APRI L 2 02 1
CEO
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F I N A LI S T S
CO M M E RCIAL R E AL E STATE AWAR DS P LU S : Pioneer Award Winner Shawn Todd
THE NEXUS OF
OPPORTUNITY Michael Sorrell has partnered with big names in business and government to remake education at Paul Quinn College. And he’s just getting started.
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APRIL 2021
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Join us for an inspirational conversation celebrating women’s leadership... Happening virtually on
Event Agenda
April 29 at 10 a.m.
10 am: Awards Celebration Featuring a keynote address from the founder of Girls in Tech and author of Tech Boss Lady
Reserve your ticket today! Individual tickets - $42
10:50 am: Leadership Forums Deep-dive breakout sessions with each award recipient
Go to TXWFLeadership.org
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Keynote Speaker
Judy Treviño
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MERRIMAN ANDERSON ARCHITECTS ARCHITECTURE + INTERIOR DESIGN + PLANNING
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SAV E T H E DAT E
Women’s Leadership Symposium 2021 Save the date for this year’s all-day virtual conference, which will provide opportunities to network, engage with speakers, and experience 15+ dynamic executives as they share their journeys, insights, and tangible takeaways. Extraordinary times calls for extraordinary leadership—join us and be a part of making North Texas an even better place to live and work for all.
June 23, 2021 For more information, visit dmagazine.com/womenleadership
T H A N K YO U T O O U R T I T L E S P O N S O R S :
For sponsorship opportunities and additional ways to get involved, please email Gillea@dmagazine.com.
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Congratulations to all of the D CEO 2021 Commercial Real Estate finalists and winners. We are honored to be recognized among so many outstanding projects.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS
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HKS is honored to support D CEO’s Commercial Real Estate Awards.
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210226 HP DCEO April v7.pdf
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CONTENTS APRIL 2021
VO LU M E 1 6 | I S S U E 0 3
54 “Let’s Become Something Different” Michael Sorrell has formed innovative partnerships with some of the biggest names in business to remake education at Paul Quinn College. And he’s just getting started. story by ZAC CRAIN portraits by TREVOR PAULHUS
73
62
Real Estate Pioneer:
Shawn Todd
With developments like The National and East Quarter, the founder of Todd Interests shows others how adaptive reuse is done. story by BIANCA R. MONTES portraits by SEAN BERRY
The Resilient Market
P H OTO G R A P H Y BY S E A N B E R R Y
TEAM CAPTAIN Sharon Morrison leads as a player-coach at ESRP, a firm she co-founded in 2013.
A look at the 83 finalists in our annual Commercial Real Estate Awards program—projects, deals, and professionals who helped North Texas power through the pandemic. by CHRISTINE PEREZ portraits by SEAN BERRY
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CONTENTS
40 EDITOR’S NOTE
90
DOSSIER 4 3 YO U N E E D T O K N O W
Mandy Price, Kanarys
85
46 MEET THE 500
Tom Walker, Dallas Cowboys 4 8 L O C A L LY S O U R C E D
Gia Rodriguez, Gia Rodriguez Designs 48 SMALL BUSINESS
Daniella Menachemson, StyleNations
Doug Michel, Entrepreneurs’ Organization
FIELD NOTES 77 LESSON LEARNED
Prasanna Singaraju, Qentelli 78 ECONOMY
Looming trade troubles in Texas: The export king will keep its crown, but will the economy lose a growth engine?
88
80 ON TOPIC
Chris Luna of T-Mobile, Thear Suzuki of EY, and Curt Morgan of Vistra Corp. share the best business advice they’ve received. 8 2 E X P E R T A DV I C E
Legal tax professionals Brady Cox and Jason Freeman provide advice for business leaders ahead of potential changes to the tax code.
OFF DUTY 85 STYLE
Megan Dimmer, Solv
C-Suiters share their favorite books. 8 8 W E L L -T R AV E L E D : AUSTIN, TEXAS
Beverley Wright, Wright Choice Group
92 036
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APRIL 2021
CEO
8 6 M U S T- R E A D
83
F I N A LI S T S
CO M M E RCIAL R E AL E STATE AWAR DS P LU S : Pioneer Award Winner Shawn Todd
THE NEXUS OF
OPPORTUNITY Michael Sorrell has partnered with big names in business and government to remake education at Paul Quinn College. And he’s just getting started.
90 ROOTS
Madhuri Andrews, Jacobs 92 ENDMARK
William W. Caruth Jr.
ON THE COVER: Michael Sorrell, the president of Paul Quinn College, was photographed in a Dallas studio by Trevor Paulhus.
48
E N D M A R K C O U R T E S Y O F C O M M U N I T I E S F O U N D A T I O N , R O OT S C O U R T E S Y O F M A D H U R I A N D R E W S , S T Y L E BY J O N A T H A N Z I Z Z O , T R AV E L C O U R T E S Y O F A U R B E R G E R E S O R T S C O L L E C T I O N , S M A L L B U S I N E S S C O U R T E S Y O F S T Y L E N A T I O N S
5 0 O N T H E TA B L E
DCEOMAGAZINE.COM
3/8/21 3:32 PM
Resolving Complex Business Disputes in Texas
Business & Commercial Litigation put your trust in us
Donald E. Godwin Board Certified, Civil Trial Law Texas Board of Legal Specialization
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P U B L I S H E R Gillea Allison EDITORIAL EDITOR Christine Perez MANAGING EDITOR Will Maddox ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR Bianca R. Montes ASSOCIATE EDITOR Kelsey J. Vanderschoot CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Richard Alm, W. Michael Cox EDITORIAL INTERNS Ellie Beeck, Maria Hieber, Mariah Terry, Chance Townsend
ART DESIGN DIRECTOR Hamilton Hedrick STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Elizabeth Lavin DIGITAL ART DIRECTOR Emily Olson
A DV E R T I S I N G ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Rhett Taylor ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Kym Rock Davidson SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Cami Burke, Haley Muse MANAGING EDITOR OF SPECIAL SECTIONS Jennifer Sander Hayes DIGITAL REVENUE DIRECTOR Tracy Albertson DIGITAL AD OPERATIONS MANAGER Riley Hill CLIENT OPERATIONS MANAGER Palmer McGraw SALES MARKETING MANAGER Rachel Schoellkopf
MARKETING & EVENTS BRAND MANAGER Carly Mann EVENTS DIRECTOR Bethany Kempfe ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR Katie Garza BRAND INTERN Jillian Verzwyvelt
AU D I E N C E D E V E LO P M E N T DIRECTOR Amanda Hammer COORDINATOR Sarah South DATA ENTRY SPECIALIST Jae Chung RETAIL STRATEGY MANAGER Steve Crabb MERCHANDISER David Truesdell AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT INTERN Mia Solheim
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR John Gay MANAGER Pamela Ashby PHOTO RETOUCHER Natalie Goff
BUSINESS CONTROLLER Debbie Travis ACCOUNTING MANAGER Sabrina LaTorre STAFF ACCOUNTANT Lesley Killen IT TECHNICIAN Luan Aliji
WEB EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Matt Goodman
MAIL 750 N. Saint Paul St., Ste. 2100, Dallas, TX 75201 The magazine assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts. WEBSITE www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-ceo MAIN OFFICE 214-939-3636 ADVERTISING 214-939-3636 x 128 REPRINTS 214-939-3636 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES For immediate assistance, call 214-939-3636 x 232. For other inquiries, e-mail customerservice@dmagazine.us. SUBSCRIPTIONS 11 issues for $54 in the United States, possessions, APO and FPO; $70 per 11 issues elsewhere. Please provide old and new addresses and enclose latest mailing label when inquiring about your subscription. For custom publishing inquiries, call 214-540-0113.
D M A G A Z I N E PA R T N E R S EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND CEO Christine Allison PRESIDENT Gillea Allison CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Thomas L. Earnshaw CHIEF OF STAFF Rachel Gill FOUNDER Wick Allison
PLAZA SALTILLO | Austin, TX 038
APRIL 2021
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3/1/21 4:48 PM
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Dreaming It Into Reality in Dallas
PLANNING for
UNPLANNED EVENTS 98% of business owners don’t know what their business is worth, yet 90% are planning to fund their retirement with the proceeds. The statistics quoted are supplied by Biz Equity
Robert Gardner, CEPA®, CFEd® Founding Partner
972-833-2565 P H OTO G R A P H Y BY E L I Z A B E T H L A V I N
Visit our website for free business valuation
gardnerwallace.com rgardner @ gardnerwallace.com 14135 Midway Road Suite G110 Addison, TX 75001
040
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i wasn’t thrilled about moving to dallas in 2000. i hail from the north, and my impressions of the city had been formed by the nighttime soap opera of the same name. But my husband at the time had been offered a great job in North Texas. “Three years—max,” I told him, when we decided to relocate. Not long after we arrived, an opportunity came up to cover real estate for the Dallas Business Journal. I had been with magazines for most of my working life; developing a beat for a news organization was among my career goals, and real estate was at the top of my list. I was in. Getting to know the industry’s brokers, leaders, and developers helped me quickly fall in love with Dallas. Their passion for the business and the market was infectious. The belief that one can dream things into reality is potent in Dallas; I found this to be especially true with developers. Early on, for example, David Craig took me on a tour of a massive 2,000-acre project he was planning in McKinney. As we drove around the property, he pointed out where offices, retail, hotels, residences, and a golf course would someday be. Where I saw nothing but land, he saw a thriving mixed-use community where people lived and worked. And that, of course, is what Craig Ranch is today. Next month, the golf course Craig envisioned 20 years ago will host the AT&T Byron Nelson. In 2010, I joined D CEO and launched our real estate platform, one that is now in the able hands of Bianca R. Montes. Her terrific profile of another big-thinking developer, Pioneer Award winner Shawn Todd of Todd Interests, anchors our annual Commercial Real Estate Awards package that starts on page 62. It features all 83 finalists in this year’s program— outstanding projects, deals, and professionals. (Winners will be revealed at an event this spring.) Despite the pandemic, we were once again flooded with entries. It shouldn’t come as a surprise; no matter the obstacles, the North Texas real estate community has a way of making things happen.
Christine Perez Editor
DCEOMAGAZINE.COM
4/1/20 1:02 PM
3/8/21 3:09 PM
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ADVERTISMENT
ASK THE EXPERT
Effective Virtual Communication — Part 2 R O G G E D U N N , PA R T N E R , R O G G E D U N N G R O U P
What technical tools are people using to communicate effectively in video conferences? Numerous technological tools available can make a virtual meeting dynamic. It’s not simply a matter of knowing how to share documents, pulling up your emails, and opening attachments. Learn how you can take control of participants’ computers and help your tech-challenged clients access their documents and perform internet searches on their computer. Learn how to highlight and enlarge portions of shared documents. Be prepared to quickly locate and share important documents, data, and communications. Use dedicated equipment so you are comfortable and familiar with its features. Limit others access to the dedicated equipment. Who can forget the lawyer appearing at a court hearing using his secretary’s computer, whose child had set a cat as the computer’s filter? The lawyer could not locate his secretary and the video went viral. Test your equipment frequently. Had the lawyer using his secretary’s computer tested it, he could have prevented the cat filter embarrassment. We regularly spot test our Zoom HD broadcast room and do so before every court hearing to be sure the lights, microphones, and cameras are operating at 100%.
It’s not about your comfort, it’s about projecting preparedness and professionalism. And, it’s about respecting your audience.
Why is respect so important? Being persuasive means making a presentation your audience finds appealing based on their sensibilities. People you are doing business with or trying to persuade expect and deserve respect. If the first thing they hear or see in the virtual meeting is an unprofessional background, muffled audio, or disheveled dress, it’s an immediate turn off. A offended listener is more difficult to persuade, and they may tune you out quickly. A client recently told me he fired his financial advisor (“FA”) because the FA always called him from his car while driving home from work. The investor felt disrespected, unimportant, and an after-thought—who didn’t rate high amongst the FA’s other clients. I never considered that making a call while driving home would be perceived as disrespectful. If I need to call a client on my cell phone while driving, now I apologize and offer to schedule an in-person or virtual meeting. I also give a good reason why I’m calling them from my cell. While multi-tasking is generally a good idea, this lesson teaches that, whenever possible, your virtual meetings should be from an office, not a kitchen, your phone, or an iPad. Will dress, background, and appearance Of course, it’s all about your audience’s permatter as much in a virtual meeting? Yes. Dress for success, like spectives and proclivities. you would for any in-person If they are turned off by meeting, but under bright, formal business attire, then direct lights. It’s one thing dress casually. Creating a to appear for an impromptu professional and productive meeting in a t-shirt after exvirtual meeting your audience views as pleasing will ercising, it’s quite another to 500 N. Akard St., Suite 1900 Dallas, Texas 75201 ensure you meet your goals be eating a Twizzler, smack214.888.5000 | info@roggedunngroup.com ing gum, smoking, or vaping. and achieve the best results. www.roggedunngroup.com
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APRIL 2021
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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, Halliburton Energy Services, Kinko’s, Texas Motor Speedway, Steak ‘n Shake, SunEdison, Texas Capital Bancshares, Texas Tech University, Tuesday Morning, and Whataburger. Corporate clients include Adecco, Beal Bank, Benihana, CBRE, Cintas, DuraServ, Match.com, Rent-A-Center, and Outback Steakhouse. Dunn was recognized as one of the Dallas 500 in 2021 by D CEO. He has been honored as a Texas Super Lawyer every year that award has been given and named to the Super Lawyers’ list as one of the top 100 attorneys in Texas by Thompson Reuters Service and a D Magazine Best Lawyer 11 times. Dunn is one of only approximately 25 attorneys in Texas Board Certified in both Civil Trial Law and Labor and Employment Law.
