Charles Isaac Smith
Isaac Smith has been described as warm, gregarious but always very humble. His ability to put relationships first and care genuinely for others has made him an integral part of his communities.
The view from Isaac Smith’s fifth floor office at Colliers International is of the Arkansas River and beside it, off in the distance, the small clutch of skyscrapers of downtown Little Rock. It’s the kind of view you would expect the president of Arkansas’ largest commercial real estate firm to have.
At Colliers, Smith oversees an active business with 120 employees with working offices in Little Rock and Rogers. Besides his position at Colliers, Smith has worked extensively with the CapRocq family of real estate funds as well as Tempus Realty Partners, assisting in more than $650 million in acquisitions since 2021.
Though his office view is what you might expect from someone involved with million dollar real estate deals, Smith has a friendly, soft-spoken manner. You could hardly say Smith’s work is confined to a 9 to 5 schedule or that he is focused only on business.
Smith sits on Arkansas Children’s Hospital’s Foundation Board. In 2019, Smith and his wife, Morgan, were given the JDRF Living and Giving Award. Smith is an elder at Fellowship Bible Church and is an active member of the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce.
In September, the World Services for the Blind will honor Smith with The Vision Award handed out to “an individual who has demonstrated far-reaching vision to successfully orchestrate events through business enterprise and community involvement to help better our society for all citizens, both with and without sight.”
“Significant participation in nonprofits and other organizations serving our community has been and always will be a huge priority at our firm and in our personal lives,” Smith says. “We believe true joy is found in a work/life balance and as leaders, we do our best to model that in our own lives.”
Dan Andrews, CEO of Colliers in Arkansas, says he has known and worked alongside Smith for 15 years. Smith’s talents in and out of the world of the real estate business are easy to recognize.
“Beyond the basics of honesty, work ethic and talent, [Isaac] is gifted with the ability to approach everything from a relationship-first point of view,” Andrews says. “His ability to always look beyond a single point of conflict and focus instead on the overall balance in a relationship is what really sets him apart both as a partner and a friend.”
Smith doesn’t look at the real estate market as high or low, boom or bust.
“What I love about what I do is there is always an opportunity,” Smith says. “There are properties performing well and properties not performing as well. We have to identify where the opportunity is. It isn’t that the market is slow and that’s that. It’s just a different opportunity and that is what is beautiful about our business.”
AN OUTDOOR DAY
As the fourth child in a total of six, Smith grew up in a boisterous house. His father, a family physician, has held a number of titles for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock including executive dean and director of the Primary Care Service Line.
“My mom was a nurse,” Smith says. “My parents met at UNC Chapel Hill during Dad’s residency there.”
Smith describes his father as the rare person who has the skills to work in business and medicine. He notes that his dad “is very driven. He moved up the chain of the hospital administration. He worked closely with the chancellor.” His mom?
“She was great. She made meals every night. She was a fantastic cook. My parents were completely devoted to their children.”
Smith’s mother had strategies for keeping a house packed with kids from spinning out of control.
“My mom was famous for saying ‘It’s an outdoor day.’ She said it a lot. My brother recently gave her a plaque with that saying on it.”
Accepting his mother’s encouragement, Smith spent a lot of time outdoors exploring on his bike.
The Smith family moved around a bit including some time in Huntsville, Ala., before settling in Little Rock’s Hillsboro neighborhood.
The neighborhood would be a memorable, “amazing” place for Smith. He made friends who quickly became best friends and hardly a day would go by without the group getting together.
“We were really into ‘Saturday Night Live,’” Smith recalls. “One of our favorite things to do was to walk to Blimpies. We played sports whenever we could. It was kind of like that movie ‘The Sandlot.’”
When not roaming around the neighborhood, Smith wasn’t like other kids parking himself in front of a TV or playing video games. Instead, he had an urge to go to work. Smith understands this made him different from other kids his age.
“I would beg my father to take me with him to his job,” Smith says. “My mother didn’t mind it, of course. I would bring his old briefcase with me. I would stuff envelopes. He would take me to meetings and I would take notes. I always wanted to be productive.”
Pulaski Academy was Smith’s school starting in the second grade until he graduated from high school. Smith was an A student throughout his time at PA but says he “wasn’t in the running for valedictorian.”
“I was not a school lover,” Smith confesses. “I knew even early on that school was just a means to an end.”
MENTOR AND FRIEND
A significant part of Smith’s early life revolved around Fellowship Bible Church. Friends from the neighborhood were kids of Fellowship’s pastors. His family was involved in the church and you could find Smith in Fellowship’s Sunday School on a regular basis.
