Fort Worth Inc. - June 2016

Retail Meets Chisholm Trail

Neiman’s, Whole Foods, and REI drop anchor on the Trinity

Cool Office Space

Purple Land Management converts old elevator to an unlikely use: a moving conference room

Charged and Ready to Glow

Fort Worth’s Modern Lantern founders, in their fifth year, prep for a big step

Ventures With Values

Trade your trash for healthcare: Collegiate entrepreneurs pitch big ideas at TCU contest

The Budding Business of Texas Pot

Entrepreneurs get into position for Texas’ first medicinal marijuana licenses

Waterside developer Terry Montesi

Behold the 2016 Quattroporte S Q4 at Park Place Maserati. It’s an object of pure beauty, with flowing curves and a sleek silhouette reminiscent of a coupe—but with the spaciousness and smoothness of a luxury sedan. You’ll delight in this new Quattroporte‘s sophisticated interior, thrill to the powerful V6 engine, and savor the unmistakable Maserati prestige. And the premium treatment continues at Park Place, with sumptuous dealership amenities and service excellence as inspired as a Maserati.

FEATURES

50 Where the Trail Meets the Trail: Development accelerates at Waterside and Clearfork with the Chisholm Trail’s opening.

58 The Budding Business of Texas Pot: Business and investors get ready to apply for Texas’ first medicinal marijuana licenses.

66 Charged and Ready to Glow: Five years into the rechargeable lamp business, founders Stephen and Carrie Fitzwater contemplate a major step.

74 Ventures With Values: Bill-pay machines for the unbanked? College students vie for best business plan with social value at TCU’s annual Values and Ventures business plan competition.

Loans Now, Groans Later?

You Could Regret Borrowing From Your Plan

While borrowing money from your retirement plan may sound appealing at first glance, this article explains that you need to recognize that it could leave you with less money for the future.

While borrowing money from your retirement plan may sound appealing at first glance, what you need to recognize is that it could leave you with less money to live on in retirement.

Certainly, with such a loan, your contributions are your own money, and you’ll be repaying yourself as you repay the loan. What could be wrong with that? Actually, a lot. Consider these potential negative consequences of borrowing from your plan:

• Taxes. If you leave your job, you may need to repay any outstanding loan balance within 30 days or risk paying federal taxes on the amount you owe, in addition to a 10% early withdrawal penalty. Also, the interest you pay on a retirement plan loan is not tax deductible.

• Lost opportunity. Don’t overlook the possible “opportunity cost” of borrowing from your retirement account. The money you borrow might otherwise be earning returns with the potential to provide additional cash for retirement. Your lost opportunity could be particularly dramatic if you take money out of the plan during a time when your investment earnings are on the rise.

• Fees and deadlines. Your employer may charge a retirement account loan fee. Some companies also have specific deadlines for applying for loans, as well as lengthy waiting periods before you can gain access to the money. And, in most cases, you must repay the loan in full within five years. (Longer loan periods may be available if the money is used to purchase a home.)

What’s the Alternative?

If you’re tempted to borrow money from your retirement plan just to splurge, reconsider. A fancy vacation or new wardrobe will probably be an expensive memory in 10, 20, or 30 years, but your need for retirement income will still be there. Don’t shortchange yourself. If you’re trying to get out of debt, look at consolidating your various debts into one lower-interest-rate account or consider a tax-deductible home equity loan.

In certain circumstances, however, you may find that it is worth thinking about a retirement plan loan. If that’s the case, be sure to discuss all the details and rules with your employer and a trusted financial advisor before making a final decision.

one

(817) 529-8463

( BIZZ BUZZ )

11 No Horsing Around: Developers get set to begin redevelopment of historic Horse and Mule Barns in Stockyards.

12 Country Revival: New owners buy and move The Country Network to Fort Worth.

14 Comings and Goings: What’s new around Fort Worth.

18 Go North, Young Man: Real estate broker Will Northern expands Near Southside boutique firm.

20 FaceTime: Robert Sturns, Fort Worth’s new economic development director, has a full plate.

22 Staying Informed: Fort Worth Business Assistance gets ready for 2016 business plan competition.

24 Around Town: Images from around Fort Worth.

( EXECUTIVE LIFE & STYLE )

28 Distinctive Style: Fort Worth entrepreneur Carly Burson started her ethical fashion brand, Tribe Alive, after a major life’s change.

32 Off the Clock: Cuba has slowly opened to the West; tourism is still illegal, but the U.S. allows travel to Cuba under a dozen approved categories.

36 Gadgets: Six gadgets that combine efficiency and convenience to make life a bit easier.

38 Wine & Dine: Spirits by Sedona, a luxury cocktail service, brings the cocktail party to you.

42 Health & Fitness: Yoga On The Go brings yoga classes anywhere within 60 miles of Fort Worth and Dallas.

44 Office Space: Purple Land Management’s new offices combine yesteryear and modern-day.

( COLUMNS / DEPARTMENTS )

82 EO Spotlight: Real estate entrepreneur Jeremy Brandt didn’t complete high school and didn’t go to college. No problem.

84 Business Strategy: Construction contractor Harold Muckleroy had an honest response when a mentor asked what he knew of real estate and construction.

88 Analyze This: FW Chamber report. Fort Worth has the right neighborhood for you, no matter your needs.

90 Analyze This: Energy. The TCU Energy Institute works on getting geology curriculum into high schools.

92 Analyze This: Commercial real estate. Commercial real estate update from The Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth.

94 Analyze This: Wealth. Cost segregation, an underused real estate tax strategy, provides cash flow for real estate.

96 Analyze This: Insurance. Bombarded by would-be roofers? Here’s how to protect yourself.

98 Management Style: Can’t find your organization’s leader on the flow chart? She might be at the bottom.

100 Management Tips and Best Practices: Twelve growth tips for entrepreneurs.

102 Day in the Life: Jack Clark, Red Oak Realty president and chair of Downtown Fort Worth, Inc., maintains a full schedule but makes time for family, Pebbles the dog, and Harry Potter.

“This

For many Texans, owning land is a lifestyle choice. Like Jay and Amy Novacek, they choose to spend time where the air is a little fresher, the traffic a little slower and everything just seems a little quieter. If you’re one of those Texans, there’s a lender you need to know. For almost a century, Heritage Land Bank has been financing land for those who want their own piece of Texas. If you’re ready to buy, talk to a Heritage lender today.

Jay Novacek

Texas Rancher

Former All-Pro Tight End Dallas Cowboys

Entrepreneurism

Three years ago I joined a business peer group called Entrepreneur’sOrganization (EO), a worldwide network created exclusively for entrepreneurs. Soon after joining I was talking with a fellow EO member, Troy Kunkle, who had also recently joined the group. Troy is the epitome of an entrepreneur and was extremely excited about the group because for the first time he realized that there were other people out there that thought like he did. it was a real ‘aha’ moment for him.

There is no off button in the entrepreneur’s mind. They wake up in the middle of the night and write down ideas because they are afraid they won’t remember them in the morning. They are incessantly curious, opportunistic, and optimistic. In every problem they encounter they seek a solution. Every person they meet is a potential resource. In every change they look for the new opportunity potential. I started FW Inc. for people like Troy, so I could share their entrepreneurial stories to inspire others and also to provide them the recognition they deserve. With that recognition in mind, I am proud to announce that we are launching the FW Inc. Entrepreneur of the Year awards. Greater Fort Worth entrepreneur’s contributions to the local economy is of immense value and these awards will acknowledge these men and women. Nominations are being accepted now, and applications will be accepted until August 1. We will notify finalists in September and the awards program will be held in January. For more information and/or to nominate an entrepreneur, go to fwtx.com/ fwinc/eoy/nominations.

TCU’s Neeley School of Business has been supporting entrepreneurship for the last six years with its annual Values and Ventures business plan competition. This year 47 undergraduate students from around the world pitched their business plans for for-profit enterprises that impact society in meaningful ways. The winning team’s plan, and the one I found most inspirational, is the brainchild of Franky Bernstein, a student from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Bernstein’s company, InterWallet, is a network of bill-pay machines that allows for payment and money transfers for the unbanked in low-income neighborhoods. In a beta test last year in South Florida, it handled 6,000 payments, through as many as 20 terminals and took in $750,000 in volume. Bernstein estimates InterWallet has cut its consumers’ fees in half.

Our cover story this issue unpacks the details of the widely anticipated openings of the Waterside and Clearfork developments along the Chisholm Trail Parkway. Terry Montesi, CEO of Fort Worth based Trademark Property Co, is in charge of Waterside. The development is 63-acres, with two miles of water frontage on the Trinity River, and will include REI, a specialty outdoor retailer opening this month, Whole Foods grocery and a number of other stores and restaurants, including a casual Italian restaurant headed by the Clay Pigeon restaurant’s Chef Marcus Paslay. Cassco Development Co.’s 270-acre Clearfork development will include The Shops at Clearfork, a 578,000-square-foot retail, restaurant, movie, and office development to be anchored by a 90,000-squarefoot Neiman Marcus store, which will move from Fort Worth’s Ridgmar Mall, due to open in February 2017.

This issue rounds-out the first year for FW Inc. Beginning with the July issue we will move from a quarterly to six issues a year. Thank you for reading and supporting FW Inc. over this past year. If there is a business or business topic you think our readers would be interested in, please reach out to us and let us know.

From the Publisher of Fort Worth, Texas magazine

( Bizz Buzz )

What Everyone's Talking About Around the Water Cooler

No Horsing Around

Redevelopment of Stockyards’ historic Horse and Mule Barns likely to begin this summer.

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA

The makeover of the historic Horse and Mule Barns, primary part of the first phase of a $175 million planned redevelopment of Fort Worth’s historic Stockyards, will get underway this summer.

Fort Worth Heritage Development – a 70-acre partnership of Majestic Realty of California and Fort Worth’s Hickman family, longtime Stockyards property owners –has filed for building permits with the city. Construction could begin this summer, depending on the results of pre-leasing, with completion in summer or fall 2017, Kerby Smith, Majestic senior vice president, said in an interview.

The project will be watched closely by

skeptics of the Majestic-Hickman project who worry about whether the partnership is sincere in maintaining authenticity in the Stockyards district, a big visitor draw. “The future will be told in our merchandising and our leasing efforts,” Smith said.

The Majestic-Hickman group will spend $45 million of its planned $175 million total project cost on the barns alone, Smith estimated. The massive barns, which front Exchange Avenue and face each other across the famed “Mule Alley” that intersects Exchange, will be redeveloped with retail, restaurants and office space. Fort Worth’s Historic & Cultural Landmarks Commission last year gave approval for certain changes in the facades, including the cutting of storefronts into the wall facing Exchange.

Majestic-Hickman also elevated the historic status on one of the buildings from one that provided virtually no protection from demolition.

Besides the Exchange storefronts, Majestic-Hickman plans to convert the

wide Mule Alley to a narrow, pedestrianfriendly street, with storefronts, 12-footwide sidewalks, lighting accentuating the old buildings, trees for shaded restaurant seating, and some on-street parallel parking. An alleyway that bisects one of the barns and cuts to Marine Creek between Mule Alley and the creek will be revived as an outdoor space with new shade. It will help enliven the little-known portion of Marine Creek, Smith said.

“It’s a little gem,” he said. “We could make a little slice, a little bit, of the San Antonio

Kerby Smith, senior vice president for Majestic Realty, in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

A developer's plan for the Stockyards' historic Horse and Mule Barns includes a narrow pedestrian-friendly street in the old Mule Alley, with wide sidewalks, shade, restaurants, shops and outdoor seating.

Riverwalk.”

One of the spaces in the east barn facing Mule Alley could be a potential market hall with food and retail and, potentially, a seasonal farmers market, Smith said. Art and music festivals and other special events will generate activity. Office spaces will likely be located in the southern portions of the barns.

The Fort Worth architect Michael Bennett is leading the design, and Studio Outside is the landscape architect over the outdoor spaces. Smith said his group chose the mule barns for the first phase because the buildings are generally structurally sound

Country Revival

and the project offered a “quick opportunity for success.”

The re-activation of the horse and mule barns will be in keeping with the context and history, Smith said. Historic features such as blade signs will show back up on the building facades, he said. “The history of the space is the defining characteristic,” Smith said. “This was a place for retail. It was just retail for horses and mules. It’s going to be a place of retail for people.”

Even though the buildings are sound, they’ve still been deteriorating for decades, Smith said. “We have a slowly eroding place,” he said, comparing pictures of the Stockyards today to ones taken 50 years ago.

The team drilled holes in the dirt floors of the barns and estimated 2,000 truckloads of fill dirt must be removed before concrete floors can be poured, Smith said. “We punched holes; we know generally what the strata is,” he said. “At the end of the day, that’s not going to sustain a concrete floor.”

An estimated 400 columns will be repaired inside the barns, roof leaks fixed,

Fort Worth partnership buys and rebrands The Country Network and moves it to Fort Worth.

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA

The Country Network, purchased in late January by a Fort Worth group, has been quietly making a new home in the former offices of Studios 121 on Airport Freeway.

A venture led by media executive Tim Eaton and Gary Pfleiger, a former software executive who managed the development of Southwest Airlines’ e-ticket application, purchased The Country Network and has moved its small headquarters operation to the Studios 121 building from Nashville.

TCN Group LLC, which includes Eaton, Pfleiger, and partners Michael Buban, Doug Pate, and Mike Biggers, is under contract to buy the Studios 121 building at 6125 Airport Freeway. The Country Network, which provides 24-hour televised country music content, is available in 34 cities, having recently launched in Detroit, Cleve-

land, Jacksonville, Fla., Nashville, Kansas City, and St. Louis. The network is scheduled to launch June 1 in the Dallas-Fort Worth market on KPFW, a Spanish-language religious TV station that’s giving way to TCN’s content.

and numerous old windows restored, he said. “The complexity is high,” Smith said. “We know more than anybody about these barns, but there’s still unforeseen conditions that we will face.”

It even cost about $7,500 to remove two feet of pigeon droppings inside the two old, closed portals that frame the entry to Mule Alley. The developers will re-open the portals and drop in chandeliers, making them part of the adjacent retail spaces for lease.

