# Little Rock Port Authority — Project Boar Production (2026-05-26) The Little Rock Port Authority's partial response to the 2026-05-22 Arkansas FOIA request on Willowbend Capital / "Project Boar" records. Executive Director [[Bryan Day]] produced five documents — the recorded special warranty deed, the ALTA closing statement, the Port Authority Board's land-sale resolution, a draft template of the City of Little Rock's deed-authorizing resolution, and the ALTA/NSPS boundary survey — and invoked the Arkansas FOIA's economic-development exemption (Ark. Code § 25-19-105(b)(9)(A), as developed by SJR 16 / 2015 and Act 685 / 2017) over additional, unproduced records. The production establishes, for the first time at the Tier-1 level, the conveyance terms by which the Port site passed to the Delaware shell developer. ## What's inside - [[Willowbend Capital Warranty Deed]] — `WARRANTY DEED (Willowbend Capital) 06-25-25.pdf`, 6 pages: the recorded Special Warranty Deed conveying 383.52 acres of Port property from [[City of Little Rock]] / [[Little Rock Port Authority]] to [[Willowbend Capital, LLC]] for $11,505,600.00 (Pulaski County Inst. # 2025033561, recorded 2025-06-25). - [[Willowbend Capital Closing Statement]] — `DOCUMENT (Closing Statement Willowbend Capital) 06-25-25.pdf`, 4 pages: the buyer-side and seller-side ALTA Settlement Statements for the same conveyance, settled 2025-06-24, file No. 101-251188-ML at First National Title Company. - [[Port Authority Land-Sale Resolution]] — `RESOLUTION (Willowbend Capital LLC Land Sale) 2025.docx`: Port Authority Board Resolution 0429221, adopted 2025-04-29, authorizing Executive Director [[Bryan Day]] to sell up to 400 acres of the "Ratliffe Property" to [[Willowbend Capital, LLC]] for economic-development purposes. - [[City of Little Rock Willowbend Resolution]] — `RESOLUTION (City - Willowbend Capital, LLC).docx`: an unnumbered, unexecuted draft template of the City Board resolution authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to execute the deed under Ark. Code Ann. § 14-54-302. - [[City Resolution 16671]] — `CITY RESOLUTION 16671.pdf`, 8 pages: the **executed** version of the above — Resolution No. 16,671, adopted 2025-04-29 by the Little Rock Board of Directors, signed by Mayor [[Frank Scott Jr]], City Clerk Allison Segars, and City Attorney Thomas M. Carpenter. Day delivered this on 2026-05-26 evening (third reply in thread) after offering in his afternoon clarifying note to retrieve it from City records. - [[Project Boar Site Survey]] — `SURVEY (Project Boar) 2025.pdf`, 2 pages: the 2021 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements ALTA/NSPS Boundary & Topographic Survey of the conveyed property by [[Pickering Firm]] (surveyor of record Piroschka "Lynn" Spencer, AR PS No. 1801), prepared for [[EMH&T]] and certified to Chicago Title Insurance Company, the Little Rock Port Authority, Willowbend Capital, and EMH&T. ## Provenance Produced by Executive Director [[Bryan Day]] of the [[Little Rock Port Authority]] by email ("FOI Request", 2026-05-26 08:13 CDT) in response to the Arkansas FOIA request [[Joshua Dunlap]] filed 2026-05-22 ([request thread](https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#all/19e51bd3c592c4d7); [production thread](https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#all/19e646b43acad6a1)). The 2026-05-22 request was addressed jointly to Day at the Port Authority and to the City of Little Rock at `[email protected]`; the City has not yet responded as of 2026-05-26 (statutory deadline 2026-05-28). Day's cover note invokes the Arkansas FOIA's economic-development exemption over additional records: *"Attached are the few documents that I can provide to you that are not related to economic development projects as defined by the statutory exemptions in ACA Sect. 25-19-105 (b) (9) (A), 'files that if disclosed would give advantage to competitors or bidders…', and SJR16 Constitutional amendment (2015) and Act 685 (2017) which further defines the FOI exemption."* He further notes two facts: *"I did not sign an NDA for this particular project; the chamber did on our behalf"* — placing the project's nondisclosure obligation with the [[Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce]], not the Port Authority — and *"I send very few emails or text message related to ongoing economic development projects to protect the integrity of the process"* — describing a deliberate documentary-minimization policy on Port economic-development work. The production was unaccompanied by a record-by-record withholding log of the kind Ark. Code § 25-19-105(f)(3) contemplates. The 2026-05-22 request also asked for post-bid materials beyond the early-stage records contemplated by § 25-19-105(b)(9)(A) — including service-agreement and infrastructure-construction correspondence. The boundary between "bidders / competitors" records (potentially exempt) and post-execution operational records (not within the exemption) is not delineated in this response; clarifying that scope is a pending follow-up. See [[2026-05 Little Rock Port Authority Produces Project Boar Records]] for the event-level analysis. ## Key takeaways - **The conveyance.