A highlight of Smith’s attendance in Sunday School was the time spent with Mark DeYmaz. Fellowship had a program where groups of school-age kids would pair with a life coach who would meet with the group until the end of the senior year in high school.
“DeYmaz met with us every week until we were seniors and taught us about faith,” Smith says. “He was incredible and became a friend and a mentor to me.”
In 2001 DeYmaz was no longer at Fellowship Bible because, as he says, “[I] was doing my own church and my own thing in the inner city.” By 2005, Mosaic Church was interested in buying a building that housed a former Kmart on Asher Avenue in Little Rock. DeYmaz’s former Sunday School pupil “blessed me and my church with real estate counsel and helped write the contract.”
DeYmaz and Smith’s relationship and admiration of each other has only strengthened over the years.
“Even as a high school student, [Isaac] was always super well-liked,” DeYmaz says. “He has that personality. He is warm, gregarious but always very humble. That continues to his adulthood. He is a great family man. He is very authentic and genuine.”
SENIOR YEAR
For some, it’s difficult to look back through the past and recognize high points. However, that’s not the case for Smith.
“My senior year [in high school] was a high point of my life,” says Smith with absolute conviction.
The first reason for this is during Smith’s senior year he moved from defensive lineman to starting quarterback on Pulaski Academy’s football team. Growing up, Smith “loved sports. I played baseball, basketball and football. I was always drawn to football.”
At the time, Kevin Kelley was PA’s offensive coach. Kelley would eventually become PA’s head coach and gain national renown — and more than a couple of state championships — with an unusual but high-powered offense with a few quirks including rarely if ever punting the football.
“I was the first quarterback for Kelley’s spread offense,” Smith says. “We were punting back then. At first, I didn’t like making the switch. I didn’t think I was good enough.”
Smith was good enough to lead the Bruins to an undefeated regular season record and to the third round of the state playoffs where they lost a heartbreaker to Star City in double overtime.
“I threw an interception late in the game and we lost,” Smith says. “We had run the same play all game but I threw the ball across my body. I am still close to Kelley and he likes to jab me about it when I see him.”
Smith’s high school football career didn’t end in the happiest way possible but there was another development the same year that would mean much more in the long run.
“I met my future wife [Morgan] at a Diamond Rio concert at Riverfront Amphitheatre,” Smith says. “She went to Central Arkansas Christian. We were huge rivals. We would go to games and not sit together. She was a cheerleader and would have to cheer against me.”
The couple have four children, two boys and two girls, ages 8 to 14.
“[Morgan] is a rare person — super attractive and super fun and easygoing,” Smith says. “Everybody wants to be around her. There is no guessing with what she is thinking or feeling. She has incredible emotional integrity.”
WORK FOR FREE
After graduating from high school, Smith headed to Fayetteville to attend the University of Arkansas. At the time, he figured he would eventually earn a medical degree and become a doctor like his father and many of his friends.
“All my best friends were on their way to medical school,” Smith says. “My first years at UA, I was on the premed track. I went through organic chemistry 1 and 2 before I realized medicine wasn’t for me.”
While Smith wasn’t sure what was ahead after college, he did move over to UA’s Walton School of Business. During a summer break, Smith was fishing around for something to do during the time off. His mother heard of a real estate company needing help.
“I called Gary Jones who was working for Barnes Quinn Flake and Anderson,” Smith says. “I said, ‘I heard you might need somebody to tag along.’ He said, ‘I do but the problem is I can’t pay you.’ I said OK. It was the best business decision I made in my life. Gary let me listen in on calls. I briefed leases. I loved the culture of the company. I loved it and love the work.”
The bottom line for Smith is that the work he takes on every day is work that fulfills.
“What I love about this place is we are not transaction driven. It’s about taking care of the clients and the commissions will follow. When a client calls and is looking at a deal, the first thing we say is ‘How can we help?’ That is what we try to preach.”
Smith is happy to look to the future and share what he knows. He teaches Sunday School. He loves watching his kids play sports and guiding them to accept good days and learn from the bad ones. The same applies to the young people at his office.
“Few things make [life] more joyful [than] watching someone that I had mentored or helped have success,” Smith says. “Seeing a light bulb click on like it did for me. We have about 25 brokers in this office. All of them have families and are experiencing success. Everybody brings a unique set of gifts. My job is to raise them up and be a cheerleader.”