DCEOMAGAZINE.COM
3/4/21 4:11 PM
APRIL 2021
DOSSIER TRENDS
to
WATC H
a n d
NORTH TEXAS NEWSMAKERS
YOU NEED TO KNOW
Kanarys CEO Mandy Price Brings Data to DEI Efforts P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F K A N A R Y S
The Harvard grad left her law career to help companies with diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies that have real impact. story by WILL MADDOX
DCEOMAGAZINE.COM
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Price spent more than a decade working as a private equity attorney, but her passion for social justice still burned bright. She became involved with several diversity initiatives and committees within her industry and found that corporate efforts were too often limited to tokenism or surface-level celebrations. “I saw the lack of resources that a lot of diversity professionals have,” she says. “Even though companies were well-intentioned, the strategy just wasn’t there.” Price wanted to help change that. In 2018, she left her legal career to form Kanarys with her UT and Harvard classmate Star Carter, chief operating officer, and her husband Bennie King, who serves as chief administrative officer. Price is at mandy price watched her community the helm as CEO. Kanarys helps companies imchange before her eyes, and she didn’t always like prove their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) what she learned about her friends and neighbors. efforts by leveraging training, data, and analysis. Growing up in Desoto, she was the only Black Its growth is expected to accelerate this year, as student in her kindergarten class. By the time she Kanarys just closed on $3 million in seed fundgraduated from high school, her class was half ing, bringing the total raised to $4.6 million. Black. In middle school, Price’s White friends Client employees anonymously review their would mention how “dangerous” the school had companies, providing data about the progress of become, a thinly veiled reference to the influx of initiatives and insights into worker experiences. Black students who had joined them in the halls. Price and her team then offer tailored strategies When Price asked what they meant, her friends based on the findings revealed in the research. backtracked, reassuring Price that she was not Once a company implements the recommenincluded in their stereotyping. “Because they dations, it can track cultural grew up with me, they didn’t changes and progress through view me as the dangerous oth“EVEN THOUGH Kanarys’ software. er folks that, in their mind, COMPANIES WERE The company experienced they could stereotype.” Price’s steady growth last year, despite friends revealed a truth about WELL-INTENTIONED, challenges related to the panracism that stuck with her: We THE STRATEGY JUST demic. It’s now measuring DEI make assumptions about peoWASN’T THERE.” insights on nearly 1,000 U.S. ple we don’t know, and those companies, including Fortune prejudices are often dissolved MANDY PRICE through real connection. Kanarys 500 brands, making it the largPrice’s youthful experiences est DEI data-driven platform fueled a desire within her to help spark change. of its kind in the U.S. Price says the recent seed As an undergraduate at The University of Texfunding will help Kanarys advance product feaas, she served on the school’s Racial Respect tures, make key technology and business developand Fairness Task Force. And at Harvard Law ment hires, and expand its client base. “We want to School, she focused her research on social justice ensure that we are able to help many more compaissues and served on the Harvard Civil Rights— nies with the work that we’re doing and to help eleCivil Liberties Law Review. vate equity, inclusion, and workplace,” she says.
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DATA P O I N T S
The Business Case for DEI For real impact, diversity efforts must extend beyond demographic quotas to include equity and inclusion. “We know that a focus on DEI in business is not just the right thing to do for employees, it also makes good business sense,” Price says. This is supported by recent research: • Global research and advisory firm Gartner found that 75 percent of companies with diverse and inclusive decision-making teams exceed their financial targets; gender-inclusive teams outperform their less-inclusive competitors by 50 percent. • A 2015 Deloitte survey found that 83 percent of millennials are actively engaged if they believe the company fosters an inclusive culture, while only 60 percent of millennials are actively engaged within work environments that do not promote inclusivity. • Research conducted by Boston Consulting Group in 2018 found that companies reporting above-average diversity on management teams had innovation revenue 19 percent higher than companies with belowaverage diversity across management teams.
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FRESH IDEAS
Primed For Takeoff MEET THE 500
THOMAS WALKER Chief Financial Officer DA L L A S C O W B OY S F O O T B A L L C L U B
although the pandemic disrupted play last year, the Dallas Cowboys organization was as busy as ever, closing several real estate deals at The Star in Frisco, including a big lease with Keurig Dr Pepper. Juggling it all is Chief Financial Officer Tom Walker, who oversees the Jones family’s diverse interests, from oil and gas to logistics and technology—and even dealing with a yacht. EDUCATION: Oklahoma State University (MS-Accounting, BSFinance) BIRTHPLACE: Lawton, Oklahoma FIRST JOB: “I started mowing lawns when I was in junior high. By the time I hit high school, I’d learned that the junior-high kids would work for less than I was getting paid. Eventually, that turned into purchasing a trailer and several mowers and employing half the kids in the neighborhood.”
illegal or immoral, and I’m paying you, then it’s your job.’ Simple words, but they’ve guided me for almost 25 years now.” SOMETHING I LOVE: “A glass of Jameson Gold Reserve Blended Irish Whiskey. It isn’t the most expensive by far, but it’s truly my favorite and out of production, so finding it is rare.” DREAM CAR: “I’m a Ford truck man and have been for a long, long time.”
GREATEST INSPIRATION: “My mother. She was 14 when I was born and became the first member of her family to graduate from college.”
TOUGHEST CHALLENGE: “Learning to slow down and listen to ideas coming from people I work with. It’s amazing how much easier work is when you let great people do the things they are great at.”
BEST ADVICE: “A partner that I worked for at KPMG many years ago told me, ‘If it isn’t
BUCKET LIST: “I intended to ride a bull in college; I never did, but I’d love to give it a go.”
FAVORITE MOVIE: “How do you say no to the original Magnificent Seven? It’s followed very closely by Braveheart.” MUST-READ: “The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It makes you think about individual versus collective rights.” LAST MEAL: “A good ribeye with snap peas, creamed corn, and whipped sweet potatoes.” LOOKING AHEAD: “The social justice movement has opened the eyes of a lot of people— myself 100-percent included. I’m hopeful we can find a way as individuals, and as a society, to be better.”
gia rodriguez learned the craft of leathermaking in 2014, when she moved to Florence, Italy, to work alongside master artisans. Once she perfected innovative leather techniques, she formed Gia Rodriguez Designs, a Dallas-based company specializing in travel bags (called The Weekender), totes, and accessories for women and men. Her products became especially popular with corporate clients and boutique hotels that branded her goods as gifts. When the event market fell through last year due to the pandemic, Rodriguez segued into making masks—a move that allowed her to break even financially and keep her business afloat. Things are looking brighter this year. “We’re looking to ramp back up and revive the relationships that were put on hold in 2020,” Rodriguez says. “As travel begins to pick back up, we definitely think there’s going to be a positive effect on our travel collection and some new colors that will be exciting for the spring.” —Chance Townsend
WA L K E R BY J A K E M E Y E R S ; R O D R I G U E Z E L I Z A B E T H L A V I N
With her leather totes and other goods, designer Gia Rodriguez is ready for the return of travel.
IN THE BAG
Gia Rodriguez in her workshop with one of her products, The Weekender.
This Q&A is extended content from Dallas 500, a special edition produced by D CEO that profiles the region’s most influential business leaders. Visit www.dallas500.com for details.
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DOSSIER
SMALL BUSINESS
story by
MARIAH TERRY
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doing a favor for her father helped daniella ALONG WITH Menachemson discover a love for interior design and cusBOUTIQUE tom furnishings. “I helped him build a very simple website, HOTELS, THE where he could sell furniture to people who set up events COMPANY HAS and weddings,” Menachemson says. An IT industry veterDONE WORK an on maternity leave at the time, she soon found herself engrossed in her father’s enterprise. “I had a knack for it. I FOR MARRIOTT, loved sourcing products from all over the world,” she says. MGM, AND THE When her father began shifting RITZ-CARLTON. to interior design and custom orders, Menachemson noticed that demand was increasingly coming from the American market. “We used to get a lot of people coming to Australia from the U.S. asking us to do furniture projects, and I could never understand why,” she says. Menachemson decided to meet demand at its origin and launched StyleNations in October 2019. The Dallas-based brand lets hospitality clients customize fabrics and finishes for commercial furniture. Menachemson’s team then sources, manufactures, and ships pieces direct to buyers, striving for faster-than-average turnaround times. “What we specialize in is custom manufacturing,” Menachemson says. “StyleNations began because of the merging of good furniture and interior design.” The company’s business model appeals to brands seeking just a few custom pieces, such as boutique hotels. But big names in the hospitality world are clients, too: StyleNations has worked on projects for Marriott Hotels, The Ritz-Carlton, and MGM. “It’s really about building a collection that works well, that presents well, and that is affordable, too,” Menachemson says. Over the past two years, StyleNations has grown from two to 12 employees and opened offices in India and China. Menachemson says she’s getting more requests to design furniture for entire hotel locations rather than a single aspect of room furnishings. Now, Menachemson is hoping to replicate her success in the residential furniture market. “With COVID, GLOBAL everyone is focusing on their homes at the moSHOPPER ment—updating their furniture, kitchens, and Menachemson says she bathrooms, or whatever it may be,” she says. loves sourcing products “That’s something that we want to invest into from all over in 2021—to grow that part of our business.” the world.
P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F S T Y L E N A T I O N S
Why Australian entrepreneur Daniella Menachemson moved to Dallas to grow her company.
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O N T H E TA B L E
After Eight Years in the Wilderness, Doug Michel Found His Tribe The incoming president of Entrepreneur’s Organization says the peer-to-peer network has been critical to his success.
story by WILL MADDOX illustration by JAKE MEYERS
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the life of an entrepreneur can be a lonely one. Stories about innovators coming up with the next big thing in their garages and pushing forward when no one believed in them may make for inspiring elevator pitches, but the reality can often be isolating and discouraging. I recently sat down for lunch at Meddlesome Moth with Doug Michel, incoming president of Entrepreneur’s Organization, a peer-to-peer network for entrepreneurs with 1998 chapters in 61 countries. He’s also the owner and president of Health Care Interiors, which manufactures textiles and makes window treatments for healthcare facilities. Over warm bowls of shrimp and grits (him) and Thai beef and rice (me), we chatted about the impact EO has had on his career. Michel hails from small-town Iowa and never thought that he would one day become a business owner. Although he didn’t realize it at the time, he was surrounded by entrepreneurs in his hometown. After attending Stanford University and working in finance during the dot-com bust in Silicon Valley, he saw what he thought was a secure company go from 150 to 50 employees and began to see the value in becoming his own boss. “There’s not necessarily a safety net in the corporate world,” Michel says. “Although I’m not a natural entrepreneur, I figured at least I’d be controlling my destiny.”
He quit his finance job and purchased a lawn services business in California, growing and selling it before moving to Texas to be closer to his wife’s family. He purchased Health Care Interiors in 2008, but the lessons learned about running his business in California didn’t translate to a larger company. “I found that just working hard and being a good person and making good decisions didn’t necessarily equate to growing that business,” he says. “I realized I needed to learn how to be an entrepreneur because it wasn’t natural to me.” Enter EO. The nonprofit organization provides learning opportunities for entrepreneurs through monthly events and small-group forums where members discuss challenges and share ideas. The meetings are not about networking (hunting for business leads is forbidden) and aren’t focused on guidance (giving overly specific advice is frowned upon) but emphasize sharing experiences. Michel’s presidency begins in July, and he looks forward to the days when the EO events can go back to being held in person. Although the vaccine may bring some optimism, he wants to prioritize support for members who are still struggling. He also aims to make EO a more active player in Dallas’ entrepreneur infrastructure by supporting university programs and connecting with chambers. “It’s my chance to do my part and give back to the chapter that has been so helpful to me,” Michel says. “It will be a great learning experience for me because leading a group of 140 entrepreneurs is much different than leading a group of employees.” EO got Michel out of his lonely garage and into the community. “It has been a tremendous help to me; it has changed everything,” he says. “It was awesome, after what felt like eight years in the wilderness, to find a tribe.”