The Fort Worth Herd is housed in one of the barns, and Majestic and Hickman will be helping it look for new quarters as redevelopment of the interior spaces proceeds, Smith said.

There’s strong prospective tenant interest, Smith said. Among prospects, the partnership is talking to the American Paint Horse Association about office and retail space and to a web-based leather company, Smith said. Of the leather company, he said, “they want to create a brick and mortar central location, and they want to be in the Stockyards.”

“The No. 1 genre in America, it just makes sense to have it here,” Eaton said in an interview. He and Pfleiger declined to say what they paid for TCN.

A developer's plan for the Stockyards' Mule Alley would enliven the street with wide sidewalks, outdoor seating, and shade.

Country Network CEO Tim Eaton

The Country Network had been rebranded Zuus Country by its previous owner, Zuus Media. Eaton and Pfleiger rebranded it again to The Country Network. The network owns a 6,000-title music video library and hardware in its affiliates’ locations. In addition to showing content it purchased, it also will product its own content. “I feel we have bought a tech company instead of an entertainment company,” Eaton said.

Eaton and Pfleiger are using the building they’re buying to generate income. The building has 71 offices for lease, Eaton said. TCN “will work to fill it with creative types in a shared space,” he said. “Animators, website developers, writers, music teachers, acting coaches, talent agencies, music labels, publishers, a creative consortium that has access to the studios.”

Eaton and Pfleiger have a production company, Panther Island Productions LLC, in the 43,000-square-foot building, which has three sound studios. It will offer creative and production services for ad agencies, corporate messaging, product videos, live shots with news agencies, and stage rentals. Panther Island will also produce original shows for TCN.

The network will maintain an office in Nashville for Cary Rolfe, a vice president and industry veteran, to meet with labels, artists’ reps, and touring artists who stop by for a song and interview.

Eaton and Pfleiger had to move quickly in late December when they were offered the opportunity to buy TCN. “We had 21 days to buy,” Eaton said. The network needs “two things for this to work”: a product and signal, he said. Some of the network’s affiliates are tied in with cable. “That’s how we’re going to grow,” he said.

The company will be driven by traditional advertising revenue, Eaton said. TCN has a global reach through its website, tcncountry. com, and its 24 initial broadcast markets reached about 37 million households, Eaton said. The two-year growth strategy is to reach more than 100 million households.

TCN will focus on mainstream country, but also spotlight Americana, Texas and Red Dirt music from labels and independent artists, Eaton said.

On April 9, TCN premiered the first show in a new original series, “Out Land: The Music Highway,” hosted by the country singer and songwriter Shawna Russell, Tim Russell, and The Russell Family Band. The show takes viewers on a musical journey across the heart of the country, with behind-the-scenes stories, candid moments and live performances.

COMINGS AND GOINGS:

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA

Homes in the first residential phase of the 600-acre, master-planned Chisholm Trail Ranch community along the Chisholm Trail in far southwest Fort Worth will began coming out of the ground in May.

Dunhill Homes is the first builder in. Later this spring, Antares Homes, Historymaker Homes, and Sandlin Homes will begin building. “There’s going to be a tremendous amount of activity in this corridor over the next years,” John Vick, regional president of the developer, Walton Development and Management, South, said.

Walton started turning over its 179 lots in the first phase to builders in April. The first lots are on the east side of the property. The lots will be 50and 60-feet wide. Price points initially will likely be in the “low to high 200s,” Vick said. “We’ll grow over 300 probably, but I think initially, we’ll be in the middle of the market.”

The development, one of several major developments planned in the far south portion of Chisholm Trail Corridor, will build out to more than 1,000 home sites upon completion, plus multi-family projects, Walton has said. With the development being on both sides of the Chisholm Trail Parkway bisected by McPherson Boulevard and Summer Creek, 12 minutes to downtown, and including a planned new Crowley ISD elementary school, “I don’t think we’re going to have a problem,” Vick said.

Walton is handling the 260acre residential piece of the development. Walton bought

the residential land from Stratford Land and the real estate firm Legacy Capital, which retained 300 acres in the middle for commercial. “They’re very close to announcing a major grocer,” Vick said.

Walton also has 1,765 acres in the Chisholm Trail corridor bordering Chisholm Trail Ranch to the south. Walton has donated a site to Tarleton State University.

Dominic Dottavio, Tarleton president, said the university expects to break ground in late spring or early summer 2017 on a first-phase, $39.6 million, 80,000-square-foot building that would open in January 2019. The building would likely serve about 2,200 students and house 60-70 faculty and staff, Dottavio said.

New STEM and arts high school underway near downtown. The Fort Worth schools broke ground this spring on the $41.6 million I.M. Terrell Academy for STEM and Visual and Performing Arts high school east of downtown, a project that’s designed to help satisfy growing demand and expected to push redevelopment around it.

The 65,000-square-foot, two-story building is scheduled to open in August 2017, next to the I.M. Terrell Elementary School, being incorporated as part of the new academy. Designed by the Corgan Associates architecture firm, the new building eventually will house 800 students and grades 9-12 but will open with 200 students and ninth grade. The school will add one grade per year. Admission will be based on a lottery.

The Country Network expects travelling acts will stop in at its Fort Worth headquarters, tape interviews and sing songs.

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Go North, Young Man

Real estate broker Will Northern builds Near Southside boutique firm.

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA

When Will Northern hung his own shingle five years ago as an independent real estate broker, “people kind of chuckled at me,” he remembers, chuckling now at the memory.

Then, it was he, two agents, and his mother - working part-time, working at nights, pitching in with her finance and accounting background. Today, Northern is up to 18 agents, having just added two, and his Near Southside firm is into residential and commercial real estate. And this spring, Northern Realty Group added a residential property management service to its portfolio of services.

The firm has stood on its own since he founded it, Northern says. “It has not had a cash infusion, and we’re very proud of it,” he said recently in an interview at his West Magnolia Avenue offices.

You’ll find Northern most often plying his trade in the city’s ur-

ban villages, putting his background of residential and commercial sales in the interior city, property assemblage, and volunteer service (he’s a member of the Fort Worth Zoning Commission) to work.

Northern got his real estate license seven years ago. He’d been a landman and was laid off. Starting in residential at Brants, “things started going well for me when I started reaching out to my old oil and gas clients,” he says.

Northern sold 68 lots in Stop Six in southeast Fort Worth to a developer. Then he flipped a house for a client. “I got to play general contractor.” Not everything worked out as well as it could have. Northern tried to acquire 13 properties in southwest Fort Worth. “I got nine of the 13 under contract,” then the holdouts killed the entire deal, he says. “But it was the experience that taught me how to do an assemblage.”

Northern then got his broker’s license and went out on his own.

“At first, I had friends hang their licenses with me who were new to the business,” he said.

His mother came on board fulltime in the firm’s second year. “I was able to prove it could generate enough money to support us both,” he said. The firm’s first office was in an executive suite in a building on Hemphill Street. More recently, it’s moved into the West Magnolia digs.

Northern refined the business as it went along, improving the graphic design in its brochures, yard signs, and website.

He entered commercial four years ago with the sale of a medical office tower at 8th Avenue and West Magnolia. He secured the listings for, and sold, several East Lancaster Avenue properties for their owner. Besides taking classes to learn the commercial side, “I’ve been very fortunate to have kind friends in the industry to ask questions to,” Northern says.

Last year was a big one for the firm. Northern landed Scott Blakewell, his firm’s first commercial agent besides himself and now has three, having added Michael Karol. Northern’s insight into the city has landed the company business, he says. “We do commercial real estate very well,” he says. “We focus on urban villages and bring our knowledge to get incentives and investors.”

Northern added residential property management after being approached by Rebecca Robinson, a property manager. “I did not see that coming,” he says. The property management unit under Robinson now has 27 properties, including two mixed-use multifamily. “We do not do commercial property management –yet,” Northern says.

Northern’s agents don’t pay the franchise fees charged by large firms, “so we put more money in the pockets of our agents,” he says.

These days, Northern is seeking experienced agents who have booked a minimum $2 million in sales annually. Northern said he doesn’t want the firm to get too big. His goal: 25 agents. “I want to keep the small boutique feel,” he says.

Robert Sturns

Fort Worth looks to strengthen what it does for entrepreneurs, new economic development director says

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA

Robert Sturns has a full plate these days as Fort Worth’s new economic development director.

Sturns, who continues to run the city’s Business Assistance Center in his new role, sat down for a convo with FW Inc Water, transportation and education often come up when Fort Worth’s thought leaders are asked what they view as the city’s biggest economic challenges.

Sturns, whose father is the former Dallas/ Fort Worth Airport CEO Vernell Sturns, has a few ideas. “Education,” he says. “We have to continue (to improve) as a community.”

Second, Fort Worth sometimes has a hard time holding on to some of its college graduates or recruiting them here, Sturns said. “Millennials look to a cool environment,” Sturns said. “I think we have some of those elements, and we continue to grow those elements, but I don’t know we’re first of mind. If we get them to Fort Worth, nine times out of 10, we’re able to sell them here.”

Third, “the city continues to be challenged by how to encourage and maintain momentum in redevelopment inside the loop,” Sturns said. Perceptions are a problem. And “aging infrastructure makes it more expensive to develop,” Sturns said. “We don’t have large tracts. A lot of it is site readiness. You have to be more aggressive with it.”

David Cooke, Fort Worth’s new city manager, has focused the city’s economic development efforts on recruiting and retaining projects that “really move the needle,” Sturns says. One such project was the recruitment of a Facebook data center. It’s a major financial investment to start with. “The job component is not huge,” Sturns said, “but it helps us as a community

become more of a player in the technology space.”

Facebook also has strong wages and benefits. “It’s really a strong piece of the analysis,” Sturns said. Finally, Facebook may help Fort Worth develop small business and entrepreneurial ventures, he said. “Are there smaller companies in that space we can look to attract?” he said. “Can we grow small businesses?”

Fort Worth’s Business Assistance Center, with the Idea Works and TECH Fort Worth incubators in a campus at Interstate 35W and Rosedale Street, has been looking to grow businesses and encourage and nurture startups. The Business Assistance Center by itself sees 1,500-1,700 clients a year, many already in business.

The BAC’s five-year plan is to continue to focus primarily on small and micro enterprises, with an emphasis on women and minority-owned businesses. “As the entrepreneurial ecosystem continues to grow across Fort Worth and Dallas, we will be looking to expand our offerings to address their specific needs,” Sturns says. That will mean more advanced training, B2B networking, improved access to capital programs, and other support, he said.

City and business leaders will be looking for more formal ways to help small companies make the next big steps, he said. “How do we transition small companies to the middle?” he said.

“What’s the pipeline into Fort Worth South or Downtown Fort Worth?”

SOME MISSING PIECES ARE OBVIOUS.

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THEIR CUPS RUNNETH OVER

At 1 Million Cups every Wednesday, entrepreneurs get to present and learn.

AT 9 A.M., WEDNESDAY, EVERY WEEK AT FORT WORTH’S IDEA WORKS INCUBATOR, 600 E. Rosedale St. at Interstate 35W and Rosedale, a startup entrepreneur gets to put on a presentation and get feedback on what the community can do to help. It’s Fort Worth’s version of 1 Million Cups, a free, weekly national program designed to educate, engage, and connect entrepreneurs to each other.

Developed by the Kauffman Foundation, 1 Million Cups is based on the notion that entrepreneurs discover solutions and network over cups of coffee. Visit 1millioncups.com/fw to apply to present. – Scott Nishimura

IMBUING BLUE ZONES

What can you do to make your workplace healthier and more productive?

BLUE ZONES FORT WORTH, THE WELLBEING INITIATIVE BASED ON LESSONS LEARNED FROM COMMUNITIES WORLDWIDE WHERE PEOPLE LIVE THE LONGEST, continues to sign up new certified organizations in Cowtown. Interested? Here are some gatherings coming up where you can get more information: Buffalo West, a new Blue Zones-certified restaurant, is hosting Blue Zones’ monthly Food, Friends & Flavanoids Social, 5:30 p.m., May 18, 7101 Camp Bowie Blvd. The next monthly Free Employer Information Breakfast is 8:30 a.m., June 8, at the Tarrant County College Corporate Training Center Alliance, 13600 Heritage Parkway. And the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce Women’s Business Division is holding a free Power of Purpose Workshop, 6 p.m., June 9, at the Tarrant County College-South, 5301 Campus Drive, Forum SSTU 2207. – Scott Nishimura

BAC to Business

Fort Worth Business Assistance Center gets ready to launch 2016 business plan competition.

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA

The Fort Worth Business Assistance Center’s sixth annual Business Plan Competition is coming up again this year.

The BAC will update its website in May with application information and kick off the competition June 1. Pitch Night is scheduled for Oct. 6, and the finale will be the end of October at Texas Christian University. Capital One and The Alternative Board business coaching firm remain in place as founding sponsors. Eligible applicants must be a business with a DBA registered in Tarrant County and have annual revenue of less than $500,000. For information, call 817-871-6025 or visit the website fwbac@fortworthtexas.gov.

Details are in the works. Last year’s

prize packages for the top three places included cash awards, Alternative Board membership or diagnostic assessment, sales management class, business strategy and forward focus counseling, web and marketing consulting, and other coaching and benefits.

The BAC launched the competition in 2011, recognizing five small business owners and entrepreneurs, and giving the finalists one-on-one business counseling, professional development workshops, and coaching. Last year, the competition accepted 25 applications based on judging. The competition included a preliminary round that narrowed the field to 10, who competed on Pitch Night and presented their business plans. Judges then narrowed the field to the three finalists.

