D CEO March 2022

P LU S

COMMERCIAL

REAL ESTATE ANNUAL F E AT U R I N G

The Ultimate Power Broker, Roger Staubach

VETERAN EXECUTIVES

From Battlefield to Boardroom

How the military careers of some of the region’s most influential leaders shape their business strategies.

Former Navy SEAL and astronaut C H R I S C A S S I DY

now serves as president and CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation in Arlington.

Built to last.

Business is built on strong relationships, and at Whitley Penn, our relationships are built to last. Our real estate industry advisors are dedicated to providing solutions that meet your time-sensitive and unique needs.

Contact a real estate professional by visiting whitleypenn.com/real-estate.

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The y’ re O N T H E J O B for you.

We’ re on the job W I T H T H E M.

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THE BEST OF THE BEST Marcus & Millichap’s best of the best represent the highest level of investment and financing professionals in the industry. To be in this elite group of professionals means that these individuals truly epitomize the firm’s nearly 50-year commitment to unparalleled expertise gained through investment specialization, a culture of information sharing and innovations in technology, research, and most importantly, client services. The success of our clients is celebrated by honoring our best of 2021.

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Where Artistry Comes Naturally Discover Harwood District’s Tallest Tower

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CONTENTS MARCH 2022

P O R T R A I T BY S E A N B E R R Y

VO LU M E 1 7 | I S S U E 0 2

POWER PLAYERS

Duro Hospitality’s founders, Benji Homsey (left), Ross See, Chas Martin, and Corbin See (right), are shaping DFW’s fine dining scene.

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From Battlefield to Boardroom

Behind the Top DFW Restaurants

How the military careers of some of DFW’s most influentia executives shaped their leadership strategies.

After perfecting The Charles and two other popular concepts, Duro Hospitality’s founders are readying three new restaurants and a micro hotel.

story by BEN SWANGER portraits by TREVOR PAULHUS

story by KELSEY J. VANDERSCHOOT portrait by SEAN BERRY

MARCH 2022

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CONTENTS

DOSSIER

58

1 7 YO U N E E D T O K N O W

Arcilia Acosta, CARCON Industries and STL Engineers

E N T R E P R E N E U R S P I L L O W B A R ; D I N N E R PA R T Y C A M E R O N W H I T M A N ; W E L L T R AV E L E D C O M M I T T E D U T O U R I S M E D E S A I N T - B A R T H ; R O OT S M I G U E L M O L I N A ; E N D M A R K H U N T S P O R T S G R O U P

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8 EDITOR’S NOTE

20 MEET THE 500

Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, Cooper Aerobics 20 FRESH IDEA

Kedreon Cole, XR Sports Group 22 ENTREPRENEURS

Connie Kleinert Babikian, Pillow Bar 2 4 O N T H E TA B L E

Michael Thomas, My Possibilities

FIELD NOTES 45 LEADING OFF

Lauren McKinnon, Project Mockingbird 4 6 H E A LT H C A R E

With consumers shopping around for healthcare, providers are reinventing their centers to improve the experience.

48 ON TOPIC

Daron Babcock, Sara Terry, and Scott A. Wood on their toughest challenges.

56

OFF DUTY 51 PURSUITS

Anne Chow, AT&T Business

108

5 2 G R E AT E R G O O D

P LU S

COMMERCIAL

REAL ESTATE ANNUAL

Cheri Garcia, Cornbread Hustle

F E AT U R I N G

The Ultimate Power Broker, Roger Staubach

5 4 D I N N E R PA R T Y

North Texas execs share the two business leaders they’d most like to have dinner with.

VETERAN EXECUTIVES

CEO

5 6 W E L L T R AV E L E D : S T. B A R T S

From Battlefield to Boardroom

How the military careers of some of the region’s most influ ntial leaders shape their business strategies.

Chris Converse, Foley & Lardner

Former Navy SEAL and astronaut

58 ROOTS

Miguel Molina, Avocados From Mexico 108 END MARK

Dallas Texans

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MARCH 2022

C H R I S C A S S I DY

now serves as president and CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation in Arlington.

54

ON THE COVER:

Chris Cassidy, photographed

by Trevor Paulhus.

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2/7/22 11:31 AM

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Live The Life You've Always Imagined.

We'll Help You Get There.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

A Football and Real Estate Legend

No matter where you are in life, we can help you address some of your most pressing financial questions.

Gardner Wallace Financial Solutions GardnerWallace.com 972-833-2565

Securities o˜ ered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services o˜ ered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an a˜ iliate of Kestra IS. Gardner Wallace Financial Solutions, LLC. is not a˜ iliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS. Neither Kestra IS nor Kestra AS provide legal or tax advise and are not certified public accounting firms.

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MARCH 2022

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY E L I Z A B E T H L A V I N

We call this comprehensive approach “lifecycle financial planning” because we work with you throughout your unique lifecycle.

i recently went through a box of mementos i had collected over the years for my youngest son, Jon. He was turning 24 and living on his own, and I figured it was time for him to h ve them.

When I came across one of the items, I took a photo and texted it to him. It was an 8x10 glossy of Roger Staubach from his playing days, in mid-air, throwing a pass. It bore an autograph and hand-written note: “Great game, Jon, and TD at Texas Stadium!”

The photo had arrived in the mail a few days after a flag footbal event hosted in the mid-2000s by The Staubach Co. Clients and colleagues and their families had been invited to the iconic facility to toss the ball around with the Hall of Fame quarterback, kick fiel goals, and live out their football dreams. Jon and his older brother, who were about 8 and 11 at the time, were in heaven. A highlight of the day was when Jon made a catch in the end zone. The ball, of course, was expertly thrown.

After the game, a group of boys huddled around Roger to get autographs. One of them asked, “Do you know Troy?!” Roger gave me a wry look and said, “It happens all the time.” Now that they’re grown, they’ve no doubt come to realize just how special that fla football game was. “That is soooo cool,” Jon texted back, when he saw the photo, which is now framed and hanging in his apartment.

Roger’s amazing football career was followed by tremendous success with The Staubach Co., where his pioneering development of tenant representation transformed commercial real estate. When we made the decision to add a Lifetime Achievement Award to D CEO’s venerable Power Brokers program this year, Roger was an obvious choice as the inaugural recipient—not just for his industry achievements, but his neverwavering integrity, too. During our interview for the story (see page 97), Roger spoke about his love for the city he has long called home. “I’m lucky Coach Landry never traded me.” It’s an understatement to say, we are, too.

Christine Perez Editor

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2/7/22 12:47 PM

Calling unstoppable entrepreneurs If you have been inspired by an unstoppable entrepreneur or are one yourself, begin an Entrepreneur Of The Year® nomination today at eoy.ey.com.

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P U B L I S H E R Gillea Allison

EDITORIAL EDITOR Christine Perez EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brandon J. Call MANAGING EDITOR Will Maddox ASSOCIATE EDITOR Kelsey J. Vanderschoot ASSISTANT EDITOR Ben Swanger CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Richard Alm, W. Michael Cox EDITORIAL INTERNS Taysha Billinger, Catherine Rosas, Jencie Tomasek, Nicole Torres

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AGENDA

Philip Todd, Shawn Todd, Caroline Todd, Patrick Todd.

Jasmin Ammons, Lauren Dannemiller

Rick Perdue, Mike Ablon, Jason McCann

TREC 2022 Fight Night making a bold return in 2021, the real estate council (TREC) celebrated its annual FightNight event last fall at the Hilton Anatole hotel. Themed “The Comeback,” FightNight is the Dallas commercial real estate industry’s hottest event ticket and TREC’s largest annual fundraiser. Guests at the event were treated to a spectacular evening featuring professional boxing, exceptional cuisine, casino gaming, and Vegas-style entertainment.

Since its inception in 1989, FightNight has raised almost $30 million to support TREC Community Investors and its neighborhood revitalization partnerships.

Errol Spence, Jr.

Teddy Leatherman

The Associate Leadership Council Class of 2021

Jodi Perdue, Travis Cook, Rick Perdue

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Chad West, Brent Rodgers

. Standing: Jennie Wi, Lindsay Jones, Natalie Cook, Hunter Hedrick, Sheena Turner, Craig Storey Seated: Allison Rice, Luke Walter, Sean Scogin, Dani Veeder, Daniella Grado

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY B R E T R E D M A N

Tennell Atkins, Katie O’Brien, Jesse Moreno

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2/8/22 12:31 PM

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ASK THE EXPERT

Persuasion Skills: I’ve Walked In Your Shoes R O G G E D U N N , C EO, R O G G E D U N N G R O U P

c-level execs, managers, and entrepreneurs make sales pitches every day. Whether you’re trying to motivate an employee, sell goods or services, obtain funding, or win an argument with family or friends, persuasion skills are essential. This article details another proven persuasion technique.

People respond better to others with whom they have shared experiences. It’s similar to the persuasive technique of creating commonalities with the person you’re trying to sell. (See my August 2021 DCEO article.) People respond positively to people who look, talk, and act like them. Someone you’re trying to convince is more likely to believe you if they can relate to you. Before you start your sales pitch, let your audience know you understand their point of view, their situation, and their issues because you’ve “been there yourself.” That makes it easier for you to then drive home your message without looking “preachy.”

Africa. Kennedy’s message was doubly persuasive because the intro ended with a surprise, an effe tive persuasion technique described in my January 2022 DCEO article. Specificall , Kennedy’s speech started out as follows.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I come here this evening b ecause of my deep interest and affectio for a land settled b y the Dutch in the mid-17th century, then taken over b y the British, and at last independent; a land in which the native inhabitants were at first subdued, but relations with whom remain a problem to this day; a land which defined itself on a hostile frontier; a land which has tamed rich natural resources through the energetic application of modern technology; a land which was once the importer of slaves, and now must struggle to wipe out the last traces of that former bondage. I refer, of course, to the United States of America.”

Setting the Table with Shared Experiences Robert Kennedy’s Ripple Speech One of the best examples of this approach is Bobby This intro, coupled with the surprising twist at the Kennedy’s historic “Ripple” speech. Kennedy travend, made the audience realize that Kennedy had eled to South Africa when America was in the midst lived through, understood, and could relate to South of the civil rights movement and South Africa was Africa’s racial issues. Because Kennedy set the table trying to come to grips with its systemic discrimwith shared experiences, when Kennedy’s speech ination and oppressive apartheid laws. Many in pivoted to exhorting South Africa to do better on South Africa resented Bobby Kennedy’s trip and race relations, it did not sound “preachy,” condeviewed it as the U.S. elite scending, or patronizing. trying to tell South Africa The takeaway: When what to do. The first thing trying to persuade someKennedy did in his speech one, first tell or show them was to show the audience how you understand their that the U.S. had experipoint of view b ecause enced a similar history and you’ve b een through ex500 N. Akard Street, Suite 1900 periences similar to what was encountering the same Dallas, Texas 75201 they have encountered. racial troubles facing South 214.888.5000 | info@roggedunngroup.com

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ROGGE DUNN represents companies, executives, and entrepreneurs in business and employment matters.

These include the CEOs/ presidents of American Airlines, Baker Hughes, Beck Group, Blucora, Crow Holdings, Dave & Busters, Gold’s Gym, FedEx, HKS, Texas Motor Speedway, Texas Capital Bancshares, Texas Tech University, and Whataburger.

Dunn’s corporate clients include Adecco, Beal Bank, Benihana, Cawley Partners, CBRE, Match.com, Thackeray Partners, Rent-A-Center, and Outback Steakhouse.

In 2022 and 2021 Dunn was included in DCEO’s Dallas 500 list, recognizing the most influential business leaders in North Texas.

He has been honored as a Texas Super Lawyer every year that award has been given and recognized as one of the top 100 attorneys in Texas

by Texas Monthly (a Thomson Reuters service) and a D Magazine Best Lawyer 13 times.

MARCH 2022

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AGENDA

Dr. Charles Roberts, Dr. William Roberts

Mike Talley, Pam Stoyanoff

Jeff ey Morales, Jeff, Reecer, Tim Davis

2022 Excellence in Healthcare Awards leading industry executives celebrated d ceo’s eighth annual Excellence in Healthcare Awards Nov. 17 at On the Levee in Dallas’ Design District. The event honored 59 organizations and individuals, with winners announced in 15 categories. Honorees were recognized for their outstanding achievements and innovations, all while continuing to fight on the frontlines of the pandemic. D CEO Editor Christine Perez and Managing Editor Will Maddox presented the awards, with help from Karen Pinkstaff of RSM. The final award of the evening, the Lifetime Achievement in Healthcare, was presented to Dr. William C. Roberts, executive director of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute at Baylor University Medical Center. Thank you to title sponsor RSM for making this event possible. Congratulations to all finali ts and winners, who were featured in the December issue of D CEO.

Dr. Mark Nivet

Nakesha Lopez, Ashley Ewalton

Connection Wellness team

Dr. John Carlo, Dr. Phil Huang

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Karen Pinkstaff

Networking at On the Levee

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY B R E T R E D M A N

Vivki Nolen, Jeff LaRu

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2/7/22 2:29 PM

AGENDA

Tiffany Anderson, Christa Brown Sanford, Sheri Crosby Wheeler

Brad Alberts, Kate Alberts

Wanda Gierhart Fearing, Dean Fearing Jill Louis, Dennis Cail

2022 Dallas 500 Early Release Party those featured in the 2022 edition of the dallas 500 got an early look at the special publication at a Nov. 18 release party. The one-of-a-kind book, which celebrates powerful and influential leaders in North Texas, is the culmination of months of research by the editors of D CEO. Held in the newly renovated Hall of State at Fair Park in Dallas, the event featured live music from the Georgia Bridgewater Orchestra, a strolling sleight-of-hand magician, a fun fir works photo op, signature cocktails, and more. Publisher Gillea Allison welcomed the crowd and Editor Christine Perez revealed the 2022 edition cover, produced by creative director Hamilton Hedrick and photographer Sean Berry. Thank you to title sponsors Maker’s Mark, Rogge Dunn Group, and Tri Global Energy.

Rogge Dunn, Cathy Dunn

Peter Shaddock, Bet h Shaddock Cesare, Bill Shaddock, Peter Shaddock Jr.

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY B R E T R E D M A N

Will Evans, Meriwether Evans

Tara Harper Rahr, Fritz Rahr

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Debbie Carimi, Tony Carimi

Myia Thompkins, Cherice Williams

MARCH 2022

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MARCH 2022

DOSSIER TRENDS

to

WATC H

a n d

NORTH TEXAS NEWSMAKERS

YOU NEED TO KNOW

For Arcilia Acosta, It’s All About Embracing Opportunities The go-getting founder and CEO of CARCON Industries and STL Engineers was recently named chairwoman-elect of the Dallas Citizens Council.

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY B R A N D O N LY O N S

story by CHRISTINE PEREZ

DCEOMAGAZINE.COM

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DOSSIER

C

construction has always been in arcilia Acosta’s blood. The CEO of CARCON Industries and STL Engineers grew up in Midland, where her father built refineries for Texas energy companies. She never thought she’d get into the business herself, though, and attended Texas Tech University to see if she could find something to spark her interest. After graduating in 1989, she moved to Dallas, where her sister worked in banking, and got a job working for developer Rick Strauss, the founder of Republic Property Group.

“I went to work for him not knowing that his father was Bob Strauss, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, and that his uncle was Ted Strauss, who later became my mentor,” Acosta says. “Ted was married to former Dallas Mayor Annette Strauss. I didn’t realize I had gone to work for a member of this amazing political family.”

A quick learner, Acosta impressed her new employer and was asked to become a registered lobbyist. She made regular trips to Austin, attending events, showing support for lawmakers, learning, and connecting. She also began attending Dallas City Council meetings. “Here I was, 23 or 24 years old, getting to know all of these highly influential people,” Acosta says. “I said ‘yes’ to every opportunity. I didn’t realize it then, but it was the way my life was supposed to be. I didn’t know what all of this was setting me up to achieve.”

After about three years with Strauss, she left to join a former Republic Property Group executive

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who was forming a specialized financing group that catered to construction companies for Bank One. The experience ultimately led to her decision to relaunch her deceased father’s construction company. Through her work at the bank, she became deeply familiar with clients and their work.

She saw how firms succeeded and how they failed.

Visiting job sites was the clincher. “Being in my jeans and my boots and my hard hat and watching things get built was phenomenal,” Acosta says. “I just knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

She officially opened CARCON Industries (a shortened version of her maiden name, Carrasco, and construction) on Jan. 1, 2000. Her first job was far from glamorous; she was hired to build new bathrooms at the Cotton Bowl. Next came pavers for DART. But for Acosta, taking what some would consider to be insignificant work was consistent with her philosophy of saying ‘yes’ to opportunities. She got her foot in the door and performed well. That led to bigger jobs, including massive upgrades at Terminals A and C at DFW Airport and highly complex expansions for DART. In 2003, unable to find a woman-owned geotechnical engineering and construction materials testing firm, Acosta founded her own: STL Engineers. Ten years later, she launched an oil and gas group in Midland, coming full circle to where her life—and career—began. Today, her multimillion-dollar enterprises employ about 250 people.

Throughout it all, Acosta has remained involved in civic and nonprofit service at the highest levels, from being appointed to state boards

by Gov. Abbott to serving as a regent for her alma mater, Texas Tech. She’s currently on the corporate boards of Veritex Holdings, Vistra Corp., and Magnolia Oil and Gas Corp., and last month was inducted into the Dallas Business Hall of Fame.