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How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted office space? COVID-19 has forced us to review how we use real estate and who truly needs office space. There are certain parts of our workforce that perform well remotely. However, we are also seeing other parts of the workforce that are experiencing mental health issues as employees try to cope with isolation or simply try to find a place where they can be undisturbed. As we begin to come out of this current pandemic, we will re-engineer our workplaces to accommodate those people and job functions that require an office while also better connecting those employees who will continue to work remotely. This change will reduce demand for office space in general and therefore, delay the recovery of the office market well into the future. This drop in demand will continue to put downward pressure on office rents, providing opportunity for cost reductions for office users. Are companies making decisions as to how they are going to utilize space going forward in the “New Normal”? Most of our clients are in planning stages. We have developed scenario planning tools that allow our clients to look at several options per location that considers their utilization of space, the anticipated real estate costs, and the employment costs. In general, most of our office clients are targeting a 10 to 30% reduction in costs going forward. Most companies are reducing their footprints. Our Scenario Planning features allow them to decide whether they have a greater impact to reduce their footprint immediately or to reduce upon lease expiry and also capitalize on lower rent costs at that time. Our technology allows them to view both options and make intelligent decisions at a faster pace.
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So, your technology is helping them redefine their costs going forward? Yes. We have developed a business analytics platform specifically designed for real estate that allows our clients to quickly aggregate all their real estate data and help establish these long-term plans going forward. We have been working with our clients to develop portfolio strategies that support their expected occupancy ratios in the future along with achieving savings goals that have been established. Is the same true for industrial space? Not at all. The change in e-commerce has significantly increased the need for industrial space, and we are seeing significant increases in costs. Because of this, we have applied rent forecasting to our models to assist our clients in developing cost mitigation measures three to five years in advance of lease expirations. As we progress with these clients, we can also aggregate additional data, including truck trip costs and real estate costs, for other locations in the area. By compiling these costs, our technology can determine the best location that provides the lease in total costs including, but not limited to, real estate costs as well as truck trip costs. Will technology be key in helping to navigate the future of the real estate markets? Technology will be vitally important in navigating the changing real estate markets. Our technology is constantly evolving to include situational analysis brought about by the events that are taking place at any specific time. By continuing to add to our technology, we stay on track with the changing demands our industry faces. But make no mistake, technology doesn’t do it all. It takes a true partnership of corporate real estate and a service provider partner who is an extension of the team to together leverage the technology and unlock the potential in each real estate portfolio.
FISCHER is a leading global real estate firm that provides portfolio management, strategy, technology solutions, and transaction management solely focused on corporate occupiers. Founded in 1985, Fischer has built a successful track record focused on total tenant advocacy. Since 1986, Fischer has developed real estate technology solutions and remains the technology innovation leader. A unique blend of expertise in corporate real estate services and technology has earned Fischer the trust and respect of some of the largest and most successful corporations in the world.
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story by ZAC
CRAIN
photography by TREVOR
PAU L H U S
“Let’s Become Something Different” Michael Sorrell has formed innovative partnerships with some of the biggest names in business to remake education at Paul Quinn College. And he’s just getting started.
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Michael Sorrell is a few minutes late for our Zoom call—he was showing his 10-year-old son, Michael, how to shovel snow, he apologizes. A couple of inches blanketed the city last night, the kickoff to the coldest three-day stretch in Dallas history. Clearing sidewalks and driveways was a regular chore for Sorrell growing up in Chicago, where a week like this is just a normal winter. But this is the first time his son has had to pick up a shovel. “I have one ear listening in case it all goes left,” he says. That’s a familiar position for the 54-year-old Sorrell, mirroring the vigilant approach he first adopted during his early days as a lawyer and public affairs consultant, when he displayed a talent for crisis management. Once you’ve spent any time in that line of work, he explains, its habits stick with you. “You’re always sleeping with one eye open, OK?” Sorrell strikes a much more casual profile in his box on the computer screen, his shaved head and trimmed beard, accented by round tortoiseshell glasses, poking out of a loose turtleneck sweater. He appears professorial, a look he has grown into over the past decade or so. When Sorrell took over as president at Paul Quinn College in 2007, he didn’t have any background in education to speak of. But back then, the school didn’t need an academic. Paul Quinn is the oldest historically Black university west of the Mississippi and, at the time, was a failing institution. It was losing money and students and on the verge of losing its accreditation. There were a thousand fires everywhere, some small, some five-alarmers,
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(Right) Sorrell disbanded Paul Quinn’s football program and converted the former field into a two-acre organic garden.
(Far right) Paul Quinn College became the only HBCU in North Texas when it moved to Dallas from Waco in 1990.
some on the verge of becoming actual fires on the 146-acre campus eight miles south of downtown. The school needed a fixer, and in Sorrell, it got a great one. A little more than a decade later, in 2017, Paul Quinn wasn’t just surviving but thriving. It was officially recognized as the ninth federally funded work college in the country—the first in Texas and the only historically Black institution on the list. In 2018, it expanded to Plano and broke ground on the first new building on its southern Dallas campus in 40 years. That same year, Fortune magazine ranked Sorrell No. 34 on its list of The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders, between JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and actress Reese Witherspoon. Since taking over, he had improved the school in every metric while also reducing tuition costs, ensuring that no student graduated with more than $10,000 in debt. And then, in early 2020, when everything was pointed up, the school needed a crisis manager again, as COVID-19 hit and the world fell apart. Sorrell was ready, because he had never stopped sleeping with one eye open. “Doing that work has really given me a unique perspective and advantage to be leading in this moment in time, right?” Sorrell punctuates many of his sentences this way, including his listener on his thought, like they are making a point together. “Because it’s taught me the importance of communicating. It’s taught me the importance of patience, taught me the importance of discipline. But it has also taught me the opportunities that present themselves in difficult moments.”
A DREA MER A ND DO ER Sorrell had plenty of opportunities at the beginning of his tenure at Paul Quinn, because there were plenty of difficult moments. He was the school’s sixth president in six years, inheriting a 1 percent graduation rate and a campus full of abandoned buildings. The school was nearly bankrupt and running deficits as high as $1 million. By month three, its accreditation status was placed on probation. Within two
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years, it had lost 400 students. But 14 years later, the graduation rate is up to 40 percent, still lower than what Sorrell would like (he’s aiming for 90 percent) but a number to be proud of, given the economic problems that much of its student body faces. (Almost 90 percent qualify for Pell Grants, meaning they are under the poverty line.) Enrollment has stabilized at 551 students, and there is room to grow once the school adds capacity; there has been a waitlist to get in for the past several years. Paul Quinn is fully accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools and is seen as a paradigm-shifting model of higher education, operating at a profit for the bulk of the last decade. That is, in part, because it has received the most seven-figure gifts in the school’s history. To get from there to here, Paul Quinn needed the fresh ideas of a dreamer carried out with the pragmatism of a doer. It needed someone with the vision to write a new story for the school and the charisma to tell that story to the rest of the world. It needed a strong leader, because the tough times weren’t over just yet. In short, it needed someone like Michael Sorrell. “A visionary with a heart,” as Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall puts it. Sorrell started Paul Quinn’s transformation from the outside in. One of his first changes was instituting a business casual dress code. To help his students—he calls them “Quinnites”—meet the new standard, he set up the Clothes Closet, “a free ‘boutique’ where students can get new items as well as the occasional gently worn Armani suit or St. John dress,” as The New Sorrell kicked York Times reported in April 2008. off a Voices “And then everyone started running stories That Matter speaker series about that, and that got a lot of attention and at the school in 2015 with gave us the ability to talk about ourselves differPat Smith and ently,” Sorrell says now. “It was about sending Emmitt Smith.
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messages to people that we’re going to be something different, and different applies to every aspect of our lives.” One of the people who got the message was Dallas businessman and philanthropist Trammell S. Crow. He called Sorrell’s office in the fall of 2009 to ask him to lunch, and the pair immediately hit it off. “Everybody loves that man,” Crow says. “He’s got gravitas without the pomp.” Sorrell calls Crow “the patron saint of Paul Quinn.” His name will be on a LEED-certified living and learning center set to open when students return to campus. And it was Crow who provided the seed money for Sorrell’s next big idea after that initial lunch. Sorrell had disbanded the school’s football program, cutting a $600,000 line item from the budget. With backing from Crow and PepsiCo’s Food For Good initiative (Crow put them together), he converted the erstwhile football field into a two-acre organic garden, now known as the WE Over ME Farm. “What I told our board, when they gave the approval for the farm, I said, ‘This is going to be the thing that saves our school.’ And one of my trustees said, ‘We’re going to make that much money farming?’ And I laughed. I said, ‘Not if we grow something legal,’ right? No. I said, ‘We won’t. It’s not that big of a farm. But here’s what it does: it says, ‘We have so much faith in ourselves that we’re not going to spend all our
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time begging for things. We’re actually going to give away things. We’re going to stand in the gap and be more for people who need us.’ And that was something people hadn’t seen before.” Much of the produce grown is sold to Legends Hospitality, a Jerry Jones family affiliate that operates at AT&T Stadium. The school also donates to the surrounding community. But Sorrell was right: its biggest success has been at changing the narrative about Paul Quinn. Maybe too successful, honestly. There have been times when Sorrell admits he didn’t want to talk about the farm, mainly because that’s all anyone wanted to talk about. “I would show up places, and people were like, ‘Tell me about your agriculture strategy and your farming strategy, and I was just like, ‘I’m not a farmer. I’m an entrepreneur. This was an entrepreneurial endeavor, OK? I can’t tell you anything about crop rotations and stuff like that.’ ” You can understand Sorrell’s hesitation. It wasn’t the first idea he had for Paul Quinn College, and it certainly wasn’t the last. It’s not even why the school is a success. That has more to do with a less eye-catching conversion he started in 2013, turning Paul Quinn into a work college. Under that model, all students are required to work a certain number of hours at the college; part of their earnings goes toward tuition. It keeps the tuition costs lower (with the aid of federal funding) and staff costs down. Sorrell exported the idea to Plano in 2018, after he was randomly seated next to Mayor Harry LaRosiliere at an event. During a more formal meeting later, they disagreed on who was the greater rapper, Tupac Shakur (Sorrell) or the Notorious B.I.G. (the Harlem-raised LaRosiliere), but did have at least one thing in common. “A real passion for education, for opportunity,” LaRosiliere says. Both believe the true nexus of opportunity exists within a combination of government, education, and business. What they’ve created together is exactly that. At PQC-Plano, there is no campus; all classes are remote, with meetings taking place in various boardrooms or libraries. Students intern with one of the program’s corporate partners, including JPMorgan Chase, Toyota, and Liberty Mutual. LaRosiliere’s goal was to get up to 100 students, a number that was hit pre-COVID. (It’s around 60 now, and USAA has just come on board with another 20 scholarships.)
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Sorrell (No. 44) was a highscoring forward at Oberlin College in Ohio.
Sorrell didn’t have experience in education when he took the helm of Paul Quinn College in 2007. Sorrell is married to the former Natalie Jenkins. After a chance meeting at a Café Express, they were officially introduced by Matrice Ellis-Kirk, the wife of former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk. They have two children, Michael, 10, and Sage, 6.
Sorrell was fifth on the all-time basketball scoring list at Oberlin College when he graduated.
Time named him one of 31 People Changing the South. Sorrell is also the only threetime winner of the HBCU Male President of the Year award from HBCU Digest.
Plano is just the first site of Sorrell’s planned network of urban work colleges, and he says he already would have expanded to other cities had the pandemic not gotten in the way. He’s cagey about where he will take it next—he hints it’s outside of Texas—as well as what his next big idea is. All he will allow is the scope of his ambition. “We’re going to take a really hard shot at remaking education,” he says. “Period. I’m working on a book now that talks about new vision for education in this country. We didn’t just come to try and address a struggling four-year college in southern Dallas, right? We’re coming for everything. We think that the educational system is under-serving people who need it to perform the most. ... These institutions are in every community in America, so if we view them differently, if we view our responsibility in education differently, if we really explore the possibilities, then we can remake this country in a way that it’s equitable and just for everyone.”
