs alleged, he was told that the trust was insolvent. It was then that the controversy over the Waterford and Sundowner debts arose, according to the suit.

Combs blamed Head and sued him and Signature Bank for $20 million.

“Head owed a fiduciary duty to Combs,” he argued in the lawsuit. “Head breached his fiduciary duty.”

Head declined to comment.

The Head suit was settled out of court in March. The suit between Combs and Bank of the Ozarks was settled in June 2009. Both settlements are sealed.

The bank reclaimed most of the two subdivisions, according to an article published in the Arkansas Business Journal. The bank agreed to release Combs from his debt obligations. As of Oct. 11, the bank owned 168 lots in Waterford and 511 lots in Sundowner, according to Washington County land records.

In a prepared statement published in the Arkansas Business Journal at the time of the settlement, George Gleason, the bank’s chairman and CEO, said: “We are pleased to have this matter resolved and to have title to our collateral ... To resolve this matter quickly, we agreed to forego our claim for a deficiency judgment against the borrowers and guarantors. We concluded this was in our company’s best interest based on our belief that any potential recovery from a deficiency judgment ... might be less than ... the costs of obtaining and collecting such deficiency judgment.”

In interviews this June and September, Combs expressed the frustration and anger that he’s lived with for the last couple of years.

“The banks are not in the business of building businesses and creating jobs,” he said. “They’re into taking real estate.”

The ordeal has left Combs void of the passion and energy he had 10 years ago, when he was one of the region’s busiest moneymakers.

“I’m just done,” he said Sept. 7. “Gary Combs does not want to be part of Northwest Arkansas in any shape, form or fashion. I don’t want to lift my finger to build anything or help anything in Northwest Arkansas. I don’t want to be part of this society.”

PUSHING THE LIMITS

Combs cultivates a unique image.

His hair is a bit on the long side. He wears fatigues and Hawaiian shirts, not suits and ties. He’s a connoisseur of teas. In regard to architecture, a friend said he’s a modernist with a taste for Asian-inspired design. He’s a helicopter pilot, a motorcyclist and a fan of rare, expensive automobiles.

Combs has stirred the pot in Fayetteville, jabbed at officials in Washington County and ruffled feathers in Springdale. Court records in Washington and Benton counties confirm that he’s an active litigant. Combs has had legal fights with multiple business partners.

He isn’t shy about going public with a grievance.

In April, the Arkansas Business Journal published an article about Combs arranging for a plane to fly over Little Rock with a banner reading “Shut Down MNB.” The article included a photograph of the banner. The initials MNB were for Metropolitan National Bank, which in May foreclosed on an 11,000-square-foot home Combs owned in Fayetteville, according to court documents. In June 2009, Combs had sued the bank for $40 million, claiming fraud, breach of good faith and negligence for its refusal to provide loans for the development of Diesel Downs, a truck stop at I-540 and Wagon Wheel Road in Springdale.

The case was settled out of court in June, according to an order of dismissal filed with Washington County.

Fayetteville resident Dash Goff said of longtime friend Combs: “He’s rubbed a lot of people the wrong way through the years, like the bankers. But if you listen to him, some of the bankers may have gotten jealous of him. I have a hard time understanding so many lawsuits, but in some instances, maybe he’s justified.”

Goff points to a character trait that might have guided Combs into his spats and wars.

“He’s got an ego,” said Goff. “He’s definitely got an ego.”

PUBLIC REALM

In January 2004, Combs placed two full-page advertisements in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette protesting then-Washington County Judge Jerry Hunton’s support of an ordinance to limit the wear and tear on county roads caused by trucks coming to and from mines and quarries.

The ordinance, Hunton said, was inspired by heavy traffic caused by one of Combs’ mines.

In one of the advertisements, Combs mockingly referred to the county judge as “Emperor Hunton.”

“That deal he took out in the paper was unfair,” said Hunton, who was in office from 1999 to 2008. “It seemed like every time someone bowed up and said ‘no’ to him, he did strange things like take out ads in newspapers. As successful as he was and tried to be in this region, I thought it was pretty juvenile. None of the other big players acted that way.”

Four months later, in the wake of severe flooding in south Washington County in spring 2004, Combs got a contract delivering fill material for the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad, which had endured washed-out tracks south of Greenland. Combs had bureaucratic trouble with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department gaining access to the area. Hunton said he didn’t worry about the attack ads placed by Combs earlier. He picked up the phone, called the Highway Department and told officials there of the importance of Combs’ mission.