Acosta has been a part of the influential Dallas Citizens Council since 2011, and next year will take the reins as its chair. Strong public-private partnerships have helped build Dallas, and it’s a collaboration that must continue, Acosta says.

“At the Dallas Citizens Council, we have a vision of what we must do as CEOs,” she says. “We have to get engaged and work on things that keep our city thriving, that help us prosper.”

“The Emperor Has No Clothes” Acosta was named to the board of Energy Future Holdings in May of 2008, not long after the entity was created by a $45 billion leveraged buyout of TXU Energy. With fellow board members such as former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker III and former Commerce Secretary Don Evans, and discussing complicated issues like kilowatt-hours and nuclear power, Acosta admits to initially being a bit intimidated. She threw herself into learning as much as she could about the company and the industry. During one board meeting, when a particular issue came up, it was Acosta who had the right answer. Afterward, she excitedly shared the news with her close mentor, the late Ted Strauss. “He said to me, ‘I will tell you what I told Annette, and I’m going to share it with you,’” Acosta recounts. “The emperor has no clothes. You know just as much as everyone else.”

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2/7/22 11:33 AM

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C E LE B RATING

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35 YEARS

1/14/16 1:50 PM 2/3/22 12:04 PM

DOSSIER

FRESH IDEAS

A Whole New World

MEET THE 500

DR. KENNETH H. COOPER Founder and Chairman COOPE R AE ROBIC S

when dr. kenneth cooper was a young man, his father told him he was not OK with him going to medical school just to treat diseases or give shots.

“He wanted me to change lives,” Cooper says. The 90-year-old has certainly lived up to his father’s hopes.

Cooper coined the term “aerobics” in his landmark 1968 book on cardiovascular health and has been a transformative force in the fields of preventive medicine and wellness.

EDUCATION: Harvard University (MPH), The University of Oklahoma (MD, BS) BIRTHPLACE: “Oklahoma City” TOUGHEST CHALLENGES: “It was tough to initially gain acceptance into the medical community here in Dallas when I fir t began performing stress tests and practicing preventive medicine. Another challenge was giving up my 13-year military career to start a new career in medicine at the age of 40.

Also, saving the Cooper Aerobics Center from bankruptcy in the late 1980s and early 1990s was an extreme challenge.”

BEST ADVICE: “Set your goals, put blinders on, and don’t just be successful—be significant If you’re not satisfied wit what you’re doing, reevaluate yourself and make changes.”

PROUD MOMENT: “We did a 45-year

follow-up of more than 100,000 patients in 2021 and discovered they were living 10 years longer than the national average by following our guidelines.”

DESTINATIONS OF CHOICE: “I enjoy Brazil and China and have been to both many times, mostly on business. I like to vacation in Europe, particularly Switzerland, Austria, and Rome, Italy.”

LESSON LEARNED: “Your health is your responsibility—not the government, not the insurance company, not your physician. What you do to maintain good health will help determine not only in how long you live but how well you live.”

LOCAL FARE: “I enjoy the sea bass at III Forks Steakhouse.”

FUN FACT: “I was fir t chair clarinet in my high school band.”

and I went to the island of South Georgia in Antarctica. We experienced 30-foot waves for three days in a rather small boat and couldn’t get out of our cabins. I was afraid the boat was going to break apart.”

WHO’D PLAY ME IN A BIOPIC: “I’d choose Tom Hanks.

He’s a great actor, and he can play a multitude of roles. For example, the movie Apollo 13. I worked closely with that mission, and I knew Jim Lovell quite well. I also appreciated his run across America in Forrest Gump. Hanks has shown he has an athletic interest and military interest, which combines my interests, too. He once wrote and asked for a copy of my book. I sent him an autographed copy, but I never did hear back.”

the next iteration of social media has arrived. It’s called the metaverse—a digital world and economy accessed through various virtual and augmented reality tech.

“Our next version of the internet is all about complete ownership, and we’re creating a more equitable internet ecosystem,” says Kedreon Cole, founder and CEO of XR Sports Group. The Frisco-based tech company has created site frameworks that allow pro sports teams and influencers who us sites for personal branding and marketing to have sole ownership over their content and its data. Cole likens it to a real estate investment trust. “If you purchase an asset, and you don’t own the mineral rights, you don’t own everything on that asset,” he says. “The value will retain in land and mineral rights.”

XR Sports Group creates revenue streams through digital commerce and creating personalized communities for clients like the Dallas Mavericks, Conference USA, Good Good Golf, Southwestern Athletic Conference, and more.

— Ben Swanger

D R O S O S BY J A K E M E Y E R S ; F R E S H I D E A C O U R T E S Y O F X R S P O R T S G R O U P

Frisco-based XR Sports Group is bringing the metaverse to life.

PROPERTY RIGHTS

XR Sports gives influen ers the ability to own all social data.

SCARY MOMENT: “In 2016, my son Tyler

This Q&A is extended content from Dallas 500, a special edition produced by D CEO that profile the region’s most influential busine s leaders. Visit www.dallas500.com for details.

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DOSSIER

ENTREPRENEURS

story by

CHRISTINE PEREZ

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after earning two degrees in business and economics at southern methodist University and an MBA at UCLA, Connie Kleinert Babikian worked as an analyst for Goldman Sachs before taking a finance job at Hunt Oil Corp. She loved her work but always felt a pull to become an entrepreneur like her mother, Ashlee Kleinert, who launched the food truck company Ruthie’s Rolling Café, and her maternal grandfather, Ray Hunt, the magnate behind Hunt Oil. So, when a chance to become the owner of The Pillow Bar came up last year, Babikian decided to take the leap. “I always it in the back of my mind to be hands-on and build something,” she says.

The Dallas-based company makes luxury, custom-designed and monogrammed pillows and related products, such as bedding, loungewear, boyfriend shirts, bath linens, and even dog beds. They’re sold online, at specialty shops, and through national retailers like Bed Bath & Beyond, Neiman Marcus, and Macy’s. The Pillow Bar was founded by Merrimac Dillon in 2008 after she was unable to find a high-quality pillow for her husband, who was recovering from spinal surgery at the time. Babikian’s grandmother was a friend of Dillon’s and loved her pillows so much she’d take them along on travels. It soon became a favored brand of the extended family, including Babikian, who received some of the pillows as gifts when she got married in 2018 and whose bridal party wore the boyfriend shirts during the wedding weekend.

After about a year of talks, Babikian became became The Pillow Bar’s new majority owner on Sept. 1, 2021. With manufacturing in solid shape, she’s focusing on marketing—testing social media and digital initiatives. And as a new mom, she’s also eyeing a more aggressive push into products for children.

Babikian declines to reveal revenue for the private company, but when asked about reports showing the company generating $2 million in sales in 2020, she allows, “We’ve been very lucky and happy to grow on those numbers.” Demand is being driven by the pandemic, with people spending more time in their homes, and health and wellness trends, with a growing awareness of how sleep quality affects one’s physical and mental health. “People also want to buy things that are responsibly made—that are right for our community and our society, and these pillows are GROWTH made by an all-women team, locally, with PLANS the highest-quality, non-toxic ingredients,” Babikian aims to expand The Babikian says. “We’re at the intersection of Pillow Bar’s digital and all three of these trends. It’s the right prodsocial media uct at the right time.” strategies.

P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F P I L L O W B A R

New Pillow Bar owner Connie Kleinert Babikian carries on her family’s entrepreneurial legacy.

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2/8/22 12:04 PM

Congratulations Top Dallas Multifamily Producers of 2021

Mark Allen

Executive Managing Director

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Michael Thomas Is Reinventing Support for Dallas’ Special Needs Community My Possibilities’ new college-style campus is revolutionary for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

story by WILL MADDOX illustration by JAKE MEYERS

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it didn’t take long for michael thomas and I to connect over soccer during our lunch at Blue Sushi Sake Grill in North Dallas. We both grew up playing the game and came close to doing so at the same college. We met to talk about My Possibilities, the nonprofit for which he serves as executive director. It offers academic and vocational training, socialization, independent living skills, therapy, and more for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The nonprofit opened in 2008 after founder Charmaine Solomon—and two other mothers— found few options for full-time continued education for her son with special needs. Thomas grew up in East Dallas and attended SMU to study classical piano and music therapy, but when the school pulled his major, he found his way to working with many charitable events via Greek life. His favorite event was a Special Olympics volleyball tournament.

After graduation, he took a job with the Muscular Dystrophy Association before working for two years at Opportunity Village, a Las Vegas company providing similar services to My Possibilities. He was looking to move back to Dallas and find a job in the nonprofit world, when he found out about My Possibilities after a conversation with a friend whose sister attended the program. It so happened that they were hiring an executive director, and he applied. A week later,

at just 27 years old, he was offered the job. “I’m a byproduct of letting the world tell me what to do,” he says. “In the best way possible.”

The nonprofit was small, with Thomas and a few teachers serving 20-25 HIPsters (Hugely Important People) a day, and he had a lot to learn about leading a nonprofit. But the past decade-plus has seen the organization become one of the fastest-growing and most innovative organizations in the space.

In 2018, My Possibilities opened a first-of-itskind 40,000 square-foot, college-style Campus for Higher Learning in Plano that will soon have the ability to serve around 1,000 students with disabilities once complete.

In addition, the nonprofit also launched a social enterprise project called MPact that acquired a soap and hand sanitizer brand Soap Hope, which provides jobs for those with disabilities. Thomas was also recently recognized by FC Dallas as a Community MVP. My Possibilities is growing its entrepreneurial endeavors with Mission Hills, a real estate venture in Garland. It’s converting the shuttered Eastern Hills Country Club into a community with more than 300 homes, trails, and amenities such as security and shuttle services. One-third of the homes will be reserved for the organization’s special needs clients, and the rest will be sold like any other residential development, though all will be universally designed—suited for those with or without disabilities.

“In Texas, we’re so far behind the community housing options that are out there,” Thomas says.

“Our educational systems are not fully inclusive.

We have a lot of work to do, but the hope is that this community becomes an example of what it looks like.”

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FROM THE BATTLEFIELD TO THE BOARDROOM How the military careers of some of DFW’s most influential xecutives shaped their leadership strategies.

D OU G J ON ES KN E W V E RY little about the commercial real estate business when he

retired his Army Ranger fatigues in 2014. But the West Point grad had learned plenty about resourcefulness, servant leadership, and making decisive moves during his military career. He performed entry-level tasks at Cushman & Wakefield as a rookie broker for months before being given larger roles. Today, he oversees the fir ’s Dallas operations and is one of the global company’s youngest leaders. Similarly, former Navy SEAL platoon commander and NASA Chief Astronaut Chris Cassidy had no related experience when he was asked to serve as president and CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation, which will open in Arlington in 2024.

“I don’t think I could even spell museum when I was fir t told about the job,” Cassidy jokes. But, having led precarious missions beneath the sea and beyond the ozone, he was confident that he’d be up to the challenge. Bob Pragada at Jacobs, Christine Peyton at Amentum Aviation, and Scott Rowe of Flowserve also credit their military experiences with shaping their leadership styles and propelling them into the C-Suite. Here, they share their remarkable stories of bravery, fortitude, and adventure—and the lessons they learned along the way.

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Cassidy and his SEAL team were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for their heroism in Afghanistan.

“H O LY S H I T,” Chris Cassidy thought to himself in 2013 as he tethered to the International Space Station for a spacewalk 227 nautical miles above the earth. He was watching his partner Luca Parmitano’s spacesuit fill up with w ter—1.5 liters worth, to be exact. Cassidy, a former Navy SEAL, had previously captained mini submarines, led SEAL Team 3 as one of the fir t teams to deploy in Afghanistan following 9/11, detonated piles of Al Qaeda intel, and never once lost a single SEAL team member he managed. But, now in the vastness of space as the NASA Chief Astronaut—the farthest away from the battlefield he had ver been—death was on the prowl.

Cassidy acted quickly, thrusting himself over to his partner, and the team within the space station prepared the airlock—the safe zone—for Parmitano. Just in the nick of time, Cassidy hauled his partner into the airlock, and the team safely removed his flooding helm t. The moment—captured in the Disney+ series Among the Stars—is something the now-president and CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation in Arlington thinks about to this day.

“I say this all the time: ‘If you see something that is wrong, you need to act,’” says Cassidy, who spent 10 years in the Navy and 17 years with NASA. “In this case with Luca, even as early as a week prior on another spacewalk, we noticed indications of water, but it didn’t make any sense to us, so we brushed it off. Then earlier on the same day as the spacewalk incident, there were small indications that something was wrong with the suit. Things weren’t seeming right, but it was so easy at the moment to just press on and do our jobs.”

When Cassidy, an MIT grad, was approached about the opportunity to lead the National Medal of Honor Museum, the opportunity felt right.

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“When I retired, I thought long and hard about what it was going to take to fulfill y sense of service. When I met with our board, I realized there is a whole city, state, and country that supports this mission.” The 101,000-square-foot project will break ground this month.

For Cassidy, the challenge of raising $200 million to construct a museum—a goal the organization has nearly accomplished—seemed overwhelming at fir t. But he quickly realized there were similarities to past missions. “‘I don’t know how to raise $200 million by myself,’ I thought when I started,” Cassidy says. “But the fundamental aspect of every job is people. Whether I’m on a battlefield, flying space missions, or buildin museums, it’s all about the people. When I was in the military and in government, I thought that was just how it was in those lines of work. But when I got to Arlington, I realized great people are crucial to all great accomplishments.”

When Chris Cassidy told his parents he was going to be a Navy SEAL during his final ear in the academy, his mother asked, “What are you going to do after you’re done? Be a mall cop?” But Cassidy quickly proved that was never in his plans. “In 1993, when I went to BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL school), we started with 120 people,” Cassidy remembers.

“Seventeen of us graduated. The training is generally six months long, broken up into three phases. The fir t phase is the weed-out phase, known as hell week.

The second phase is all about diving. And the third phase is all about land warfare, shooting, detonation, and navigation. To this day I am most proud of finishin as the honor graduate of BUD/S.”

PREVIOUS SPREAD: S H U T T E R S T O C K

Former Navy SEAL Cassidy spent a total of 378 days in space throughout his career as a NASA astronaut.

Cassidy (far right) spent his fir t four years in the Navy captaining underwater missions in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf.

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CHRIS

PREVIOUS SPREAD: S H U T T E R S T O C K

CASSIDY P R E S I D E N T A N D CEO National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation

U.S. N AVA L ACA DEMY Class of 1993 U.S. N AVY SEA LS T EA M 1993–2003 N ASA 2004–2021

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DOUG

JONES M A N AG I N G P R I N C I PA L Cushman & Wakefiel

U.S . M ILITARY AC AD EM Y AT W EST POI N T Class of 2008 U.S . ARM Y 2008–2014

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Jones spent his deployment in eastern Afghanistan as part of the Operation Enduring Freedom mission.

HAV I N G TO R E TA K E a land navigation test while working through Army Ranger school, Doug Jones felt lost. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘My girlfriend will break up with me, my parents will disown me, my friends will laugh at me.’ I felt like a failure,” Jones says. Standing deep in the woods, trying his best to pass the five-hour makeup test, he sulked, convinced he was going to fail a second time. If a trainee fails twice, he or she is sent packing.

“I had never failed land nav before this,” Jones says. “And in my makeup test, I found myself collecting three of the six points I needed to collect with only 30 minutes left. Mentally, I had already failed. As I walked back to the starting line, thinking it was too late, I saw a flash of light out of the corner of my eye. So, I run to it, and it's a point, but it isn’t mine. It does tell me, though, where I am on the map. So, I strap up, get serious, get accurate with my navigation, and I make it back with all my points and pass the test.”

Going into the test, Jones thought the course would be the same as the year prior; it was not.

“We thought we were running to the same points, so we didn’t trust our map or compass,” he says. “I learned that day I need to wholly trust the information I have available, trust my inner compass, and follow the plan that is in front of me.”

Jones says lessons from his last mission set the tone for his career trajectory in commercial real estate. “My last assignment in the Army was in company command,” Jones says. “I was responsible for 250 soldiers and a $100 million property book, which was not my forte—property being the things that a unit needs to deploy, not property like real estate—but things like a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, armory, and all the little nuts and bolts.

Today, I know that leadership is not a salad bar of

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Despite operating M240 and M249 machine guns, Jones was taught early that his most lethal weapon is the radio.

Doug Jones was two weeks into Beast Barracks— an initiation program prior to joining West Point—when his leadership style began to take shape. Amidst a

things where I get to pick and choose what’s fun.

It’s digging in and doing what I can to help Cushman & Wakefield win, no m tter what it is.”

The leadership experience helped him land his current position—managing principal of his fir ’s Dallas office, one of the la est and most active in the company. He also serves as executive director of Cushman & Wakefiel ’s Military & Veteran Programs. “I have the best of both worlds,” Jones says. “Being able to lead our incredible team here in DFW while serving the military community, transitioning veterans, their spouses, and their families, is a true blessing.”

Although at one point he thought he was facing inevitable failure, his military experiences taught him to rise above. “West Point and active duty gave me my integrity and my character,” Jones says. “It taught me that we, as people, are way more capable of accomplishing greatness than we might think.”