(2) LeaderPrime leaders, Leadership Fort Worth Left to right: U.S. Congresswoman Kay Granger, former Mayor Mike Moncrief, former Mayor Kenneth Barr, Nancy and Robbie Briggs, CEO and President of Briggs Freeman Sotheby International Realty

(3) Downtown Fort Worth Inc. Trailblazer awards, Chairman's Award, Wings of the City Left to right: Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem Sal Espino and Dr. Jose Octavio Tripp Villanueva, Consul General of Mexico to Dallas/Fort Worth

(4) Texas Motor Speedway’s 20th anniversary celebration Left to right: TMS President Eddie Gossage, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price and CVB President Bob Jameson

(5) Fort Worth Chamber February membership event Left to right: Glen Hahn, IDI-Innovative Developers Inc., and Tim Carter, Southside Bank, help bring in new members

2 3 5 4

(1) Fort Worth Chamber’s State of the City luncheon with Mayor Betsy Price. Left to right: Glenn Monroe, Northstar Bank of Texas, presenting sponsor; Troy Moncrief, The Baker Firm – Fidelity National Title; Mayor Betsy Price; Kristi Raney and Olivia Ray, Ventavia Research Group; Sunny Lowe, Blue Jean Networks; Robert Chan and Pat Dodson , Firefighting’s Finest Moving & Storage.

Chase Kennemer General Manager D&M Leasing Fort Worth

D&M Leasing has been based in Tarrant County for 34 years and is excited to open the new Fort Worth Location, conveniently located at I-30 and Summit.

D&M Leasing is the largest leasing company in America and was recently awarded the 2015 Leasing Company of the Year award by Dealer Rater for Texas and the entire U.S.

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28 Distinctive Style / 32 Off the Clock / 36 Gadgets / 38 Wine & Dine / 42 Health & Fitness / 44 Office Space

A Piece of Work

BY KENDALL LOUIS

Fort Worth entrepreneur

Carly Burson started successful local accessories company and ethical fashion brand Tribe Alive after a major life change: She adopted her daughter from Ethiopia. “I knew that becoming a mother would profoundly impact my life, but I never imagined that it would alter the course of my life’s work,” Burson says. Burson was moved to address the core issue of child relinquishment on a global scale, specifically, the economic insecurities facing women in the developing world. “Tribe Alive was born from my decision to utilize years of experience in the fashion industry as a platform to alleviate poverty among people in the developing world,” she says.

The socially conscious local company works with artisan partners in places like Haiti, Guatemala, and India employing impoverished women at fair trade wages. It provides them a safe job and a sustainable income.

An extensive background in visual design and merchandising with Ann Inc. and J. Crew prepared her for the role of Tribe Alive business owner, where she has curated a minimalistfriendly collection of accessories and

leather goods while creating a visually stunning brand.

One of the staples of the Tribe Alive collection is bags – in the form of totes, weekenders, portfolios and handbags. So, when we decided to feature workbags and briefcases for this issue, we knew exactly where to turn for some expert advice and ethical options. But first, we had to get some entrepreneurial tips.

The Tribe Alive brand is so visually stunning and consistent. How did you accomplish this, and what are your tips for other entrepreneurs looking to brand their business?

Anyone will tell you that I am crazy about visuals especially since I have a background in visual design. I work with an amazing team of women who also believe in a consistent brand message that’s built around storytelling. We cater our imagery to a specific type of woman. She lives in the city, travels often, cares about the world, loves deeply, and works hard. She’s independent, unapologetic, and has a relentless point of view. She loves fashion but cares about FOR HIM HAWTHORN LAPTOP BAG IN TAN, United By Blue, unitedbyblue.com, $128

HER LEATHER PORTFOLIO CLUTCH, Tribe Alive, shoptribealive.com, $98 FOR HER POCKET CONVERTIBLE CROSSBODY, Tribe Alive, shoptribealive.com, $250

ethics and builds her wardrobe around a conscious conviction. We created this image of a Tribe woman not because she reflects all of our customers, but because she’s someone that all women want to be a little more like. We’re all about strong women and have built a brand around that.

I would encourage other entrepreneurs to figure out the main message and story they aim to tell through their platform and to consistently build imagery that supports that story. Your styling, language and content are the face of your brand so make sure everything you put out into the world represents who you are.

Ok. Let’s talk bags. What makes a perfect workbag for women? I’m all about buying fewer, better items that last. So, for me, a perfect bag would be a design that would withstand the “trend” test of time. A perfect bag is large enough to only fit what you need, goes with everything in your wardrobe, and transitions from the workweek to the weekend. I carry the same bag for years, take it everywhere with me, and appreciate it more when it ages.

You travel for work a lot. What’s your go-to bag? Our Weekender from Guatemala and our Leather Cross-body Bag from Haiti. I live in jeans, chambray shirts, and sandals, so I am a light packer. Whether I’m traveling for a few days or a few weeks, my weekender is all I bring. I love that this bag challenges you to only pack what you need and what you will actually wear. It speaks a ‘less is more’ language. My leather cross-body bag never leaves my shoulder and just continues to get better with age.

What kind of briefcase do you recommend for men? We hope to soon develop a small capsule collection for men, so hopefully I’ll be soon recommending our own bags. For now though, I am in love with the message and products delivered by United By Blue and Apolis. The Hawthorn Laptop Bag by United By Blue and the Mason Courier Bag by Apolis are not only ethical, but completely stylish and on trend. your work and d you Gua Bag shir r Wh h few I lov v y will l mor cont t

BRIEFCASE, Gucci, neimanmarcus.com, $1,990 FOR HIM SOREN BRIEFCASE IN CHILI, Matt & Nat, mattandnat.com, $165 FOR HER COUGAR BACKPACK IN ORANGE, Gunas New York, gunasthebrand.com, $125 FOR HER HARMAN BRIEFCASE IN ROYAL, Matt & Nat, mattandnat.com, $180

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Cuba Means Business

BY KENDALL LOUIS

While the colorful doors to Cuba have been closed to most Americans for more than 50 years, recent political shifts have loosened restrictions and opened up possibilities for entry.

U.S. businesses have already benefited from the change, as Starwood Hotels and Resorts announced in March that it signed three hotel deals in Cuba. The eased restrictions are also working in favor of local companies. Francis Harrison is the founder of Dallas-based travel agency, Conscious

Cuba. As of now, she must work with charter companies to get clients to Cuba, but many of the major U.S. airlines will begin offering commercial flights later this year, opening up new possibilities for her. “We [will] no longer have to work with only a couple charter companies,” she said. Harrison’s love for Cuba started in 2005 when she began studying at the University of Havana. “I tell our people it’s one of the safest places I’ve ever been to.” she said. “They are so excited to have Americans visit, and any time you have an extremely educated population, crime rate goes down.”

Tourism to Cuba is still technically illegal, but the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of

the Treasury allows travel to Cuba under 12 specific and approved categories that range from family visits to humanitarian activities to professional research and professional meetings. If a traveler falls into one of these 12 categories, he or she is free to travel with a general license and doesn’t have to get his or her travel approved by the Department of Treasury. According to OFAC’s Cuba fact sheet, this includes “professional research in Cuba relating to a traveler’s profession, professional background, or area of expertise.”

In order to qualify, a traveler’s schedule must not include an excess amount of free time. So, when choosing a place to stay, you’ll want a hotel that can allow you to seamlessly transition from “professional

The Vedado neighborhood in Havana, Cuba.

executive” to “professional tourist.”

Harrison filled us in on three of her favorite places to take clients in Cuba.

Hotel Nacional de Cuba This historic luxury hotel is located in the middle of Vedado, the center of Havana. Standing on Taganana hill, just a few feet from the sea, the hotel has great views of Havana Harbor, the seawall and the city. Known for its dedication to history, The Hotel Nacional de Cuba has a picturesque garden with an exhibition of two cannons that made up the old Santa Clara Battery. UNESCO declared it a part of the World Heritage Site. The Hotel Nacional de Cuba was also declared a National Monument, and it was inscribed in the World Memory Register.

Built in 1930, the Art Deco-style hotel has hosted high-profile guests including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner. The rich story of the five-star property is the subject of a historical guided tour, which takes place twice a day, six times a week. This hotel has 457 rooms, 15 suites, a presidential suite, four restaurants, four bars and two swimming pools. A special floor of the hotel is dedicated to executives with 54 dedicated rooms, two suites, seven junior suites, meeting rooms and a 24-hour concierge service.

Prices range from $190 - $385 for Standard Rooms hotelnacionaldecuba.com

Iberostar Hotel Parque Central Two styles merge at Hotel Parque Central with one new tower with a sleek and modern design linked via an underground tunnel to an elegant colonial building. Located in the heart of Havana, both wings of the fivestar hotel have rooftop terraces with pools and unbelievable views. Located in Parque Central, the hotel is one of the most culturally vibrant locations. There’s always something going on both inside and outside the lobby and plenty of people watching to take in as it’s located in one of the most densely populated areas of the city. Guests can take in the view of Old Havana from the Nuevo Mundo pool bar or dine at any of the three on-site restaurants. Occupying an entire

block, this central location provides easy access to some of the city’s most popular attractions including The Capitol and the Great Theater of Havana.

Prices range from $177 - $507 for Standard Rooms

Meliá Cohiba Touted as a “leading business and meeting hotel,” Meliá Cohiba is also in Vedado and faces the sea. This five-star hotel is just more than 50 yards from the Malecón, or Avenida de Maceo, a five-mile scenic seawall. Floors 18 – 21 of the hotel, named “The Level,” are considered an exclusive “hotel within a hotel,” that provides exclusivity and total privacy. The Level includes an exclusive lounge area, VIP bar and TV lounge. Those who stay in The Level also get extra amenities, think tea time and snacks, daily turndown service, free ironing, unpacking services, wake-up coffee and private airport-tohotel shuttles. Meliá Cohiba also has seven restaurants and four bars, including Relicario, a masculine leather-clad bar with a cigar sommelier service. Finally, a massive freshwater lagoon pool sits on the hotel’s second floor and is surrounded by shaded palapas and picturesque palm trees. When you do leave the hotel, Old Havana is just a 10-minute taxi ride.

Prices range from $196 - $567 for Standard Rooms meliacuba.com

The pool at Meliá Cohiba

The Nuevo Mundo pool bar at Iberostar Hotel Parque Central

SiSemore Law Firm

Justin J. Sisemore has been recognized by his peers as a 2016 “Rising Star” in Texas Monthly and Super Lawyers Magazines, as a “Top Attorney” in Fort Worth, Texas Magazine for the last eight years, and has been a guest speaker for the Tarrant County Family Law Bar Association and various law firms throughout Fort Worth. Samantha M. Wommack has been recognized by her peers as a “Top Attorney” in Fort Worth, Texas Magazine for the last three years. Zoe Meigs, of counsel, is an AV Preeminent Rated attorney and has been recognized for the second time as a “Top Attorney” in Fort Worth, Texas Magazine. We are proud to welcome Jerold H. Mitchell, Chris B. Norris and Pamela L. Wilder to the Sisemore Family Law Firm. Jerold H. Mitchell and Pamela L. Wilder have also been recognized by their peers as “Top Attorneys” in Fort Worth, Texas Magazine. With a combined 40 years of experience in complex civil and family law trials and appeals, our firm provides an extensive range of family law services: all aspects of divorce, cases with complex property divisions, and custody disputes. While we represent clients throughout Texas, we regularly serve Tarrant, Dallas, Collin, Parker, Johnson, Denton, Hood and Wise counties. The Sisemore Law Firm works diligently to provide highly competent and efficient service to each and every client. Our firm also works with various civil litigation firms throughout the DFW Metroplex to assist their clients in family law matters. Visit our website at www.thetxattorneys.com to view our client testimonials.”

Ready, Set, Tech

Whether you’re traveling for business or stuck at your desk, these six gadgets combine efficiency and convenience to make life just a little bit easier.

BY FW INC. STAFF

1 2 3 4 5 6

Workspace™ Hub27

Work anywhere there’s a wall with this sleek and modern traveling workspace.

Doubling as an organizer, simply attach the device to a wall, open it and instantly enjoy a work surface complete with a channel to plug-in and charge all devices. Adjust the work surface height for an ergonomicallyfriendly standing desk or close it all up and lock it for a neatly concealed and secure workstation.

Ergotronhome, ergotronhome.com, $349.95

Laser Projection

Virtual Keyboard

Transform your tiny smartphone keys to a full-sized QWERTY keyboard while at your desk with laser projection. The small device projects a keyboard onto a flat surface and tracks your fingers as you type with Bluetooth technology. It is the perfect addition to your permanent workspace or allows you to create a workstation while traveling on business. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery comes with a charger and lasts for up to two hours. Amazon, $149.97

Brookstone Pocket

Projector Micro

Present ideas wherever you go with this supercompact projector. Conveniently store it in your pocket or briefcase while on the move, and then connect to your smartphone, computer or tablet when it’s time to present. The internal battery lasts up to two hours per charge. No need to worry about sound, because this pocket projector has built-in speakers. Brookstone, brookstone.com, $149.99

HooToo TripMate

Elite Create your own secure Wi-Fi network while on the go with this multipurpose travel companion. This 7-ounce device also allows you to back up files, videos and photos to free up space and has dual USB ports for charging multiple devices. Finally, create your own private cloud to share large files and images with colleagues. HooToo, hootoo.com, $21

Build Focus This computer app is designed to help you concentrate and beat desktop distractions like Facebook and Twitter. The app blocks certain websites that cause you to be inefficient while leaving the websites you need open. It also encourages you to take breaks and stretch your legs and provides graphs to help you better understand your productivity. Build Focus is still in beta, but you can register to get early access and receive an email to test it out through Google Chrome.

Ricoh THETA S Ensure remote employees can partake in all of the in-office action with this fully spherical portable camera. Attach the device to a tabletop tripod and live-stream meetings, providing a 360-degree view of your environment. Put the camera in the hands of your social media guru for better online video content, or when it’s time for a vacation, pack up your Ricoh THETA S and record full HD 25-minute videos. The camera comes with an app for smartphones and tablets that allows you to instantly view images and videos. Amazon, $346.95

Professional Mixers

BY KENDALL LOUIS

OIL AND GAS EXEC

“The Good Feller”

• 1 ounce Chinaco Blanco

• 1 ounce Cocchi Americano

• ¼ ounce dry vermouth

Stir ingredients. Strain into a glass. Serve up. Express lime peel and drop in.

bartender at The Usual with a keen sense for forming flavors, created craft cocktails that wowed everyone from the account executives to the art directors.