** The City of Little Rock, "for the use and benefit of the Little Rock Port Authority," conveyed 383.52 acres in Sections 19, 20, 29 and 30, Township 01 North, Range 11 West, Pulaski County, to [[Willowbend Capital, LLC]] for **$11,505,600.00** by Special Warranty Deed dated 2025-06-24, recorded 2025-06-25 as Pulaski County Inst. # 2025033561. The Real Estate Transfer Tax was waived as a transfer "to or from … a political subdivision," and the City netted $11,207,829.01 after a $230,112.00 listing commission to Kelley Commercial Partners, $52,560.00 to Gill Ragon Owen, P.A. (City counsel), $11,825.40 to First National Title Company for owner's title insurance, and other closing costs. - **The Port-side authorization.** Port Authority Board Resolution 0429221 (2025-04-29) authorized [[Bryan Day]] to sell up to 400 acres of the "Ratliffe Property" to Willowbend Capital, on terms the Port Authority staff had reviewed *"in conjunction with [the] Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce."* The resolution describes a property roughly 385.16 acres in size — close to the 383.52 acres ultimately conveyed. - **The Chamber's load-bearing role.** Day's note that *"the chamber did [sign an NDA] on our behalf"* — combined with the Port resolution's recital that the Chamber jointly reviewed the Purchase Agreement, and Day's earlier 2026-05-22 statement that the AVAIO / Project Leo project was *"worked by the LR Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission"* — anchors the [[Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce]] as the operational counterparty and document holder on both Pulaski County hyperscale projects. - **Shared counsel between Project Pyramid and Project Boar.** The deed was *"prepared by"* and the return address is *"Kutak Rock LLP, Attn: Stuart C. Hindmarsh, 5111 W. JB Hunt Drive, Suite 300, Rogers, Arkansas 72758"* — the same firm and the same attorney whom the Crittenden County production lists as the contact of record for [[GROOT LLC]] / Project Pyramid (confirmed Google) — see [[Kutak Rock LLP]] and [[Stuart C Hindmarsh]]. Hindmarsh signed the Willowbend closing as "Authorized Signatory" for the Delaware shell, not [[Michael Montfort]] (the SoS organizer of record). - **The site coordinates.** The property is in the Ratcliff family chain (Pulaski County Inst. Nos. 2024050489, 2020088139, 2020088141) plus a prior City of Little Rock acquisition (Inst. No. 2025002232). The survey identifies the location as off Harper Road, north of the existing Port footprint, with Riverport Road to the north, Fourche Bayou to the west, and a "proposed road (not yet dedicated)" forming part of the east boundary. The survey notes that **"city annexation is pending"** — the site is not yet within City limits. - **The site's engineering stack.** Survey by [[Pickering Firm]] (Memphis, TN; surveyor Piroschka "Lynn" Spencer, AR PS No. 1801) for **[[EMH&T]]** — a Columbus, Ohio civil-engineering firm. EMH&T's appearance is the first identification of a site-civil engineer for Project Boar. ## People and orgs mentioned - [[Bryan Day]] — Executive Director, Little Rock Port Authority; signed the production response; signed the Port resolution as Recording Secretary. - [[Clay McGeorge]] — Chair, Little Rock Port Authority Board of Directors; signed the Port resolution. - [[Frank Scott Jr]] — Mayor of [[City of Little Rock]]; signed the deed and closing statement as grantor. - Allison Segars — City Clerk; co-executed the deed. - Thomas M. Carpenter — City Attorney; counsel on the City resolution draft. - [[Stuart C Hindmarsh]] — [[Kutak Rock LLP]] (Rogers, AR); preparer of the deed and Authorized Signatory for Willowbend Capital at closing. - Melanie Logan — closing officer, First National Title Company. - Piroschka "Lynn" Spencer, AR PS No. 1801 — surveyor of record at [[Pickering Firm]]. - [[Willowbend Capital, LLC]] — grantee; Delaware shell registered to transact in Arkansas 2025-02-11. - [[City of Little Rock]] — formal grantor on behalf of the Port Authority. - [[Little Rock Port Authority]] — beneficial-use party on the grantor side; the deed runs "for the use and benefit" of the Port Authority. - [[Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce]] — NDA holder of record on the