‘ruck march,’ a grueling, fast walk over rough terrain wearing a backpack of at least 35 pounds, his platoon leader commanded a halt. “He comes up to me and says, ‘Take a seat, and take off your boots and socks.’ I do as he says, and he looks at my heel, and asks, ‘How are your feet?’

I answer, ‘They’re fin .’ He told me, ‘OK. If you start to get hotspots, powder up and change socks.’ I got up, and we kept moving. But in that moment, he stopped and taught me a very specific le son: servant leadership.

That is the foundation for my genuine care for people today.”

Jones' fir t military deployment came out of Fort Campbell in 2010 with the historic 101st Airborne Division.

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Peyton had between 40 and 1,500 service members under her command throughout her Air Force career.

Peyton went the route of ROTC during her service time in active duty to gain her commission in December of 1997.

T WE N T Y- F O U R -Y E AR Air Force veteran Christine Peyton fl w in F-15 bombers and KC-135s through the Middle East. She also served as an intelligence officer and helped fight human afficking. But wh t stands out is the agony of losing fallen colleagues–soldiers she refers to as her kids.

All were killed by ethereal ammunition. “I had six airmen commit suicide in the span of two years on active duty, and that was very difficult to deal with,” she says. “One of the biggest problems in the Air Force—and across all the services—is the number of suicides our teams experience.”

A retired Lieutenant Colonel, Peyton was trained to be tough since her childhood, but breaking the news to the families of the airmen was nearly unbearable. “Everything about it was devastating,” she recalls.

Seven years after retiring from the Air Force, Peyton is leading a new type of team at the Fort Worth office of aryland-based Amentum Aviation, where she serves as senior vice president. While on active duty, she made it her mission to “help as many people as she could.” And today, within the C-Suite, she continues to lead with that philosophy.

“As a leader, you need to listen to people—not just hearing, but really listening,” Peyton says.

“Look at their body language, look at what they’re doing in their life; if they come to your office t talk to you, make sure you’re fully dedicated and 100 percent there with them. Because if you’re not, you’re going to miss the warning signs.”

It’s a dedication Peyton—who was one of only a few female aircraft maintenance officers in t Air Force in the early ’90s—proved over and again while in the academy and on active duty. Her leadership style greatly evolved in the ensuing decades.

“It wasn’t easy being a female in aircraft maintenance in the early ’90s,” she says. “When I

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enlisted, I was frustrated with outdated policies, procedures, and culture. I wanted to change things for the better. It may have been a bit naïve of me, but I had to try. When I finally became a lieutenant, I was a bull in a china shop. I wasn’t going about change in the right way.

“Thankfully, I had a very seasoned chief master sergeant put me in my place,” Peyton says. “I was raw early in my career and needed a major correction. It made me step back and refle t on what kind of leader I wanted to be. I wanted to be a leader who listened, encouraged, and brought out the best in her troops.”

It’s a philosophy she has taken with her to Amentum Aviation, which provides maintenance, logistics, flight ope ations, and training for both manned and autonomous aircraft. “This year, I’m striving to mentor my folks so I can push them up into positions where I know they can be effe tive.”

Christine Peyton came of age on a lobster boat off the coast of Wells, Maine, hearing stories about her father's Navy days. She earned a dime per lobster processing the crustaceans, but it was the military seed that was planted that proved to be more valuable.

Today, decades after those fir t moments at sea with her father, the pride lingers on. “I can never put into words how creative, driven, and dedicated the airmen I served with were,” Peyton says.

“It didn’t matter if we were under the gun to launch an entire fleet of aircraft for a hurricane evacuation, sending our aircraft overseas to support our allies in times of need or just flying t aining missions, everything we did was done with expert skill, precision, and professionalism.”

Peyton learned the nuances of the F-15, F-16, E-10, C-5, and C-130 at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida panhandle.

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CHRISTINE

PEYTON S E N I O R V I C E P R E S ID ENT Amentum Aviation

U.S. A I R FOR CE 1991-2015

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BOB

PRAGADA COO A N D P R ESI D E N T Jacobs

U.S . NAVAL AC AD EMY Class of 1990 U.S . NAVY 1990-1999

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Bob Pragada met his wife Jessica his senior year at the Naval Academy and the two wed fi e years into his active duty.

Pragada played rugby at the Naval Academy and broke his nose. As a result, he could not fly or go o a submarine.

W HE N I N DI AN A ME R I C AN Bob Pragada began attending the Naval Academy in 1986, there were no classmates who looked like him or had the background he did. He didn’t think much of it when he graduated in 1990. That moment would come 21 years later when he was having dinner with his son after a baseball game in Myrtle Beach.

“When we left the restaurant, a young Indian American kid had a Navy tracksuit on,” Pragada says. “I stopped the young man and asked, ‘What year are you at the Naval Academy?’ Looking at me, he says, ‘I’m a sophomore.’ Then he said, ‘Sir, can I ask who you are?’ I said, ‘My name is Bob.’” The student instantly knew with whom he was speaking.

Afterall, Pragada, chief operating officer and pr ident of global engineering firm acobs, was the second Indian American to graduate from the United States Naval Academy. The fir t came just one year prior in 1989. (Today, there are 39 Indian Americans attending the US Naval Academy.) “At the time of graduation, I didn’t think my accomplishment mattered,” Pragada says, choking up. “But now, realizing it has helped pave the way for generations to come is one of the most satisfying things.”

Pragada went on to fulfill, in his yes, his most significant du y alongside President Bill Clinton in the White House Military Office t Camp David, the retreat for the president of the U.S. located in the wooded hills of Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland.

“Working Camp David is service to the country defined differently than building a bri e or setting up a base camp or flying a plane ” Pragada says. “It’s service in the sense that our job was to put the First Family in an environment where they felt comfortable.”

Early into Pragada’s post at Camp David, he was assigned to look out for Ted Kennedy as

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Cabinet members and key senators visited for a delegation. Immediately, Pragada knew this assignment was written in the stars. His father, an engineer in India in the early '60s, came to the U.S. to study in a graduate program and work for NASA via a program sponsored by John F. Kennedy. “The Pragada family owes our American citizenship to your family,” Pragada told Kennedy.

And just like that, a bond was formed, leading to Pragada sitting with America’s most powerful as one of the few military reps at the discussion.

It’s a personal moment that has stuck with him to this day as he leads Jacobs’ worldwide operations. “My service taught me to keep people fir t,” Pragada says. “I could say we have the best engineers, best scientists, best technicians, best support staff, and we do,” Pragada says. “But how we reach our goals is through our culture—a culture that loves every single person on staff regardless of gender, who you love, and where you’re from.”

The 1982 movie An Officer and a Gentleman mesmerized Bob Pragada’s immigrant mother. “She came home after seeing the movie and told me, ‘You should go to Annapolis,’” Pragada remembers.

“When I asked her why, she said, ‘The uniforms!’” And so, the young Pragada went off o the local library in Chicago to study up on the Naval Academy, not realizing that he’d eventually go where just one Indian American had gone before. “I was just trying to do some good,” Pragada says.

“And that has been ingrained in me since a young boy. In my time in the classroom, on the rugby team, and in training, I learned that life is all about making whatever team you might be on at any given moment, the best possible team it can be.”

Pragada once gifted Hillary Clinton scores of citronella candles, only to find ou she was allergic to citronella.

2/4/22 9:42 AM

Rowe was in and out of the Middle East throughout active duty strenghtening the Gulf Coalition Forces.

Rowe played water polo at West Point and says his best friends, to this day, are still his teammates he swam alongside.

A MO N T H A F T E R Scott Rowe showed up in Fort Stewart, Georgia, as part of the U.S. Army Intelligence team in 1994, he was deployed to Kuwait. “The place was a war zone,” Rowe says. “And the reality of what happened in the invasion of Iraq into Kuwait set in—we were in the middle of bombed buildings and artillery shells. But the most rewarding part was making sure they had enough military might to defend themselves [moving forward] ... we essentially liberated an entire country.”

Rowe didn’t realize it at the time, but his country-building experiences in Kuwait would give him the confidence and skills to lead and implement a $14.8 billion corporate merger in 2016, two decades after he retired from the Army.

Six months after being promoted to president and COO of Cameron International, oilfield se vices giant Schlumberger made an offer to buy the company, a provider of flow mana ement equipment.

“It was one of those situations where you go, ‘Really? Like now we decide to sell the company?’”

Rowe says. “But when I think back to the operational manual in the military, it is about evaluating different courses of a tions. And that’s exactly what we had to deal with in the Schlumberger offe . $14.8 billion is a big number. It was an uplift on our stock about 30 or 40 percent. And we had to evaluate if we wanted to take the offer from Schlumberger or if we wanted to work out a plan that, theoretically, could get us to that same value.

We evaluated and discussed, and because the offer was cash-based, we made the sale.”

Roughly a year later, Flowserve recruited him to become its new president and CEO. “I think the military teaches you to expect the unexpected,” says Rowe. “One night, I got a piece of information on the Iraq border that said, ‘There’s going to be a truck driving your way, in the next six hours,

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that has significant xplosives in the back. And they’re a participant in X organization.’ I received a lot of intel, but this one was an ‘Oh, my god, this is real’ moment. Sure enough, three hours later, a truck rolled into our checkpoint with the license plate on the piece of intel, and there was a bunch of C4 explosives in the back of the truck with two terrorists at the wheel. We didn’t fully know what their intentions were, but it wasn’t good.”

It’s a save Rowe is proud of—and an experience that helped build his leadership skills that he now puts to work at Flowserve, which generated $3.7 billion in revenue in 2020. A primary focus for the company going forward is environmental emissions. “In 2022, we’re going to diversify, decarbonize, and digitize,” Rowe says. “We will help customers with their operations, so productivity, reliability, and decarbonization are driving CO2 emissions down and driving energy use down.”

The longer Scott Rowe is away from the military, the more he appreciates what it did to shape his leadership skills, he says. A peer review exercise in Ranger school taught him about building trust with teammates. “We had a squad of 10 people, and we ran around the woods for 10 days with no food and no sleep.

Afterward, we rated each other on various skills like assault and defense.

And then, at the very end, the last thing we did as a team was rank our peers strongest to weakest, one through 10. The lowest ranking person gets kicked out, and they don’t return. I see the same thing in business. If leaders aren’t building their teams by passing along inspiration for workers, it is not sustainable, and you will fail.”

Rowe fir t deployed with the 24th Infantry Division, now known as the 3rd, toward the end of the Gulf War.

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2/4/22 9:42 AM

SCOTT

ROWE P R E S I D E N T A N D CEO Flowserve

U.S. MI LI TA RY ACA DEMY AT WEST POI N T Class of 1993 U.S. A R MY 1993–1998

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The four restaurateurs (from left): Chas Martin, Ross See, Benji Homsey, and Corbin See

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AFTER PERFECTING T HE AMBIANCE AND MENUS AT THEIR FI R ST T H R E E POPULAR CONCEPTS, DURO HOSPITALITY G R O U P ’ S FOUR FOUNDERS P L AN TO KEEP THE HITS COMING W ITH T HR E E NEW RESTAURANTS A N D A MICRO HOTEL.

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story by KELSEY

J . VA N D E R S C H O O T

portrait by SEAN

BERRY

2/1/22 3:57 PM

COMPARE S CRE AT ING a restaurant to making music. “It’s like putting out an album and watching it get played over and over again and watching people enjoy it,” he says. An interior designer at Sees Design, he’s one of four co-founders of Duro Hospitality Group, which has had a string of successes since The Charles made its debut in 2018. For the 2022 edition of the Dallas 500, which profiles the most influential business leaders in Dallas, we asked those on the list about their favorite restaurants. Respondents raved about The Charles, compelling us to learn more about the restaurant and the hitmakers behind it.

The band of four includes Corbin and his brother, Ross See, who create each concept’s melody with

The Sees brothers bring their expertise in antiques and art to each Duro concept, including Sister (at right).

Nooks and custom seating, such as this area in The Charles (below), are staples in Duro Restaurant Group venues.

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eye-catching architecture and décor; drummer Benji Homsey, the restaurant, finance, real estate, legal, and hospitality operations expert who keeps the group on beat; and its front man, Chas Martin, a restaurateur and cuisine expert with a sales background and big presence. “The four of us know our lanes really, really well,” Martin says. “We challenge each other, but we trust each other in those lanes.”

Duro has released several singles since The Charles opened in Dallas’ Design District. First came an addon called Bar Charles, dedicated to aperitifs and light bites. Next came an expansion to Lower Greenville with a Mediterranean-infused concept called Sister, which opened last September. Now, the hitmakers are readying their newest productions—a second concept in Lower Greenville and another in Highland Park. Far from an overnight success, though, their path to multiplatinum has been difficult, as the name Duro suggests in nearly every romance language.

RO U G H LY A DE CADE AGO, Homsey hired Martin to help him re-concept a restaurant at Hotel ZaZa, where he had been president since 2008. “That’s when we got to know each other and gained tons of appreciation for each other’s work product,” Martin says.

An Oklahoma City native, Homsey graduated from Texas Christian University and was an aspiring investment banker, working in the Dallas offic of a Silicon Valley telecom startup that scaled quickly but crashed.

In 2000, family connections helped him segue into hospitality, when he was hired to oversee the development of Hotel ZaZa in Dallas, guiding construction, design,

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The Charles, Duro’s Flagship restaurant (above), opened in 2018 and showcases custom-designed lighting fixtu es.

Sister, an ItalianMediterranean concept, opened last September in Lower Greenville.

sourcing, hiring, and installation—at age 24. “I had never been in the hotel business. I’d maybe been kicked out of a few hotels,” he jokes.

Homsey went on to open Hotel ZaZa in Uptown, oversee the development of a collection of condos next door and their subsequent sale, and help convert a Houston hotel into a ZaZa location. Eight years after joining the company, he was named president of Z Resorts, when ZaZa’s owners decided to start their own hotel management firm. He met Martin along the way at a nearby restaurant. “I got to know him at Nick & Sam’s, and we just kept crossing paths here and there,” Homsey recalls.

Martin had graduated from culinary school in 2004 and took an internship at Nick & Sam’s. He left five years later, overseeing all front house operations. He went to sell wine for a local distributor before becoming a hospitality consultant for billionaire Tim Headington, who owned The Joule hotel in downtown Dallas. It involved, in his words, “putting some glue on a restaurant that wasn’t working” there. He began talking to Homsey about collaborating, but the timing wasn’t right; ZaZa was restructuring during the 2008 recession.

The two recall an elevator ride where they casually discussed launching a Mediterranean restaurant that tapped into Homsey’s Lebanese roots. “I saw sparks,” Martin remembers. He left Hotel ZaZa in 2011 and invited Homsey to join him on a golf trip to Denver, where

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Sister’s culinary nods to Mediterranean food, such as baba ganoush (left), stem from Benji Homsey’s Lebanese roots.

There are plenty of family dynamics at play in the running of the company.

Duro Hospitality’s founding members say that knowing their individual roles has been key to their success and keeping peace in the family and their brotherly relationships. The Sees, literal brothers, have been business partners for about a decade, and say the structure of working in hospitality has bettered their bond.

“Corbin and I might have butted heads a lot more before this,” Ross says, “because continued on page 042

he was taking on a new venture in sales. “We had a good rapport, but we weren’t super close,” Martin says. “It was that three-day weekend when I thought, ‘No, we’re going to be best friends for a long time.’”

In 2013, the duo and their significant others took a trip to Italy. “We thought, ‘Dallas is missing everything about this culture and cuisine,’” Martin says, adding that back then, one could count the number of interesting Italian restaurants in North Texas on one hand. After two years in sales, he confided in Homsey that he’d had a professional epiphany: He wanted to get back into the restaurant world, and didn’t want to wait.

“It started as a side hustle,” Martin says. “We thought, ‘Hey, let’s do something small, a high-energy bar with pizza, maybe a little pasta, little snacks.’ And then, it morphed into, ‘I’m going to quit what I’m doing. I’m going to come back and run this for us.’”

The budding restaurateurs wanted to plug their new concept in at the top of the market rather than bootstrapping a reputation over several years. They developed a stellar menu alongside Chef J. Chastain and purchased a piece of prime real estate in the Design District, but

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they wanted to take an all-encompassing approach. “We wanted to check all the boxes, not just from a culinary perspective, not operationally, but everything—music, lighting, design,” Homsey says. He had grown up with two of the best interior designers in the country—the Sees brothers—and hoped to leverage their expertise.

Respecting everyone’s role has been key to smooth operations. now, we stay in our own lanes.” Meanwhile, Homsey and Martin have formed their own relationship. Homsey is six years Martin’s senior and grew up with two sisters; Martin is an only child.

The two have become very close and, according to Martin, are like brothers, too.

“I’m sure the same fights th t [Corbin and Ross] have behind the scenes—and in front of the scenes—are the same that we have,” he jokes.

A trio of spritzers bend toward the Italian side of Sister, where the eclectic menu was curated

by Chef J. Chastaini.

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top-shelf with their new venture in every way. So, rather than having Corbin and Ross work as contract designers, they decided to split the pie as equal partners. The band was born.

After making its debut in May 2018, The Charles quickly garnered attention for its approachable but luxe feel and Corbin’s signature antique touches. “The Charles almost immediately had soul,” Homsey says.

