If you have ever gotten to do business with Mark Saviers, Tommy Vanzandt, Brian Shaw, Marshall Saviers or any of the team at Sage Partners, you knew you were doing business with some extra ordinary people. Smart, service oriented, focused, client driven, community oriented, regional oriented are some of the ways one might describe the team at Sage.
What We Have Experienced
Mark Saviers
A seasoned real estate professional who started his career at IBM when IBM hired the best of the best, Mark has been a Trammel Crow partner and developed and invested in real estate in many growth markets in the Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee markets. He is as wise and trustworthy and smart as any real estate professional who walks this earth.
We still owe Mark Saviers a debt of gratitude and favors for when he stepped into a role while yours truly was chairman of Accelerate Arkansas. Mark, who later chaired Accelerate Arkansas, navigated the challenge of putting together the first statewide strategic plan for Arkansas for economic development relative to technology, the knowledge economy, entrepreneurship and start-ups. It was this plan that gave us an opportunity to challenge the state AEDC to develop a statewide economic development plan and it was that plan that challenged regions like Northwest Arkansas to develop a regional plan. The Northwest Arkansas Plan led by the Northwest Arkansas Council is nothing less than world class and far surpasses the work we did at Accelerate Arkansas. Thank you, Mark. Mark is currently chairman of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. We are seeking a $1 million donor for the NWA Arkansas Children’s Hospital to repay Mark for the many hours he spent serving Accelerate Arkansas with those state-impacting tasks. So if you have a little extra money laying around, let us know, we will help you put it to good use via the Northwest Arkansas expansion of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital in honor of Mark Saviers. You are a class act, Mark Saviers. Yes, Vicki and I agree, you should have been one of our Governor’s. You know, with gene therapy and all, there is still time. Governor Beebe wasn’t that young.
Tommy V – Tommy Vanzandt – “Tommy’s Nite Out” Guy
Tommy Vanzandt is one of the most incredible people we have ever met. After spending nine months in the hospital and being paralyzed from a fall, Tommy once shared that he just never had a down day where he began to feel sorry for himself or he felt he was a victim. Tommy teaches us how to lead against any adversity and he proves that for every large adverse circumstance that hits our own lives, if we can weather the adversity and keep an open and productive mind, we can find a gift on the other side of our adversity. We love ya, Tommy. Thanks for your inspiration. Tommy has worked in large markets and one’s emerging like ours and has a perspective of wisdom and great judgement. One can google articles where Tommy laid out what he saw for NWA’s future real estate performance and recognize that what he forecasted was exactly the way our market performed. Another wise and trustworthy man.
Brian Shaw – One High Class Professional
Brian Shaw was a founding member of CEO Forum II, which began in 2007 with eight people and seven of those eight continue to serve one another as members of that same forum. Brian gets the work done and does it with a humility and kindness that is hard to match. Against Tommy’s adversity, we all got to see what a class act Brian was in the way he was required to navigate how he serves and gives dignity and respect for a partner that was unable to be at work for many months and while incredible today, is not able to spend the hours or as Tommy says, “can’t move as fast as he once could.” Brian, none of us can imagine how difficult your role was, much like that of Robyn Vanzandt’s. But like the angel, Robyn Vanzandt, you were and always have been a class act. In your own quiet way, you make us better through your example. Brian experienced the dynamic Denver, CO market before returning to NWA and also has the wisdom, judgement and ability to see cycles that are so important as a real estate investor / manager.
Can you see the trend developing here? Not only are these professionals wise but they ought to just call themselves Sage. Well, they already do, hey? Fitting.
Marshall Saviers – Our Future is Bright – I Would Work for Him Tomorrow
Marshall Saviers is the best example one could turn to when we think of our future in Northwest Arkansas and who will be leading our region. Marshall is the best of Mark and Vicky Saviers, very emotionally intelligent and considerate of others, bright beyond our imagination and a high energy personality. As you see Marshall slice and dice an issue or challenge or something complicated with a sense of command and ease, while the rest of the room will get there, we are just a few mental yards behind Marshall, you begin to realize, this human being is about as sharp as any one sees for his years. He is many years ahead of his years of experience. He is a newer member of the Northwest Arkansas Council’s executive committee, an outstanding choice by the council and, in our eyes, the highest compliment to Marshall’s leadership capabilities and potential. Marshall exemplifies a quality that we believe is the hidden but powerful attribute of many of the leaders and members of the Northwest Arkansas Council and that is one of what we refer to as “Uncommom Collaboration Driven from the Private Sector!” Those are bold words given to a young man. Hey, we can’t let this great person leave our region. Please tell him the same and that we appreciate him.
Strategic Real Estate Management
They each know how to add strategic value to a real estate property. Ask them for examples and they can provide them, many of them. Smart, strategic, cultured, good people, really good people!
So it is not surprising to see the impressive announcement that Sage Partners, Hunt Ventures and Capital Properties joining together to create an extra ordinary property management company with a portfolio that is three million square feet.
We don’t know Mrs. Hunt, and we don’t know Gus Blass (Capital Properties) of Little Rock, but we have always respected them from a distance and we have even more respect for them today as they were smart to team up with Mark, Tommy, Brian, Marshall and the “Sage” team as they will always exceed our expectations.
To the merged companies, please remember, culture eats strategy for breakfast, operational excellence for lunch and everything else for dinner. So please get together and agree on the five to eight core values that you all believe in and can look to in how you take three great family enterprises and mold this one into something extra-ordinary. Something tells us they will do just that!
For details about the announced venture of combining Sage Partners, Hunt Ventures and Capital Properties’ management of over 3 million square feet, please click here: http://www.sagepartners.com/exciting-company-announcement/
All the best to the Sage Partners, Hunt Ventures and Capital Properties teams.
One more thing, please mark your calendars for the fabulous event to be held on October 14, “Tommy’s Nite Out” in Fayetteville, AR. Click here for details: http://www.friendsoftommyv.com/. One of the two best of many great fall events that helps define our region and is for a great cause, we hope you will join us. What is the other one? Restore Humanity’s Winetopia, October 21. Click here for details about this incredible organization: http://www.restorehumanity.org/events/.
Tim McFarland
Elevate Performance, LLC
