Little Rock-based Bank of the Ozarks made three construction loans recently totaling more than $268 million, according to news reports.
An affiliate of NP International, a real estate development company based in Wayzata, Minn., took a loan of $27.5 million that it received from Bank of the Ozarks and increased it to a loan of $158.4 million, the South Florida Business Journal reported Friday.
NP International is building a mixed-used Gables Station project in Coral Gables, Fla., that will include 434 apartments, an extended stay hotel with 66 rooms and 125,000 square feet of retail space.
Bank of the Ozarks also made a $98 million loan to help fund construction of the 45-story, 526-room Chelsea Hotel in New York, the Commercial Observer of New York reported this week.
The 178,000-square-foot hotel will carry the Marriott's TownePlace Suites and SpringHill Suites brands.
Bank of the Ozarks also made an almost $12 million construction loan for the Annex, an office building in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
-- David Smith
Hearing postponed on Monsanto's suit
A hearing this month in Monsanto's lawsuit against the state Plant Board has been rescheduled for 9:30 a.m. Feb. 16.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza had set this month's hearing to consider a motion by the state to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed by the St. Louis seed and chemical company in October and amended in November.
Monsanto claims the Plant Board has acted illegally in various actions affecting Monsanto's dicamba-tolerant crop system and its new dicamba herbicide.
Monsanto seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions against the state from implementing a ban on in-crop use of dicamba from April 16-Oct. 31.
The state attorney general's office, which is representing the Plant Board, says Monsanto's lawsuit should be dismissed because such a ban isn't in place and that, until then, Monsanto hasn't been harmed and its claims are moot.
The Plant Board's proposal is scheduled to go before lawmakers on Jan. 16.
-- Stephen Steed
Index of state firms finishes 2.19 higher
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 2.19 to 409.76 Friday.
Twelve stocks advanced and six declined.
P.A.M. Transportation rose 3.7 percent in light trading.
America's Car-Mart gained 1.9 percent on average volume.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 01/06/2018