“You walk into the room, and you feel good. It may be the smells from the kitchen. It may be the hip hop playing on the stereo. It may be the beautiful chandelier over table 12—it’s all those things.” Food is served family-style doesn’t shy away from spice, acid, fat, and salt; Martin describes the menu as electric. The Charles became an instant success, and 18 months later, the group was ready to riff again The four had set up their offic in a building next to The Charles, which a locksmith owned. Martin was general manager at The Charles, running day-to-day operations. Homsey, still working full-time for Z Resorts, was a silent partner. The Sees were dividing time between their firm in Oklahoma Ci y and Dallas.

Realizing their landlord didn’t need all the space he had, the group asked if they could run a restaurant out of the back of the building. “That’s how Bar Charles came about,” Martin says. It opened in the summer of 2019, and now, what the group says was an afterthought has become a popular cocktail haven.

S E E ING T H E S U CCESS of the two restaurants, Homsey exited from ZaZa in April 2020—despite the havoc the pandemic wasd wreaking on the industry.

“There were some anxious moments, but we were in a great financial position,” he says. “The restaurant had done really, really well, and we had confidence that things were going to normalize.” Now formally operating under the Duro Hospitality Group moniker, the partners got serious. “[The pandemic] allowed us to sit down and talk about where we saw this going,” Homsey says. “We began talking about concepts. ... Whereas a lot of restaurateurs were just trying to stay alive, we had our foot on the gas, and we were having conversations with developers.”

I N T E R I O R P H OTO G R A P H Y BY M A N N Y R O D R I G U E Z

continued from page 041

R OSS AND CORB IN Sees’ father, who began the firm they now run with Corbin’s wife, had designed the Oklahoma City home of Homsey’s parents, and Corbin connected with Homsey after graduating from college.

Corbin had moved to Chicago to work for Holly Hunt design, fir t in marketing then overseeing furniture production, but he’d kept in touch. “We’ve always stayed in contact and started to talk about trying to figure out a way to work together,” Homsey says.

The Sees, whose expertise is in residential design, wanted to branch out into hospitality. Homsey gave them that opportunity. “I called Corbin and said, ‘Get your ass down here. You’re going to buy this piece of real estate with us. Let me introduce you to your new partner, Chas,’” Homsey says. Corbin roped in Ross, who specialized in interior architecture and space planning, and the four met up in New York for the fir t time in 2014. The Sees brothers were immediately drawn to the opportunity to design a public space with themselves as the client. “It’s a different challenge to do hospitality,” Corbin says.

The industry was rebuilding after the recession, and very few restaurateurs were staking their bets in fin dining. But Martin, Homsey, and the Sees wanted to make a killing in the rebound that was to come, and go

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Among them was Mike Ablon, who had redeveloped much of the Design District. Ablon reached out just to check in, but Martin wanted to talk about the developer’s recent purchase of The Grape in Lower Greenville.

Ablon had acquired it after the venue closed in 2019, following nearly 40 years in business. Duro ended up buying the iconic space from Ablon and set about creating a new concept with The Charles’ DNA, but no single item from that restaurant’s menu. “We’ve always taken this approach: We allow the space and the neighborhood to dictate what we put there,” Martin says.

DURO’S GREATEST HITS Duro Hospitality Group has launched three restaurants in four years and has four more on the lineup for 2022. Here’s a look at their concepts thus far:

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Beef tartare (top left) is a popular dish at The Charles, which also features tomahawk steaks from A Bar N Ranch.

The exquisitely designed but tiny (900 square feet) Bar Charles serves light bites, cocktails, and bubbles (above).

THE CHARLES.

SISTER.

Launched in 2018, the fine dining Italian restaurant is the group’s founding concept, serving traditional Italian favorites.

Named for its role as The Charles’ sister concept, the venue marked Duro’s entrance into Lower Greenville when it opened last September in what once was The Grape.

It serves Italian and Mediterranean food.

BAR CHARLES. An extension of The Charles opened in May 2019 in the back of a building next door, offering up aperitifs and light bites.

CAFÉ DURO. The group plans to open an Italian-

The founders got with Chastain, whom they added as a partner last year, to work on the menu. They describe the approach as “Italian-ish,” with a nod to the Mediterranean, weaving in Homsey’s background. Corbin and Ross got to work on its design. “A lot of why people liked what we did at The Charles is because it didn’t look like what everybody else was doing, and it looked like it obviously came from somebody’s brain and heart, and not a Pinterest board,” Corbin says. “So, we’re still trying to design that way.” The new concept, called Sister, opened last September. Thus far, it’s adding revenue matching that of The Charles to Duro’s bottom line. “It’s far exceeding our expectations,” Homsey says.

Up next is a small coffee and wine bar, Café Duro, which will open next to Sister this spring. “Picture the little tobacky bar in Rome that you walk past, and in the window, there are pastries and pizza and people standing having an espresso—it’ll be that joint,” Martin says.

Duro has leased the three apartments above Sister, where they plan to soon open a micro-hotel. It will be a matter of dipping their toes into hospitality, as they eventually hope to establish a larger hotel concept, too.

The partners also brought property on Cole Street and North Riverfront Boulevard, where they plan to debut an entirely new concept this summer. “It will be somewhat unassuming from the street,” Martin says. “Then, you’ll walk into this 1960s-inspired hacienda.” At the close of 2022, the foursome also plan to open a restaurant in the former Highland Park Soda Fountain and Pharmacy space on Travis and Knox streets, where they will venture into lunch service. Martin believes it will be the group’s biggest chart-topper yet. “It will be our magnum opus, up to this point,” he says

style café and wine bar next to Sister in the coming weeks.

CASA DURO. The partners have leased several apartments above Sister from Dallas developer Mike Ablon, gave them a complete renovation. They plan to repurpose the units into a micro hotel, which is scheduled to open this spring.

DESIGN DISTRICT CONCEPT. Sometime this summer, Duro hopes to launch an entirely new, still unnamed, concept at Cole and Riverfront in the Dallas Design District.

The look and feel will mirror a 1960s hacienda.

HIGHLAND PARK CONCEPT. The partners have

landed a coveted spot for their latest venture: the historic former Highland Park Soda and Pharmacy building on Knox and Travis streets, which closed in 2018 after 106 years in business.

They plan to debut a European concept and break into lunch service with their yetto-be-named eatery, and say it could be their biggest hit yet.

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WHEN ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Life is what happens while we’re busy making plans. And nowhere is life happening faster than in Downtown Dallas. Now is the time to see why the heart of the third fastest growing region in America is the premier destination for business and residential relocation.

downtowndallasnow.com

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FIELD NOTES

N O R T H T E X A S B U S I N E S S A D V I C E , A N A LY S I S ,

a n d

C O M M E N TA R Y

LESSON LEARNED

Letting Go of a Scarcity Mindset Lauren McKinnon, Founder and CEO

AUDREY SHTECINJO

PROJ EC T MOCKING BIRD

“prior to founding project mockingbird, while working in corporate america, i would think, ‘How do we cut budget? How do we make sure this is going to pass a board meeting?’ Once I got out on my own and had a little bit of success, I wanted to let go of the scarcity mindset. Instead of trying to sell the vision, I set it. So, when I hear a lot of business owners ask, ‘Why am I still a small business and not the huge enterprise I want to be?’ It’s oftentimes because we haven’t shifted our mindset and asked, ‘What is that 2 percent I can pour a bit of vision on to push us a tiny bit further into the future?’ I’m not saying you can manifest your way to success. But there is a responsibility on business owners to take our teams where they need to go. That’s what people are counting on us to do.” —As told to Ben Swanger

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FIELD NOTES

H E A LT H C A R E

Healthcare’s Retail Revolution story by WILL MADDOX

R

rising insurance costs and in-home and curbside innovations are causing consumers to look more closely at their options for healthcare.

Gone are the days when receiving medical care at a retail development storefront was considered subpar, and health systems are quickly leaning into the consumerism that has inundated the industry.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, deductibles (the minimum out-of-pocket expenses paid before insurance kicks in) have jumped 68.4 percent since 2011, from an average of $991 to $1,669. Last year, 85 percent of all workers had a deductible in their plan, up from 74 percent a decade ago, and for companies with fewer than 200 employees, the average deductible is $2,379, compared to $1,397 for larger companies.

These expenses, in addition to the appeal of new, more-convenient services and a societal push for wellness, are spurring consumers to shop around for insurance providers and plans.

They want more locations, extended hours, and quality services with little increase in costs.

There’s also a growing demand for transpar-

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P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y M A R T Í S A N S ; C O U R T E S Y O F T E X A S H E A LT H R E S O U R C E S

With consumers more likely to shop around for healthcare, providers are reinventing their centers to improve the experience.

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FIELD NOTES

ency. Hospitals are now required to post prices for most services and procedures, and although these figures can be cumbersome to navigate, price transparency allows consumers to compare value in a way they could not have before.

Health systems are responding by growing their lower-cost services and moving closer to patients. Texas Health Resources has opened more than a dozen of its smaller Breeze Urgent Care facilities on the north side of Dallas-Fort Worth, and Medical City Healthcare has 45 CareNow urgent care clinics between Denton and Burleson. “Systems are more cognizant about how they spend their capital,” says Ethan Garner, South-Central healthcare lead at commercial real estate firm JLL. “It used to be that the hospital systems would just look out on the horizon, and see where the rooftops are going, and go buy large land banks, and hold them for a long period of time. I think they’re being a lot more strategic and judicious with how they spend their capital and go about acquiring land.”

Systems are also investing more heavily in smaller, neighborhood clinics and brand awareness for those locations—bringing healthcare to consumers to meet convenience demands.

“There’s going to be less of an emphasis on larger bed towers and more of an emphasis on community-based hospital facilities that are smaller in nature,” Garner says. “They will be 20, 50, or maybe 75 beds. But they’re not going to be dropping down 300- or 400-bed towers in communities anymore.”

For start-up practices, costs and convenience are even more of a concern because there isn’t brand recognition and providers have to hustle for more patients rather than throwing a logo on the wall. Those smaller margins make retail healthcare locations even more attractive. “Historically, a lot of people were afraid to go into a strip center, but that’s kind of been thrown out the window,” says Thomas Allen, founder of Practice Real Estate, a healthcare real estate firm. “It’s a less expensive option getting to market.”

Consumers and systems are exploring new models of care in new locations to address a growing push for an overall-wellness approach to healthcare. Physical and mental health, sports medicine, and managing chronic disease don’t

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need to be in massive, more expensive health centers. “It’s about creating an environment that is focused on providing a wellness environment that keeps people out of the hospital and gives them a better quality of life,” says Roman Bogoslavsky, chief investment officer at Cambridge Holdings, a Dallas-based developer of medical facilities.

Systems such as Texas Health Resources, which is known for its award-winning hospitals, are embracing an even newer model of care delivery. Called comprehensive ambulatory care, the new centers are somewhere between urgent care and a hospital, clustering primary care physicians and specialists in one location, making it easy for patients who need to visit more than one doctor. This means labs, imaging, wellness checks, and specialist visits can be accomplished in one visit, without the logistical challenges posed by a visit to a large hospital.

These developments can also be planned to reflect the community. “The demographics are different in every market,” Jon Sullivan, Texas Health’s vice president of real estate operations, says. “Hospitals are expensive to build, so we don’t want to create beds where we don’t need them, and we want to provide the services early. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a hospital in some of these markets, but we are focused on consumer needs.”

H E A LT H C A R E T R E N D S

Downsizing Development Nearly every major health system in the region has built a large, acute care hospital in Frisco to serve the growing population in Collin County. Texas Health Hospital Frisco was built in partnership with UT Southwestern in 2019—a comprehensive, 325,000-squarefoot facility with 63 beds.

The partners are expanding this facility, but in other areas, tactics are changing.

THR built what it calls “integrated health campuses” in Burleson and Prosper, which are much smaller mixtures of hospital services and physician office space. The Burleson facility is 53,000 square feet, balancing trends of a smaller footprint, moving closer to patients, and wellness, as it is equipped with a fitne s center. “We didn’t necessarily see at that time that there was a need for beds,” Sullivan says.

“We’re looking in the marketplace, trying to figu e out the specific needs and h w can we help fill them ”

EASY ACCESS

Texas Health’s newer, smaller facilities are more consumer-friendly than large hospitals.

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ON TOPIC

What has been your toughest business challenge and how did you overcome it? edited by BEN SWANGER

illustrations by JAKE MEYERS

DARON BABCOCK

SARA TERRY

SCOTT A. WOOD

CEO B O N T O N FA R M S

Executive Vice President C O L L I E R S I N T E R N AT I O N A L

Co-Founder and CEO T R U E N O R T H A DV I S O R S

“I’d have to say it was navigating through a period of time when several members of my leadership team began to see our future differently than I did It felt like an attempted coup, as different voices began t sow confusion among our team and in the market. Leadership during times when some of those closest to you may no longer believe in your vision is incredibly challenging. I hope that I never experience that again.”

“My toughest challenge has been growing beyond the role that others see me in. I’ve overcome this multiple times: in 2006, when I pivoted from being a property manager to a broker; in 2014, when I moved my market focus from Atlanta to Dallas; and most recently, in 2020, when I changed firms to lead y own team. In each instance, the challenge was the same—believing that taking on these risks would allow me to achieve greater things.”

“We have been positioned somewhat defensively for about two years now. That doesn’t mean we’ve been on the sidelines; we’ve remained fully invested but have strategically rotated to areas where we thought the markets offere better opportunities ahead, such as direct private investments and other alternatives. We also created a way for clients to stay fully allocated and invested while providing a layer of protection or insurance, which is unique.”

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1/26/22 3:24 PM

April 26, 2022

Leadership Forum & Awards Celebration

4:00-8:30 PM OMNI DALLAS HOTEL Join us as we celebrate the impact of women leaders across Texas and have meaningful discussions about the

PRE S EN TED BY

importance of belonging and connection with corporate and community leaders.

Bonnie Clinton

Radha Agrawal CO-CHAIRS:

Bonnie Clinton TOYOTA NORT H A MERICA Ana I. Hernandez P L AINS CAP I TAL B ANK Ana I. Hernandez

SPEAKER:

Radha Agrawal

S O CIAL EN T REP RENEUR • C OMMUNI T Y

ARCHI T EC T • AU T HOR • C O- FOUNDER, T HINX & DAYBRE AKER

Patricia Rodriguez Christian

Arlene Ford

Lynn McBee

Thana Simmons

Patricia Jasso

CO-CHAIRS:

Bonnie Clinton TOYOTA NORT H AMERICA Ana I. Hernandez P L AINS CAP I TAL B ANK

Maura Women Helping Women Award Recipients

Young Leader Award Recipients

SPEAKER:

Radha Agrawal

S O CIAL EN T REP RENE UR • C O MMUNI T Y

Patricia Rodriguez Christian Arlene Ford EQUI T Y INQUIRY P RO JEC T, INC Patricia Jasso SENIOR P L ANE T/RE T IRED AT &T M AN AGER Lynn McBee YOUNG WO MEN ' S P REPAR ATORY NE T WORK Thana Simmons VIOL A' S HOUSE

ARCHI T EC T • AU T HOR • C O-FOUNDER, T HINX & DAYBRE AKER CRC GROUP INC.

Stacy Johnson

CEO / FOUNDER OF

CEN T R AL T E X A S TABL E OF GR ACE

Stacy Johnson

Sharareh Kermanshachi T HE UNIVERSI T Y OF T E X A S AT ARL INGTON

Sharareh Kermanshachi

Event Agenda 3:30 PM Registration 4-6 PM Leadership Forums

6 PM Networking Reception 7 PM Celebration and Dinner Featuring a keynote address from author

Sponsorships begin at $1,000 Individual Tickets: $430 Virtual Leadership Forum Tickets: $43 per person

and social entrepreneur Radha Agrawal

Choose one award recipient per time slot and join a moderated conversation about about creating belonging and building connections

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8:30 PM Belong Book Signing with Radha Agrawal

Learn more and register: txwfleadership.org

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29 FINALISTS

CO R P O R ATE CO U N S E L AWA R DS Why Big Game USA is a college football MVP

CEO

THE BUSINESS OF BEAUTY North Texas cosmetics and skincare brands are giving major players in NY and LA a run for their money.

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The chief exec at Vari reinvented office furniture.

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FINALISTS

EY’s Entrepreneur Of The Year

CEO OF THE YEAR JASON McCANN

Writing a check is no longer enough when it comes to nonprofi and community involvement.

Nonprofit & Corporate Citizenship Awards winner S H AW N W I L L I A M S of Allyn Media

May: Finance + Faces of North Texas Business Space Reservation: March 25 June/July: Entrepreneurs and Women's Leadership + The State of Healthcare Roundtable + Executive Education + EY Finalist Space Reservation: May 27 August: Nonprofit and orporate Citizenship + Be in Good Company Space Reservation: June 23

Ample digital opportunities, special sections, and custom sponsorships available as well.

Contact Gillea Allison to get started: gillea@dmagazine.com or 214.939.3636.

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MARCH 2022

OFF DUTY THE PERSONAL SIDE

o f

DFW BUSINESS LEADERS

PURSUITS

Going the Distance At AT&T, chief executive Anne Chow runs a $37 billion business unit. In the ring, she perfects her right hook. story by KELSEY J. VANDERSCHOOT portrait by SEAN BERRY

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W

OFF DUTY

LEFTOVERS

The one-liner from the 1999 movie Life inspired the name for Garcia’s business.

“You gonna eat your cornbread?”

