Ex-developer humbly starting over at 72

NWA Media/DAVID GOTTSCHALK - 11/3/14 - Ben Israel at his Coldwell Banker office in Fayetteville November 3, 2014 in Fayetteville.
NWA Media/DAVID GOTTSCHALK - 11/3/14 - Ben Israel at his Coldwell Banker office in Fayetteville November 3, 2014 in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Former optometrist and real estate developer Ben Israel's professional journey is a rags-to-riches-to-rags saga.

Eight years ago, his real estate empire of about $450 million in commercial developments spread among Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and other locales. He owned or partnered in 65 individual limited liability companies.

"We were blowing and going," said Israel, now 72.

He'd funded his holding company, Dixie Management and Investment, with the windfall from selling his successful Family Vision Centers, which he built and operated inside Sears, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in 26 states in the late late '80s to early '90s.

But everything came unhinged when real estate prices started to decline in late 2006. Values dropped dramatically in the middle of Israel's biggest deal -- an open-air mall in Broken Arrow, Okla., that was to be similar to Rogers' Pinnacle Hills Promenade. A low reappraisal on the Oklahoma development led the bank to demand more cash upfront. Israel couldn't swing it, and his out-of-state partner eventually bought him out.

By mid-2007, Israel said he "pretty much understood that things weren't going to be good." Dixie declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy a year later. Israel filed for personal bankruptcy, as well. He depleted all but one of his properties to pay off as much debt as possible.

"I have no ill feelings toward anyone or anything," Israel said. "I was the one making the decisions."

For the past six years, he has spent time with his family, tried his hand at a small start-up and worked alongside his wife, Nancy, at Jasper Springs Stables, their country estate and Missouri fox trotter horse training, boarding and breeding operation in Fayetteville. They used income from the horse operation to make their house payments.

"Nancy went from having anything she wanted to having to scrounge around for groceries," he said. Friends became scarce.

"People didn't know how to approach us. ... They just didn't know what to say."

They sold the farm in March, about the time Israel embarked on his new career as a licensed real estate agent. While he once made deals and managed his business from a private office, he now shares a small room with two other agents at Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette in Fayetteville.

And he couldn't be happier.

"When it first happened, the dread of losing everything and starting over was not appealing," Israel said. "But I'm a better man for it."

His downfall, he said, was succumbing to pride and ego.

"I'd become someone even I didn't like," Israel said.

When he was ready to rejoin the workforce, he sent his resume to multiple companies, banks, the University of Arkansas and others.

"No one would hire me," he said. So Israel retreated to what he knows best -- real estate -- and obtained his license around the first of the year. He had known the Coldwell Banker chief executive officer, George Faucette, since the late 1960s.

"He's a very humble guy and humbled by what he went through," Faucette said. "He was very upfront and candid."

Israel is like any other agent at Coldwell Banker. He wears a name tag, conducts open houses and does "floor duty" -- answering random calls from potential buyers about the company's listings. Israel deals mostly in listing and selling commercial properties, but doesn't preclude himself from residential listings. He specializes in valuating commercial property.

As an agent, he's an independent contractor, meaning he's his own boss. Israel has secured roughly 20 listings for the company and completed more than a half-dozen sales. He long ago sold his Jaguar, BMW, Cadillac Escalade and dually truck and now shows properties in a 2006 GMC pickup with more than 110,000 miles on it.

"He's worked on some big deals and some small deals, and he pays a lot of attention to them," Faucette said. "He's very thorough, and he knows the business."

The son of a Sebastian County coal miner and dairy farmer, Israel got his first job at 15 cleaning toilets at Fort Chaffee. He was driven into the medical field for fear and loathing of the farm life.

The key to Dixie's success was that the firm was totally integrated. Construction, excavation, real estate, landscaping, property management and other services were all done in-house. At its peak, the company had 130 employees.

"We could do it faster and less expensive than anyone else," Israel said of his competition.

What he liked about real estate development was that he was able to see tangible change in the properties he built from the ground up. Among his most visible developments in Northwest Arkansas: Commerce Park I and II, Nelson's Crossing and Joyce Street Business Park in Fayetteville, as well as Colonnade at Rainbow Curve in Bentonville.

Shortly after Dixie went belly-up, Israel's mother, brother and a close friend passed away. He was also thrown off a horse and fractured his pelvis. He spent three months in HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Fayetteville and had to learn to walk again. Through his financial and personal losses, his faith pulled him through. He said years ago that a goal he hadn't achieved yet was inner peace.

Israel said recently: "I've found it."

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