TH E BASK ETBA LL CONNEC TION A week or so after Sorrell and I spoke, Paul Quinn and the Dallas Mavericks formally announced their partnership on a new degree plan called LISTEN (Leadership, Innovation, Sports Management, Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Networking). “We want it to be a diverse major where they are ready to go in several different directions, leadership being the key piece,” Cynt Marshall says. She has known Sorrell since one of her daughters attended Paul Quinn. “We’re making a total commitment. We’ll
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have some of our employees as mentors. These kids, several of them will have summer jobs with us, or they’ll have internships. Then, of course, obviously, they’ll have an opportunity to work for us permanently.” Marshall mentions the organization maybe will even have a building on campus one day. The partnership with the Mavericks brings Sorrell’s story full circle, because basketball has a lot to do with how he ended up at Paul Quinn, and why he’s still there. He says he first heard of the school via a short article in Jet magazine after Paul Quinn’s basketball team won a national championship in 1990, the year the school moved north from its former home in Waco. And basketball is how he first got involved Paul Quinn, in 2001. His knees won’t let him play now, he says, but he was still in his prime then, 27 years old and only a few years removed from his days as a high-scoring forward at Oberlin College in Ohio. After work and on Saturday mornings, he’d play in pickup basketball games at the downtown YMCA. (The 6-foot-4 Sorrell always sought out the most competitive runs wherever he lived.) At the Y, he met a number of Paul Quinn graduates who made the Chicago transplant feel at home in Dallas. To repay their kindness, Sorrell began donating money to the school and volunteering on campus. He even filled in for a professor once. Then Dr. Lee Monroe, who had been Paul Quinn’s president since 1992, stepped down. “I have no idea why I thought I should be president, and it’s a bit absurd when I look back on it,” Sorrell says. “I called up the search firm and just said, ‘Hey, Michael Sorrell. I think I should be president of Paul Quinn.’ And the woman who was running the search sort of chuckled, and she said, ‘Listen, that’s not really how this stuff works.’ And I said, ‘OK, tell me how it works.’ I mean, completely undeterred, you know?” His brashness landed him a seat on the board, which just gave him an up-close view of the turnover at the top. “It’s very humbling to want a job and to watch people kind of go through leadership positions for that job, and no one ever thinks that maybe you should get a shot,” he says. “And for somebody who’s built a life of succeeding, well, I got a little mad, and then it wasn’t as if things were going spectacularly well, right? So, I decided: I’m never going to be president here.” In fact, he planned to end his involvement altogether. He had his letter of resignation written and ready to be faxed, sitting on the corner of his desk. He was part of a prospective sports team ownership group headed up by former Duke basketball stars Christian Laettner and Brian Davis; they won back-to-back national titles when Sorrell was at the university’s law school, and he later became an adviser and attorney for their Blue Devil Ventures. They had made a bid for the Memphis Grizzlies, and if it went through, Sorrell would become the organization’s president and get a small stake in the team. He would be living “the Range Rover lifestyle,” as he calls it. The deal seemed close enough that in March 2007, Sorrell was driving to Oklahoma City to scout University of Texas star Kevin Durant, who would enter the NBA draft that year. And that’s when the call he had given up on finally came: “How would you like to be president of Paul Quinn College?” He said he’d think about it and call back. (The scenario of choosing between the presidencies of a college and
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Sorrell suffered sudden cardiac death in 2008. It became a clarifying moment for him in two big ways. Sorrell calls it his Iron Man moment now. “You know, how he wakes up in the cave with the wires coming out of his chest, right?” Sorrell’s cave was a room at Methodist Hospital in North Oak Cliff, where he came to on Sept. 11, 2008, with his girlfriend, Natalie Jenkins, explaining to him that he’d had to be resuscitated, and that she had helped revive him. They had been at his home, in bed for the night, when he started having a seizure. And then he died. Natalie called 911 and began CPR. “I didn’t even know she knew CPR,” Sorrell says. “I didn’t know she had been a lifeguard in high school.” EMTs arrived and took over, shocking
his heart two times, bringing him back to life. At the hospital, doctors determined that he had suffered sudden cardiac death, an unexpected change in heart rhythm that kills about 325,000 adults in the United States every year. Sorrell says he had a 2 percent chance of living and regaining all of his faculties. He was, of course, one of the lucky ones, and it clarified a couple of things for him, as near-death episodes tend to do. One, it confirmed that Natalie Jenkins would be his wife. “When a woman saves your life, it definitely moves her to the top of the marriage prospect list,” he says. They were married a year later.And two, Paul Quinn was going to make it. “I sit there, and in that moment, I realize, ‘We’re going to win,’ ” Sorrell says. “ ‘We’re going to win at Paul Quinn, because I should be dead.’ I was like, ‘The Lord doesn’t save you to humiliate you. If we weren’t going to win and I should be dead, I would be dead.’ And that’s when I knew.”
Sorrell says he and his wife Natalie were already close to becoming engaged in 2008, when she helped save his life.
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“There’s nothing easy about leading people you love. ... You don’t have the luxury of not getting it right.” M I CHAE L SO R R E LL | Pa ul Q uin n C o ll e g e
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an NBA team led Sorrell’s younger sister Kellie, a Chicago public school teacher, to call him “the Black Forrest Gump.”) He decided to give the school 90 days as interim president while his group finished buying the Grizzlies. He has since given them 14 years and counting. The group’s bid for the Grizzlies fell through, but Sorrell has never treated Paul Quinn like it was a runner-up. “The Memphis Grizzlies would have been a wonderful job, but I think I have found my calling,” he says. “It turns out this was exactly what I was supposed to do. And it has been hard. It has challenged me emotionally and physically. There’s nothing easy about leading people you love, right? Because it becomes more personal, and to identify with the hopes and dreams that people have—and folks from under-resourced communities, when they invest in education, it’s a disproportionate amount of their resources. So, you don’t have the luxury of not getting it right.”
S E E I N G T H E OP P OR T U N IT IE S Sorrell knew he had to get it right as the coronavirus started to wriggle its way into every corner of the country early last spring. On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, he notified students of the decision to discontinue face-to-face learning at Paul Quinn and sent all of his Quinnites home. The college was one of the first to do so. The NBA would push pause on its season later that night, during the second half of a nationally televised Dallas Mavericks game, setting off a chain of events that essentially shut down the country by the end of that week. While most businesses and many schools have reopened to some degree since then, Paul Quinn remains locked down. “The first thing that I’ve learned—I don’t know if it’s so much learned as it’s been reconfirmed, sadly—is that everyone doesn’t have the will to perform under extended periods of duress,” Sorrell says. “And it takes special types of people, I think, to be faced day after day after day with hardships, with no real sign of what the other side will look like and when it will arrive.” Sorrell knew from the beginning that when he sent everyone home due to the coronavirus, they wouldn’t necessarily be coming back anytime soon. He held out hope that there might still be an in-person graduation ceremony in
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Sorrell with his May, but he saw that what wife, Natalie, they were facing wasn’t as and their children. He temporary as some believed. takes a parental approach “We sort of understood the with his PQC students, too. crisis, I think, far earlier than the overwhelming majority of other colleges and universities, right? And probably institutions and businesses, period.” He credits his foresight to his sleep-withone-eye-open mindset and also Michael Lewis’ book, The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy, which made the argument that the U.S. government was weaker than at any point in the nation’s recent history, thanks to the Trump administration dismantling federal agencies. Sorrell had read the 2018 bestseller when he got on his stationary bike at night after putting his kids to bed, and as he read, he thought, “We will be so incredibly lucky if we get out of this guy’s presidency with no catastrophic national crisis.” He assumed if something did happen, it would involve foreign policy. “I had no idea the problem was going to be a global pandemic, right?” So, Sorrell wasn’t prepared for the actual crisis, but when it came, because of his background and The Innovations at Fifth Risk, he was able to understand the scale of it. He read Paul Quinn a study by researchers at Cornell University that made it College have clear the virus responded perfectly to residential college life. made it a model There was no way he could bring his Quinnites back until for urban there was reliable testing and a vaccine. (In the meantime, higher-ed in their tuition was reduced by $2,000, and every student in America. need has received wifi hotspots and laptops to continue online learning.) That meant Paul Quinn was looking at a year, The school was founded in Austin minimum, of no on-campus classes, no students in its doron April 4, 1872, by mitories, more or less returning the school to the ghost town a group of African Sorrell inherited in 2007. Methodist Episcopal He asked his staff to see the opportunity. “We said, ‘What Church preachers. if we have a year-and-a-half until students come back? What would we do with a year and a half to fix everything, It spent most of its right? Let’s identify our problem areas, and let’s fix them. existence in Waco Let’s become something different.’” until moving to Dallas And, so, they did. By the time students return, Sorrell in 1990, where it says, Paul Quinn will have finished three new buildings, took over a campus formerly occupied by introduced a KIPP charter high school and a DISD InterBishop College. national Baccalaureate secondary school, announced two graduate programs (the first two in its history), and revamped several departments. There is the just-announced The school was partnership with the Mavericks. Students will also find a officially recognized new park, walking/running path, and two new murals. as a work college in 2017, making it one “We are literally remaking the institution,” Sorrell says. of just nine in the “I mean, just the experience that the students will have country. It’s the only when they come back will make it very, very clear that we one in Texas and the did not sit on our hands and wish that we had a different only historically Black institution on the list. environment, right? We made the best use of this moment.” And when they come back, he will be there, as usual, one ear listening in case it all goes left.
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Resilient Market In a year of unprecedented challenges, the Dallas-Fort Worth real estate community powered through with notable projects and deals. N O R TH TE XAS CO M M E R C I A L R E A L E STAT E PLAY ERS HAVE
survived some huge downturns over the years, from transformative taxlaw changes to energy crises and tech busts. Those challenges pale in comparison to the pervasive COVID-19 pandemic that took hold in early 2020. Retail stores and office buildings emptied, and with no historical frame of reference, no one knew what to expect or how to plan for the future. Local industry professionals responded in true resilient form, closing deals, developing new projects, and stepping up to support a community in need. D CEO is proud to honor those leading the way in our 2021 Commercial Real Estate Awards program. All 83 finalists (51 projects and deals and 32 professionals) are featured in this report. Winners will be revealed at an exclusive event this spring.
by CHRISTINE
PEREZ
portraits by SEAN
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ARCHITECTURE and DESIGN A look around the skyline demonstrates the deep talent of North Texas design firms.
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Led by Jeff Smith Jeff Smith describes architecture and design as “a fascinating blend of art and science, with culture, history, and politics in the mix as well.” With shelter being one of humanity’s three greatest needs (along with food and clothing), “architects have an opportunity to make a real impact in the world for good, to help people, and to advance our human civilization,” he says.
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MIXED-USE PROJECT Real estate used to be a game of single uses. But developers have learned that combining uses, when appropriate, strengthens projects, spreads out risk, and provides amenities for residents and tenants.
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Billingsley Co.’s Grapevine development, Wallis and Baker, is anchored by 432 luxury apartments and townhomes with adjacent office and retail space. Amenities include courtyards, a pool, library, wine room, and seven neighborhood parks.
Bright Realty continues to enhance its Castle Hills residential development with even more amenities. Its latest feature, Crown Centre, brings its live-work-play philosophy to the fore, with luxury retail, multifamily, office, and hotel space.
Harwood International has brought the best of vertical mixed-use to its Harwood No. 10 building, a 22-story office tower that boasts a Europeanstyle corridor with retail shops and restaurants with adjacent gardens and cobblestone walkways.
AT&T decided against moving to a new headquarters and instead pumped more than $100 million into a technology-rich reinvention of its campus in Dallas; the new AT&T Discovery District reinvigorates the very core of downtown.
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Led by Milton Anderson When he was young, Milton Anderson would often create cities and roads in his family’s backyard. His older brother, an engineer, told him he should be an architect. “From that point, I worked construction, was a draftsman for a grain elevator, and an electrical contractor,” Anderson says. “I loved to solve problems, draw, and paint. There was no other option.”
PERKINS & WILL Led by Tom Reisenbichler
Even through the pandemic, the Dallas office of Perkins & Will executed a number of transformative projects. And even more lie ahead. “We are poised to deliver some fantastic buildings in 2021,” says Tom Reisenbichler. “The opportunities we are winning get better and better each year. We are just approaching our potential in design leadership for our industry.”
P R E V I O U S S P R E A D : S H U T T E R S T O C K , A L L OT H E R I M AG E S C O U R T E S Y O F P R O P E R T I E S .
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ADAM ABUSHAGUR
FINALIST
BROKER
of the YEAR
Marcus & Millichap
S O M E P E O P LE ARE JUST BO RN FO R TH IS B U SI N ESS. THAT
appears to be the case with Adam Abushagur, who has experienced a swift trajectory to success. In four years, the team he established at Marcus & Millichap in 2017 closed nearly 130 deals valued at more than $445.5 million. Today, Abushagur is the No. 1 office and industrial investment sales broker for his firm nationally. “The entrepreneurial environment of commercial real estate provides freedom to grow and a never-ending learning experience,” he says. “Every client and project is unique, which provides an extraordinary thrill and challenge to attack every day.”
J. Holmes Davis
Allen Gump
Duane Henley
Matt Schendle
J. Holmes Davis’ father was a pioneer in the real estate industry in North Carolina and introduced his son to the business when he was 16. “Needless to say, I am grateful to him, as I was fortunate to find a passion for a career so early in life,” Davis says.
Real estate veteran Allen Gump says his perspectives on the business changed after his daughter Allyson joined his team nine years ago. “We need more women and people from all walks of life and diversity in our industry,” he says. “It makes us all better.”