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G R E AT E R G O O D

Cornbread Hustle and Cheri Garcia help ex-inmates fi d second chances.

Cornbread Hustle is fundamentally like any other staffing age y, but it’s unique in that it provides second chances for the formerly incarcerated.

Founder Cheri Garcia understands the need for redemption after she kicked a high school methamphetamine habit through entrepreneurship, “a career that offered me the same highs and lows of meth,” she says. She shifted her focus to volunteer in prisons teaching an entrepreneurship program.

Cornbread Hustle’s mission is to walk alongside the ex-inmates to provide employment guidance, and its resources are shared with prisons across America.

In 2021, 1,200 clients have found jobs amid a pandemic.

“People who have lived with nothing are the ones that give the most, and those are my people.”

— Catherine Rosas

C H OW C O U R T E S Y O F A T & T ; G A R C I A C O U R T E S Y O F D A N N Y C A M P B E L L P H O T O G R A P H Y

Chow quickly became hooked on the novelty and intensity of the sport.

“What I do love about it is that it requires incredible focus physically, mentally, and emotionally, and it serves like a complete release,” she says. It has also helped her build a community.

“I’ve met some of my closest friends in Dallas [through the sport],” she says. when ceo of at&t business anne chow “I call them my ‘boxing besties.’” She has attendmoved to DFW in 2015, she needed an emotional ed professional boxing matches and UFC fights outlet. “I had all of the life stressors happening all with this group, and once even had dinner with Muhammed Ali’s daughter, Leila. “These are at once—a geographic move, new job, new house,” things that never in a million years would I have she says. “And I was also rolling up to a milestone thought would be part of my recreation that I birthday.” Chow had hoped when she reached would still enjoy,” she says. that birthday, she’d be fit and healthy. “It was the At the beginning, Chow embraced the sport exact opposite,” she says. So, she went searching perhaps too enthusiastically, training daily. for a means of re-grounding herself, discovering “There was a point back then that I was going it at the grand opening of a Title Boxing Club every day, which is probably not great because I near her home. She could only do few of the boxing moves demonstrated in that first class, but she tore my rotator cuff,” she recalls. The possible culprit? Her favorite move, the right hook. “I feel like still signed up for a year-long membership on the spot. “It was just a realization that I needed to do it’s my best, most-powerful punch,” Chow says.

The surgery and recovery were brutal, knocking something for myself,” she says. training out of her regimen.

“The reason why I was crying so badly was because I realized that I would not be able to do boxing for a while,” she adds.

Now, after making a full recovery, Chow says boxing helps keep her leadership skills at their best. “I find that when you are feeling good physically, and when you are feeling grounded physically, that is the foundation for bringing your best self to work,” she says.

Chow works with her personal trainer and takes classes a few times weekly, but she BOUNCING BACK Anne Chow is getting hopes to up her cadence. “I’d back to boxing after a rotator cuff ear love to get more dedicated time temporarily knocked and work on my technique even her out of the ring. more,” she says.

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We asked area CEOs which two local business leaders they’d most like to have dinner with. Interesting conversations are guaranteed.

“I’d choose Harlan Crow.

He’s a fascinating man with a passionate love of history and art. I recently visited his library—it’s incredible. I am in awe of that kind of deep and intellectual passion and knowledge. I’d also choose Andy Beal—highly intelligent, risk-taker, and successful entrepreneur. He’s a complex dealmaker, and I am fascinated by that!”

BERNARD “BERNIE” UECHTRITZ

Founder, Icon Global

“I had the privilege of meeting Caroline Rose Hunt and Margaret McDermott before they passed away. Both women were incredibly instrumental in building Dallas, and I would love to be able to spend more time with them and hear about their visions for our community.”

L I N DA M A R I E S I LV E R

CEO, Perot Museum of Nature and Science

D I N N E R PA RT Y

edited by BEN SWANGER

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY C A M E R O N W H I T M A N

Reservations for Three

“I would randomly pick a couple of young entrepreneurs. It’s not interesting to me to eat dinner with leaders or celebrities. It’s a lot more appealing to share a meal with people who have far different life experiences than I do.”

MARK CUBAN

Owner, Dallas Mavericks

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TROPICAL VIBE Rooms at Hôtel Barrière’s Le Carl Gustaf were designed with a metaphorical sailboat in mind.

COOL BREEZE

Large terraces at Le Carl Gustaf take advantage of St. Barts’ indoor-outdoor way of life.

W E L L T R AV E L E D

Gustavia, St. Barts Discover why Foley & Lardner attorney Chris Converse loves to escape to this French West Indies isle.

HIGH LIFE BEACH SCENE

St. Barts is known for its pristine “white sugar” sand beaches, all of which are open to the public.

With luxury seaside homes and hotels, St. Barts is known as the French Riviera of the West.

SWEET FINISH

Always save room for dessert at Le Fouquet’s.

The restaurant’s classic Mille feuille is irresistible.

SEASIDE SPA

Services at Le Carl Gustaf’s Spa Diane Barriére feature products

by Biologique Recherche.

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P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F H Ô T E L B A R R I È R E L E C A R L G U S T A F A N D CO M M IT T E D U TO U R I S M E D E SA I N T- B A R T H .

story by BIANCA R. MONTES

OFF DUTY

HARBOR TOWN

White homes and buildings with red-tile roofs line the protected harbor of Gustavia, the capital city of St. Barts.

P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F H Ô T E L B A R R I È R E L E C A R L G U S T A F A N D CO M M IT T E D U TO U R I S M E D E SA I N T- B A R T H .

J

just west of the british virgin islands in the Caribbean, Saint Barthélemy—or, as it’s more commonly known, St. Barts—is a small, French island paradise with about 10,000 residents. Its capital, Gustavia, is an intimate affair best viewed on foot. Rows of high-end restaurants and shops are complemented by views of turquoise waters dotted with yachts and bordered by white sand beaches. Hôtel Barrière Le Carl Gustaf is nestled in a hillside among red-roofed white villas. The only hotel in Gustavía that boasts views of the port, it’s known for its French sophistication.

Reimagined by luxury French hotel group Barrière (known for properties such as Les Neiges in Courchevel and Le Royal in La Baule), the hotel reopened in 2020, following renovation after the devastating hurricanes in 2017. Renowned designers Gilles & Boissier created a simple yet welcoming atmosphere by combining a tropical spirit with a hint of the French Riviera and bright and neutral fabrics. (Fun fact: the designers say they went into the project with a metaphorical sailboat in mind).

Steps from the iconic Shell Beach, Le Carl Gustaf hosts a collection of bungalows and suites

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(including the penthouse) and Villa Diane, a five-bedroom residence with two terraces and an infinity pool that looks over Gustavia Bay, as well as a butler and majordomo.

During a recent visit, I stayed in one of the bungalows and was impressed by the attention to detail. The terraces, roofs, and pergolas allow guests to enjoy the breeze and create the perfect environment for rest and relaxation. Other details include a pillow bar (so guests can pick their favorite options), private decks with plunge pools, and marble bathrooms with luxurious L‘Officine Universelle Buly 1803 bath products.

Hotel amenities include yoga classes (which my friends and I enjoyed on a private deck), a gym, and Spa Diane Barrière. There, I opted for the facial, which comes with a personalized skin assessment. The continental breakfast included with your stay is extensive; try the French toast and crepes with salted caramel, if you’re up to it.

For additional dining on site, you can choose between a lively, Mediterranean-style eatery on the beach called Shellona (try the truffle pizza), and Le Fouquet’s, a Michelin-starred Parisian restaurant from chef Pierre Gagnaire.

Le Fouquet’s is an experience itself. The wraparound porch blurs the divide between indoor and outdoor dining. It is almost impossible to pick a standout dish from Gagnaire’s menu, which uses local spices and flavors to put a fresh spin on French classics. But it might just be the charred octopus and the truffle pasta. Be sure to participate in the sensory experience of a perfume cocktail (fraBY AIR OR SEA Visitors to St. Barts can grance-inspired drinks), crafted arrive via ship or fly in o

by Emanuele Balestra, the hoits unique airport. tel’s mixologist and botanist.

As for island exploits, I recommend renting a yacht or catamaran and spending the day snorkeling in the crystal-clear waters. Stop into M’Bolo for a bottle of vanilla rum, and head to Le Select Café for one of its famous cheeseburgers. If you are flying in and out of St. Martin, check your bags, head over to Maho Beach, and watch the planes land.

T R AV E L T I P S

A Private Paradise Foley & Lardner attorney Chris Converse discovered St. Barts on a trip with his brother a dozen years ago and fell in love with the beauty and privacy of its pristine beaches.

He has made a few return visits since and is planning another with his wife and children this summer. Converse typically rents a villa overlooking the water and makes time for two of his favorite spots: a cheeseburger at Le Select (rumored to be the inspiration for Jimmy Buffett’s song “Cheeseburger in Paradise”) and a nightclub called Le Ti. “I’m not by any means a nightclubber,” he says, “but it’s very unique.” He recommends traveling to St. Barts during the summer off-se son to escape the hot Texas climate and experience the seclusion the island provides.

—Kelsey J. Vanderschoot

MARCH 2022

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OFF DUTY

ROLE MODELS

Molina’s parents taught him to be an advocate for family and values.

CULTURAL FUN

A young Molina preparing to perform La Danza de Los Viejitos (dance of the old men) in Chiapas.

ROOTS

Chief Financial Officer AVO C A D O S F R O M M E X I C O

as told to PRESTON RIOS illustration by JAKE MEYERS

058

FAMILY FIRST

Molina as an infant (center) with his parents and other relatives, celebrating his baptism.

miguel molina serves as cfo of the fastgrowing Avocados From Mexico, an Irving organization that handles marketing for avocado packers and importers. Here, he recalls his journey to America from Chiapas, Mexico’s southern-most state, inspired by a close friend who dared to dream big.

“When I was in my senior year, a friend of mine asked me to spend Lent with him and his family in a little town in Queretaro, which is in Central Mexico. During dinner, he started talking about his plans for the future. He was going to finish undergrad, then he wanted to get a master’s degree at the University of Michigan.

After that, he wanted to go back to his hometown, become the mayor of IDYLLIC the town, then the governor CHILDHOOD Molina says his of the state. Until that day, early years were filled with ma y my goal was to go back and opportunities to work for my dad at his hardlearn and play.

ware store. I remember sleeping, looking at the ceiling, saying, ‘What could I do different?’ And I said, ‘I’m going to study English, and I want to get my MBA in the U.S., and third, I want to represent my country, working at an international company in the U.S.’ This professor [at Monterrey Tech] asked me to join Mission Foods in the U.S. When I graduated, I went to Vancouver, Canada, sold my car, and spent two and a half months learning English. I spent 13 years at the company and finally decided to go back [to school] and do my MBA. That conversation with my friend was an interesting experience that changed my life.”

P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F M I G U E L M O L I N A

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This small investment may get you some of the most qualified people in your industry who will become invested in your product.

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My first job out of high school was as a mental health technician, and in seven years I worked my way up to b ecoming CEO of that facility. I had a lot of jobs in the middle of that ladder, and many required 14-hour workdays. We would have the best employees for six or seven months, and then their energy would disappear. The turnover would begin. When I started Connections Wellness Group, eliminating turnover was a priority. I wasn’t going to praise my employees for working 60-hour weeks or skipping vacations with their families. I was going to approach it another way.

When we opened Connections Wellness Group, the owners and leaders came together and determined how the jobs we came from can be done better. We decided that one of our main tasks would be learning how to keep a forever employee. Our mission is to rethink everything.

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A former hospital CEO and a current professor at TCU and Texas A&M Commerce, he was voted Social Worker of the Year in 2018, Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019, and leads Denton County’s fastest-growing healthcare organization, Connections Wellness Group, receiving more than 100 distinguished awards in its first four years of operation. Connections Wellness Group is a nationally accredited healthcare practice able to care for any need, from acute depression to the common cold and everything in between.

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

People Make the Deals Happen There’s a reason why Dallas-Fort Worth is considered the capital of the commercial real estate industry.

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY E L I Z A B E T H L A V I N

what a time to be covering commercial real estate in North Texas. The industry is on fire here, especially in the industrial and multifamily sectors, with deals being announced almost daily. But what I’m most excited about, as D CEO’s new executive editor and head of our real estate coverage, is connecting with the personalities who make the deals come to fruition.

I recently sat down with NTCAR Hall of Fame committee members Lynn Dowdle, Robert Grunnah, Chris Teesdale, and Darrell Hurmis. From their famous corner table at Sevy’s—a venerated hotspot for commercial real estate power lunches— several familiar faces stopped by to catch up with old friends. If the last year has taught me anything, it’s that we’re all champing at the bit to get out and about to reconnect with colleagues.

I’m keenly aware that personal relationships are the foundation of this exciting industry, and it is this personal side of business that fascinates me. From legendary leaders like Roger Staubach, a pioneering force in tenant representation, to the 2022 Power Brokers who can sometimes spend years orchestrating their next big deals (see page 101), D CEO’s Commercial Real Estate Annual is a celebration of the people in the industry. These leaders strive every day to build their organizations and make our city a better place to live and work. I can’t wait to help tell that important story. I hope you’ll sign up for our weekly e-newsletter (dmagazine. com/site/newsletters). Please keep me posted on your deals and story ideas. You can reach me at brandon.call@ dmagazine.com.

R E A L E S TAT E A N N U A L 2 0 2 2

CONTENTS P78

The Biggest Real Estate Stories of 2021 From industrial and multifamily, to data centers and property sales, North Texas excelled as one of the top markets in the nation. story by BRANDON J. CALL AND CHRISTINE PEREZ

P84

What to Watch in 2022 Dallas-Fort Worth is expected to lead the post-pandemic rebound. Here are some projects and trends to keep an eye on. story by BRANDON J. CALL AND CHRISTINE PEREZ

P87

A Matter of Opinion More than 100 industry experts write for D CEO’s commercial real estate website as contributing editors. story by BRANDON J. CALL

P97

The Ultimate Power Broker After retiring from football, Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach disrupted commercial real estate with a revolutionary approach to brokerage. story by CHRISTINE PEREZ

P101

Power Brokers 2022 Executives at 99 North Texas firms empl ying more than 2,400 brokers tell us who generates the most revenue for their companies.

Brandon Call Executive Editor

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Dallas-Fort Worth fl xed its industrial muscles in 2021 as the nation’s top market. The region added to its gravitas in the sector with more than 50 million square feet of industrial space under construction at the end of the year. (To put that into perspective, the state of Pennsylvania was second with about 34 million square feet underway.)

Industrial leasing, too, continues to see record demand from e-commerce, third-party logistics firms, and ood and beverage distributors, as pandemic supply chain shortfalls meant even more growth opportunities for the region. Last year, HomeGoods announced a 1-million-square-foot build-to-suit, Carter Park East in Fort Worth, and the country’s largest retailer, Walmart, selected AllianceTexas for another 1-million-square-footer.

Activity in 2022 remains fie ce for industrial hotbeds like northeast and southeast Tarrant County, southeast Dallas and the I-45 corridor, and DFW Airport.

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THE B I

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REAL ESTATE STORIES OF story by

BRANDON J. CALL

AND

CHRISTINE PEREZ

North Texas remains a hotbed of activity. Here’s a look at projects, deals, and trends that stood out last year.

R E A L E STATE P R O F E SS I O N A L S I N DA L L AS - F O R T WO RT H have a way of creating their own destiny. When challenges arise, they sift through the chaos to discover opportunities. Such was the case in 2021, when, despite economic and pandemic uncertainties, North Texas excelled as one of the top commercial property markets in the nation. It was No. 1 in industrial and multifamily development and leasing activity, as well as hotel development. Data center demand hit an all-time high.

Investors paid record prices for luxury office prop ties, both in total volume (The Crescent in Uptown) and per square foot (The Terraces in Preston Center). These are just some of news and trends breaking in 2021. We reviewed our coverage and talked with key market players to create our list of the 10 biggest stories of the year, detailed on the following pages. Even with ongoing challenges relating to construction supplies and labor, and infl tion concerns on the horizon, most industry experts expect job growth and relocation activity to continue propelling North Texas to the top of the real estate heap. Colliers International’s Global Investor Outlook puts Dallas as the No. 1 market for investments in 2022.

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Companies continue to seek out Dallas-Fort Worth for its central location and pro-business environment. Here are some highlights from 2021:

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Infrastructure engineering giant AECOM, holding a market cap of about $10 billion, relocated from Los Angeles to Dallas, becoming the sixth Fortune 500 company to move its headquarters to the region in the last six years.

Eyewear company Wiley X moved its headquarters from the Bay Area to Frisco; First Foundation, a financial servi es company, relocated to Dallas from Irvine; and Wedgewood chose Farmers Branch over Los Angeles.

People are moving here, too. Texas added the most residents of any state—including both migration and births—with an estimated 310,288 people moving here between July 1, 2020 and July 1, 2021. By this July, the population will reach 29.5 million.

Big moves on the horizon: The Dallas Regional Chamber is tracking 111 projects that are considering a relocation to Dallas-Fort Worth—more than four times the 25 projects the chamber was tracking before the pandemic.

MULTIFAMILY MARKET ON FIRE.

Data center demand surges to an all-time high.