project per Day's 2026-05-26 cover note; reviewed the Purchase Agreement jointly with the Port Authority per the Port resolution. - [[Kutak Rock LLP]] — Willowbend's transactional counsel; also of record on [[GROOT LLC]] / Project Pyramid. - [[Pickering Firm]] — surveyor of record. - [[EMH&T]] — engineering client of the survey; first site-civil engineer of record on Project Boar. - First National Title Company — title and escrow; ALTA Universal ID 1010363. - Kelley Commercial Partners — listing broker ($230,112.00 commission). - Gill Ragon Owen, P.A. — City of Little Rock legal counsel ($52,560.00 fee). ## Concepts invoked - Ark. Code § 25-19-105(b)(9)(A) — the Arkansas FOIA's economic-development exemption for records "that if disclosed would give advantage to competitors or bidders," as developed by Senate Joint Resolution 16 (2015) and Act 685 (2017). The exemption is asserted in Day's cover note over unproduced records. - Ark. Code Ann. § 14-54-302 — the statutory authority cited in the City Board's draft resolution as the basis for the Mayor and City Clerk's deed-execution authority. - Real Estate Transfer Tax exemption — the deed was recorded as a transfer "to or from … the State of Arkansas, or any of the instrumentalities, agencies, or political subdivisions" (DFA Affidavit of Compliance, File No. 101-25118, 2025-06-25). ## Events documented - [[2026-05 Little Rock Port Authority Produces Project Boar Records]] - The 2025-06-24 closing and 2025-06-25 recordation are documented but not (yet) split out as a separate Event page; the source pages carry the dispositive facts. ## Cross-references - [[The Port of Little Rock Data Center]] — the project-level synthesis, now updated to incorporate the Tier-1 conveyance record. - [[2026-05 Little Rock Port Authority No-Records Response]] — the Port's earlier 2026-05-22 response on the AVAIO / Project Leo FOIA, in which Day disclaimed any Port Authority involvement in AVAIO. The two responses are consistent: the Port has no records on AVAIO (a Pulaski County project at 145th Street, not on Port property) and produced these records on Project Boar (a project at the Port itself). - [[2026-05 Crittenden County Assessor Produces Project Pyramid Records]] — the Project Pyramid production through which the Kutak Rock / Stuart C. Hindmarsh address first appeared. - [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend]] and [[D003 Synthesis]] — the dialectic on the Tier-3 Google attribution for Willowbend, now augmented by one Tier-1 shared-counsel data point. ## Open questions / follow-ups - **Withholding log.** Day's exemption invocation is blanket, not a record-by-record log. The pending Gmail reply asks for an Ark. Code § 25-19-105(f)(3) log identifying each withheld record and the specific exemption per record. - **Scope of the (b)(9)(A) invocation.** The exemption covers records "that if disclosed would give advantage to competitors or bidders" — a recruiting-stage protection. Post-closing operational records (electric-service routing, infrastructure-construction permits, post-acquisition correspondence) are not on their face within the exemption; the pending reply asks Day to clarify which categories of withheld records he reads (b)(9)(A) to cover. - **The Chamber NDA records.** The Chamber holds the NDA the Port did not sign. The 2026-05-26 Gmail draft to the Chamber requests those records and the surrounding correspondence under § 25-19-103 reach over publicly-funded economic-development activity. - **The executed City resolution.** The City resolution in the production is an unexecuted draft template (no number, no adoption date, blank signatures). The deed recites the City Board's action, and a separate City resolution must exist. The pending Gmail reply will ask Day or the City to provide the executed version (or its number and adoption date for retrieval from the City's published-record system). - **Willowbend's signing chain.** The closing statement shows [[Stuart C Hindmarsh]] signing for Willowbend Capital as "Authorized Signatory" — not [[Michael Montfort]], the SoS organizer of record. Whether Hindmarsh is also a member, officer, or only an authorized agent of Willowbend is not established in the corpus. (The shared-counsel + shared-signatory pattern with Project Pyramid is one Tier-1 data point favoring a common-principal reading per [[Kutak Rock LLP]], but not by itself dispositive — see [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend]].) - **EMH&T's data-center client roster.** EMH&T appears for the first time here. Independent confirmation of whether the firm has a publicly-documented Google data-center engineering history would help calibrate the principal-identity inference; see [[EMH&T]].