COVID-19 didn’t stop Duane Henley from inking more than 400,000 square feet in transactions. The pandemic “presented a business climate I haven’t seen in 35 years,” he says. “My clients kept a positive attitude and were imaginative in negotiating deals.”
Matt Schendle loves the ever-changing nature of real estate. “You’ve got to constantly be evolving, from the way business is done to promoting assets and portfolios,” he says. “Things are much different than they were in 1997—although I still have my pager, just in case.”
B I N SWA N G E R CO.
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TR A N SW E S TE R N
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DEVELOPER of the YEAR BEST
DATA CENTER PROJECT One of the big benefactors of DFW’s relocation activity is the data center market, as companies need IT infrastructure.
North Texas is known nationally for its development prowess across all product types, from office and industrial to mixed-use and multifamily. L E O N B AC K E S / P ROV I DE NT RE ALT Y ADV IS O R S : “Developers get to imagine not only how projects will work financially, but how people will live and work in the environments we create. It is sometimes interesting to drive down the road and count all the deals I’ve been involved in. Those experiences help me remember that the developments we create will be here long after we are gone.”
CHRIS BRIGHT
Despite 43 rain days, Compass Datacenters met construction goals for its Red Oak I facility in southern Dallas. It’s the first data center to be built on the company’s new 165-acre campus. The development will feature an on-site substation and is serviced by multiple fiber paths. All told, the 16-building development will provide 252 megawatts of capacity.
/ B RI GH T RE ALT Y: “I’m proud of what our team accomplished and what we were able to finish in the very challenging environment of 2020. I’m excited about moving past the struggles of last year and the return to some level of normalcy, even if it is a different normal than what it was before. The future is always exciting, and it gives us opportunities to learn, grow, and adapt.”
B I L L C AW L E Y / CAWLE Y PART NE RS : “Relationships are what make development special, from the deal side and the service side to construction and property management. I’m excited to be in such a pro-business city like Dallas, with the best team of people around me in my career. I have never been more positive about the opportunities in front of us, as well as the incredible team that’s along for the ride.”
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B R A D TAY LO R / JP I : “My father was a multifamily architect, and I grew up walking job sites and accompanying him during inspections. Eventually, I learned my personality and talents were better suited to development and decided to pursue that line of work—one of the best career decisions I’ve made. Now, my son also works in the multifamily industry, so it truly is a shared family passion.”
H E A D S H OT S C O U R T E S Y O F C O M P A N I E S .
Stream Realty Partners was one of the earliest Dallas real estate firms to diversify into data centers; it has been a key player in supporting the region’s tech community for two decades. One of its latest projects is Stream DFW VII, a $30 million data center in Garland. Designed by Corgan, the highy secure project features high-level finishes and tenant office space.
/ P RE S I DI U M: “I’ve learned how important it is to work hard, be honest, and dive deep into the field you’re pursuing. Your team and investors will look to you to become the expert—to know the next move and how to operate. Be that expert and know more about your space than anyone else. That’s what your stakeholders want, and it’s ultimately what will make you successful.”
Every real estate deal starts with the land. Despite the region’s vast size, compelling parcels are becoming harder and harder to find. Standout deals for 2020 include an 895-acre tract in Fort Worth near Sendera Ranch acquired by Green Brick Partners for a new 2,500-home project called Madero. The deal was brokered by Davidson Bogel Real Estate. Another noteworthy transaction involves one of the last fully entitled parcels zoned for light industrial: a 12.6-acre tract in Southlake that had been owned by Darr Equipment since 1984. The land now houses Southlake Business Park, developed by Holt Lunsford Commercial.
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Five office developments stood out in 2020. They include (1) 3401 and 3501 Olympus Boulevard at Cypress Waters, two spec buildings totaling 402,000 square feet, developed by Billingsley Co.; (2) HQ53, a 250,000-square-foot building from Cawley Partners that was fully leased prior to construction completion; (3) Reata Pharmaceuticals, a 327,000-square-foot build-to-suit by Trammell Crow Co. in Plano; (4) The Offices Two at Frisco Station, a 210,000-square-foot second phase from VanTrust Real Estate; and (5) Victory Commons One, a 365,000-square-foot tower from USAA Real Estate and Hillwood.
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Developers were active in 2020, trying to keep up with fervent demand. O4
32 00 IRVING BLV D. M2G Ventures has big plans for improving Brookhollow, starting with one of the submarket’s largest sites.
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CARTER PAR K EAST Clarion
A M L I F O U N TA I N P L AC E C O U R T E S Y O F J O S E P H H A U B E R T, T H E H A M I LTO N AT T H E E P I C C O U R T E S Y O F W E S T D A L E , A L L OT H E R S C O U R T E S Y O F P R O P E R T I E S .
Partners, Crow Holdings, and Rob Riner Cos. teamed up on this new 556-acre park in South Fort Worth.
EN CORE W I R E COR P. SERVICE CE N T ER This
homage to the neighborhood’s rich culture and vibrant art scene. O1
720,000-square-foot project is the biggest expansion ever for the McKinney-based cabling manufacturer.
ERICSSON U SA 5 G SMART FACTORY Ericsson targeted Lewisville for its first 5G manufacturing facility in North America, a 306,300-square-foot project.
IN TERNATION A L LOGISTICS C EN T ER What began as a spec project by Stream Realty Partners turned into a 425,000-square-foot build-to-suit for Litex-Craftmade.
PASSP ORT PA R K This four-building park from Trammell Crow won huge deals in 2020, including a 1.1 millionsquare-foot lease from Uline.
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MULTIFAMILY PROJECT Here are four outstanding (and very different) residential developments that debuted in North Texas last year.
1. The 45-story residential sibling to the iconic Fountain Place opened its doors in 2020. AMLI Fountain Place is the tallest addition to Dallas’ skyline since the late 1980s. It was designed by Page Southerland Page, which took great care to match the glass of its twin. 2. OM Housing’s new 112-unit Bardin Apartments in Arlington leverages partnerships with the city, Mission
Arlington, and the YMCA to help fill an affordable housing gap and provide unique amenities focused on health and education. 3. Westdale and StreetLights Residential teamed up on The Hamilton at The Epic, a skyline-changing, 26-story community in Deep Ellum. The project incorporates nearly 23,000 square feet of retail space and is designed to pay
4. Fast-growing North Fort Worth is home to the new 408-unit Presidium Revelstoke, which integrates Smart technology into each residence. Designed by O’Brien Associates, amenities include a resort-style pool and spin and yoga studios. O2
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SHARON MORRISON
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S H E OV E R S E E S TH E V I S I O N , G ROWT H, AND ST RAT EGY
of her firm. Yet, Sharon Morrison still finds a way to be one of the most active brokers in North Texas, closing more than 2 million square feet in deals last year. Oh, and she does it while specializing in industrial real estate, a sector that is predominantly male. A standout basketball player at Ursuline Academy of Dallas, Morrison still considers herself “a pretty competitive person” and likes the player-coach role she has at ESRP, which she initially co-founded in 2013. “I can be team captain, but I also know how to pass the ball to my teammates when appropriate,” she says. “We all work together for the win.”
Holt Lunsford
Matt McGraner
Jennifer Pierson Jason Vitorino
Robert Shibuya
Since opening his firm in 1993, Holt Lunsford has built it into a leasing, property management, development, and investment force. He has done so while also creating a family foundation and serving on numerous nonprofit organization boards.
Matt McGraner joined NexPoint in 2013—a year after it was launched out of Highland Capital Management. He has been the driving force behind its growth; the investment firm’s real estate assets under management now total $9 billion.
When a deal closes at Strive, everyone in the firm gets paid. It’s an all-for-one and one-for-all strategy developed by investment property sales stars Jennifer Pierson and Jason Vitorino, who joined forces four years ago to form their own real estate advisory.
Robert Shibuya moved to Dallas from Los Angeles and three years later led the management buyout of Mohr Partners in 2017. He now runs the company, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate firms that exclusively represents occupiers.
H O LT LU N S FO R D CO M M .
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COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONAL These under-40 professionals in Dallas-Fort Worth show that the future of the industry is in excellent hands.
H E A D S H OT S C O U R T E S Y O F C O M P A N I E S .
HUNTER LEE
ROBBIE BATY
ADAM GOTTSCHALK STRIVE
SRS Real Estate Partners
“When I was a at junior Rhodes College, I bumped into an alum at an event. He asked if I was interested in an internship, and I ended up working for him at Trammell Crow Co. I always wanted to be in a sales role, and after a summer of cold calling tenants, I was hooked and knew I was going to be a tenant representative.”
“I wanted to get into a profession where I could be a strategic partner with property owners—someone they could call for guidance, advice, and market knowledge. Every day is so different, and I truly enjoy that. And there is nothing I like more than helping others achieve their financial goals through real estate.”
“What I love most about this business is problem-solving and building relationships. I love digging into our clients’ businesses and understanding what makes them work and what makes them profitable. I love the process of translating that business anatomy into making sound and strategic real estate decisions.”
Cushman & Wakefield
RYAN JOHNSON
HPI
Holt Lunsford Commercial
HOLDEN LUNSFORD
JACKIE MARSHALL CBRE
Woodbine Development Corp.
“I fell into real estate on accident. I planned after college to join the staff at a summer camp. I connected with a friend who was at CBRE at the time. They had an opening for analyst position, and after what seemed like 15 interviews, I was hired. I am one of the lucky few whose first job ended up being a career.”
“In 2020, we started a tenant representation group in Dallas, launched an office leasing and management team in Houston, doubled the size of our leasing analyst program, and formed new internal committees. The collaboration of our teams this year has changed our organization very quickly.”
“This past year was a big year for me personally with the birth of my daughter, Lara, in February 2020. It was a challenge to come back from maternity leave at the height of the pandemic confusion, but I am proud of the way I adjusted to new motherhood and the new reality of our industry all at once.”
“This has been the worst year in the history of the hospitality business. But in times of crisis, you evolve and improve, or you are likely to become irrelevant. Woodbine started three different ventures in the midst of the pandemic. Our incredible team locked arms and made huge sacrifices to get to the other side.”
BEST
INDUSTRIAL LEASE
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A boom in e-commerce activity profoundly boosted DFW’s industrial sector in 2020. Standout deals during the year included the online king, Amazon, which leased 1 million square feet at DFW Commerce Center in Irving, creating more than 1,000 jobs. Another seven-figure transaction was a 1.1 million-square-foot lease from Uline at Trammell Crow’s Passport Park, also in Irving. TCC also landed a 776,630-square-foot lease at Cedardale Distribution Center from FedEx for a ground shipping hub that brings 1,200 jobs to southern Dallas.
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Despite the pandemic, Dallas-Fort Worth’s strong economic and employment fundamentals helped it win relocations and expansions all across the region.
COMMUNITY SERVICE Over the past decade, Linda McMahon, TREC president and CEO, has tirelessly worked to improve North Texas. She has championed neighborhood revitalization initiatives, such as the Dallas Catalyst Project, which is investing more than $1 million in grants and pro bono services to revitalize the Forest District in southern Dallas. TREC also launched an Affordable Housing Fund with $2.6 million in seed funding from the PRO Neighborhoods investment and an additional grant from AT&T. Last year, McMahon was one of three North Texans asked to participate in a statewide effort to develop a steering policy to benefit urban areas. She says she is most proud that TREC “is that we are inspiring the next generation of leaders who are contributing their talents to enrich the lives of thousands through building relationships and improving their built environment.” —Bianca R. Montes
After brokering the sale of American Airlines’ former HQ to Capital Commercial Investments, Transwestern secured a big lease from Bell Textron, which signed on for 109,190 square feet. The leading aerospace manufacturer needed to increase its footprint to accommodate its growing operations. The new space will house approximately 600 employees.
One of the most complicated deals in the market last year involved Denbury and Prosperity Bank. Denbury signed two subleases from Prosperity and Aimbridge Hospitality for a new 104,840-square-foot headquarters. Meanwhile, Prosperity subleased 26,253 square feet from Aimbridge. The complex deal was put together by Cushman & Wakefield and Cawley Partners.
When complete in 2023, Harwood International’s No. 14 building will be home to a new office for Haynes and Boone. In a deal negotiated by JLL, the Dallas law firm leased 125,000 square feet in the building, designed by HDF, Kengo Kuma, and Corgan. At 27 stories, it will be Uptown’s tallest tower and feature the rich amenities for which Harwood is known.
By moving to a new 160,000-squarefoot campus near DFW Airport, Heritage Auctions nearly doubled the size of its global headquarters. The deal, brokered by Transwestern, helped the world’s largest collectibles auction house to put its three Dallas locations all under one roof—one that spans the length of nearly three football fields.
