News in brief

LR partnership buys Tulsa, S.C. property

CapRocq Core Real Estate Fund of Little Rock, a real estate partnership that acquires property in the South and Midwest, recently completed two closings that raised the fund's acquisition total to more than $130 million.

Last month, the fund closed on an almost 90,000-square-foot office building in Tulsa, and a 185,000-square-foot office park in Columbia, S.C. The two purchases totaled about $17 million.

CapRocq already had "existing properties and relationships in both markets," Kevin Huchingson, co-founder and chief operating officer of CapRocq, said in a news release.

CapRocq has acquired primarily office space, with some industrial and retail real estate assets, in Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, North Carolina and north Florida. Established in 2012, the fund was co-founded by Huchingson, Franklin McLarty, Dewitt Smith and Ted Dickey.

-- David Smith

Pink tomato honors bestowed upon two

John Gavin, chairman of the Bradley County extension office for the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, and Buddy McCaskill, former director of the Bradley County Chamber of Commerce, have been inducted into the Bradley County Pink Tomato Hall of Fame.

"John is an unsung hero that, without him, things wouldn't get done," David King, executive director for the Chamber of Commerce, said in a release. Gavin was responsible for the tomato festival's packing contests for many years and has been in charge of finding tomatoes for the festival.

King said McCaskill, who helped organize the annual festival for most of its 58 years, did the behind-the-scenes work that people often take for granted.

The Pink Tomato Hall of Fame began in 2010, with inductees honored at the festival's All-Tomato Luncheon. The festival celebrates Bradley County's vine-ripened tomatoes. The festival ran from June 5 through Saturday.

-- Glen Chase

State index climbs 1.76 to close 348.11

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, gained 1.76 to 348.11 Wednesday.

"U.S. stocks shot higher on Wednesday after Federal Reserve President Janet Yellen pledged to keep interest rates low for a considerable period after the end of the taper program," said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.

P.A.M. Transportation Services climbed 3.1 percent in heavy trading, coming within 2 cents of its 52-week high.

Bear State Financial, formerly First Federal Bancshares, rose 3.7 percent on triple its average volume.

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

Business on 06/19/2014

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