Everyone knows that after a long day of work, a bartender can quickly turn into your best friend. So, just in time for summer cocktail season, we asked Pamela to create five different drinks to appease all of your business savvy sides.

Acalendar full of quarterly meetings, holiday parties and employee appreciation events can quickly turn into a repetitive revolving door. The same venues with boring food and mediocre wine do little to boost employee morale and productivity, which is why it’s time to mix things up. That’s exactly what Sedona Productions had in mind when the company created Spirits by Sedona. The luxury, high-end cocktail service brings the party to you. And, we’re not just talking drinks. The service handles everything from the bar and cocktail napkins to glassware and garnishes. Headed up by expert spirits director, Pamela Moncrief, the Sedona team made a trip to the Fort Worth, Texas magazine offices for our annual holiday party and transformed the space from a sleek slate of cubes to an event space with lit walls and multiple full-service bars. Pamela, a former

INVESTMENT BANKER

“The Capital Investment”

• 2 ounces of Makers 46

• 2 dashes of Angostura

• 2 dashes of orange bitters

• ¼ ounce simple syrup

Stir ingredients. Strain into a rocks glass. Fill with ice.

Pamela Moncrief is the Spirits by Sedona expert spirits director.

Joseph Daniels, D.O. Orthopedic Surgery

G. Todd Moore, D.O. Orthopedic Surgery

THE TECH GURU

“Wozniak’s Revenge”

• Fresh muddled lime and pineapple

• 2 ounces Avua Cachaca

• ½ ounce Simple Syrup

Shake hard and pour entire contents into a large glass. Top with soda, two dashes of Angostura, and two dashes of Peychaud Bitters. Garnish with pineapple.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

“Winner Takes All”

• 2 ounces vodka

• ½ ounce lemon

• 1/5 ounce simple syrup

Shake ingredients. Strain. Serve up.

THE REAL ESTATE PRO

“There’s No Place Like Home”

• Lightly muddled tarragon

• 2 ounces vodka

• 1 ounce grapefruit

• ½ ounce lemon

• ¾ ounce simple syrup

• Pinch of salt

Shake ingredients in a shaker. Strain into a rocks glass. Fill with ice.

To see the process of how these cocktails were developed, go to Spirits by Sedona’s blog at www.spiritsbysedona.com.

This Is Your Brain on Yoga

BY ALEXANDRA PLANCARTE

De-stress with yoga straight from your office with Yogis On The Go. Dallas-Fort Worth’s first mobile yoga studio, Yogis On The Go, is transforming offices into tranquil yoga studios. Long-time enthusiasts and first-time yoga clients are enlisting the new business to make office calls.

Living the double life as a lawyer at Gray Reed & McGraw and founder of Yogis On The Go, Matt Sanderson finds the time to work and teach yoga. He started the innovative company in February, with a vision to relieve stress around the office. Three years ago, Sanderson was looking for something to supplement his daily fitness routine and found yoga. Within a year of yoga practice, he became a certified instructor.

Sanderson aims to bring yoga to as many people as he can, anywhere, anytime. Currently, Yogis On The Go offers classes anywhere within 60 miles of Dallas and Fort Worth with hopes of expanding to other cities like Houston and Austin.

The concept removes common fears and barriers that first-time students have by bringing the therapeutic classes to students

where they already feel most comfortable - on their own “turf.” “We try to make the students feel more comfortable because generally they are with their friends and coworkers or people that they already know,” Sanderson said.

In addition to the commonly known benefits people gain from yoga, improving flexibility and balance while helping with breathing and strengthening, yoga can provide many benefits for companies, large and small. It helps employees and executives mentally by pushing away any distractions or anxiety – allowing people to be more focused on their job.

“You are going to want yoga in your business because the more physically fit an individual is, the fewer health issues he or she is going to have,” Sanderson said. “Not only are the employees going to be healthier, but the company is going to spend less on insurance claims and health care coverage by providing health and wellness to its employees.”

Yogis On The Go also differs from standard yoga studios by tailoring each session to the individual clients. “We figure out what a student is hoping to accomplish, and we design our program around him or her,” Sanderson said.

The company has 15 to 20 certified instructors who are qualified and experienced in yoga. In each session, the yoga instructors bring a studio-quality sound system, equipment and yoga mats for each participant. Corporate sessions start at $150. Clients so far include a global commercial real estate company, Alto 211 and the Fort Worth Young Lawyers Association.

FIVE SCIENTIFIC WAYS YOGA WORKS YOUR BRAIN

During yoga, your levels of gammaamino butyric acid (GABA) increase significantly. GABA is a chemical associated with decreasing anxiety and improving moods. Researchers at Boston University conducted a 12-week study of individuals who did yoga for one hour, three times a week. They found that the level of GABA rose in the yogis by 27 percent.

You get more dopamine and serotonin by doing yoga. These chemicals help you feel more relaxed and handle the stresses that might pop up during a regular office day. The effect is similar to what one would gain from antidepressant and anti-anxiety drugs.

Yoga is renowned for stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system. This part of the brain calms you down and restores overall balance in your life.

Yoga can help lower the amount of cortisol, the hormone that appears when you’re stressed, in your brain. Cortisol activates the brain amygdala, also known as the fear center, and shrinks the pre-frontal cortex, which manages self-control and discipline.

Researchers at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that some parts of the brain literally grow in size. The somatosensory cortex, the mental map of your body; the hippocampus, the section that helps you squash stress and anxiety; the superior parietal cortex, which helps you concentrate your attention on specific things; the visual cortex; and the precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex, both of which help you create a concrete sense of self, were all larger in the heads of yogis.

When you do yoga on a regular basis, gyrification occurs in the cerebral cortex. The more this happens, the better your neural processing is. You process information quicker, make clearer decisions, and your memory is sharper.

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A Historic New Habitat

Two stories collide inside 210 East Eighth St. The story of Purple Land Management (as told by Jack Z. Smith in the Spring 2016 issue of FW Inc.) and the rich history of the Winfield Place building. As a side note: We don’t usually cover a company two issues in a row. But, when we saw the new Purple Land Management office space, we knew it was worthy of breaking the rules. It’s just that good.

Purple Land Management bought the historic Winfield Place building at the end of 2014 and has spent the last year retrofitting it into its dream headquarters.

Built in 1918, it was the first parking garage in downtown Fort Worth, built to accommodate what was planned as the Winfield Hotel and later opened as the Texas Hotel. In 1981, the building was converted into an office building for an engineering firm. Among all the changes, the building is perhaps most well known as the once home to nightclub/café/bar Embargo. The Cuban-themed club was forced to close after 80 years of business when Purple bought the building.

A gear from the building's original freight elevator was used to create the reception desk in the entry way.

BY KENDALL LOUIS / PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LEPE

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“The quality and value of the UT Arlington MBA program is undeniable. From the faculty and staff to the China experience, it was beyond all expectations. It was a great experience, I’d it for any professional seeking an

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Charlie Passantino Business

Director, Liphatech

Charlie Passantino Business Director, Liphatech

But, the ghost of Cuban sandwiches past can still be felt in the space that’s now home to a large first-floor cafeteria and lounge area for employees. Parks Pantry outfitted the space with a micro-market stocked with snack and lunch items. Employees are set up with an account so they can buy their provisions with just a thumbprint.

It’s that kind of history-meets-high-tech vibe that can be found throughout the building.

When co-founder Jesse Hejny met me (in purple socks, loafers and a purple button down), we immediately stepped into the conference room. It’s a sleek space with glass walls and a large flat screen. And then we started levitating. What looks like a conference room, set behind a large receptionist desk, is also a working freight elevator.

Hejny said they interviewed three different people, and the first two breezed by the elevator without giving it a second thought. Then, Michael Bennett of Bennett Benner Partners arrived. He said, “No, I think we should make that an elevator conference room,” Hejny recalled. “I said, What did you say? I said to him, that is the coolest idea I've ever heard. And then we hired him on the spot.” Henjy says the concept ultimately became the most expensive part of the project. While on the “elevator conference room,” as it’s been dubbed, your eyes are drawn to the glass walls that reveal the inner workings of the elevator shaft. “This is where you come when you really want to take an idea to the next level,” said Hejny. Look up and you’ll see exactly what he means. The logo for Overdrive, PLM’s new data management software system, covers the ceiling.

The moving conference room is just one of many gems among the 37,000-square-foot space. Muckleroy & Falls, the contractor on the project, also preserved the gears from the original freight elevator. One is used as a base for the coffee table in the waiting area, and another is incorporated into the receptionist desk.

The second floor of the Purple Land Management office sits mostly vacant, with a sea of empty purple-hued, shared workspaces surrounded by private offices. When the building is at capacity, the workspaces will be filled with petroleum landmen. It’s a sign of the future, but also a sign of current conditions for any oil and gas company. Hejny and Cortney designed the space for oil at its best and for

The building is outfitted with multiple communal areas.

Employees can gather for lunch or post-work drinks in the spacious cafeteria.

The Winfield Place freight elevator was converted into a fully functional elevator conference room.

Employees are encouraged to take the stairs, where floor signs mimic yard-line markers.

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the building to be 100 percent owner occupied. It can comfortably house more than 250 employees. Floor two also has odes to the past. The original parking spot numbers still grace the exposed concrete ceiling beams.

Each private office, located around the perimeters of floors two and three, mimics both the history of the building and the feel of the company with magnetic whiteboards, exposed brick walls and new interior windows that replicate the historic exterior windows.

“Brian’s style is more modern, and I’m more rustic so the designer tried to combine those elements throughout the building,” said Hejny.

Both owners were football players at TCU, and their common past can also be seen in the stairwells. The numbers identifying the floors look like yard-line markers on the football field. The stairs will eventually be outfitted with Purple Land Management branding and past marketing and press materials. The decorated space will encourage employees to take the stairs between the three floors in an effort to encourage health and wellness.

The grand tour ends in the executive suites on floor three. The area houses Hejny and Cortney’s offices. Cortney’s office is modern and sleek; Hejny’s is outfitted with his signature industrial style with brown leather chairs and a stand-up desk. The suite is also home to a small conference room, one admin and a luxurious executive bathroom. “There’s a story behind it,” Hejny said.

The story starts with their roots in an unassuming building where money and space were tight but dreams were big. The first Purple Land Management office was in an old building off of Hulen where the A/C was so unreliable it often blew hot air during summer months. Add to that, the elevators broke one summer day when clients were in the office, forcing them to walk up six flights of stairs. Finally, there were 100 landmen sharing one restroom. “We decided two things that day. Number one, we would eventually have our own building in our own office space. And, two, that we would have our own restroom,” Hejny said.

But, the biggest accomplishment might be the Millennial-friendly environment the building affords. While most energy companies stick to the basics, monotone colors and a corporate environment, the Purple Land Management founders have made company culture a priority from day one. The space they envisioned became a true reality during their first week in the building. Hejny says it was the second round of March Madness.

“They say the first two days of the tournament are two of the least productive workdays of the year. So we decided to embrace it instead of fight it,” said Hejny. “We ordered pizza and turned the TVs on. Everyone came down here and watched and played shuffle board,” he continued. “That’s when we realized we had actually created the culture we had dreamed of.”

Hejny's office contains nods to his days as a TCU football player.

Hejny never sits in a chair while he works, opting to use his stand-up desk or fitness ball.

Waterside developer Terry Montesi, beneath

a 150-year-old oak tree

in The Grove, a shaded outdoor dining deck

Where the Trail Meets the Trail

Development accelerates at Waterside, Clearfork developments with Chisholm Trail’s opening.

Terry Montesi is standing on the frame of a massive deck beneath a 150-year-old oak tree. Less than a nine iron away, REI, the major outdoor leisure retailer, is getting set in mid-May to open its first Fort Worth store on top of what used to be the big swimming pool at the Lockheed Martin Recreation Association. And over Montesi’s shoulder, Whole Foods is building its first Fort Worth grocery, Sur La Table, next to it.

The deck – to be entirely shaded by the one tree and another – will serve as the outdoor dining space for the passel of restaurants that are coming this summer.

Chef Marcus Paslay’s casual Italian joint –Piattello - and all-day coffee bar over here.

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA / PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LEPE

Taco Diner over there. Across a green, 380 apartments are under construction. The Trinity Trail will be extended west from Bryant Irvin Road, giving the development direct access to the river, and setting the stage for amenities like an amphitheater, riverfront green, watercourse, and kayaking. Office space and hotel rooms are on the board.

“The public space will probably be the second or third traffic generator,” Montesi says.

To say the opening is widely anticipated would be an understatement. Cyclists are already making their way off the Trinity Trail to circle the REI and inspect the ongoing construction at the 63-acre Wa-

terside, a project of Montesi’s Trademark Property Co. that’s going in on part of the former LMRA. REI opens first, May 13, and Whole Foods opens in September. A number of other stores and restaurants are scheduled to open by October.

Waterside is one of two major developments – the other being Cassco Development Co.’s 270-acre Clearfork fronting the Trinity – being driven by the new Chisholm Trail Parkway and oriented toward the river that are transforming the city’s interior through the corridor. At Clearfork, construction is underway on The Shops at Clearfork, a 578,000-square-foot retail, restaurant, movie, and office development to be anchored by a 90,000-square-foot

Restaurants, stores, apartments and green space encircle The Grove at Fort Worth's Waterside development.

Neiman Marcus store. Simon, the international retail developer, is Cassco’s partner in The Shops at Clearfork, due to open in February.

Neiman Marcus, which will move from Fort Worth’s Ridgmar Mall, is the only tenant announced so far for The Shops.

