PAST WINNERS
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE PERSON OF THE YEAR
2025
Jeff Yates
Flake and Company
2025 was an eventful year for Jeff Yates. In 2025, Yates was an integral part of Pavilion in the Park’s grand re-opening and is reinventing the Village at Rahling Road with a new vision. With over thirty-five years of experience, he has shared his integrity and expertise as a sounding board and trusted advisor throughout our state. He has written extensively for the Daily Record and is an expert on the metro Little Rock CRE market. There is a list of 2025 Flake and Company projects that show the fingerprints of Jeff Yates. Separate from his Flake and Company projects is the impact he, personally, has had on CREC of Metro Little Rock. This organization was his brainchild beginning in 2018, and CREC extremely pleased to honor him as the 2025 CRE Person of the Year.
2023
Bryan Day
Port Authority of Little Rock
Since he was appointed executive director in June 2014, Bryan Day has overseen tremendous growth and change at the Port of Little Rock. Years in the making, one of the changes is the relocation of an aviation navigation beacon, a VOR cone, to allow for assemblage and development of thousands more acres. Since 1971, the Port of Little Rock has been an integral part of the economic vitality of metro Little Rock by providing sites for industry and intermodal transportation services connecting U.S. markets and the deep-water ports of the Gulf of Mexico. Prior to assuming the position of Executive Director at the Port of Little Rock, Bryan spent 20 years working for the City of Little Rock, during which he served as the assistant city manager and director of Little Rock Parks and Recreation.
2021
Jay Chesshir
Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce
In 2021, Jay Chesshir led the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce’s efforts with public and private sector leaders to support and expand economic development in metro Little Rock. These efforts had a significant impact on commercial real estate through development, financing, and construction beyond the benefits of jobs to the community. Also, in 2021, the Ford NGL Program, now called the Academies of Central Arkansas, implemented the career curriculum into Pulaski County Junior High Schools. Jay and his team have been successfully orchestrating this venture since 2019.
2020
George Gleason
Bank OZK
Mr. Gleason's decision for Bank OZK to invest nearly One Hundred Million Dollars in a new headquarters campus in Little Rock was a continuation of decisions he has made over the last quarter century to base the bank's operations in Arkansas's capitol city. This newest iteration of Bank OZK's headquarters opened in 2020 and cemented the northwest Little Rock location of The Ranch as a commercial real estate submarket. Bank OZK's campus has a long-term plan for expansion and development that will compound other growth in the Highway 10 corridor of Little Rock. The 2020 completion of the nearly 250,000 square feet headquarters building will long be viewed as a watershed event for commercial real estate development in Little Rock.