While Northern Virginia and Silicon Valley pace the country in data center development, demand in Dallas-Fort Worth spiked in 2021 as financial, echnology, and insurance users guzzled up capacity. In total, 89 megawatts of data center space was absorbed locally last year. So, what’s ahead in 2022? According to a recent report from Cushman & Wakefield, the region’s historically high oversupply of data center space is no more, as the demand for turnkey spaces continues to be at an all-time high. The market should expect to see some big-time data center development deals announced in the year ahead, C&W reports.

North Texas led the country in apartment demand in 2021— accounting for a whopping 7.4 percent share of the total U.S. market.

The region ended the year with nearly 50,000 total units leased— almost double the previous high in 2019, according to Richardsonbased analytics firm Real age. So, it should come as no surprise that DFW led the nation in multifamily construction, too. Even so, developers are having a hard time keeping up in a market where the vacancy rate is a paltry 2.8 percent. Following the laws of supply and demand, average rents in the region jumped by 17 percent—the largest growth on record for North Texas, RealPage reports. Demand is not expected to taper anytime soon; the region added 144,900 jobs last year, fully recovering from losses brought on by the pandemic.

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The Uptown skyline will change when Granite Proerty’s 23 Springs comes to fruition.

Dallas developers are a fearless bunch.

In the past, that has gotten them into trouble. But with lenders tightening the reins, they’ve not been able to bust out of the gates as quickly as they once did. Things are different when developers have a lead tenant—or direct access to capital. Last October, Ryan Cos. announced it would move its headquarters to a new 24-story tower in Legacy West in Plano, designed by Gensler and developed by Ryan LLC (no relation). Other projects in the works include two towers from Granite Properties—the 26-story 23 Springs at Cedar Springs Road in Uptown and 18-story Granite Park Six in Plano. Corporate campus developer KDC aims to expand the CityLine campus in Richardson with three towers of 13, 15, and 18 stories. And in Frisco, Jerry Jones is adding an 11-story tower at The Star and neighbor Craig Hall is underway with a 16-story office building, part of a mixed-use phase that also includes a 19-story apartment tower and boutique hotel.

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Sam Moon Group is well underway with its 283-room JW Marriott in the Dallas Arts District.

Dallas was named the top city for new hotel projects in 2021 by hospitality trade database Lodging Econometrics. The local market had 147 projects totaling 17,711 hotel rooms under construction at the end of the third quarter of 2021, leading Atlanta (139 projects, 18,659 rooms), Los Angeles (133 projects, 22,145 rooms), New York City (130 projects, 22,417 rooms), and Houston (90 projects, 9,225 rooms). Notable hospitality projects of 2021 include the 200room Hotel Drover, an Autograph Collection Hotel, in Fort Worth; Sam Moon Group’s 15-floo , 283-room JW Marriott in the Dallas Arts District; a 12-story, 300-room Plush Hotel under construction at the Galleria; a 21-floo , 132-room hotel tower coming soon to the Harwood District; and the ultra-luxe, 223-room InterContinental Dallas in Uptown.

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TENANTS ON THE MOVE It’s not unusual for companies to relocate when their leases expire. But when a building loses its namesake tenant and a longtime private social club to another high-profile prope ty, it is big news. After three decades in Chase Tower, JPMorgan Chase confirmed in ovember that it was leaving for Hunt Consolidated’s headquarters at 1900 N. Akard St. Just a few weeks later, Dallas Petroleum Club confirmed repo ts that it, too, would be making the move, with its venue opening on the top two floor of the Hunt facility at the end of 2022. The new tenants will be getting a high-profile ameni y, with the expansion of Klyde Warren Park.

J W M A R R I OT T C O U R T E S Y O F H K S ; P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F C O M P A N I E S

The old guard is making way for the new at commercial real estate firms ac oss North Texas.

After nearly 20 years with JLL and The Staubach Co., Brooke Armstrong was lured away to join CBRE in September as president of advisory services.

Armstrong now oversees leasing, sales, valuations, finan e, and property management in DFW from the company’s Dallas HQ.

Just six years after joining Cushman & Wakefield following a military career—at the age of 35— Doug Jones was selected in April to lead the firm s Dallas office. He replaced Ran Holman, who had departed to take a statewide leadership role at Newmark.

Allison Johnston Frizzo marketed a 1.8 million-square-foot office portfolio as vice president at Gaedeke Group. Then, last September, she took the reins as managing director of Hart Commercial, a spinoff of Hart Advisors, led by Tanya Hart Little.

B ROO K E AR M STRO N G

DO U G JONES

ALLI SO N J O H N STO N FR IZZO

Some 450 new residential units will soon be delivered in Dallas’ Oak Lawn neighborhood. Last May, Mike Ablon’s development company, PegasusAblon, hit go on two 18-story residential towers along Cedar Springs Road. The land was purchased from Caven Enterprises, which will continue to operate popular LGBTQ bars: J.R’s Bar & Grill, Sue Ellen’s, Station 4, and The Mining Co. Amid some outcry, Ablon told D CEO: “I was extremely interested [in the project], but only if we could together figu e out how to preserve those buildings and establishments. I was not going to be the person who tore down the gayborhood.”

RECORD-BREAKING PROPERTY SALES

T H E C R E S C E N T. It was the development that launched Uptown and remains one the most recognizable—and sought-after—buildings in North Texas. So, its jaw-dropping $700 million price tag did not faze Fort Worth investor John Goff, who named his company Crescent Real Estate for the project after helping to develop it in the 1980s. Goff’s acquisition, which closed last spring, marks the third time he has owned the asset.

T H E TE R R AC E S . A year-end deal was a per-square-foot record-breaker when Vancouver-based City Office REIT paid $133.5 million for The Terraces, a 173,000-square-foot boutique building in Preston Center. Built in 2017 by Dallas developer Mike Ablon and Houston’s Lionstone Investments, the 12-story tower on Berkshire Lane is one of the newest in the submarket. It filled up quickly ollowing completion and remains 99 percent leased.

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What’s ahead for Dallas’ historic Oak Lawn district

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With its workers going remote, Liberty Mutual is putting space in its new Legacy West tower on the market.

Dallas-Fort Worth is expected to come out ahead in the post-pandemic rebound. Here are some projects and trends to keep an eye on. story by

BRANDON J. CALL

AND

CHRISTINE PEREZ

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TOU GH E ST C H AL L E NGE OR

GREATEST OPPORTUNITY to have a lingering impact on the office s tor. As employees work from home—reports show just 40 percent are back in the office—companies ve found they can rein in expenses by offloading unused space. According research by Transwestern, there’s about 9 million square feet of sublease space available locally, with some notable companies looking to lighten their real estate obligations. In Plano, 225,000 square feet is available in Liberty Mutal’s new Legacy West highrise. Another 327,400 square feet hit the market after Reata Pharmaceuticals moved into a smaller space. How much of this sublease space will be absorbed—and how quickly—remains to be seen. But at least one top broker is optimistic. “Someone is going to snag it,” says CBRE’s Jeff Ellerman, who leases Re ta Pharmaceuticals’ space in Legacy business park.

THE PA N DEMI C CON TI N U ES

IMAGES COU RTESY OF DEVELOPERS

WHAT WATCH

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2/3/22 12:42 PM

Backers hope Southern Gateway Park will reinvigorate the community.

GAME-CH ANGE R F OR

SOUTH DALLAS

M O R E DOWNTOWN

RESIDENCES A little more than 25 years ago, downtown Dallas had just 200 residents. About 20,000 multifamily units have been added since then— and more are on the way. New developments include Dallas Gateway on Ross Avenue from Portman Holdings, which aims to add 700 apartments, along with office and retail space.

But, in moves that will further stabilize the downtown market, many of the new apartments are coming from the redevelopment of underperforming office towers. Projects include Woods Capital’s revamp of Bryan Tower and a renovation of Energy Plaza by Todd Interests, which recently added 324 luxury residential units in its vertical mixed-use tower, The National.

Portman Holdings has plans for three new towers on 5 acres in the Arts District (top).

Construction is set to kick off this ear on the Southern Gateway Park, spanning Interstate 35 between Ewing and Marsails avenues. The engineering marvel will span 5 acres of wooded slopes and will include water features, a retail complex tucked

under a hilltop, and a kids’ playground with many bells and whistles. In the same way its predecessor Klyde Warren Park over Woodall Rodgers Freeway connected Dallas’ Uptown and downtown corridors and sparked new mixed-use and office projects, backers

are hoping this latest deck park will spur similar private development in South Dallas.

WIDE OPEN SPACES DALLAS-FOR T WOR TH builders added approximately 59,000 new homes last year. But, with historically low mortgage rates, the region is still close to 170,000 houses short of consumer demand. Enter: Anna, Aubrey, Celina, Little Elm, Melissa, Prosper, and Wylie. Get ready to hear a lot more about these outlying suburbs in 2022 as homebuilders continue to gobble up land and announce more massive subdivisions. That, paired with the upcoming Dallas North Tollway’s expansion into Grayson County, gives even more credence to the phrase, “boom in the ’burbs.”

R E I N V E N TI N G

KNOX STREET

It has long been a popular restaurant and retail destination. Now, with the backing of some of real estate’s biggest players, the Knox Street neighborhood is diversifying with landmark projects that will add significan amounts of office, hotel, and residential spaces.

Four Rivers Capital is wrapping up its impressive $155 million, 12-story redevelopment of Weir’s Plaza, which includes 250,000 square feet of Class AA office space. And now, a long-awaited 12-acre project funded by Austin billionaire Michael Dell, in collaboration with Trammell Crow Co. and The Retail Connection, is taking shape. The partners have revealed plans for three buildings—a tower with 18 floor of luxury condos atop an Auberge Resorts Collection hotel, another 150-unit residential tower, and a six-story, 125,000-square-foot office building with street-level retail.

MSD Capital, Trammell Crow, and The Retail Connection have big plans for Knox Street.

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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

A MATTER OF OPINION More than 100 industry experts write for D CEO’s commercial real estate site as contributing editors.

AT D CEO , we understand that the Dallas-Fort Worth real estate industry is a community.

Among us are the longtime developers who stamp their legacies across North Texas and the brokers who are chasing their next big deal. Site selectors and economic development agencies help attract new companies and talent to the region, and investors and financers ensure we have the capital to grow. Researchers and analysts provide us with the crucial data to guide our decision-making and fuel our stories of prosperity. Architects, engineers, and designers draft plans for exciting new developments, while construction companies build and reshape our everevolving skyline (with an assist from our region’s unofficia bird: the crane!). It is on-the-ground insights from these professions and more who help D CEO tell the incredible tale of our industry in North Texas. Read along on the following pages as we feature some of the most-read posts from the previous year—and be sure to regularly check the D CEO Real Estate site for more timely, relevant, and of-the-moment wisdom you can only find with us

by BRANDON

J. CALL

illustrations by JAKE

MEYERS

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The Paradox of Time— And Dallas’ Office Market

Mark Allen, GREA Jon Altschuler, Altschuler + Co. Susan Arledge, ESRP Brooke Armstrong, CBRE Eliza Bachhuber, CBRE

CRAIG WILSON E xe cutive Vice Preside nt, Stream Realt y Par tn e rs

LABOR AND SUPPLY chain constraints are extending the

real estate design and construction process—at a time when companies desire agility to react to the ever-changing demands of their workforce. Virtually all components of the construction process for new office space are running longer than they were pre-pandemic.

Permitting that used to take two to three weeks, but in some municipalities it can now take four to eight weeks or longer. Furniture that used to take eight to 10 weeks to deliver can now take upwards of 24 weeks or more.

Building a ground-up office building used to take roughly 20–24 months, but now that schedule is 30–36 months in many cases, particularly in Uptown and more urban areas. In short, a soup-to-nuts interior construction move-in process may take twice as long as it did pre-pandemic.

How can companies decide what they want their new space to be 12-plus months from now, when they don’t even know how their workforce will respond to new return to work strategies, or how the environment will be different when people are all back in the office?

Here are a couple of ideas to consider as you approach the challenge: Get Ready to Get Ready. Companies need to engage in the due diligence and planning process well before any critical date (i.e., lease expiration or back-towork target date). It’s almost hard to start too early in evaluating what environment your firm will want to create and implement in your future office.

Mind Your Critical Dates. Be aware of any critical dates that might exist in any current leases or documents. Expiration dates, renewal notice dates, expansion/contraction notice dates, etc., will help you determine an optimal schedule to manage this process. Allot more time than expected in advance to complete the due diligence required to make a decision.

Recognize That Time Creates Leverage. In any decision, being well prepared and having the necessary amount of time to maintain flexibility will create the ultimate leverage as you negotiate various options against each other. If you ultimately determine that significant changes aren’t required to your space and that simply renewing a lease in an existing building is your best plan, your negotiations with the current landlord will likely be more fruitful if you take the time in advance of any critical date to price out and compare alternative solutions.

Brad Balke, Colliers Nicholas Balsamo, Kalterra Capital Partners Kari Beets, JLL Marc Bellamy, PDR Andrew Bennett, BOKA Powell Walt Bialas, Goodwin Advisors Cliff Booth Westmount Mo Bradford, AECOM Linda Burns, Burns Development Group Diane Butler, Butler Advisers Kim Butler, HALL Group Brad Cantrell, PDR Seth Carpenter, Republic Property Group Gary Carr, Newmark Bill Cawley, Cawley Partners Jim Cooksey, Newmark Maureen Kelly Cooper, Cushman & Wakefiel Chuck Dannis, National Valuation Consultants Michael Dardick, Granite Properties April Desabrais, Cushman & Wakefiel Steven Duong, AECOM Jeremy Edmiston, Cushman & Wakefiel Garrison Efi d, Newmark David Eseke, Cushman & Wakefiel Jessica Miller Essl, M2G Ventures Scot Farber, Younger Partners continued on page 090

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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

continued from page 088

Rob Franks, JLL Sharon Frieberg, Fischer Allison Johnston Frizzo, Hart Advisors Ethan Garner, JLL Grant Gary, The Woodmont Co. Mike Geisler, Venture Commercial Real Estate O rig i n a lly P u b li s h e d O c t . 4 , 2 02 1

Greg Grainger, Younger Partners

Underground Space: Opportunities for a More Resilient Future

Ali Greenwood, Cushman & Wakefiel Jonathan Grefaldon, DLR Group John Griggs, Presidium Joey Grisham, Anna EDC Robert Grunnah, Younger Partners Eric Hage, KDC Holland Harper, Harrison, Walker & Harper Rogers Healy, Rogers Healy and Associates Lynne Hejtmanek, Cushman & Wakefiel Jo Staffelbach Heinz, J|A Kreativ

D E V R A S TO G I Dallas E xe cutive , AECO M

DALLAS-FORT WORTH is experiencing rapid growth. And

as engineers, it’s our job to make sure infrastructure keeps up with that growth. North Texas currently has more than 7.6 million residents and is projected to grow to 11.2 million residents by 2045, according to North Central Texas Council of Governments’ Mobility 2045 Plan.

With population growth outpacing the development of infrastructure, more experts suggest going underground as we double down on environmentally friendly projects to reduce our carbon footprint. It’s estimated that by 2030, 60 percent of the world’s population will reside in urban areas, and more than 100 cities will have populations of over 5 million residents.

Although commuting patterns are changing because of remote work, it’s anticipated ridership will return to pre-pandemic level within one to two years and transit-oriented development will continue to be a strong economic driver, especially with our projected population growth.

In the new book Underground Cities, experts from AECOM offer a global, multidisciplinary, and multi-dimensional exploration of the largely untapped resource of the subsurface of our cities, as communities face increasing competition for limited physical space and attempt to balance out the priorities of human-scale cities and critical infrastructure. Our underground research and tunneling work overseas have given us a lessonslearned playbook, showcasing how subsurface development can lead to natural disaster protection, thermal isolation, less congestion, and noise reduction. When parking, transportation, and utility storage go underground, it leaves more room for mixed-use residential, commercial, and recreational projects, including parks and green spaces.

Although underground development is complex, Dallas is embracing the innovation as it works on DART’s D2, more deck parks, and potentially moving Interstate-345 underground. With the population growth and limited availability of land, efficient use of underground space can be a solution as urban planners promote sustainable development in the future.

Will Hendrickson, Granite Properties Duane Henley, Newmark Elizabeth Herman, CBRE Curt Holcomb, JLL Ran Holman, Newmark Mike Jaillet, CBRE Sam Kartalis, Younger Partners Mike Kennedy, Avison Young Nate Kowallis, McCarthy Building Cos. Tatum Lau, AECOM Chad Lavender, Newmark Erin Lee, AECOM Steve Lieberman, The Retail Connection Tanya Hart Little, Hart Advisors Group Torrey Littlejohn, JLL Danny Lovell, The Ranier Cos. Terrence Maiden, Russell Glenn Kamecia Mason, McCarthy Building Cos. Stefi Ma sey, AECOM Jorg Mast, Colliers Linda McMahon, The Real Estate Council Rick Medinis, NAI Robert Lynn Marshall Mills, Weitzman continued on page 092

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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

continued from page 090

Cally Miltenberger, CBRE Bob Mohr, Mohr Capital Tuan Nguyen, CBRE Mark Nicholson, CBRE Dan Noble, HKS Brian O’Boyle Sr., Newmark O rig i n a lly P u b li s h e d S e pt . 2 0 , 2 02 1

Krishna Peapully, AECOM

North Texas’ Commercial Real Estate is in Hyper-Growth Mode

Will Pender, Adolfson & Peterson Rick Perdue, Rosewood Property Co. Ian Pierce, Weitzman Don Powell, BOKA Powell Joel Pustmueller, JLL Fred Ragsdale, JLL Dev Rastogi, AECOM Courtney Richardson, BOKA Powell John Riggins, Talley Riggins Bob Robbins, Banner Commercial

JOHN GRIGGS C EO and co -founde r, Presidium

THANKS TO THE influx of people moving to the area and

pent-up demand from 2020’s pause in multifamily construction, Dallas’s commercial real estate is in a hyper-growth mode, with many construction projects underway. Despite this generally positive situation, it’s evident that our industry is experiencing macroeconomic influences on construction costs.