“The center will have a strong showing of first-to-market tenants that will complement the strong high-fashion and luxury mix,” Angelica Cofoid, a spokeswoman for Cassco, said in emailed responses to questions from FW Inc. “We look forward to announcing first-to-market retailers and restaurants in the coming months. We plan to announce tenants continuously until the center opens in 2017.” Cassco and Simon have signed on an operator for the luxury movieplex they announced in December 2014 at the same time as the Neiman Marcus, Cofoid said. It will feature a full restaurant and lounge and mark that company’s first location in Texas, she said.

ings of the current state of Forest Park, but the medical center is currently open and operational,” Cofoid said. “It is our understanding that there is interest from a few local hospitals in acquiring the property. The complex and its location are exemplary, and we are confident that the next operator will benefit from that.”

rants, “a collection of distinct, chef-driven restaurants with patio dining,” she said.

Cassco also is under construction on 5600 Main, a 180,000-square-foot, six-story office building due to open in September. Cassco and Streetlights Residential are building The Kelton at Clearfork, the first phase of multifamily living in Clearfork. Cofoid said 113 units are complete and 61 occupied. Another 218 are under construction, with 117 leases signed, she said. The project is due to be complete this summer.

Cassco has also opened the Heart of the Ranch rustic event venue on the river, the adjacent Trailhead with Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop, Press Café, Pedal Hard training center, and Trailhead Fitness outdoor recreational lawn that offers free yoga, bootcamp, cardio, strength, endurance and circuit training classes. The oldest part of the development is Clearfork West, home to the Acme Brick headquarters on the river at Bryant Irvin Road, and a mix of professional and medical offices. When fully built out, Clearfork will have 2 million square feet of office space, 1.2 million square feet of retail, and 2,500 multifamily units. The $180 million first phase, which Clearfork committed to under an incentive agreement with the city, includes 600,000 square feet of space – the retail and commercial are half of it, and the other half, the Kelton apartments. Besides more multifamily, subsequent phases could include a farmers market, hotel, and “a continuation of riverfront retail and offerings,” Cofoid said.

21st Century Transit-Oriented Development

The Shops at Clearfork will have 320,000 square feet of retail, 85,000 square feet of dining, the 45,000-square-foot cinema, and 128,000 square feet of Class A office space, Cofoid said. The retail will include local, regional and national luxury brands, she said. The dining will include 12 restau-

Cassco has no ownership interest in the land or building of the Forest Park Medical Center, Cofoid said. The group that owns the hospital is in bankruptcy. It’s the only piece of Clearfork that Cassco hasn’t retained an interest in, Cofoid said.

“We are not involved with any proceed-

The river has been a major focus of both developments. Montesi is fond of calling Waterside and another development Trademark is re-orienting toward the river in Fort Worth (the 10-acre WestBend at University Drive and the river trail) 21st century transit-oriented development. Typically, you’ll find such development, featuring higher density, mixed uses, walkability, and transportation choices, around

Chef Marcus Paslay, inside what will become his Piatello Italian restaurant at Waterside; anchor REI opens in May, and Whole Foods in September.

transit stations. There are no transit stations around Waterside or WestBend, but there’s the trail – more than 40 miles of spine connecting various parts of Fort Worth to downtown. Not that everybody will arrive by bike or on foot, but, broadly, consumers today are demanding more dense, pleasant, walkable spaces in the interiors of cities, Montesi says. “It’s truly a transit-oriented development, and the transit is the trail.”

Waterside represents Montesi’s first “conscious place” development, which incorporates the principles laid out in “Conscious Capitalism,” a book written by Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey. In it, Mackey posits that “many successful companies are actualizing their higher purposes to do good in the world,” benefitting the company and community. Conscious Capitalism is now a nonprofit that sponsors annual summits for CEOs. Several years ago, Montesi, who signed on as a Conscious Capitalism sponsor, visited Whole Foods co-founder Walter Robb and opened a dialogue about doing a Whole Foodsanchored development with Trademark

using the Conscious Capitalism tenets.

“He said, ‘Let’s find one to do,’ ” Montesi says. “It just so happened the first site we found was one in our backyard.”

The LMRA site was one Montesi says he’d watched for years, hearing LMRA might put it on the market, and then it became available. Montesi put it under contract and closed on it in 2014. The site’s mature trees, riverfront, other topographic features (one piece of it is on a small island), and history appealed. And Whole Foods was immediately drawn by the site, Montesi said. “They really like an artisan feel to their projects,” Montesi said. “They want something a little different. The site was so unique, being at the trail.”

“It’s truly a transit-oriented development, and the transit is the trail.”

– Terry Montesi,

Waterside

Focus Groups: Long on Ideas Montesi and Trademark, as they typically do, ran the development through a series of focus groups, gathering neighborhood leaders,

LMRA retirees, even TCU students. “We think your odds of success are much higher, because you’re probably going to prevent some mistakes,” Montesi says. “There’s a real emotional connection to that land.”

The focus groups weren’t short on ideas. Find good local tenants, not all national brands, they told Trademark. Save the trees and protect the site’s natural features, respect the history, figure out how to incorporate the riverfront, they said. “They didn’t want the back of a Home Depot 10 feet to the trail,” Montesi says. Some of the group participants suggested a food hall or market hall concept, “but we didn’t think it

Construction is ongoing at The Shops at Clearfork, anchored by a Neiman Marcus opening in February.

On Hold, No More

Riverfront West Bend development, its expansion halted during the recession, surges with new tenants and another 3.5 acres, and hotels or apartments and condos could be in store.

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA

TRADEMARK PROPERTY’S WESTBEND, at the Trinity River and University Drive, is one of Fort Worth’s hottest mixed-use developments. Several tenants opened recently in the 278,000-square-foot Fresh Market-anchored development, which includes the River Plaza office tower, and more are on the way. And if the site is a little too tucked-in off of University, developer Trademark Equity confirmed this spring it’s under contract to buy the 3.5-acre Hawthorn Suites site between WestBend and University.

“This is going to be a 450,000-600,000-squarefoot, mixed-use development here on 10 acres,” says Terry Montesi, Trademark’s CEO.

Trademark was moving on an expansion of WestBend, was building a parking garage, and had already announced retailers like Anthropolo-

WESTBEND TENANTS

• The Fresh Market

• Tyler’s

• Woodhouse Day Spa

• Pax & Parker

• CorePower Yoga

• Zoe’s Kitchen

• East Hampton Sandwich Co.

• Regus

• Silver Fox Steakhouse

• DryBar

TENANTS COMING:

• HG Sply Co.

gie when the recession hit in 2008. “We shut it down. We had an unfinished garage. But we had this building cash-flowing financially,” Montesi says of the River Plaza, where its offices are located.

Trademark picked up the project again and is completing the expansion this spring, welcoming Fresh Market in.

The expansion is adding about 93,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. About 35,000 square feet remains, Montesi said. The expansion is also adding 57,000 square feet of Class A office space on top of Fresh Market. “We’re working on three to four deals that will get us really close to full,” he said.

BEING ON THE TRINITY

TRAIL: What WestBend wants to be is a new, fresh, walkable, 21st century mixed-use project. We believe people want more dense, walkable spaces. The millennials we talk to say in the future, I’d like to ride my bike to work. In some ways, this is modern-day (transportation-oriented development). It’s people on bikes and jogging and walking.

THE HAWTHORN SITE GETS 1,200 FEET OF TRAIL FRONTAGE AND ACCESS TO THE BUDDING ROGERS ROAD

NEIGHBORHOOD WEST OF UNIVERSITY, VIA A PLANNED TRAFFIC SIGNAL AT COLLINSWORTH AND UNIVERSITY. WHAT ALL THAT MEANS: That gives us the ability to do one hotel, possibly two, possibly multi-family, condo, and to enlarge the retail footprint. There will be eight or 10 restaurants on this site ultimately. (WestBend has three today, with a fourth, HG Sply Co., coming this summer. Grimaldi’s, a pizza restaurant, had verified it was coming, but later backed out due to unexpected code issues related to being at the base of an office building.)

WHY THE HAWTHORN IS READY TO GO: The structure has outlived its useful life. It was no longer able to be competitive.

WHAT KINDS OF HOTELS WOULD WORK AT WESTBEND: At least select-service, near full-service. It would be the better hotels supporting the Convention Center, downtown. It would be the best place for TCU parents. We already have several hotels and brands interested. We have several multi-family developers interested.

WHEN THINGS WILL GET MOVING ON HAWTHORN SITE: Maybe spring 2017.

had enough mass,” Montesi says.

The TCU students wanted a place to hang out, play games, and have access to free Wi-Fi, shaded places to work, and parking, Montesi says. The students asked not to be run off the premises for hanging out. Trademark found no surprises among all of the responses, Montesi said. But “they emphasized some things we may not have emphasized,” like local and artisan tenants, he said.

In response to the suggestions, Trademark first created “The Grove,” the shaded interior public space dominated by two big trees. “Saving the trees is a unique opportunity to create a vibe,” Montesi says. “The whole project is built around those two trees.” Trademark also created space around the Grove for a series of “micro restaurants,” small 600-800-square-foot spaces with affordable rents, central restrooms and the common outdoor seating. Paslay’s coffee bar, which will be attached to his 5,300-square-foot Italian restaurant, is the first of the micro concepts. “We’ve invested some of our very best real estate in it,” Montesi says.

Paslay, who opened his Clay Pigeon restaurant in 2013 in Fort Worth to acclaim, was interested in opening a casual Italian restaurant when Montesi, a regular at Clay Pigeon, pitched him on Waterside.

“I wanted to do Italian before I did this restaurant,” Paslay said one afternoon at the Clay Pigeon. Casual Italian is underserved in Fort Worth, he says. Piattello will open in October, featuring a wood-burning oven, pizza and pasta, and a “large bar and coffee component.” The coffee bar will be part of the restaurant and the micro restaurant area. “It’s going to be very approachable,” he said of the menu, which will price pizzas at $12-$15, appetizers at $6-$10, and entrees for $20. “You can come and get a beer and pizza for under $20.”

Besides the Grove, other “conscious place” features include a shaded “community promotion shed” in the common area that groups can rent for free and use to promote themselves. Girl Scout troops, for one, could sell cookies from it. “We put

that in the highest traffic spot in the center,” Montesi says. Trademark has hired an “innovation specialist” for Waterside responsible in part for coordinating the groups that want to rent the pavilion.

The common area will include space for games like bocce ball and a children’s play area. Trademark has built a big cistern for collecting rainwater and irrigating landscape. Trademark plans a solar phone and tablet charging station, charging station in the parking lot for electricpowered vehicles, and recycling stations.

The Tarrant Regional Water District will pay to extend a soft trail, which today runs along the south side of the Trinity and stops on the east side of the bridge at Bryant Irvin, underneath Bryant Irvin and into the development. J.D. Granger, executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority, plans to present the project to his board in May. With approval, it’s possible the trail could be done by the end of summer, Granger said in an interview.

Fort Worth has long turned its back on the river, notes Granger, who advocated for the contruction of a restaurant (ultimately Tim Love’s Woodshed Smokehouse) at Riverfront Drive and Rogers Road.

Development on the river since the Woodshed’s opening “has just hit every mark” since, including Waterside, Clearfork, and Panther Island (the renamed TRVA project), Granger says. TRWD will pay to extend the trail all the way from Waterside to the water crossing at Southwest Boulevard during a future second phase, but those plans aren’t clear yet, Granger said. With the river access, Trademark will add multiple amenities, including a bike repair and air station, chilled water station

for refillable bottles, bridge connecting the main piece of the development to an island that was part of the LMRA property, canoeing, paddle boarding, urban garden, riverfront greenbelt, and riverfront amphitheater.

“We look forward to announcing first-tomarket retailers and restaurants in the coming months.”

– Angelica Cofoid, Clearfork

Trademark is having the Austin artist Bob Wade, who produced the big pair of cowboy boots that frame the entry to the North Star Mall in San Antonio, reuse old equipment from the playground on the LMRA site for public art that will be installed around the development. Wade also is putting up murals using vintage black and white photographs from LMRA’s history, which dates to the 1950s,

and hand-tinting them.

The entire project includes 175,000-200,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, all underway, 20 acres and 800 units of apartments and townhomes, 200,000 square feet of office, and a signature hotel site. Trademark estimated the total project cost at $185 million in 2014, excluding land, in receiving a city incentive package to help pay for the roads, bridge, and utilities.

The second phase of the project includes a hotel and second multi-family site, both on the island on the west side of the property that’s separated from the main piece of the development by a creek, Montesi said. The bridge is planned to link the two sides of the development. The planned third phase close to the riverfront includes office space, another hotel, and creekside restaurants.

“Once the Grove is open and the trailhead is open, people will see how incredible a piece of the project that is,” Montesi said of the final phase.

Clearfork's master plan (above) and views of the Trinity River and West Bend on the horizon

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The Budding Business of Texas Pot

Business, investors get ready to apply for first medicinal cannabis licenses in Texas.

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA / PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LEPE

How’s this for a conundrum– or opportunity: The Texas Department of Public Safety must license a minimum three medicinal marijuana dispensaries somewhere in the state by September 2017. The DPS figures to receive far more applications for those licenses, which will authorize growing and processing of marijuana and sale of medications containing a compound found in it for the treatment

of intractable epilepsy, a disorder characterized by severe, uncontrollable seizures diagnosed in 150,000 Texans. “Upwards of 40” applications, estimates a 2-year-old Texas industry association.

Intractable epilepsy is a small market, narrowed further by patients who are taking other medications. But anybody seeking licenses at this point also hopes the Texas Legislature eventually will broaden the medical program to include disorders and diseases like PTSD in veterans, multiple sclerosis, and cancer. That’s a bet, given the conservative state, even if the Legislature surprised many last year by approving medicinal use for epilepsy.

“Most people are looking at me like I’m nuts,” acknowledges Patrick Moran, an

entrepreneur who’s leading a partnership that plans to seek a license for a $4.5 million growing, processing, and dispensary operation on the site of an old cotton gin it has under contract to buy in Gunter, near Sherman.

Moran is a principal in AcquiFlow, a McKinney company that has a seed research operation in Kentucky and produce farm in Virginia that sells basil and lettuce to grocery stores. The company set those operations up to prove technical and industrial-scale expertise, key parts of the Texas application for growers, processers and sellers. AcquiFlow has set up its Texas Cannabis business unit to handle operations in the state.