One of the biggest deals in 2020 involved Oncor leasing nearly 200,000 square feet at 777 Main in Fort Worth, where it will occupy seven floors. For three decades, the electricity delivery company’s Fort Worth operations had been housed at 115 W. 7th Street, which is now up for sale. Transwestern represented the property owner of 777 Main, Atlanta-based Brookdale Group.
Fast-growing fitness equipment company Peloton (even President Joe Biden has one of its bikes) expanded its North Texas footprint in a big way, more than quadrupling its space at Legacy Central in Plano for a total of 131,270 square feet. The expansion allows Peloton to hire up to 1,600 new employees. Transwestern and CBRE brokered the transaction.
M C M A H O N BY J A K E M E Y E R S , A L L OT H E R S C O U R T E S Y O F P R O P E R T I E S .
The Real Estate Council’s Linda McMahon is at the forefront of an organization that is transforming the region.
GIVING BACK
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The We-Cycle Resource Center is a TREC project and part of Bike Friendly South Dallas in the Forest District.
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BEST
RETAIL, ENTERTAINMENT, or HOSPITALITY
Unprecedented challenges didn’t get in the way of several big experiential projects opening or expanding in North Texas last year. The biggest was Globe Life Field, a new $500 million, 40,300-seat stadium for the Texas Rangers in Arlington. Also making its debut was AC Hotel Fort Worth Downtown, a lifestyle brand from Marriott next to the city’s historic Kress Building on what used to be a parking lot. Grandscape in The Colony saw bustling activity, with new tenants that included U.K.-based Electric Gamebox.
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EXCELLENCE IN
CONSTRUCTION and ENGINEERING
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These companies have literally helped shape North Texas. BEST
AECOM
led by Monte Thurmond “The future is bright for all of us here in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. The future capacity for astounding growth in our community is second to none.”
CARCON INDUSTRIES/ STL ENGINEERS led by Arcilia Acosta
REDEVELOPMENT or RENOVATION The creativity of designers and developers was on full display last year, with wide-ranging buildings finding new life through innovative reinvention.
24 01 C E DA R S P R I N G S , a seven-story building at Cedar Springs Road and Maple Avenue, got a top-to-bottom redesign that, in effect, created a new building in Uptown. Crescent Real Estate partnered with Corgan and landscape architect David Hocker on the transformation and with Alvéole on a unique beehive feature.
“Always keep your eyes on the numbers, as they will tell the story of performance and guide you on making swift pivots to make certain all of your projects are successful.”
CO N TI N E N TA L G I N B U I L DI N G , which once housed one of the country’s
KAI ENTERPRISES
M I C R OS O F T invested heavily into a new 400,000-square-foot Irving hub last
led by Darren James
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that everyone’s voice matters. You cannot discount someone’s input because their background or experience is different than yours.”
SC HM I DT & STACY CON SULT I N G E N GI N E E R S led by David Schmidt “Some may say that at my age, I’m at the sunset of my career, but I disagree. I wake up each morning with the same excitement and grit I experienced when we started this company in 1991.”
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largest cotton gins, is now a creative office project in downtown Dallas managed by Common Desk, thanks to a redevelopment by August Family Investments. It also has retail space on the first floor and office suite space on the third floor.
year, giving the campus a $31.4 million renovation. It’s now the tech giant’s second-largest office outside of its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Irving beat out Fargo, North Dakota, and Charlotte, North Carolina, to win the expansion.
TH E N ATI O N A L , a 52-story, 1.5 million-square-foot former First National Bank Tower in the core of downtown Dallas, is now a vibrant vertical mixed-use development, thanks to a $450 million revamp by Todd Interests. It houses the state’s first Thompson Hotel, office space, restaurants and retail shops, and luxury apartments.
VA R I S PAC E S O U TH L A K E is office furniture innovator Vari’s new “space as a service” concept—the company’s take on the workplace of the future. The 380,000-square-foot building, which had sat vacant for a decade, was given a $20 million, Corgan-designed repositioning from single-tenant to multitenant space.
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COMMUNITY IMPACT The six finalists in this category are improving their neighborhoods— and the entire North Texas region.
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1. Sitting on more than 21 acres in Arlington’s entertainment district, the new Arlington ISD Arts & Athletics Complex serves all students in the district. It features a world-class performance venue with a 1,250-seat concert hall, 425-seat theater, art and dance studios, and more. The athletics center is home to the district’s first natatorium, which is also available
for use by city residents. 2. The $14.4 million renovation of the Hall of State at Fair Park brings a landmark of Texas history back to its full glory. Built in 1936 to mark the centennial anniversary of the Republic of Texas, it’s one of the best examples of art deco architecture in the state. Sadly, the building was damaged in the
3. The former home of Calvary Baptist Church of Oak Cliff was acquired in late 2020 to become a new campus for The Kessler School, a private school that serves pre-K through 8th grade. Work is underway to restore the original neoclassical architecture, transform the sanctuary into a gym and performance space, and add sports fields and playgrounds, with opening slated for the fall of 2021. 4. Parkland’s new Moody Center for Breast Health aims to improve health outcomes for the system’s diverse patient population and help create equity for breast health in Dallas County. The pedestrian-centric tower is built in two wings, connecting to DART on one side and parking
on the other. The new center expands operations from 7,500 square feet to 40,000 square feet. 5. Dallas has long aimed to expand its biotech base. The new Pegasus Park is a big move forward in those efforts. The 23-acre, six-building campus along Stemmons Freeway is being redeveloped by J. Small Investments and Lyda Hill Philanthropies and has already won big leases from Massachusetts-based BioLabs, Peloton
Therapeutics, and UT Southwestern Medical Center. 6. Texas Christian University’s new state-of-the-art School of Music, Music Center, and Van Cliburn Concert Hall is one more jewel in Fort Worth’s cultural crown. It’s anchored by a 700-seat concert hall with acoustical features designed to mirror venues with up to triple the seating capacity. It will host the renowned Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June 2022.
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H A L L O F S TAT E AT FA I R PA R K C O U R T E S Y O F G E N S L E R © A L I C I A S P A E T E , A L L OT H E R S C O U R T E S Y O F P R O P E R T I E S .
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recent winter storm; Phoenix 1, which handled the restoration, will get back to work.
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2021
C O M M E R C I A L R E A L E S TAT E AWA R D S
BEST
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY SALE North Texas ranked No. 1 nationally for property sales in 2020. A MERICAN A I R L I N ES’ F OR MER HEADQUA R T ER S was sold to Capital Commercial Investments in a deal that closed in the spring of 2020. The three-building campus sits on 40 acres in Fort Worth and totals 1.4 million square feet. Brokers: Transwestern and Weston Commercial Real Estate.
DALLAS FOOD C EN T ER is a 1.1 million-square-foot, rail-served distribution center on McCree Road in Garland. It was sold in November 2020 by Westmount Realty and a fund managed by DRA Advisors, which had converted its dry warehouse to multitenant freezer/ cooler space. Broker: CBRE.
HILTON SOU T HL A KE TOWN SQUA R E is a 248-room, five-story hotel in the heart of Southlake Town Square. The Plasencia Group represented Hobbs & Curry Family LP in the sale of the property to affiliates of Driftwood Capital, a national lodging development and investment firm.
PIONEER AWARD
SHAWN TODD Todd Interests
story by BIANCA
R. MONTES
I N CO MM E R C I A L R E A L E STATE , TI MI N G I S E VERY T HI NG;
it’s either the right time or the wrong time. And that’s precisely why developer Shawn Todd initially walked away from what has become the largest-ever historical adaptive reuse development in Texas. It was 2017, a couple of years after he had transformed One Dallas Center, a 30-story, I.M. Pei-designed building, into a vertical mixed-use development. When he was presented with the chance to buy the former First National Bank Tower, a 1.5 million-square-foot building in the core of downtown Dallas, he knew it would be a massive challenge. “You know that saying, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time,” Todd says. “This was a whole herd of elephants.” So, despite his grand vision for the iconic, George Dahl-designed tower, Todd decided his firm could not take the risk; the timing wasn’t right. “We just stood back and watched and monitored,” he says. By mid-2019, conditions had changed. Todd led a group that acquired the historic building and gave it a $450 million redo. Late last year, he and
IN TERNATION A L ON TURTLE CREEK was the largest property to trade in the Dallas Design District last year. The 153,277-square-foot asset was sold to Quadrant Investment Properties by Stockdale Investment Group in a deal brokered by Davidson Bogel Real Estate.
THE UNION became an immediate hit in Uptown after the striking, grocery-anchored, mixed-use complex was completed by RED Development in 2018. Its quality and strong tenant base helped it secure a record $730 per square foot from buyer KB Asset Management in early 2020. Broker: JLL.
GRAND PLANS
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Shawn Todd sits in the lobby of The National, where he led a $450 million restoration and renovation.
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a small group raised a glass to Dahl, and turned on the banker’s pinstripe lights of the old tower for the first time in more than a decade. Now named The National, it’s setting the standard for amenity-driven real estate in North Texas and attracting market-high rents for luxury residences: $3.85 per square foot. “We wanted a very strong juxtaposition with where the world is today and where Dallas is going,” Todd says. “Cultural and business and social titans used to office here, conduct commerce here. And H.L Hunt, the richest man in the world, officed here. This building deserved a statement. Now, you have to do that all in the context of a budget, financial viability. Today, you’ve got to meet economics.” When considering whether or not to take on a project, Todd says he looks for real estate anomalies, “What I mean by that is that we really focus on that one iteration,” he says. The strategy has been proven out; Todd has never lost a single dollar in any of his real estate investments. He made his way to Texas from Oklahoma by way of Baylor University. He was the first in his family to go to college and says his abilities on the track field solidified his admittance. There, Todd met the love of his life, Cheryl, on the business school’s steps and achieved degrees in real estate, entrepreneurship, and finance. He forged his understanding of the industry working under the likes of Bill Foose and George Connell, founder of Connell Development Co., and his son, Mark. “Men of great integrity,” Todd says, “and men that today still invest into my life, that their word is their bond. How they conducted themselves in business gave me a tremendous example of what leadership looks like.” Todd says he got his first taste of responsibility at Connell when the then-president gave him plans for a residential subdivision and told him to buy every lot he could—paying no more than $30,000 apiece. That subdivision never developed; today, it’s the intersection of Preston Road and President George Bush Turnpike. But it taught Todd how to work with everyone from developers to city council members. “I got to touch, see, taste, and feel everything in that little tour of duty,” he says. After five years at Connell, Todd found his niche focusing on redemptive architecture, buying broken shopping centers and malls in the early 1990s.
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NEXT GENERATION Shawn Todd’s sons, Patrick, left, and Philip, are partners in the family business and actively involved in operations.
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E A S T Q UA R T E R C O U R T E S Y O F T O D D I N T E R E S T S
CARRYING THE LEGACY FORWARD
0LD AND NEW
The 300 Pearl office tower is designed to mesh with East Quarter’s historic buildings.
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After framing successful careers of their own, Shawn Todd’s children are nestling into the family business. Sons Patrick and Philip first teamed up with their father on the East Quarter project. Todd credits Patrick for the vision to reinvent the neighborhood. “He saw the trees in the forest,” Todd says. Patrick previously worked as a debt and equity analyst for HFF before joining his father at Todd Interests. Philip leads work at The National. He joined his father in 2017 after working as an associate at Lone Star Funds, a $70 billion private equity firm. Todd’s daughter Caroline is the creative force behind much of the interior design at The National. “I think we would all tell you that [working together] requires that you be like-minded,” Todd says. “One of the first things is how we view the world; and in that, we are like-minded from a Christian worldview. Second, it’s how we process conflict—no passivity, and keep short accounts. There are some days when that family-versus-business separates, and sometimes … it’s like The Jerry Springer Show.”
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He still develops across the United States, but he holds a special place in his heart for reviving downtown Dallas. “People want to celebrate the beautiful architecture that is this urban fabric of our city,” he says. “People get this warm feeling in their soul when they can see an accoutrement to the side of a turn-of-the-century building or mid-century modern building that artisans and craftsmen can’t build today. And so, with the vibrancy now downtown, what we’ve been excited about is finding these one-purpose buildings that we’re able to transform to a new purpose, but still keep that deep, rich architectural soul fabric. That has been intensely gratifying.” Along with The National and One Dallas Center, Todd also transformed the historic U.S. Post Office into a marquee residential address at 400 North Ervay. He’s also at work on East Quarter, with his sons Patrick and Philip. The milestone project is a collection of 18 historic buildings that link downtown Dallas and Deep Ellum. Working on East Quarter while opening The National during a pandemic made for a challenging year, Todd says. “It has been the best of me, and, quite frankly, some moments have been the worst of me. But, when you have those worst-of-me moments, it really compels you to go back. I’ve had some instances where I’ve had to go to people and say, ‘I need to ask your forgiveness. I didn’t conduct myself the best in the midst of this situation.’ … But I’m thankful that’s not the man I’m known for.” So, what does Todd want to be known for? “I hope what people will know me for is for being a man who was honest, who was trustworthy, and who knew who he was and what he believed in, and that his words were consistent with his actions,” he says. “I consider myself very fortunate to have a great team, that through a collaboration of ideas we’re able to move forward with confidence in the ideas we have—and then to have financial partners who also believe in those ideas and have been beside us. It has helped us pursue some opportunities that are those anomalies I mentioned earlier. And for that, I’m very grateful.”