The main headline throughout 2021 was the parabolic rise and subsequent fall in the price of lumber, with prices escalating to a high of more than 300 percent of what they were in April 2020. Then in mid-July, we saw lumber prices crash so much so that it started to give hope to developers and builders.

Although lumber certainly is consuming the headlines, it is not the only area of concern. Collectively, the cost of building supplies has increased by close to 13 percent over the past year. There have also been supply chain issues, labor shortages, and production bottlenecks that have only added fuel to the fire.

Accurately estimating the cost of building materials and pricing out projects has become a significant hurdle for multifamily developers. Not to mention, the extended lead times we’re experiencing have resulted in us having to shift our focus from fast and efficient completions to more careful planning and coordination. This is why, now more than ever, pre-construction is the essential phase in any significant project.

The prolonged hypermarket is complicated because it’s not due to a temporary macroeconomic event, but rather one that has been unprecedented in over a century. Fortunately for developers, rising costs have been offset by rising rents and rising sale values for completed projects. This pricing spike mirrors single-family pricing, which is also up 16 percent year-over-year in Dallas, which directly contributes to demand for apartments. The net result of escalating rents, coupled with cheap financing for newly built assets, was a frenzy of bidding for quality Class A multifamily product. And this rise proved to be the ultimate validation that it can still be worth it to build multifamily projects, despite the increased costs.

Scott Rodgers, DuWest Realty Chelby Sanders, CBRE Jayme Schutt, JLL Alan Shor, The Retail Connection Cindy Simpson, Gensler Katy Slade, Mintwood Real Estate James Stein, Cushman & Wakefiel Jack Stone, Greysteel Nick Summerville, Kaizen Daniel Taylor, Colliers Sara Terry, Colliers Amy Tharp, Downtown Dallas Inc. Steve Triolet, Younger Partners Carlos Vaz, CONTI Ching-Ting Wang, Cushman & Wakefiel Herb Weitzman, Weitzman Michele Wheeler, Jackson-Shaw King White, Site Selection Group Lindsay Wilson, Corgan Bob Young, Weitzman Moody Younger, Younger Partners Keyan Zandy, Skiles Group.

John Zikos, Venture Commercial Real Estate Steven Zimmerman, The Retail Connection

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Thank you Tenants and Brokers for making 2021 a successful year

54 leases signed

totaling 156,547 For leasing call 214.438.6100 Jeff Eckert, CCIM jeff.eckert@am.jll.com Blake Shipley blake.shipley@am.jll.com Haley Hullett haley.hullett@am.jll.com

R E A L E S TAT E

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Alex Foley - Swearingen Realty Group, LLC Andrew Bishkin - Rogers Healy Commercial Ben Goldthorpe - Swearingen Realty Group, LLC Ben Sumner - Centurion Real Estate Partners Chris Axley - Lincoln Property Company Chris Schilling - Minerva Realty Christopher Fleeger - Morrow Hill Cribb Altman - JLL Dan Harris - Stream Realty Eliza Solender - Solender/Hall, Inc. Grant Pruitt - Whitebox Real Estate Greg Pierce - CBRE Jarrett Dunaway - ESRP Jayson Montoya - NAI Robert Lynn John Dickenson - Holt Lunsford Commercial Justin Owen - Dominus Commercial Justin Utay - NAI Robert Lynn Kenneth Landers - Rogers Healy Commercial Kent Smith - NAI Robert Lynn Matt Heidelbaugh - Cushman & Wakefield Matthew Perry-Miller - Laughlin Commercial Pamela Ball - Southern Asset Service Corporation Robbie Baty - Cushman & Wakefield Robert Blount - JLL Roy Reis - ESRP Ryan Buchanan - CBRE Scott Walker - Transwestern Taylor Lynch - Forge Commercial Todd Noonan - Stream Realty

2/1/22 10:51 AM

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ASK THE EXPERT

Commercial Title B I L L S H A D D O C K , OW N E R & C EO C A P I TA L T I T L E- C O M M E R C I A L A N D S H A D D O C K N AT I O N A L H O L D I N G

What do you see as the most compelling opportunity for commercial real estate deal makers in the region right now?

Every week there is an announcement of companies relocating from the east and west coasts to the DallasFort Worth region. The potential for expansion and growth in North Texas is unlimited. It’s that “cando” Texas attitude that makes for a b right future in Dallas-Fort Worth and a great year for Capital Title Commercial.

Where do you see 2022 expansion in commercial real estate in Dallas?

First, I want to thank our clients for making 2021 a record year for Capital Title Commercial. I believe that in 2022, multi-family and warehouse-related deals will continue the 2021 upward trend, and this robust activity will expand to include other segments of the commercial real estate industry.

What are the primary differences between commercial title and residential title closings?

These are two diff rent worlds. A high level of closing expertise and b road legal knowledge are necessary components of a successful commercial transaction closing. The demands in a commercial title setting are significantly greater than in a more conventional residential closing environment, and at CTOT we are well prepared to deliver a superior commercial closing experience.

How has your company grown along with the Dallas commercial market?

Capital Title-Commercial has grown and, in fact, expanded significantly during the last five years.

We have seven designated commercial office out of our 50-plus offic network in Dallas-Fort Worth.

It’s also important to point out that we now have specifically designated commercial office in every major metropolitan area of Texas.

Capital Title was recently ranked one of the Top 100 Places to Work by the Dallas Morning News. What makes your company

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culture so unique?

It’s all about our people and our culture. Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats business strategy for breakfast.” We believe we have the best people in the industry. We are all about positive outlooks and positive attitudes.

We are committed to delivering excellence in every transaction. We operate our company according to a strong set of values and ideals in a people-first, servant leadership environment.

Your company slogan is ‘We Deliver Excellence.’ What does that mean?

Delivering excellence to demanding commercial clients is a fully integrated process that begins with a local staff of experienced title examiners, many of whom are real estate attorneys themselves. It is then necessary to have experienced commercial closers review the title commitment with the parties to the transaction. They must have the knowledge to perform curative work with the commitment, provide necessary endorsements, and determine all the financial- elated issues and prorations associated with the closing.

Finally, the closing and funding must be timely and fl wless. There must b e excellent communication b etween the title company and the parties to the transaction, from the initiation of the contract until the funding and closing of the transaction.

What is distinctive about Capital Title?

We are the largest independent title company in the United States. All services are performed b y local professionals in Texas. We don’t offsho e any title-related services. We firmly b elieve this helps us to deliver excellence to our customers. While we successfully compete nationwide alongside Fortune 500 companies, we are proud to be a Dallas-based and family-owned business.

BILL SHADDOCK is the owner/CEO of Capital Title, the largest independent title company in the United States, and owner/chairman of the board of First National Title Insurance Company, which is the ninth-largest title insurance underwriter in the United States. Shaddock is also chairman of the board of Willow Bend Mortgage Company and a partner in Shaddock Development Company.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, Shaddock has earned numerous business and humanitarian awards for his business acumen and selfless work for the Dallas community.

What are the company’s future growth plans?

We are in the process of expanding our Shaddock National Holdings platform into a national title company with operations in every major market in the United States. We have recently purchased several large title operations outside of Texas which give us the ability to close deals on a nationwide basis.

DCEOMAGAZINE.COM

2/7/22 11:13 AM

THANK YOU COMMERCIAL CUSTOMERS FOR MAKING 2021 A RECORD YEAR!

The Largest Independent Title Company in the United States.

Bill Shaddock Owner & CEO

DFW Commercial Offices

Preston Center

Corporate

National Commercial Services

8333 Douglas Avenue | Suite 1400 Dallas, Texas 75225 214-396-9222

2400 Dallas Parkway | Suite 560 Plano, Texas 75093 972-682-2700

4851 Lyndon B. Johnson Fwy | Suite 1100 Dallas, Texas 75244 214-919-3030

Downtown Fort Worth

Galleria

301 Commerce St., | Suite 200 Fort Worth, Texas 76102 817-992-6609

13155 Noel Road | Suite 710 Dallas, Texas 75240 972-355-2055

www.capitaltitlecommercial.com

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2/4/22 10:17 AM

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POWER BROKERS 2022

L I F E T I M E AC H I E V E M E N T AWA R D

P O R T R A I T BY T R E V O R P A U L H U S

Industry Pioneer Roger Staubach Is the Ultimate Power Broker After retiring from football, the Hall-of-Fame quarterback disrupted commercial real estate with a revolutionary approach to brokerage. story by CHRISTINE PEREZ

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commercial real estate services have evolved to include everything from space planning and data analytics to incentives negotiations. But in the early days, it was a simple matter of development and leasing. It’s hard to convey the huge impact the advent of tenant representation—and the unlikely disruptor who helped pioneer it—has had on the industry.

Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach was a 27-year-old rookie when he joined the Dallas Cowboys in 1969, after keeping his commitment of service to the U.S. Navy. Earning a salary of just $25,000, he began looking for work in the offseason. A Naval Academy friend connected him with the Henry S. Miller Co. Staubach joined in 1970, working briefly in its insurance division until he talked firm leaders into letting him get involved on the real estate side of things. “I worked every offseason until I decided that I wanted to make real estate a future for me, outside of football,” he says.

After learning the ropes at Miller, Staubach joined developer Robert Holloway in a boutique venture in 1977. He retired from football in the spring of 1980, and two years later formed his own firm, The Staubach Co. It was an amicable split; Holloway wanted to focus on development, and Staubach wanted to build a company around his interest in representing tenants.

It had been sparked by an early experience at Miller. A corporate exec was looking to move his company. A colleague at work reached out and said, “Hey, we need to show you Mockingbird

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The Champion Pedigree Roger Staubach entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985 for his on-field he oics.

He is equally proud of his 2018 induction into the NTCAR Hall of Fame–which recognizes leaders for their achievements in commercial real estate. Founded in 1987 by Robert Grunnah, Chris Teesdale, and Darrell Hurmis, the inaugural class of inductees included John Stemmons Sr., Henry S. Miller Jr., Angus G. Wynne Jr., L. Storey Stemmons, and Lyn E. Davis. What started as a $4,000 event has grown to packed affairs honoring scores of luminaries. The tradition will continue on May 4 with the induction of Tim Headington, founder and CEO of Headington Cos., and Bill Cawley, chairman and CEO of Cawley Partners.

—Brandon J. Call

P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F P R O F O O T B A L L H A L L O F F A M E

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Towers. We’re leasing that.” Staubach agreed to set up a tour. “Then I thought it through and wondered, ‘Well, what if Mockingbird Towers isn’t the right fit? The client should have a chance to see everything that’s available.’ And that became my life—the tenant side of the business, working with the users who were looking for office spac ” Today, tenant representation is a conventional part of the commercial real estate business. But 40 years ago, it was anything but. Landlords had enjoyed having the leverage in negotiations and not having to compete as much against other properties. Before long, tenant representation— and The Staubach Co.—flourished With his connections and high profile, Staubach became a broker’s business development dream. What’s more, he didn’t take any of the commissions. “I knew the business we’d win would benefit the company, and the commission stuff can be tricky,” Staubach says. “Commissions are important, but they’re secondary to making sure you do the right thing for customers.”

After experiencing rapid growth in North Texas, clients compelled Staubach to help them in other markets. The firm opened branches in other cities, giving professionals there a stake in their local operations. At its peak, The Staubach Co. had 60 offices across the country with 1,600 employees.

By 2008, Staubach’s clients were asking him to help them with deals in international markets.

Around the same time, global firm JLL was seeking to expand in the U.S. The two parties seemed to be a good match, and in June of that year, JLL acquired The Staubach Co. for $613 million. Staubach benefi ted financially personally, of course, but he’s most proud of the fact that many company partners in local office across the country did, too.

Staubach stayed on with JLL as executive chairman before retiring in 2018. A devout family man, Staubach likens the merger to the most important relationship in his life. “My wife Marianne and I have been married for 56 years, Roger Staubach and it’s a great marriage,” he says. helped lead the “I’m fortunate that the JLL and Dallas Cowboys to its fir t two Staubach Co. marriage could not Super Bowl have been more perfect, too.” trophies.

DCEOMAGAZINE.COM

2/7/22 9:32 AM

CONGRATULATIONS t o our t op producers f or 2021

Bob Mohr

Stephen Hemphill

Steve Macnoll

Founder

Managing Principal/Shareholder, Healthcare Specialist

Managing Director, Office/Tenant Rep. Specialist

Eric Beichler

Bob Ingram

Chris Leonard

Managing Principal/Shareholder, Capital Markets

Managing Director, Healthcare Specialist

Managing Director, Industrial Specialist

mohrpartners.com

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2/8/22 12:14 PM

DAVIDSON BOGEL LAND IS OUR BUSINESS

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POWER BROKERS 2022

The Top Commercial Real Estate Professionals in Dallas-Fort Worth

SHUTTERSTOCK

ME TH O D O LO GY: We asked the leaders of North Texas brokerages to tell us who generated the most revenue for their companies in 2021. The number of names they were allowed to submit was based on their total numbers of licensed brokers, with a couple of exceptions for equal partners.

In all, executives at a record 99 firms employing more than 2,400 b okers participated. Members of the 2022 Class of D CEO Power Brokers are presented below in alphabetical order, by area of specialty.

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY & LAND SALES Adam Abushagur, Marcus & Millichap Mark Allen, GREA Andy Anand, Douglas Elliman Jared Aubrey, CBRE Michael Austry, CBRE Randy Baird, CBRE Danny Baker, CBRE Brad Balke, Colliers Will Balthrope, Marcus & Millichap Doug Banerjee, Greysteel Daniel Batey, Range Realty Advisors Jim Batjer, CBRE Randy Bell, Real Capital Investments Bill Bledsoe, Henry S. Miller Co. Edward Bogel, Davidson Bogel Real Estate Ford Braly, Marcus & Millichap Grant Brodeur, Davidson Bogel Real Estate LeAnn Brown, Silver Oak Commercial Realty Jonathan Bryan, CBRE

Steven Burris, Capstone Commercial Bill Burton, Hillwood Kevin Butkus, Weitzman Gary Carr, Newmark Tom Clarke, Transwestern Jud Clements, Cushman & Wakefiel Wes Cole, Cantera Real Estate Group Dillon Cook, Range Realty Advisors Maureen Kelly Cooper, Cushman & Wakefiel Chris Cozby, CBRE David Davidson Jr., Davidson Bogel Real Estate Robert Denninger, Marcus & Millichap Chris Deuillet, CBRE David Disney, Disney Investment Group Lynn Dowdle, Dowdle Real Estate Lucy Durbin, CBRE Scot Farber, Younger Partners Geoff Fic e, Colliers Jaclyn Fitts, CBRE Nick Fluellen, Marcus & Millichap D C E O R E A L E S TAT E A N N U A L 2 0 2 2

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David Glasscock, CBRE Chris Gomes, Marcus & Millichap Byron Griffit GREA Tom Grunnah, Younger Partners Daniel Hartnett, Greysteel Tyler Hemenway, Younger Partners Robert Hill, Newmark Taylor Hill, Marcus & Millichap Bard Hoover, Marcus & Millichap Nick Hoover, Venture Commercial Darrell Hurmis, Henry S. Miller Co. Russell Ingrum, CBRE Randy Jay, Preston Bend Commercial Brandon Karr, Marcus & Millichap Jim Kelley, Champions DFW Commercial Realty Kevin Kelly, CBRE Carter Kendall, CBRE Drew Kile, Marcus & Millichap Lane Kommer, Henry S. Miller Co. Scott Lake, Davidson Bogel Real Estate Eddie Liebman, Weitzman Lon Lloyd, Champions DFW Commercial Realty Johnathan Makus, CBRE Pamela Martin, Douglas Elliman Jorg Mast, Colliers Ben McCutchin, Younger Partners Mike McDonald, Cushman & Wakefiel John McGregor, Marcus & Millichap Smith McLelland, Cantera Real Estate Group Todd McNeill, Marcus & Millichap Spencer Mikles, Cantera Real Estate Group Daniel Miller, Cantera Real Estate Group Jake Milner, Davidson Bogel Real Estate Dave Moore, Cantera Real Estate Group Brian Murphy, Newmark Chris Murphy, Newmark Jonathan Napper, Cushman & Wakefiel Marty Neilon, CBRE Chibuzor Nnaji, GREA Kevin O’Boyle, CBRE Brian O’Boyle Sr., Newmark Kim Parker, Dynamic Commercial Real Estate Alex L. Perry, Biel Partners Bill Pyle, Edge Realty Capital Markets Jerad Rector, Worldwide Commercial Sean Reynolds, GREA Robby Rieke, Cushman & Wakefiel Matthew Rosenfeld, Weitzman Steve Rowland, Transwestern Matt Ryon, RYON Jim Sager, Transwestern 102

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Sunny Sajnani, Marcus & Millichap Casey Schaefer, CBRE Jeff Sheehan Site Selection Group Al Silva, Marcus & Millichap Chandler Sims, CBRE Warren Smith, Edge Realty Partners David Sours, CBRE John St. Clair, Younger Partners Creighton Stark, Colliers Nita Stewart, CBRE Jack Stone, Greysteel Shawn Street, Younger Partners Tom Strohbehn, Younger Partners Zac Thomas, GREA Ryan Thornton, CBRE Joey Tumminello, Marcus & Millichap Nick Virani, CenterPoint Commercial Properties William Vonderfecht, CBRE George Waidelich, Greysteel Michael Ware, Marcus & Millichap Bill Wastoskie, CenterPoint Commercial Properties Russell Webb, Silver Oak Commercial Realty Fisher Wells, Greysteel Witt Westbrook, Cantera Real Estate Group Brent Wicker, Wicker & Associates Craig Wicker, Wicker & Associates Calvin Wong, Engvest-eXp Commercial Elaine Xu, Younger Partners Chris Young, Range Realty Advisors Michael Ytem, Younger Partners David Zoller, Weitzman DATA CENTERS Brant Bernet, CBRE Chris Herrmann, CBRE Michael Rareshide, Site Selection Group INDUSTRIAL PROJECT LEASING Josh Barnes, Holt Lunsford Commercial Charles Brewer, Stream Realty Partners John Brewer, Transwestern Keaton Brice, Holt Lunsford Commercial Wilson Brown, CBRE Matt Carthey, Holt Lunsford Commercial Hanes Chatham, Stream Realty Partners Forrest Cook, Stream Realty Partners Stephen Cooper, NAI Robert Lynn Corbin Crews, CBRE Carter Crow, Younger Partners Luke Davis, Stream Realty Partners Noah Dodge, Bradford Cos.