“If all we have is intractable epilepsy, I

can still fall back on the very reliable business with the grocery stores; I am not dependent on Texas Cannabis,” Moran said in a recent interview at a McKinney Starbucks. But he views an expanded medical program as very likely in the future, given national trends. Texas presents a huge target for the industry; Colorado has a total 107,067 active patients in its broad medical marijuana program.

Several bills are expected to be proposed in the 2017 Texas Legislature that provide funds for research, expand the medical program, increase the cap on medications’ so-called THC (the psychoactive ingredient that causes marijuana’s “high”), and approve recreational use.

The 2015 legislation allowed low-THC medications containing no more than .5 percent THC, and no less than 10 percent CBD, or cannabidiol, a non-euphoric component that’s been found to help reduce

epileptic seizures. A research bill in the 2017 Legislature may have the most support, given the dearth of research into the effects of cannabis use on diseases, disorders and other medical conditions.

“My hope is that we’ll at least be able to expand into PTSD,” a substantially larger market than intractable epilepsy, Moran said.

Businesses, investors jockey Last year’s legislation requires the DPS, the agency charged with administering the medicinal cannabis program, to issue licenses to a minimum three dispensaries in the state by September 2017, defining dispensary as one licensed to grow, process and sell. The DPS is out to bid for a vendor that will build an online system containing a state database of physicians who treat epilepsy and patients who are diagnosed with its intractable form. Physicians would prescribe the cannabis-based medications through the system.

The DPS says it expects to award the contract this summer and begin taking applications for licenses when the vendor completes the system, which industry people say they expect early next year. The DPS says it expects to issue the first license by June 2017.

In the meantime, investors and businesses are positioning themselves to be in the early round of applications. Kayla Brown, executive director of the Texas Cannabis Industry Association, an organization she founded in October 2014 with Moran, has been helping potential applicants through a business incubator the association is

running. Based on that traffic, Brown said she expects “upwards of 40” applicants statewide next year. The businesses in the incubator are all small, Brown said, characterizing them as “mom and pops” and some retired businesspeople.

MedCan, a Dallas firm that’s been running seminars for prospective applicants and consulting with them on business plans, estimates it will help as many as 20 applicants file for licenses in the Fort Worth area, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Tyler and Wichita Falls, Henry Levinski, the firm’s vice president of operations, said in an interview. MedCan wants to foster a network of dispensaries in Texas, Levinski said. “Ninety-five percent are qualified,” he said of the firm’s clients.

One of the industry’s prominent, established players, the Stanley Brothers, whose Colorado-based CW Botanicals produces the popular Charlotte’s Web line of popular medicinal hemp-based products and has been a key driver of industry pricing, is talking to potential partners about entering Texas, Joel Stanley, the company’s CEO, said in an interview.

“I wouldn’t say 40 licenses is what they’re going to grant, but it’s not going to be five,” Brown said.

It’s not clear how many licenses the DPS will award. The legislation left market decisions to the agency, setting no cap on the number of licenses it can grant. The legislation – and associated set of recently issued regulations by the DPS –don’t require a licensee to perform all three growing, processing and retailing functions that will be authorized by each license, and don’t address geography or other questions raised by the industry, including whether dispensaries can sell to each other or by mail order. A DPS spokesman said “it’s early on,” when asked by FW Inc. for clarification on these questions.

The DPS says on its website that “because there is no statuatory limitation on the number of potential licenses, the state is not involved in competitively evaluating the applicants.” It also says, “the holder of a dispensing license may perform any one or all of the regulated functions…In conjunction with the absence of limitation on the number of licenses, this creates the potential for a diverse market consisting of various organizations of various sizes.”

State Rep. Stephanie Klick, R-Fort Worth, House sponsor of the 2015 legislation, said in an interview that the Legislature left key aspects open “so we could put into place the best approach.”

The legislation bars cities from blocking entry by licensees, but cities are expected to use zoning ordinances to regulate location. MedCan is advising its clients to stick to locations on city outskirts, so they don’t invite complicated zoning challenges, Levinski said. That includes Fort Worth, where MedCan has at least one client that is interested in applying for a license outside the city limits, Levinski said. Fort Worth’s development director, Randle Harwood, says the city has not yet looked into its zoning ordinances with regard to cannabis businesses.

“We need more research. Is that something we could do, and, if so, what would that look like?”

State Rep. Stephanie Klick, R-Fort Worth

But writing tight zoning restrictions could get tricky. Klick said she thinks it’s possible some children’s hospitals could apply to be dispensaries. (A spokeswoman for Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth said the topic hasn’t come up.)

Klick, at the invitation of Moran, recently appeared at a community meeting in Gunter to explain the 2015 legislation. Dispensaries won’t be a greater risk “than any other business that’s going to operate within a mile of a school,” Klick says, adding, “a lot of people don’t understand how sick these kids are.”

It was Klick’s friendship with a constituent, she says, that provided key moments

Frank Snyder, a professor at the Texas A&M Law School in Fort Worth, has become expert in marijuana business law. Photo courtesy of Frank Snyder

in her thinking about the 2015 legislation. Several cannabis bills were proposed in the 2015 Legislature, including ones that legalized recreational use; the epilepsy bill was the last standing. Even it was narrower in its original form, proposing only that nonprofits be authorized to grow, process, and sell.

Klick met with a longtime friend and constituent whose granddaughter has intractable epilepsy. Klick, a nurse, interviewed the girl’s neurologist and dove into research, concluding non-euphoric medicinal cannabis could be allowed with little risk of abuse.

Legs in the Leg: Research? The next Legislature is expected to face a raft of cannabis bills again. The Texas industry association says it will support measures to provide funds for research, add PTSD as a permissible medical condition, and raise the allowable THC content in medications.

Klick says she wants to take a look at a research bill into the efficacy of cannabisbased drugs in treating medical conditions. The federal government’s continued classification of marijuana as an illegal Class 1 drug has kept a lid on U.S. research; the government funds research in Israel. Some Texas research is underway, including at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth, but the Legislature doesn’t have enough data, Klick said.

“We need more research,” Klick said. “Is that something we could do, and if so, what would that look like?” Other bills will probably stall in the next Legislature, she said. “I quite frankly don’t think there’s enough votes to pass anything broader at this time.”

Klick took immense flack in the 2015 Legislature – not from opponents of cannabis bills, but from proponents who wanted much broader legislation, including recreational use. Klick indicated supporters of recreational use aren’t advancing their cause in the Legislature. “In some ways, I think they’ve harmed their efforts,” she said.

Some are questioning whether physicians will be willing to prescribe cannabis-

Texas Cannabis FAQs

The Texas Legislature in 2015 passed a law that allows physicians to prescribe low-THC cannabis-based medications to patients of intractable epilepsy.

TEXAS

COMPASSIONATE USE ACT:

Signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, June 1, 2015, it requires the Department of Public Safety to create a secure registry of physicians who treat epilepsy and of patients diagnosed with intractable epilepsy, and license at three dispensing organizations in Texas by Sept. 1, 2017.

INTRACTABLE EPILEPSY: Disorder in which at least two other appropriate drugs have failed to control a patient’s seizures; estimated 150,000 Texans have it.

MEDICATION:

Non-euphoric, can’t be more than 0.5 percent by weight of THC – the chemical that in higher quantity causes psychoactive “high” – and not less than 10 percent CBD, or cannabidiol, shown in trials to reduce seizures. Ingestion must be by other than smoking.

ONLINE SYSTEM: DPS is out to bid for development of an online system that

will run the program, and says it expects to award the contract in June.

DISPENSING

LICENSES: Applications will open after the vendor builds the system; industry people say they expect applications to open early next year. The DPS says it expects to issue the first license by June 2017.

WHAT THE LICENSES

WILL PERMIT: Cultivation, processing and sale of low-THC cannabis for the one medicinal use. The legislation and regs don’t require licensees to perform all three functions, and the DPS hasn’t said whether it will initially favor “vertically integrated” business plans.

GEOGRAPHY: The legislation doesn’t require dispensary licenses to be distributed by geography, and the DPS hasn’t addressed the question.

MAIL ORDER: The legislation and regs don’t say whether

dispensing organizations can sell to other dispensing organizations, or by mail order, and the DPS hasn’t addressed the question.

NO CAPS ON LICENSES: The legislation doesn’t cap the number of licenses the DPS can issue, and the DPS hasn’t addressed this question.

WHAT CAN CITIES DO: The legislation bars municipalities from blocking licensees, but cities are expected to use zoning to regulate location.

LICENSE APPLICATION FEE: $6,000.

WHAT APPLICATIONS MUST SHOW:

Identities of directors, managers and employees; proof of capability to cultivate, process, and dispense; detailed operating information; detailed accountability for raw materials, finished products, and byproducts; and two years’ operating capital.

CRIMINAL HISTORY:

Under the DPS regs, directors, managers or employees will be

disqualified for felony and Class A and B misdemeanor convictions of several offenses (10 years since conviction for felonies, five years on misdemeanors): Bribery, burglary, criminal trespass, fraud, perjury, robbery, theft, organized crime, violations of the Texas Controlled Substance, Simulated Controlled Substances, or Dangerous Drugs portions of the Texas Health and Safety Code, attempts to commit these crimes, aiding and abetting in commission, or accessory. Convictions of other crimes may be disqualifiers.

Sources: Texas Compassionate Use Act, Senate Bill 339; Texas DPS Administrative Rules for program

based medications under Texas law, given marijuana’s federal status (the Obama Administration has said it won’t prosecute federally what’s legal under state drug laws, but Obama’s successor in the White House could change that stance.).

Heather Fazio, Texas political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, which wants to eliminate criminal penalties for personal marijuana use and allow medicinal use, wants the Texas law changed to allow physicians to make recommendations rather than prescribe.

“We want to make sure doctors feel protected,” she said. Klick said the Legislature vetted that question with physicians, who didn’t view it as a problem. Moran is also critical of that idea, saying, “It opens up the door to Venice Beach, Calif., where anybody that was able to get a license can prescribe marijuana.”

New Cannabis Experts: Aggie Lawyers Frank Snyder, a professor at the Texas A&M University Law School in Fort Worth, is one who thinks cannabis proponents should heap praise on Klick, not hammer her. “She caught 47 kinds of hell for this bill,” Snyder said.

Snyder, a business lawyer who’s been at A&M and its predecessor Texas Wesleyan School of Law since 2000, has been at the lead of making A&M’s school one of the few experts in the country at cannabis law, joining others at Ohio State University, University of Denver, Vanderbilt University, and Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.

ness. Initially slated for 16 students, it was oversubscribed by third-year students who wouldn’t have another opportunity to take it, so Snyder increased the cap to 20. He plans to offer the same course this fall. The law school, through various clinics it offers, has also helped a number of cannabis businesses with advice, Snyder said.

One of Snyder’s charges is the TCIA’s Kayla Brown, a third-year student this year who has agreed to enter Moran’s Texas Cannabis as a minority equity owner and counsel once she passes the state bar. Brown’s road into cannabis law was circuitous, starting as a pre-med major at Baylor University. She later switched to the law, entered Texas Wesleyan, and was studying for her first finals in Fort Worth in 2013 when she got busted for marijuana possession in Hillsboro. “I got arraigned by a judge who took pity on me and let me out of jail so I could take my final,” says Brown, 22, a Coloradan who reached agreement with prosecutors under which the charges were dropped, but she had to notify the law school.

Brown later met Moran at a conference in Houston. Together, they launched the Texas industry association in October 2014, lobbying for the epilepsy bill last year. Brown launched the first law school chapter in Texas of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the only law school chapter of NORML, a nonprofit working to legalize marijuana.

“I wouldn’t say 40 licenses is going to be what they grant, but it’s not going to be five.”

“I had no interest until it was legalized in Colorado in 2014,” says Snyder, a Republican who describes himself as “kind of agnostic” on marijuana. “I do think if it’s going to be legal, people ought to be able to understand the rules.”

Kayla Brown, Texas Cannabis Industry Association

Last fall, Snyder offered a seminar course on marijuana law, industry and busi-

Brown has also been involved with a group of A&M law students who, she said, are contemplating launching a cannabis-only law firm. It would cover the gamut of issues facing cannabis entrepreneurs and investors, including trademarks, patent litigation, business and corporate law, family law in cases where participation in the industry could pop up in divorce cases, and policy and compliance including patient privacy, Brown said.

Where previously “there wasn’t a place

for business lawyers” in marijuana, now there is, Snyder says. “This has never happened in the United States before. We’ve tried to start this regulated industry from scratch.”

The TCIA in the next Legislature will back bills for research, PTSD, and increasing THC content, but no more, Brown and Moran said. Assuming a research bill passes, that will put the industry on better footing to argue for an expanded program in the 2019 Legislature, Brown said. “In 2019, we have Texas-based research to stand on,” she said.

TCIA’s incubator, which charges $139 per month to participate, provides access to mentors from the organization’s board, a business plan template, monthly calls with an accredited investor, regulatory analysis, and monthly networking socials. It’s graduated four businesses, meaning they’ve sought funding or the “business is sufficient enough to stand on its own,” Brown says, and has another 25 active in the incubator. “They’re all getting ready to apply for licenses with the state,” Brown said.

TCIA estimates 10-15 percent of license applicants will propose to grow, cultivate, and dispense, more than 30 percent want to cultivate only, and more than 30 percent want to dispense only. “Less than 10 percent want to manufacture,” or process, the most difficult and expensive segment, Brown said.

At Texas Cannabis, Moran says his firm plans to perform all three functions chiefly for the predictability. “At this stage, there’s no way to depend on anybody else,” he said.

Moran, a Texan who graduated law school and went into the entertainment business in California, later returned to Texas after his parents died. He worked more than two years as a department head for a large creditors rights firm, handling evictions, and built up a nest egg he used to invest in real estate. Moran, who says he was prescribed cannabis for a disorder while in California, finally connected to an accredited investor interested in Texas cannabis.

“It just fit,” Moran says. “I knew the value

of it as medicine. There’s a lot of easier ways to make money. But it was clear to me (Texas) prohibition was coming to an end.” And his core beliefs include “apolitical capitalism and the Lord’s call to compassion,” he said. “That was it.”