“We were trying to put the county back together,” Hunton said.

He said he doubts Combs would have shown the same forgiveness had the roles been reversed. For Combs to say thank you, express remorse or acknowledge mistakes “would show weakness,” in Hunton’s opinion.

Later in 2004, Combs waged a war against then-Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody, using advertisements in the Northwest Arkansas Times and mass mail to accuse Coody, among other things, of directing city staff to stall progress on projects beneficial to Combs.

Coody said Combs was under the mistaken belief that the mayor had steered the Fayetteville City Council away from repairing a bridge on Dead Horse Mountain Road that led to Combs’ property. Combs accused Coody of directing the council to repair a bridge in west Fayetteville instead.

Coody also said Combs mistakenly believed that he was directing city staff to deny Combs’ request to connect Waterford Estates to the Fayetteville sewer system. Coody said it would have violated state law to connect the sewer line to Waterford because the subdivision did not border the city limits.

Combs commissioned multiple ads that ran during Coody’s successful re-election bid. The Times declined to run some of the material because of legal concerns, according to an article published in the paper on Oct. 30, 2004. Still, Combs poured thousands into a campaign critical of the mayor, according to the article in the Times.

“It was intense and well-funded, but it was based on a misunderstanding of the situation,” Coody said of the ads. “There was no real way to fight it. It’s one of those things that you can’t stop. You just have to move on.”

Coody remembers Combs as a man who had a problem with city government in general.

He interpreted a vote that did not go in his favor as a “vendetta,” Coody said.

“When he showed up at council meetings, everyone just held their breath,” said Coody.

Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, there were plenty of contractors out trying to make money, said Coody. Only Combs laid siege to City Hall, he said.

“All the contractors we dealt with understood that you try to hammer out your differences and get along,” Coody said.

In 2008, Combs and Patsy Christie, Springdale’s planning and community development director, had it out at a city planning commission meeting over the proposed truck stop at I-540 and Wagon Wheel Road.

Combs disliked how Christie wanted him to complete a traffic study to show the impact that Diesel Downs would have on Wagon Wheel.

“You can’t be trusted as a public servant to tell the truth,” Combs said that day. “And I can get contractors from here and all over the country to come in here and say the same thing.”

Christie, who sat mostly silent during Combs’ tirade, said in a recent interview that Combs was “out of line.”

“I’m not going to do a confrontation in a public meeting,” Christie said. “I lost a lot of respect for him when he pulled that stunt.”

Combs doesn’t back down from his outspoken criticism of banks and public officials, and said he doesn’t care what people think about him. In his opinion, he’s brave enough to speak the truth while others aren’t.

“I’ll tell you why I’ve p***** off people, because they’re politically correct and they say the right thing,” he said. “I’m not.”

APPRECIATION FOR ART

Jane Wier Davidian, a local artist, knows Combs well.

She has painted a number of works for Combs, including the pin-up girls on Combs’ hangar at the Springdale airport. (The hangar has since sold and the murals were removed.) She painted at his tea house on Arkansas 16 east of Fayetteville. Inside his offices at Basic Construction, she painted a collage of murals that serves as a Combs personal history of sorts. One painting features him and his business partner, the late J.B. Hunt. Another shows Combs on a mountain in Alaska.

Davidian said it’s impressive that a businessman would commission so much art. In terms of his patronage, she puts him on par with real estate magnate Jim Lindsey, for whom she also has done work. But Combs insists on doing art his own way.

A mural she painted featured Combs and two of his business partners. Combs, however, got mad at the partners after the mural was finished, so he asked her to paint them out and replace them with his father, Charles, and son Gabe, said Davidian.

She chuckled at the recollection, adding, “You can come up with something, but he’ll put his own twist on it.”

Davidian said she wouldn’t do big business or land development with Combs for fear she’d end up in court. On the other hand, having a friendship with him is not a bad thing. Combs is an entertaining daredevil and beneath the bravado, a decent guy, she said. He’s good to his friends and good to his long-term girlfriend, Lisa Dreeszen. Davidian calls Combs a modern-day John Wayne — a man who stands on principle, and when that principle has been betrayed, fights back.

“I think he’s sensitive and maybe the macho side covers it up,” Davidian said.