Matt Dornak, Stream Realty Partners Matt Elliott, NAI Robert Lynn Jason Finch, Bradford Cos. Chris Fleeger, Morrow Hill Andrew Gilbert, Holt Lunsford Commercial Reid Goetz, Hillwood John Gorman, Holt Lunsford Commercial Adam Graham, Lee & Associates Kurt Griffin Cushman & Wakefiel Bob Hagewood, Stream Realty Partners John Hendricks, CBRE Craig Hughes, Hughes Commercial Matt Hyman, Duke Realty Craig Jones, JLL Kacy Jones, CBRE Steve Koldyke, CBRE Seth Koschak, Stream Realty Partners James Mantzuranis, Stream Realty Partners David Martin, Capstone Commercial Rick Medinis, NAI Robert Lynn Chris Morrow, Morrow Hill Greg Nelson, Paladin Partners Nathan Orbin, Cushman & Wakefiel Brett Owens, Transwestern Sarah Ozanne, Stream Realty Partners Brian Pafford, Bradford Cos. Bryan Parker, Duke Realty Larry Robbins, Capstone Commercial Canon Shoults, Holt Lunsford Commercial Jerrod R. Simmons, Biel Partners Randy Touchstone, JLL Steve Trese, CBRE Ben Wallace, Holt Lunsford Commercial Ken Wesson, Lee & Associates Ryan Wolcott, Stream Realty Partners INDUSTRIAL TENANT REP Chad Albert, NAI Robert Lynn Steve Berger, CBRE Ryan Boozer, Stream Realty Partners Brent Bosworth, Paladin Partners Barrett Bufkin, ESRP Mark Collins, Cushman & Wakefiel Keenan Cook, Mercer Co. Sharon Cramer, Rubicon Representation J. Holmes Davis IV, Binswanger Bill De La Chapelle, Rubicon Representation Nathan Denton, Lee & Associates Tyson Erwin, NAI Robert Lynn David Eseke, Cushman & Wakefiel Adam Faulk, Newmark DCEOMAGAZINE.COM

2/8/22 12:15 PM

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POWER BROKERS 2022

Trey Fricke, Lee & Associates Brian Gilchrist, CBRE Jeff Gi ens, Transwestern Garrett Goldstein, Rich Young Co. Allen Gump, Colliers Shawn Hall, TB Advisors Todd Hawpe, Transwestern Jim Hazard, ESRP Stephen Hemphill, Mohr Partners Corby Hodgkiss, Mercer Co. Melissa Holland, JLL Todd Hubbard, NAI Robert Lynn Tom Hudson, Hudson Peters Commercial Jeff Jackson, NAI Robert Lynn Scott Jessen, Citadel Partners Adam Jones, Stream Realty Partners Elizabeth Jones, JLL Seth Kelly, CBRE Jordan Ketchens, Rubicon Representation Greg Lance, Cushman & Wakefiel Nathan Lawrence, CBRE Chris Leonard, Mohr Partners Gary Lindsey, Newmark Huntley Luna, Henry S. Miller Co. Conrad Madsen, Paladin Partners Clint Manning, ESRP Chris Mason, Newmark Tom McCarthy, JLL Caleb McCoy, JLL Jeremy Mercer, Mercer Co. Chase Miller, NAI Robert Lynn Mark Miller, NAI Robert Lynn Michael Newsome, NAI Robert Lynn Louis Pascuzzi, Newmark Tom Pearson, Colliers Turner Petersen, Mercer Co. Dave Peterson, NAI Robert Lynn Matt Powers, JLL Krista Raymond, CBRE Ward Richmond, Colliers Cameron Rogers, Rubicon Representation Travis Sapaugh, CBRE Sean Smith, Whitebox Real Estate Dan Spika, Henry S. Miller Co. Michael Stanzel, NAI Robert Lynn Brad Struck, ESRP Chris Teesdale, Colliers Becky Thompson, Lee & Associates Tim Vogds, CBRE Lance Woodward, Henry S. Miller Co. Allyson Yost, Colliers 104

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Rich Young, Jr., Rich Young Co. OFFICE PROJECT LEASING Steve Aldrich, Hillwood Jordyn Allen, Crescent Real Estate Trae Anderson, Younger Partners Chris Axley, LPC Dennis Barnes, CBRE Greg Biggs, Cawley Partners Erik Blais, Bradford Cos. Bill Brokaw, Hillwood Urban Kim Brooks, Transwestern Bob Buell, Fults Commercial Real Estate Dillon Buhrkuhl, Pillar Commercial Kim Butler, HALL Group Michael Carmichael, Madison Marquette Debi Carter, Capstone Commercial Bill Cawley, Cawley Partners Kurt Cherry, Madison Marquette Tony Click, Crescent Real Estate Taylor Cluff, DuWest Realty Richmond Collinsworth, Bradford Cos. Ben Cuzen, HPI Sean Dalton, Younger Partners Mike Dement, Altschuler + Co. Jeremy Duggins, Cawley Partners Nathan Durham, Newmark James Engles, Holt Lunsford Commercial James Esquivel, JLL Simon Figg, Morrow Hill Trevor Franke, JLL Allison Johnston Frizzo, Hart Commercial Tracy Fults, Fults Commercial Real Estate Brad Gibson, HALL Group Eric Goodwin, Champions DFW Commercial Realty Ruth Griggs, Thirty-Four Commercial Adam Hammack, JLL Duane Henley, Newmark Campbell Henry, LPC Burson Holman, Granite Properties John Huff, Transwestern JP Humphrey III, Advisors Commercial Real Estate Matthew Hurlbut, Foundry Commercial Bryce Jackson, Thirty-Four Commercial Robert Jimenez, Granite Properties Russ Johnson, JLL Cincha Kostman, Hudson Peters Commercial Jared Laake, Bradford Cos. Marijke Lantz, Billingsley Co. Tabitha Layne, Sunwest Real Estate Group Chris Lipscomb, Transwestern

Addie Ludwig, Cawley Partners Sam Meginnis, Altschuler + Co. Hannah Mesh, Harwood International Justin Miller, Transwestern Rena Padachy, HALL Group Elliot Prieur, Gaedeke Group Dale Ray, Foundry Commercial Beaux Riley, Advisors Commercial Real Estate Scott Rodgers, DuWest Realty Gini Rounsaville, JLL Karch Schreiner, Hillwood Chuck Sellers, Forge Commercial Blake Shipley, JLL Grant Sumner, Forge Commercial Chris Taylor, Cushman & Wakefiel Kristi Waddell, Cawley Partners Luke Walter, Gaedeke Group Kelly Whaley, Harwood International Worthey Wiles, LPC Jake Young, LPC John Zogg, Crescent Real Estate OFFICE TENANT REP Matt Albritton, TB Advisors Robbie Baty, Cushman & Wakefiel John Beach, Newmark Eric Beichler, Mohr Partners Brad Beutel, TB Advisors Robert Blount, JLL Jihane Boury, CBRE Adam Brecheen, Swearingen Realty Group Jim Buddrus, Swearingen Realty Group Jordan Buis, CBRE Doug Carignan, CBRE Jordan Cluff, DuWest Realty Alex Coe, Cresa Dean Collins, Cushman & Wakefiel Michael Collins, MedCore Partners James C. Cooksey, Newmark Harlan Davis, CBRE Larry Denisoff, Weitzman Robert Deptula, Transwestern David Ditchman, Cresa Jeff Ellerman, CBRE John Ellerman, CBRE Travis Ewert, Colliers Matt Flory, Archway Properties Sharon Friedberg, Fischer & Co. Billy Gannon, Transwestern Lawrence Gardner, OMS Strategic Advisors Michael Griffi Transwestern DCEOMAGAZINE.COM

2/3/22 5:47 PM

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BROKERS

Russ Johnson +1 214 438 1586 russ.johnson@am.jll.com V9

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Joel Pustmueller +1 214 438 1596 joel.pustmueller@am.jll.com

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POWER BROKERS 2022

Evan Hammer, Whitebox Real Estate Matt Heidelbaugh, Cushman & Wakefiel Scott Hobbs, Newmark Bob Ingram, Mohr Partners Kyle Jacobs, Rubicon Representation Drew Jacoy, TB Advisors Kelley Kackley, JLL Kirk Kelly, Transwestern Gianni R. LaBarba, Vestian Global Andy Leatherman, JLL Nick Lee, NAI Robert Lynn Kyle Libby, MedCore Partners Torrey Littlejohn, JLL Steve Macnoll, Mohr Partners Conor McCarthy, JLL Jon McNeil, JLL Megan McNulty, TB Advisors Bob Mohr, Mohr Partners Jim Montgomery, Swearingen Realty Group Sharon Morrison, ESRP Mac Morse, Citadel Partners Scott Morse, Citadel Partners Al Paniagua, Swearingen Realty Group Dan Paterson, Swearingen Realty Group Luke Paterson, Swearingen Realty Group Hal Penchan, Altschuler + Co. Dan Polanchyck, Henry S. Miller Co. Grant Pruitt, Whitebox Real Estate Sam Pruitt, Site Selection Group Phil Puckett, CBRE Damian Rivera, ESRP Bob Robbins, Banner Commercial Will Sale, Transwestern Chelby Sanders, CBRE Brad Selner, JLL Emmitt Smith, E. Smith Advisors Jeff Smith Transwestern Kent Smith, NAI Robert Lynn Elizabeth Solender, Solender/Hall Zach Stevens, NAI Robert Lynn Tyler Thomas, Citadel Partners Tamela Thornton, E. Smith Advisors Larry Toon, JLL Jim Turano, Henry S. Miller Co. Billy Vahrenkamp, Colliers Clay Vaughn, CBRE Jordan Wade, Transwestern Howard Watkins, Transwestern Jordan White, Site Selection Group Josh White, CBRE KIng White, Site Selection Group 106

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Warren Willey, CBRE Peery Wood, CBRE RETAIL David Adams, The Woodmont Co. Derek Anthony, The Woodmont Co. Jack Barkley, Hillwood Brandon Beeson, Edge Realty Capital Markets Josh Beliak, Shop Cos. Josh Bishop, Matthews Real Estate Investment Services Mason Bishop, Transwestern Taylor Black, Weitzman Greg Bracchi, Edge Realty Partners Frank Bullock, Henry S. Miller Co. Jake Burns, Structure Commercial Mike Cagle, Inroads Realty Michelle Caplan, Weitzman William Carr, Matthews Real Estate Investment Services Max Chanon, The Retail Connection Connor Chauncy, Morrow Hill Mark Cohen, CenterPoint Commercial Properties Bryan Cornelius, RetailUnion Danny Cunningham, Marcus & Millichap Eric Deuillet, Structure Commercial Jim Dunn, RetailUnion Mason duPerier, Vista Property Co. Bryan Dyer, The Woodmont Co. Walker Dyess, JLL Daniel Eng, Engvest-eXp Commercial David English, Ridge Pointe Commercial Real Estate Steve Ewing, Edge Realty Partners Rich Flaten, CBRE Chris Flesner, Resolut RE Rob Franks, JLL Chris Gainey, Marcus & Millichap Michael Geisler, Venture Commercial Thomas Glendenning, Shop Cos. Adam Gottschalk, STRIVE Steve Greenberg, The Retail Connection Dawn Greiner, SRS Real Estate Partners Tyler Grisham, Edge Realty Partners Alden Harris, Shop Cos. Angela Hawkins, Capstone Commercial Darrell Hernandez, CBRE Jackson Hill, Fischer & Co. Jon Hill, Morrow Hill Cole Hunt, STRIVE Tyler Isbell, SRS Real Estate Partners Andrew Ivankovich, Matthews RE Investment Services Jim Jamerson, Segovia Partners Austin Johnson, STRIVE

Ryan Johnson, SRS Real Estate Partners Vince Knipp, Marcus & Millichap Hudson Lambert, STRIVE Taylor LeMaster, Inroads Realty Philip Levy, Marcus & Millichap Steve Lieberman, The Retail Connection Mart Martindale, Edge Capital Markets Jake McCoy, The Woodmont Co. Drew McGill, Christon Will Merritt, STRIVE Rose Meza, Segovia Partners Gretchen Miller, Weitzman Mark Miller, Hillwood Bob Moorhead, Secure Net Lease Troy Morgan, Structure Commercial Clay Mote, RetailUnion Luke Mullen, Brand Partners Mark Newman, JLL Amy Nott, JLL Jennifer Pierson, STRIVE Amy Pjetrovic, Venture Commercial Pete Podesta, Shop Cos. Anthony Pucciarello, Secure Net Lease Mark Reeder, SRS Real Estate Partners Samuel Rhea, Hillwood Susan Ridley, The Retail Connection Kornel Romada, Segovia Partners David Schnitzer, ASCEND Commercial Real Estate Brettany Schovanec, Fischer & Co. Will Schubert, STRIVE Matt Scow, Secure Net Lease Natalia Singer, Venture Commercial Brian Sladek, Resolut RE Karla Smith, SRS Real Estate Partners Jacqueline Stone, Falcon Realty Advisors Terry Syler, The Retail Connection Tucker Szybala, Falcon Realty Advisors Tey Tiner, Falcon Realty Advisors Mitch Traub, The Retail Connection Brandon Trimble, The Retail Connection Paul Vernon, Henry S. Miller Co. Jason Vitorino, STRIVE Easley B. Waggoner Jr., Venture Commercial Michael Walters, Falcon Realty Advisors Will Walters, DuWest Realty Amanda Throckmorton Welles, Venture Commercial Carlie Wilmes, Fischer & Co. Luke Wilson, The Retail Connection Colton Wright, Vista Property Co. John Zikos, Venture Commercial

DCEOMAGAZINE.COM

2/3/22 5:47 PM

Your plans are dynamic, so our solution should be too.

As DFW’s premier build-to-suit developer, we design spaces that bring your vision to life. After nearly 40 years serving DFW, we bring mid-rise expertise to execute your projects. Whether it’s our flexibility in finding creative solutions, our transparency and responsiveness in building relationships, or our dedication to being a resource for brokers, our service to you is always at the core of our business.

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2/7/22 1:08 PM

END MARK

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

Dallas’ First Football Franchise T H E DA L L A S T E X A N S 1960–1962

story by BEN SWANGER

108

MARCH 2022

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COURTESY OF H U N T S P O R T S G R O U P

Before moving his team to Kansas City and rebranding as the Chiefs, Lamar Hunt disrupted professional football with the American Football League and the Dallas Texans.

I

n 1959, 26-year-old lamar hunt dreamed of owning a pro football team. So, he tried his hand with the NFL, pitching the Dallas Texans as the league’s 13th team. But because Dallas was home to burgeoning universities, the NFL blacklisted the city, dubbing it a college town. It also didn’t help Hunt’s case that just seven years prior the NFL made a mockery of itself founding a failed Dallas Texans team that played undercard games after high school football games. Instead, Hunt, whose father had briefly been the riche t man in the world due to his vast oil holdings, wrangled enough partners to help form the American Football League in 1959 and the Dallas Texans as a founding team. In response, the NFL established the Dallas Cowboys in 1960, backtracking on their blacklisting. In 1962, future Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson led the Texans to an 11-3 record and to a title game against the Houston Oilers. It went into double overtime and ended in a 25-yard field oal to give the Texans a 20-17 victory. Although the Cowboys were not as talented, Hunt realized even Big D was not big enough for two pro football teams. So, in 1963, he moved his Texans to Kansas City, rebranding them as the Chiefs. Hunt also later arranged for the champions of each league to duke it out in what’s now known as the Super Bowl.

DCEOMAGAZINE.COM

1/26/22 3:44 PM

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