Moran said his firm is still raising the $4.5 million in startup capital, which includes money for the real estate purchase and two years’ operating capital. Two investors are on board for the purchase of the property, Moran said, adding he has another “two that could close the deal and are doing due diligence.”

Cannabis Profits Tighten, Still Good

Even before Texas opens to the cannabis industry, the economics of the business have tightened up, with efficiencies and better pricing driven by the Stanley Brothers, Moran says. He estimates it will cost 3-4 cents per milligram of the epilepsy medication to produce, and that he can sell it for 5 to 5.5 cents per milligram. At those numbers, the Texas intractable epilepsy market approaches $900 million a year in revenue, Moran said, assuming a dosage of 300 milligrams per day per patient, an amount that would vary by several factors, including a patient’s weight. PTSD would be a substantially larger market, he said.

Unit expenses will likely fall over time, with greater volume, Moran said. But the other numbers come with caveats. He expects prices to fall. And the Epilepsy Foundation expects only 40,000 of Texas’

150,000 intractable epilepsy patients to be treated long-term at the current THC and CBD ratios, he said. If the Legislature raises the permissible THC content, that will allow the drugs to treat more epilepsy patients, Moran said.

The tighter margins on the epilepsy drug still represent “a nice return, but volume is becoming increasingly important,” Moran says.

The intractable epilepsy market for the new Texas medication will likely be dented by patients who are taking other medicines. “A lot of people that are diagnosed with intractable epilepsy may have some sort of seizure control with another drug,” Stanley, the Stanley Brothers CEO, says. Stanley Brothers’ CW Botanicals already legally ships its Charlotte’s Web medications nationally, without prescription, including into Texas, that meet the federal requirements of no more than 0.3 percent by weight of THC. Stanley Brothers’ pricing is about 5 cents per milligram, but the average daily dosage on its medications is 150 to 200 milligrams.

Stanley said his company doesn’t view Texas as holding high promise until the state expands its medical program. “We just don’t see it being that large a moneymaker until it’s expanded,” he said.

But the company is interested. “As far as Texas, we’re going to be interested to see who is going to apply,” Stanley said. “We’re interested in potentially partnering with one group or maybe more than

one group in Texas. The beauty is you can set up one or two dispensaries and serve the entire state by partnering with other dispensaries.” On this last point, Stanley acknowledged the DPS regulations aren’t “entirely clear.”

Texas’ cannabis is laden with other risks and barriers to entry. Because marijuana’s classification as an illegal drug, people in the business have found it virtually impossible to establish and maintain traditional banking relationships. Large dispensaries will be pushing Texas to allow them to supply other dispensaries and sell by mail order, putting pressure on smaller players. Texas’ regulations for applications require detailed information on directors, managers and employees for criminal background check; projected operations, including locations; technical and technological capabilities; plan for maintaining accountability over raw materials, finished product, and byproducts; security; and two years’ operating capital.

“Assuming you get a couple of wellcapitalized groups in early, that may discourage others from filing” applications, Snyder, the Texas A&M law professor, said.

Undercapitalized players may find it difficult to gain traction, at least early on, industry people say. At MedCan, the Dallas consulting firm, Levinski says the firm has spoken to numerous small entrepreneurs who don’t have the capital. “We’ve talked to people who are willing to mortgage their house to come up with the money,” Levinski said. “We don’t want that.”

At a recent two-day industry expo at the Fort Worth Convention Center, Brett Roper, CEO of the consulting firm Medicine Man Technologies, told the audience, many of whom shot up their hands when asked if they were interested in applying for licenses, “I’m telling people $5 to $6 million would not be unreasonable to just get a toehold in the marketplace. It’s a restricted market. It’s fraught with risk. If you submit an application with $5 or $6 million in capital, plan on not getting noticed.”

Kayla Brown, executive director, Texas Cannabis Industry Association, and Texas A&M law student, with cannabis investor Patrick Moran

Charged and Ready to Glow

Five years into their rechargeable lamp business, the founders of Fort Worth’s Modern Lantern contemplate a major step.

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA / PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LEPE

The idea came to Carrie Fitzwater, an interior design consultant, at the moment she was working on a multi-million-dollar home in Southlake. She wanted to put a lamp in the middle of a room and couldn’t find the floor plugs. “The clients looked at me and said, ‘We don’t have floor plugs,’ ” she says. NO-GO OPTIONS: Digging up the floor and running a cord across the room. Third choice, which is what happened: Putting a vase in the spot where the lamp would have been. “I had to leave the job without being able to solve this problem for my clients,” Fitzwater says. Thus was born the idea for Modern Lantern, a lamp powered by a rechargeable battery in the base. Want light in the middle of a room and there’s no plug? On the porch or patio? No problem.

Turning her husband, Stephen - a product design specialist who’d spent years tromping around Asia for Pier 1 Imports and The Bombay Co. and was on one of those trips in Vietnam when Bombay folded its tent - onto the idea took a little longer than its inspiration.

Was he skeptical? “Completely skeptical,” Stephen Fitzwater says. Was a rechargeable lamp marketable? he worried. What about the power source? And how much money would it take to bring to market? What was clear: They found no competition. This was just after the 2008 recession, and “home furnishings was hit hard,” Carrie Fitzwater says. “A lot of companies just weren’t investing in new technology. We knew pretty early on there was nothing else like this in the market.”

After a half year of talking and research, Stephen Fitzwater relented and Modern Lantern was born. There was scant available technology on the market for batteries, chargers and bulbs at the

time, so they improvised. The couple developed a prototype – a lamp, with the rechargeable 12-volt battery of a DeWalt electric drill “shoved up in the base until we could figure it out,” all ducttaped together – and the Fitzwaters set off for China with the contraption in a suitcase. There, in a Southern Chinese factory he was familiar with, Fitzwater found an amenable manufacturer.

Another six months later, in January 2012, the Fitzwaters took possession of their first container of lamps – 600, made of metal, in six styles – shipped into the Port of Los Angeles and transported by train to Haslet. Today, the Fitzwaters are approaching a major milestone: Modern Lantern’s first $1 million in sales. Sales of the metal lamps, which average $350 apiece, are growing 25-30 percent a year, the couple reports. They have a key patent in hand and two more pending. The business has grown enough to support an intern and part-time warehouse worker.

The Fitzwaters have been able to sustain operations for the last

Modern Lantern co-founders

Stephen and Carrie Fitzwater, at the Fort Worth Water Gardens

three years off of a $40,000 loan they took from retirement funds. A new product – an outdoor table lamp – came in on the latest container in late April. The couple has designs on new products, including entry-priced lamps and a do-it-yourself kit that converts conventional lamps to rechargeable. And the Fitzwaters, who’ve sold their products only from the company’s website, modernlantern.com, are interested in entering new markets: sales to restaurants and hotels, direct freight to stores, and the licensing of their technology and patented design to retailers that want to sell proprietary rechargeable lamps.

All of this requiring capital, the Fitzwaters, both 45 and sole owners of Modern Lantern, are preparing to take the major step of offering equity in the company to angel investors. “We think the product is ready, we’re ready,” Stephen Fitzwater says. Their initial thinking: Seeking a $250,000 investment. How much of the company does that get? “We’re expecting 20 percent,” Fitzwater says. “We don’t know what they’re going to expect.”

“They’re sponges” Hayden Blackburn, director of Idea Works, the South Side Fort Worth small business incubator the Fitzwaters joined in August 2014 and have based their small offices from since then, says the couple’s story has been inspiring to other entrepreneurs.

“It’s a husband-and-wife team of creatives,” says Blackburn, whose incubator hosts companies that currently have a total 80 employees and $5 million in annual sales. “They’re sponges. They are really ready to hear from multiple sources on what could help them. You don’t have to get an undergraduate degree in business or finance to launch something and make it happen.”

trying to work together,” Blackburn says. “They’re not competing for that deal.”

The panel’s feedback to the Fitzwaters after their practice session was simple. “Don’t feel bad to show the passion you have for it,” Blackburn says. “Something you eat, sleep and breathe for several years is going to roll off the tongue.”

No salary, no problem The Fitzwaters have also set themselves up financially for their next big push in the company. The couple lives off of the pay that Carrie Fitzwater gets from her gigs as an interior design consultant. Stephen Fitzwater still does freelance business branding jobs, but focuses on the lantern business. All Modern Lantern sales go back into inventory. “Not really,” Carrie Fitzwater says, when asked if they draw salary from the business.

MODERN LANTERN

HEADQUARTERS: Fort Worth, Idea Works incubator

OWNERS: Carrie and Stephen Fitzwater

WHAT THEY DO: Make and sell rechargeable batterypowered lamps

With their two children in college, the couple last summer sold their home of six years in the popular Fairmount neighborhood on the Near Southside, netting $100,000, buying a home for cash and fixing it up in the East Side’s Meadowbrook neighborhood, and paying down other debt. The Fairmount home was the couple’s seventh to fix up and sell, an array Stephen Fitzwater calls their “one-third job.”

FOUNDED: 2011

SALES: 3,000 lamps, set to surpass $1 million lifetime sales this year

MILESTONE: Preparing to seek outside investors

And of the Fitzwaters’ conclusion they’re ready to seek investors: “It’s a huge step for all entrepreneurs, understanding the stage they fit in,” Blackburn says. The Fitzwaters have the manufacturing capacity to turn high volume, “but it’s having the capital to do it” that they need, Blackburn says.

The Fitzwaters, who moved out of offices in their home when they took the space at Idea Works, have been in training at the incubator. They participated twice in the annual business plan competition at the neighboring Fort Worth Business Assistance Center. And most recently, they put themselves through a practice session on pitching themselves to investors. The panel: Blackburn, a marketing and public relations expert, two bankers, and an avid watcher of ABC’s popular “Shark Tank” TV series. The “Shark Tank” watcher can help with the realities of pitch-making. Unlike the TV show, where investors like Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, “Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary, and tech entrepreneur and ex-“Dancing With the Stars” contestant Robert Herjavec frequently try to cut each other down, angel investors “are often

“Our boys are in college, and we needed money,” Carrie Fitzwater says, straight-forwardly, of moving from the Near Southside, where property values and taxes have raged in recent years to the consternation of community leaders and business people who worry about pricing the Bohemians out. “We’re willing to sacrifice that. It’s a zip code. You do what you have to do.” Says Stephen Fitzwater: “We needed to not entertain a part-time job for either of us.”

The Fitzwaters, who have dated each other since they were 17, were set up to enter the lamp business through their educational and professional backgrounds. Carrie Fitzwater grew up in Duncanville – her father has owned a mobile auto trim business for 30 years, doing detail work, reupholstering seats and replacing convertible tops - and studied interior design at El Centro College in Dallas, leaving school to become a stay-at-home mom when the couple had their first baby. She later founded a design company in Dallas, then moved to Fort Worth to work for Ethan Allen. Stephen Fitzwater grew up in DeSoto, his mother a teacher and father a geologist and early programmer for Exxon Mobil. Fitzwater earned a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Texas and went to work for Fossil watches, Pier 1, and The Bombay Co., where he helped launch Bombay Kids. After Bombay folded, Fitzwater started his own business branding company and still freelances from it. Besides design and quality control, from his background, Fitzwater knows packaging and labelling requirements and graphic design. “We save a lot of money doing the

branding and labelling and packaging and product design,” he says.

The couple had lived in Fort Worth for 12 years and were thinking of moving to Dallas for the opportunity, but nobody in the family wanted to move. “Our sons didn’t want to move,” Carrie Fitzwater says. “We didn’t want to move.” Says Stephen: “That’s when Carrie had this idea about a crazy lighting solution.”

“Crazy lighting solution” Crazy might not have been too far off a characterization. To understand the state of the technology then, the Fitzwaters’ son Mason, then age 12 and in sixth grade eight years ago, built a science project to see if he could light an incandescent bulb with a car battery. It didn’t work.

When Carrie Fitzwater came up with the idea for portable lanterns, the couple began scouring the Internet, looking for competitors and batteries. They found batteries, but not many. “They were in the novelty lamps and camping,” Carrie Fitzwater says.

set Carrie Fitzwater off today, tell her “it takes money to make money.” “I hate it,” she says.

Bulbs were another problem. They already knew incandescent bulbs wouldn’t work. The color values in LEDs were troublesome. “When LEDs first came out, they were blue,” Carrie Fitzwater says. The couple soon found bulbs that were being sold to the recreational vehicle market. “We got lucky,” Stephen Fitzwater says.

Since they launched the business, the bulb, battery, and charger technology has improved, and they’ve developed a proprietary battery, with a 20-hour life. Their original idea was for a lamp that had to be recharged by power cord, but they switched that to a removable battery so the lamp could stay in its place during charging.

Initial startup capital was $60,000, which they got in two $30,000 loans from both pairs of parents. “We’ve been working on paying them back,” Stephen Fitzwater says. They took out a $30,000 Small Business Administration loan and have whittled that to $19,000. They raised more than $12,000 in a Kickstarter campaign in 2013 to upgrade a mold. And the $40,000 “line of credit” for operations they took from retirement funds has been able to sustain itself from revenue. “For three years, [we] have used the $40,000 in retirement funds to keep going,” Carrie Fitzwater says.

The couple approached banks early on, but learned “banks don’t want lamps as collateral,” Stephen Fitzwater says. “Who knew?” his wife jokes. The banks told the couple to visit venture capital groups, which they did. “They told us to come back when you’re making millions,” Carrie Fitzwater says. In fact, if you want to

Serendipity in a botched job The couple’s first patent – they applied for the provisional patent through LegalZoom and the formal patent through an attorney – is a utility patent that covers how the lamp is coupled with the parts in the base. “As long as somebody has a battery in the base, they’re infringing upon our patent,” Carrie Fitzwater says. They have another two design patents pending, and their Chinese lampmaker has filed a patent in the prickly Chinese market, where theft of intellectual property is rampant.