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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
Failures Are Stepping Stones to Success Prasanna Singaraju, Co-Founder and Chief Digital Officer QENTELLI
P H OTO G R A P H Y BY C H R I S P L AV I DA L
“we all have been advised to avoid failures. our minds are trained to succeed. but with time, I have realized the old saying that ‘failures are stepping stones to success’ is true. Some of the best lessons in my life have come after failing. At the root of Qentelli’s success are two principles: ‘fail fast, learn faster’ and ‘culture of innovation.’ Both are tightly coupled; you cannot innovate without failing, and you cannot innovate without starting over quickly and applying learnings from the failure. Innovation requires a culture that enables experimentation and one that pushes people outside their comfort zones. This is a skill that I have practiced and inculcated and tried my best to build a company around. As a result, in just the five years since our inception, we have six patent-pending, home-grown, AI-infused frameworks that allow clients to realize significant improvements and increase revenue more quickly. We have doubled our own revenue and workforce every year since inception, and we continue to set our goals high, through both organic growth and acquisitions.” —as told to Christine Perez
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FIELD NOTES
ECONOMY
Looming Trade Troubles in Texas story by W. MICHAEL COX
AND
RICHARD ALM
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texas surged past california in the late 1990s to emerge as America’s No. 1 exporting state, and it continued to build its lead over the next quarter century. In 2019, overseas sales hit an all-time high of nearly $329 billion, far ahead of runner-up California’s $174 billion. Then in 2020, COVID-19 hit global commerce, and Texas exporters took their lumps, just like everyone else. The state’s shipments finished the year 15 percent behind the 2019 total—a bit worse than the nation’s 13 percent. If the pandemic fades and normalcy returns, Texas exports should rebound this year, but what happens beyond that? Will exports still deliver the same economic growth? There are reasons for doubt. Texas exports depend on the health of foreign economies, and COVID-19 will linger or recur in some places, making the economic recovery uneven. Perhaps more important, Texas exports are intertwined with what’s happening in energy markets and politics. Oil, natural gas, and coal supercharged the surge in Texas exports over the past decade or so, and they’re facing iffy prospects.
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S H U T T E R S T O C K ; CHART SOURCE S M U C O X S C H O O L O F B U S I N E S S
The export king will keep its crown, but will the economy lose a growth engine?
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3/1/21 4:28 PM
FIELD NOTES
Texas isn’t in danger of losing its place as Export King among states—its lead is too big. The concern centers on slowing or even sagging export growth and its impact on the Texas economy. According to Census Bureau data, Texas merchandise exports have been rising at an annual average of 10 percent, from $129 billion in 2005 to $329 billion in 2019. At the same time, gross state product grew by slightly less than 6 percent a year; so, exports have been pulling the state economy forward, rising from 13 percent of total output in 2005 to almost 18 percent in 2019. How much Texans earn from exporting depends on factors beyond their control—how fast other countries grow, the openness to trade, and prices on world markets. The pandemic took a toll on global GDP, one larger than the 2009-10 financial crisis. It will take a year and maybe longer to return to levels that supported $329 billion in Texas exports in 2019. The World Bank’s annual Global Economic Prospects, published in January, forecast a healthy rebound in growth this year—4 percent for the global economy as a whole, assuming some progress in tamping down the pandemic. The sobering side of it: The hypothetical 2021 GDP gains don’t quite make up for the actual loss of 4.3 percent in 2020. Take a look at Mexico, the destination for almost a third of Texas’ exports. Its economy shrank 9 percent in 2020 and the World Bank doesn’t expect the country to return to 2019 levels until 2023. China will lead the world in growth over the next few years, the World Bank says, but it won’t make up for Mexico’s slack. Even with the trade-hawk President Trump out of office, policy isn’t likely to reprise the market opening mania of the 1990s and early 2000s. The United States, Mexico Canada trade pact (USMCA) is a done deal, and Texans needn’t worry about their two biggest markets. However, countries trying to preserve industries and jobs often figure reducing imports will help; so the threat of increased protectionism seems greater than the prospect for progress in reducing trade barriers. During the past 15 years, a period that coincides with the fracking boom, two broad categories—oil and gas and petroleum and coal products—fueled growth in Texas exports (see chart at right). Fossil fuel sales accounted for more than half of Texas export gains from 2005 to 2019. Without the two categories, export growth would fall below 5 percent.
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To spur overall growth, the state could ship out other products, but the data suggest they won’t offset declines in fossil fuel exports. From 2005 to 2019, fossil fuel exports soared by 74 percent a year, and no other category matched their growth rate. Only beverages and tobacco (60 percent annually), furniture and fixtures (15 percent) and miscellaneous manufactured commodities (13 percent) grew at above 10 percent average rates in 2005 through 2019. In dollar terms, all are far smaller than the fossil fuel categories. The future isn’t all dire. Texas will still export large amounts of fossil fuels. The state retains export categories that bring in big bucks, including computers and electronics, chemicals, and transportation equipment. For the economy writ large, the issue is whether exports will be strong enough to drive growth. If exports falter, the Texas economy will need to develop other growth engines over the next decade or so. Fortunately, adapting to changing times is what Texans do best.
B E H I N D T H E DATA
World of Hurt COVID-19 took its highest toll on the biggest and closest markets for Texas exports. In 2020, the state’s sales were 18 percent below 2019 levels for USMCA-partners Mexico and Canada. Together, they usually buy 40 percent of what Texas companies sell abroad. Texas exports to Latin America outside of Mexico declined 23 percent. The losses topped 12 percent for Europe and approached 8 percent for Asia. In dollar terms, Texas lost almost $20 billion in Mexican sales, dwarfing the $5.3 billion hit in the Canadian market. Exports to nearly all countries fell—with one eyebrow-raising exception: China purchased $6.6 billion more from Texas in 2020 than in 2019. The biggest driver? Oil and gas, of course.
W. Michael Cox is a professor of economics and Richard Alm is a writer-in-residence at the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom at SMU’s Cox School of Business.
Fossil Fuel Products Dominate Texas Export Growth 12.5
Fossil Fuel Products 10
7.5
5
2.5
Total Exports 2005
2010
2015
2020
Note: Fossil Fuel Products combines two categories: Oil & Gas and Petroleum & Coal
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FIELD NOTES
ON TOPIC
“What is the best business advice you have ever received?” edited by CHRISTINE PEREZ
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illustrations by JAKE MEYERS
CHRIS LUNA
THEAR SUZUKI
CURT MORGAN
Vice President of Legal Affairs T- M O B I L E U S
Global Client Service Partner EY
CEO V I S T R A C O R P.
“After law school, I clerked for Chief Judge Robert McGuire with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. As my year was coming to an end, and I started looking at law firms to join, he advised me to choose a boss—a trusted, respected, mentor—not a job. Since then, I have used the same advice to advance my career, even with internal moves. And as I’ve gotten older, I have tried to become the kind of boss that folks would also want to choose.”
“About five years into my career, while at a technical vendor bakeoff, a mentor nudged me to ask a question. I resisted, but the mentor persisted. I managed the courage to speak up and afterward received compliments from colleagues. That experience was a turning point for me. I made a personal commitment to pay attention, engage, ask questions, or make meaningful comments whether in a meeting of five people or 5,000.”
“Early in my career, one of my bosses told me, ‘Play your career like you have less than a handful of chips, and you must play them judiciously.’ That advice has served me well, and I pass it along to others. We all want to progress at a fast pace, but sometimes pushing our own agenda can work against us. A wiser course is to be patient, gain experience and knowledge, and pick your opportunities in a prudent and timely manner.”
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DCEOMAGAZINE.COM
3/1/21 4:43 PM
The Dallas CPA Society is now TXCPA Dallas, but our brand is backed by the same commitment to connect, protect and advance our members. TXCPA Dallas continues to serve Dallas area CPAs in all the ways we always have.
Plan to join TXCPA Dallas Online at
Friday - May 28th 2021
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FIELD NOTES
FINANCE
proposed rate changes will be applied prospectively or retroactively. If increased rates apply prospectively, it might be best to accelerate income this year while deferring deductions to years with higher tax rates. If tax rate changes apply retroactively, take measures to increase deductions this year.
Tax Advice for a New Administration Legal tax experts Brady Cox and Jason Freeman offer personal and corporate guidance ahead of potential legislative changes.
A
SHUTTERSTOCK
2.
1. INCREASED TAX RATES President Biden has indicated a desire for Congress to increase the top marginal income tax rate and the corporate tax rate. If you fall above the $400,000 income level, you may be particularly impacted by potential tax legislation. If that happens, it is unclear whether the
fter the unprecedented year that was 2020, many are looking for signs of a brighter 2021 and financial opportunities that may lie ahead. But there is one constant theme that cuts across both years: change. And with a shift in political control over the executive and legislative branches, significant federal income tax modifications may be on the way for individuals and businesses. Although no tax proposals are formally on the table, there is every reason to believe that changes may be in store. Tax adjustments can be complicated. Here, we address considerations that offer a glimpse at the changes that may be on the way. Because many other modifications are being considered—and several factors can impact planning—business leaders should contact their tax advisers and discuss potential revisions and other items that may affect their financial futures. To help guide those conversations, here are three likely candidates for change if tax reform becomes a reality.
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PHASING OUT DEDUCTIONS The new administration may eliminate the Qualified Business Income Deduction for families with incomes over $400,000. Since its enactment in 2017, this deduction has reduced taxation on qualified income items on partnerships, certain LLCs, and corporations. If you receive a significant share of your annual taxable income from interests in pass-through entities, the proposed changes could have a notable impact that may be magnified by the potential for increased rates discussed above.
3. ELIMINATING CAPITAL GAINS RATES Under a recent proposal, long-term capital gains and qualified dividends would be taxed at ordinary income tax rates for income above the $1 million threshold. If rates rise in 2022, selling appreciated assets and realizing a profit this year—then reinvesting the proceeds— may take advantage of lower tax rates and reduce the tax applicable to future gains. Assets that have decreased in value may be better held and sold in a later year when tax rates are higher. Brady Cox is an associate at Jackson Walker, and Jason Freeman is a founding partner and managing member at Freeman Law.
DCEOMAGAZINE.COM
3/4/21 9:17 AM
Hall of State at Fair Park (Historic Preservation Architect)
AT&T Discover y Distric t ( D e s i g n e r/ In te r i o r A rc h i te c t )
Transforming the Past, Reimaging the Future. Gensler.indd 1
Gensler is proud to be a part of these incredible projects recognized as Finalists by D CEO for Best Redevelopment or Renovation and Best Mixed-Use Project.
3/5/21 11:52 AM
Big Business Projects. Small Business Attitude.
214.299.4300 | www.hwgc. com
For over 30 years, JPI has assembled a team of the best people in our industry. We are committed to management-by-fact and continuous improvement in both the development, construction and investment management of Class A multifamily communities. We have an unmatched depth of industry-specific experience that includes garden-style, mid-to high-density wrap and podium communities,. More than just structures, we build “living experiences” with leading-edge services and amenities that provide a pleasing and responsive environment to our residents, and the best risk-adjusted returns for our investors. Our Associates are the cornerstone of everything we do, and we strive each day to build a company that will endure for our friends and Associates.
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APRIL 2021
OFF DUTY THE PERSONAL SIDE
o f
DFW BUSINESS LEADERS
ART OF STYLE
P H OTO G R A P H Y BY J O N A T H A N Z I Z Z O
THE DAUGHTER OF A FASHION DESIGN PROFESSOR, CEO MEGAN DIMMER GOT EARLY LESSONS IN STYLE.
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M U S T- R E A D
WHAT I DO: “I am the CEO and founder of Solv, a management consulting and executive coaching firm that helps business leaders achieve their personal and professional goals.”
Executive Book Club
STYLE ICONS: “Coco Chanel. She was a trailblazer and innovator whose signature colors were black and white, which are the staple colors of my wardrobe. She transformed women’s fashion, making it more functional and comfortable.” WHAT INSPIRES ME: “My mom was a fashion design professor when I was young. Every night, she’d bring home new fabric swatches; I would stare at the patterns and feel the textures, and she would teach me about the science of the fabric. This early exposure to high fashion and fabric has stuck with me and drives my style choices.” STYLE DEFINED: “Urban classic. I’ve lived in Madrid, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Chicago, and now in the West Village neighborhood of Dallas. My style has evolved and been influenced by residing in each of those amazing cities.” FASHION ESSENTIAL: “My gold Cartier Love bracelet. It is so incredibly special to me because I bought it as a gift for myself when I achieved a major career milestone.”
