FHLB Dallas and Arvest Celebrate Opening of New Fayetteville Rental Community Helped by $850K Housing Grant

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 5, 2025--

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas), Arvest Bank and Restore Hope Arkansas celebrated the grand opening of Cobblestone Farm Community, a new development of 89 rental homes, duplexes and triplexes in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The project was made possible in part by an $850,000 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grant awarded through FHLB Dallas and its member, Arvest Bank.

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Cobblestone Farm Community offers one- to four-bedroom rental homes, duplexes and triplexes for households earning between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income. The community is fully leased. It was inspired by the neighboring Cobblestone Farms, a nonprofit that grows food for local food pantries and community partners. Future plans are to work with the farm to encourage access to a free community garden operated by the nonprofit.

“The AHP funds came at an important time in the life of this project because it was originally funded with tax credits during the pandemic and we know all the supply chain disruptions, labor costs and price spikes that occurred,” said Jim Petty, CEO of Strategic Realty, which worked with several community-based partners such as Potter’s House, New Heights Church, Excellerate Foundation and Restore Hope Arkansas to develop the community. “While the state was helpful in bridging gaps there was still a funding shortfall to fill and AHP helped fill that gap.”

AHP funds are awarded through FHLB Dallas member institutions, in this case Arvest Bank, and assist FHLB Dallas members in financing the purchase, construction and rehabilitation of owner-occupied, rental or transitional housing and housing for homeless individuals. The funds must be used to benefit households with incomes at or below 80 percent of the median income for the area.

Arvest Group CRA Director Virgil Miller said the development will provide affordability in a region where rents and home prices have been a challenge.

“We think these homes will go a long way in helping families and individuals who are struggling with the high cost of housing in northwest Arkansas,” Mr. Miller said. “The support Cobblestone Farm Community received from FHLB Dallas was important in reaching today’s milestone.”

Greg Hettrick, senior vice president and director of Community Investment at FHLB Dallas, said the AHP can be impactful for communities.

“Our AHP grants often come into play when an affordable housing development needs gap funding to reach completion, as was the case with Cobblestone Farm Community,” Mr. Hettrick said. “The AHP is often critical in filling this important funding gap.”

In 2024, FHLB Dallas awarded $1 million in AHP General Fund grants to Arkansas-based affordable housing projects, which was part of $78.9 million awarded across its five-state District. FHLB Dallas will announce 2025 grant awardees this fall. Learn more about the FHLB Dallas Affordable Housing Program.

About Arvest Bank

With more than $26 billion in assets, Arvest Bank is a community-based financial institution serving more than 110 communities in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Established in 1961, Arvest Bank is committed to meeting the needs of its more than 830,000 retail and business customer households by continually investing in the digital tools and services customers expect. Its extensive network of more than 200 banking locations provides loans, deposits, treasury management, credit cards, mortgage loans and mortgage servicing as a part of its growing list of digital services. Arvest is known for its commitment to the communities it serves and to attracting, hiring and retaining a diverse group of talented people. Arvest is an Equal Housing Lender and Member FDIC. To learn more please visit www.arvest.com.

About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas is one of 11 district banks in the FHLBank System created by Congress in 1932. FHLB Dallas, with total assets of $116.1 billion as of June 30, 2025, is a member-owned cooperative that supports housing and community development by providing competitively priced loans and other credit products to approximately 800 members and associated institutions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. For more information, visit fhlb.com.

Cobblestone Farm Community offers rental homes for households earning between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The project received an $850,000 Affordable Housing Program grant awarded by FHLB Dallas through Arvest Bank.

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man who at one time escaped from custody and was on the run for three days after being sentenced to death for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend nearly 27 years ago was scheduled on Wednesday to be the first person executed in the U.S. this year.

Charles Victor Thompson was condemned for the April 1998 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Glenda Dennise Hayslip, 39; and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, at her apartment in the Houston suburb of Tomball.

Thompson, 55, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection Wednesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Prosecutors say Thompson and Hayslip had been romantically involved for a year but split after Thompson “became increasingly possessive, jealous and abusive.”

According to court records, Hayslip and Cain were dating when Thompson came to Hayslip’s apartment and began arguing with Cain around 3 a.m. the night of the killings. Police were called and told Thompson to leave the apartment complex. Thompson returned three hours later and shot both Hayslip and Cain, who died at the scene. Hayslip died in the hospital a week later.

“The Hayslip and Cain families have waited over twenty-five years for justice to occur,” prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said in court filings.

Thompson’s attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution, arguing Thompson was not allowed to refute or confront the prosecution's evidence that concluded Hayslip died from a gunshot wound to the face. Thompson's attorneys have argued Hayslip actually died from flawed medical care she received after the shooting that resulted in severe brain damage sustained from oxygen deprivation following a failed intubation.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied Thompson’s request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty.

“If he had been able to raise a reasonable doubt as to the cause of Ms. Hayslip’s death, he would not be guilty of capital murder,” Thompson’s attorneys said in court filings with the Supreme Court.

Prosecutors said a jury has already rejected the claim and, concluded under state law that Thompson is responsible for Hayslip’s death because it “would not have occurred but for his conduct.”

Hayslip’s family had filed a lawsuit against one of her doctors, alleging medical negligence during her treatment left her brain-dead. A jury in 2002 found in favor of the doctor.

Thompson had his death sentence overturned and had a new punishment trial held in November 2005. A jury again ordered him to die by lethal injection.

Shortly after being resentenced, Thompson escaped from the Harris County Jail in Houston by walking out the front door virtually unchallenged by deputies. Thompson later told The Associated Press that after meeting with his attorney in a small interview cell, he slipped out of his handcuffs and orange jail jumpsuit and left the room, which was unlocked. Thompson waived an ID badge fashioned out of his prison ID card to get past several deputies.

“I got to smell the trees, feel the wind in my hair, grass under my feet, see the stars at night. It took me straight back to childhood being outside on a summer night,” Thompson said about his three days on the run during a 2005 interview with the AP. He was arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, while trying to arrange for wire transfers of money from overseas so he could make it to Canada.

If the execution is carried out, Thompson would be the first person put to death this year in the United States. Texas has historically held more executions than any other state, though Florida had the most executions in 2025, with 19.

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This photo provided by Texas Department of Criminal Justice. shows Texas death row inmate Charles Victor Thompson. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)