Area leaders tell us the one book they think everyone should read—and why. “Everything is Obvious, Once You Know the Answer, by Duncan J. Watts. It teaches you to look beyond gut instincts, common-sense reasoning, and cognitive biases when making decisions. Although intuitively obvious solutions are appealing, it’s important to remember that complex problems are rarely solved by simple solutions. This book is a great complement to Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow.” B O B P RYO R | N T T DATA S e r vi ce s
“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari. As a linguist and storyteller, Harari’s message about the power of words and myths to motivate behavior and build cultures over the centuries really resonates with me.”
“Type Talk, by Janet Thuesen and Otto Kroeger. It does a great job of identifying how people approach and react to different situations. I’ve found it incredibly helpful for getting the most out of my teams and meeting them where they are.”
C A R I N E FE Y TE N
M I K E D IA M O N D Michaels Cos.
F i d e lit y I nve s tm e nt s
“Never Split the Difference, by Chris Voss. It is a book on negotiation—a critical skill for everyone in business and in personal life. It provides good strategies on negotiating everything from the release of a hostage to bedtime with your kids.”
“Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance. It’s about how conditions in rural America have led us to the political situation we are in today. Everyone should read this book both for context and possible solutions to our current challenges.”
“Leap: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Copied, by Howard Yu. Today, everything can be copied with little barrier to entry from a global marketplace. Creating your “leap” separates you from the competition.”
BIJU NAIR
S TAC E Y D O R É
B R E T T J . L . L A N D RY
Texa s Wo m a n ’s U n ive r sit y
“The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein. It provides a detailed account of the role our government played in segregating America. For those interested in continuing to learn about our country’s racial inequalities, this book is a great resource.” I SA AC B ROW N
FAVORITE STORES: “My first stop is Neiman Marcus NorthPark, to see my stylist. I also go to L. Bartlett in Snider Plaza, and never leave emptyhanded. When I need new denim or boots, I head to Rag & Bone in Highland Park Village.”
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H Y L A M o b il e
H u nt U tiliti e s
BOOKS COURTESY OF P U B L I S H E R S
GO-TO LOOK: “Skinny pants, a camisole, blouse, or sweater, and a blazer. I also always throw in a great couture handbag and designer boots or shoes.”
U n ive r sit y of D a ll a s
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3/8/21 2:37 PM
A commitment to the community that’s as big as Texas. Simmons Bank salutes the stakeholders and dealmakers that help bring North Texas to life — such as our clients at AC Hotel Fort Worth Downtown and developer Jackson Shaw. Our team is here to provide you with individualized service on everything you need for business and personal banking. How can we help you? Learn more at simmonsbank.com.
For more information: Lori Baldock, 817-916-6110
WE BELIEVE IN F O R M I N G M E A N I N G F U L C O N N E C T I O N S . C R E AT I N G V A L U E W I T H E A C H I N T E R A C T I O N A N D T R A N S A C T I O N . B U I L D I N G A C U LT U R E C E N T E R E D I N P A S S I O N A N D C O M M U N I T Y. P R O F E S S I O N A L E X C E L L E N C E T H R O U G H P E R S O N A L I Z E D S E R V I C E . I T A L L S TA R T S A N D E N D S W I T H
PEOPLE. Holt Lunsford Commercial is a Dallas-based, full-service commercial real estate company offering project leasing, tenant representation, property and facility management, accounting, development and construction management, and insurance consulting services. H O LT L U N S F O R D . C O M
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LIVING LUXE
Auberge’s Commodore Perry Estate is imbued with a sense of timeless elegance.
SUITE VIEWS
Four Seasons Austin might be in the heart of downtown, but Lady Bird Lake creates a resortlike feel.
W E L L T R AV E L E D
Dallas leadership development guru Beverley Wright finds there’s no need to travel a great distance for luxurious R&R. story by BIANCA R. MONTES
SOCIAL HUB
Guests are transported to another era at the Auberge Commodore Perry Estate.
GLOBAL FARE
Now open in Travis Heights, Aba focuses on Israeli, Lebanese, Turkish, and Greek cuisines.
UP IN SMOKE
MELDED STYLE
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The gingham ceiling is an unexpected touch in that lobby at the Kelly Wearstler designed Austin Proper Hotel.
At Ciclo, the 43-ounce Wagyu Tomahawk flambéed in tequila is culinary perfection.
3/8/21 2:39 PM
P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F A B A , C O M M O D O R E P E R R Y E S T A T E , F O U R S E A S O N S A U S T I N , L A K E A U S T I N S P A , O M N I B A R T O N C R E E K , A N D T H E I N G A L L S ( A U S T I N P R O P E R ) ; W R I G H T BY J A K E M E Y E R S
Austin, Texas
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LAPS OF LUXURY
P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F A B A , C O M M O D O R E P E R R Y E S T A T E , F O U R S E A S O N S A U S T I N , L A K E A U S T I N S P A , O M N I B A R T O N C R E E K , A N D T H E I N G A L L S ( A U S T I N P R O P E R ) ; W R I G H T BY J A K E M E Y E R S
Secluded in the rolling hill country of Austin, Omni Barton Creek recently underwent a massiverenovation— the pools were a major highlight.
O
one thing is for sure; we all need a minute to breathe. The past year of extraordinary circumstances has challenged everything from where we work to how we live. It has also changed the way we travel. The good news is that Texas has myriad dreamy opportunities for a little recovery time. If you’re looking for a getaway that blends culture, nature, and luxury, look no further than Austin. From the people to the places—and let’s not forget about the food, the state capital has a bit of something for everyone. Plus, the region’s justifiably renowned resorts, spas, and golf retreats make it an ideal place to unwind—without having to board a plane. Earlier this year, I began what would become a restorative series of getaways to Austin. My first venture took me to the stunning Lake Austin Spa Resort. The 40-room, all-inclusive property sits on 19 acres along the Colorado River and is purposefully designed to promote relaxation and healing. There is absolutely no reason to leave the hotel, unless you want to go to town to purchase some adult beverages, as alcohol is not a part of the inclusive package. The never-ending list of lakeside activities—morning hydro bike rides
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were my favorite—and impressive wellness classes and lectures pair nicely with a tranquil spa (that offers some of the world’s best ancient and modern therapeutic techniques) and an innovative gourmet menu. It is the type of destination you can visit for a weekend or a month. Another Austin resort you’ll wish you’d never have to leave is the recently renovated Omni Barton Creek. With about $150 million in upgrades led by the Dallas-based design-build firm The Beck Group, the property sits on a sprawling landscape (there are no bad views) and hosts four premier golf courses, including the 72-par Fazio Canyons, designed by the legendary Tom Fazio. Other property highlights include exercise amenities that rival top-tier gyms, three pools, a Mokara world-class spa, and seven dining options, including a taste of Dallas with an on-site Bob’s Steak & Chop House. (Pro tip: order the creamed corn brûlée. It is beautifully spiced with jalapenos and flambeed to perfection.) If you’re looking to be closer to the city, the Four Seasons Austin offers the best of both worlds. Perched on the banks of Lady Bird Lake, the hotel is right in the heart of downtown. Its impressive spa includes a Himalayan salt wall and Eucalyptus steam room. The guest service is some of the best I have ever experienced, and the onsite dining leaves little to be desired. At Ciclo, I made it a point to eat outdoors and enjoy the Parker rolls and a Tomahawk steak cooked on a Himalayan Salt Block and flambéed with tequila, tableside. In town, I highly recommend the Gingerbread pancakes at Magnolia Café (make sure to do a little shopping on South Congress), a visit to the new Japanese restaurant Ten Ten (get the charred edamame and Hamachi carpaccio with black truffle and Yuzu), and experience both the garden-style patio and some of the best hummus you’ll ever have at the Chicago import Aba. I would be remiss in not mentioning two other unique getaways to Austin: Auberge Resorts Collections’ luxuriLAKESIDE BLUES Guests at Lake ous 1920s-era Commodore Austin Resort can Perry Estate and Proper Hopaddleboard, kayak, canoe, hike, or tel, an art-lover’s dream in relax by the water. the Second Street District.
T R AV E L T I P S
Something for Everyone Beverley Wright is the queen of pampering. The owner and president of leadership development firm Wright Choice Group prioritizes the benefits of self-care both with herself and her group of “spa sister” friends. Nearby getaways like the peaceful Lake Austin Spa Resort top her list of places to visit. Wright loves its charming individual cabins with lakeside views and healthy activities such as cooking classes, outdoor activities, and spa treatments that allow her and her travel group to bond together or soak up some alone time. “It checks all of the boxes,” she says.
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DREAMING BIG
When she was in kindergarten, Andrews wrote about wanting to be an engineer.
ADVENTURE AWAITS
Andrews (above, second from left), came to the U.S. after graduating from high school.
IN THE MIDDLE
With both an older and younger sibling, Andrews (below left) says being the middle child has its benefits.
ROOTS
MADHURI ANDREWS
as told to WILL MADDOX illustration by JAKE MEYERS
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madhuri andrews grew up in India but moved to the United States to attend college—and stayed for good. She’s now a top executive at Dallas-based Jacobs, a global company that has more than 52,000 employees and generates about $13 billion in annual revenue. Here, she shares her journey: “I was born and raised in New Delhi, India. My dad held senior positions in the government, and my mother was a Ph.D. My siblings and I always knew our parents would move mountains to give us the best education that they could afford. Because my mother was teaching at a university, we lived on campus. I played basketball and ran track competitively for our school. When I was in kindergarten, I wrote an essay about wanting to be an aerospace engineer. I think it was just my love of watching airplanes. When I got older, I took the leap and moved to Los Angeles to attend
school. There were a lot of people back then trying to talk my parents out of it, saying, ‘How can you send a young female to the U.S.? She’s single and 19.’ But my dad was always ahead of his time, and he said, ‘If she wants to try it, we’re going to let her try it.’ My parents ended up buying me a one-way ticket, and I arrived in America with $500 to my name. I had never even been on an airplane before. I carried more than a full load of classes at Northrop University and earned two degrees in three years. I found jobs that would fit my schedule. I cleaned houses, I ran a shuttle bus at the airport, and I worked as a security guard at night in Beverly Hills. I could do my homework and study. It was the perfect job for a student.”
P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F M A D H U R I A N D R E W S
Chief Digital and Information Officer J AC O B S
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Setting the standard in high quality sustainable development. Operating since 2005, OM Housing is an award-winning multifamily real estate development company in the DFW metroplex. Having developed over 7,500 units, OMH has won numerous awards for its pioneering work in multifamily developments. In the spirit of supporting healthier living standards, OMH is dedicated to providing high-quality, sustainable, eco-friendly, affordable housing. Deepak Sulakhe, President/CEO at OMH, designs and spearheads well-structured and eco-friendly housing projects.
With the recent groundbreaking of Bardin Apartments in Arlington, OMH has further broadened its presence in the DFW area while maintaining the standard for quality, sustainable, affordable housing. Located amidst myriad local amenities, Bardin is well-conceived regarding design, financial structuring, and community collaboration. It fills a dire need for community housing as well as social, financial, and educational supports.
www.omhousing.com
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END MARK
CHANGE OF PLANS
Dallas’ Original Land Man W I L L I A M W. C A R U T H J R . February 11, 1912 - May 4, 1990
story by WILL MADDOX
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T
COURTESY OF C O M M U N I T I E S F O U N D AT I O N O F T E X A S
William Walter Caruth Jr., shown here with a horse trainer, was just a few years out of college when his father put him in charge of the family’s landholdings.
he caruth family were among the country’s
largest landowners, with holdings stretched from what’s now downtown Dallas to Forest Lane and east from Preston to Abrams roads. Monetizing it all fell to third-generation landowner William W. Caruth Jr. The empire began when his grandfather, Kentucky transplant William Caruth, arrived in Dallas on horseback in 1848, in search of rich soil for a cotton farm. In time, the holdings grew to about 30,000 acres. William’s son, William Walter Caruth, (who came to be known as Will Sr.) expanded operations beyond cotton to include dairy and cattle businesses. He also donated about 520 acres to help establish Southern Methodist University. Will Sr. ceded control of the land to his son, the aforementioned Will Jr., not long after the younger Caruth graduated from Harvard Business School. Over the next 40 years, he became a prolific developer and adeptly sold off parcels to amass one of the largest fortunes in the South, a bounty he shared with family members.
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ALEAVESMAJOR DEVELOPER A LASTING LEGACY ON THE CITY
“We rely on Texas Capital Bank for the industry expertise and their dedicated team. They are there for you when you need them. I’m not only their client; I’m their biggest fan.” Lucy Billingsley, Co-Founder and Partner of Billingsley Company
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Commercial Banking www.texascapitalbank.com Texas Capital Bank, N.A.
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