Modern Lantern works with four Chinese factories today, importing the bulbs, batteries, chargers, and lamps, and negotiating lower minimum volumes. Their lampmaker, for one, has agreed to do orders of a minimum 75 per style, “but he would prefer us to do 150-200,” Carrie Fitzwater says.

Serendipity intervened. Modern Lantern’s first lamp manufacturer did well on its first container, but botched the second, an order of 100 lamps, prompting the Fitzwaters to replace their Chinese lamp factory. The fiasco also forced them to find a way to salvage the parts from the botched job.

That brought them into a relationship with John Scales’ Stoneware Design of Dallas; a representative had contacted the Fitzwaters to introduce them to Stoneware as a potential U.S. manufacturing option. Scales helped the Fitzwaters salvage their lamp parts, and they took him on three years ago to produce ceramic lamps. Stoneware’s Bartlett lamp, which features a crackle glaze that comes in six colors, is one of the company’s bestsellers

Modern Lantern's new Havana Outdoor lamp has a woven poly rattan body on a metal base.

today. The other two bestsellers are the metal Baluster, a traditional-turned-metal piece; and Clove Table, a Moroccan-styled metal lamp that can be used on a table or buffet. To date, Modern Lantern has sold about 3,000 lamps, including 500 made by Stoneware, the Fitzwaters say.

Sales have dramatically ramped up, the Fitzwaters say. They’ve so far taken two 40-foot containers and four 20-foot containers. Their first container – one of the big ones - took a year to sell.

“That was with zero marketing dollars, so we were behind the eight ball,” Stephen Fitzwater says. The Fitzwaters received a 20foot container in October, and it sold out by January, leaving them only with the Stoneware product to sell.

Their latest container in April, a 20-footer, included the outdoor lamps for the first time, more of their other styles, and 180 batteries, chargers, and bulbs to complete the Stoneware lamps.

Pieces like shade, finials, downrods, and nuts and bolts for the Stoneware lamps are made in the United States. Modern Lantern today carries 15 stockkeeping units and six styles, and does the final assembly of the Stoneware lamps at a South Side warehouse it shares with another user. “Our volume is getting so fast, it would be better to do the 40-foots again,” Stephen Fitzwater says. “We want more inventory stability.”

Distribution has gotten easier. Initially, the couple kept the inventory at their home and a public storage facility. When they got orders, “we’d drive and open the doors and ship out the lamps,” Carrie Fitzwater says. Today, they share a fulltime warehouse employee with a fabric company in the same building.

The Chinese lamps arrive in the box and ready for shipment. Stephen Fitzwater does the final assembly of the Stoneware lamps.

The Fitzwaters knew early on that ecommerce was their best sales route. Without high volumes, they

couldn’t get the retailers or attention of sales representatives. “Ecommerce seemed the most viable, and we could keep control of it,” Stephen Fitzwater says.

Their retail pricing could come down in the future as volume rises, the Fitzwaters said. The company’s profit margins have remained a robust 75 percent, before the costs of shipping the containers to the United States or shipping the lamps to consumers, the Fitzwaters said.

Wings of Angels In positioning their company to compete for investors, the Fitzwaters say they’ve been approached by more than one potential investors. “We’ve thought about opening it up to multiple people,” Stephen Fitzwater says.

If they get the $250,000, 75 percent would go to inventory, primarily into the hospitality industry with smaller commercial dining table lamps, Stephen Fitzwater said. Regardless of whether they have investors on board, later this year, they plan to introduce lamps with a lower, "opening" price point than their current average, he said. They also plan later this year to introduce the DIY kit, with instructions on how to disassemble the consumer's current conventional lamp and re-assemble it with Modern Lantern's base and battery.

The other 25 percent of the new capital would go to marketing, which the company does over social media, public relations, and blogging. The Fitzwaters have started to network with interior designers and decorators. They recently sold 75 lamps, their largest order, to a restaurant in Phoenix. And they recently discovered two of their lamps are in a basement lobby at the Forbes magazine headquarters.

The Fitzwaters are interested in moving more into hospitality. They’ve found one competitor in Australia, but its battery is not removable and its price is hefty at $500, they said. “We think we can beat their price and still get our 75 percent margin,” Carrie Fitzwater said.

The Fitzwaters are interested in selling to retailers, but not traditionally, where they take possession of the inventory and distribute it from their warehouse. Their goal is to go “FOB China” – or socalled free on board China, where they bring the lamps into U.S. port and retailers are responsible for freight costs from there. “Our goal is go FOB China to retailers,” Carrie Fitzwater says.

They’re also interested in co-branded retail, under which they license their technology to retailers that want to sell proprietary lamps. One such order is developing, they said.

What’s their fantasy? They want to go fulltime in the business, continue to increase on-shore manufacturing, and keep on coming up with new products. “New product development makes us feel better and energized,” Stephen Fitzwater says.

That also helps them get beyond the bruises they take. “One of the toughest things about being an entrepreneur is staying focused on what you are passionate about,” Carrie Fitzwater says. “You get beat up being an entrepreneur, but you have to keep going.”

Stephen and Carrie Fitzwater have a patent on the design of their lamps, which carry rechargeable, removable batteries in the base.

At Gus Bates Insurance, our clients rely on us to help guide them through the complex world of insurance and investments. But b before

Gloria Starling, a proud parent of Gabriel, Managing Partner of The Capital Grille, and community servant. She is one powerhouse woman to know in Fort Worth. How does she do it all?

“I have a remarkable team. My partner, Chef Derek, is incredibly talented, and we have the best relationship. The management and staff are becoming a closer team and allow the individual members to accomplish more. At home, I get great support from my husband who understands the very unpredictable restaurant life, Mom and Dad who are always there to help out and my wonderful sister Andy Without the solidarity that surrounds me, there is no way I could accomplish all that I do,” says Gloria.

While Gloria is best known for the numerous awards she and her team at The Capital Grille have received, her favorite accomplishment is her son, Gabriel, who brings light to all who meet him. She also gives credit to her Grandmother CantAlicia who taught her important lessons The passing down of knowledge is key to success and sharing with both her family at home and at work has been an intricate part of their success. Her grandmother, a great woman that raised 6 kids on her own taught the importance of strong family values has helped her in keeping it all together. “Dream big” “Never take no for an answer”, “remember you are very fortunate, always be thankful”, still echo as part of her daily lessons. As she continues to dream big here in this Great City, her commitment is not just to our community but to continue to deliver excellence through service and memorable experiences at The Capital Grille, Fort Worth.

Ventures With Values

Bill-pay machines for the unbanked? Five times wages for tea growers? Healthcare for your garbage? College students vie for best business plan with social value at TCU’s annual Values and Ventures contest.

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA / PHOTOGRAPHY

BY ALEX LEPE AND B.J. LACASSE

Grand Prize winner Franky Bernstein.

Photo by B.J. Lacasse

A few things about Tori Brennan and Chris Waldo, the TCU teammates who entered a proposal for a 16-foot play tower for kids with sensory processing disorders in the university’s annual international Values and Ventures business plan competition in April.

First, they met in February. Second, questioned about their price point in a subsequent presentation for a grant they won, Brennan and Waldo redesigned the tower a week before business plans and financial pro formas were due for the Values and Ventures competition. “We redesigned the entire structure” to pare costs, Brennan says.

Such can be the life of a budding entrepreneur. Sky Climber, the Brennan/Waldo entry, was one of 47 in the contest, the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center’s sixth annual, that recruits undergraduate college students’ for-profit business plans that have social benefit. Brennan and Waldo didn’t make the finals, but they shrugged that off and are moving ahead with one of their next planned moves: to find a site where they can erect a fullscale prototype of Sky Climber, as early as this summer.

“We’re working on that now,” Waldo said during an interview with Brennan at TCU’s Brown-Lupton University Union, days after the competition.

THE WINNER: INTERWALLET

Franky Bernstein couldn’t shake his dad. “This is a proud papa moment,” Ron Bernstein, a longtime former seafood wholesaler in Dallas, said. This was moments after Franky Bernstein’s business plan for a network of bill-pay machines for the unbanked, which has already done $750,000 volume in a South Florida beta test, won first place in TCU’s contest in April. Ron Bernstein had moved up to the front of the Champions Club at

Amon Carter Stadium to shoot a cell phone video of the award announcement, hugged his son afterwards, then interrupted media interviews to plant a kiss.

That InterWallet – brainchild of Bernstein’s team from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles – finished high after Bernstein’s energetic finals presentation was little surprise. It stood out and scored big among the judges for having results to show. What was a surprise: InterWallet being one of the nine finalists, after not winning its flight on the first day of the two-day contest. That pushed the second-place Bernstein, 23, into the “lightning round,” where he crashed the party. “We were shocked he was in the finals,” his dad said.

In the end, only a half-dozen points separated first place from ninth, Tony Ford, a Fort Worth entrepreneur and one of the five finals judges, said in an interview.

“It was kind of like apples to basketballs, but we all agreed on InterWallet as top,” he said. “The technology, stage at which it was already developed, and potential social impact were a lot farther down the road.”

The market to Bernstein and his team: 70 million Americans don’t have bank accounts, and they pay $100 million annually in fees. Cash consumers spend up to 5 percent of their income on services in the alternative payment sphere. InterWallet’s service: Terminals, in convenience stores and other places of business, where consumers can put in

cash, pay bills and send money.

“It’s very expensive to be poor,” Bernstein says. InterWallet, in the Florida beta test last year, handled 6,000 payments and took in $750,000 in volume through as many as 20 terminals, Bernstein, a finance and entrepreneurial management double major, estimated. InterWallet figures it has cut the consumers’ fees in half.

In 2016, InterWallet expects to do $2 million in volume. It expects sales to increase dramatically beginning in 2017. InterWallet built the kiosks with a partner who had relationships with stores in South Florida.

“What I’m doing is not brain science,” Bernstein said. “I just want to give a little lift.” Of the $25,000 prize money, he said, “I know what I’m going to be spending it on. We’re essentially self-funded right now.”

InterWallet won’t be without significant challenges. Ford, the judge, notes such companies will likely face a regulatory “legislative imperative” in the future. “This is basically a quasi-bank,” Ford said. “You’re holding other people’s money. Where’s the accountability?”

To hear his father tell it, Bernstein showed no interest in business until he got to college. “He’s always had a good head for business,” Bernstein said. “He’s always had good connections.”

SECOND PLACE: THE ROOFTOP TEA CO.

University: George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

CEO: Cheyenne Tessier

The product: Rooftop hires poor women to grow tea in their rooftop gardens in Cairo, paying them five times what they’re

already making to produce vegetables. For an $8 package of tea, $2 goes back to the growers.

“We’re really creating a storytelling around this community’s existence,” says Tessier, 22, a senior Middle East studies major at George Washington who came up with the idea while studying in Cairo. Tea drinkers in the premium market have demonstrated they will pay for a product that comes with social benefit, Tessier said. She graduates this spring and plans to head back to Cairo.

Women who raise vegetables in their rooftop gardens make about 25 cents a day, but they only work about an hour a day, Tessier said. Rooftop Tea will take that up to $1.25 to $1.50, she said. “Twenty-five cents for an hour of work is a good wage there,” Tessier said in an interview. “Nonetheless, it’s still not good enough to contribute to the family.”

Tessier, who won $16,000 for her second-place finish and one of the contest’s Ripple Effect awards for helping women, estimates it will cost $400 to start up a 26 x 26 garden. She’s invested $7,500 of her own money in startup expense and expects a launch in January 2017.

Tessier told judges she’s not offering equity yet. “We want to offer these people who invest a product that they can have as a result of their crowd-funding,” Tessier said.

THIRD PLACE: SEPARATEC

University: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

Inventors: Barbara Kim, Anshul Subramanya, and Stephen Johannesson

The problem: There are one million spinal surgeries in the United States annually that carry a 32 percent risk of future surgeries to correct problems from the first surgery.

The product: Patent-pending ultrasonic tip that separates scar tissue in the spinal cord during revision surgery and reduces risk of breaches. The device has been through three prototypes and four rounds of testing.

Barbara Kim, who took the lead for the Johns Hopkins team in its presentation, told judges hospitals are the primary market. At $350 per device, which must be replaced after each surgery, there’s a potential $112 million annual U.S. market, she said.

Kim said the team wants to form a joint venture with a device company. Its marketing strategy is to develop a strong clinical network, with advocacy by surgeons.

That prompted Ford, the judge, to ask whether the team had considered marketing the device to health insurers. “The people that are going to be saving the money are the insurance companies,” Ford said later in the FW Inc. interview.

“I would be talking to them early on.”

BIG IDEA: HEALTHCARE FOR GARBAGE

University: University of Brawijaya, Indonesia

Entrepreneurs: Abdul Rozaq, Syam Suddin, Latifah Fitriani

Service: Garbage Clinical Insurance, a microhealth insurance program, under which poor residents trade their garbage to Garbage Clinical Insurance, in exchange for healthcare at the company’s clinic or another one it has a relationship with.

About half the Indonesian population lives on less than $2 U.S. per day, Rozaq estimated. Indonesia is also a huge waste producer, and much of it has value converted into fertilizer or recycled. Patients pay $1 per month to participate in the program. Garbage Clinical Insurance picks up their trash and provides primary healthcare.

Relatively few of the program’s members ever seek healthcare from the clinic, and when they do, it’s typically for a minor condition, said Rozaq, whose team won $3,500 in prize money for an honorable mention and Ripple Effect award. “We make money based on usage,” he said.

TCU's Tori Brennan and Chris Waldo, with a model of their Sky Climber.

Photo by Alex Lepe

Rooftop Tea's Cheyenne Tessier, with contest founders Lisa Barrentine, Nancy Tartaglino Richards. Photo by B.J. Lacasses

BACK AT THE RANCH: TCU’S TEAM

In early February, Brennan, who had already come up with the Sky Climber idea and built and later disassembled two prototypes, was working through TCU’s Idea Factory incubator on design and preparing to hunt capital.

She and Waldo, a finance and entrepreneurial management major, were introduced Feb. 12 at Idea Factory after it hired Waldo to work on its website. This was inside six weeks before the March 23 Values and Ventures deadline for plans and pro formas.

It was also 10 days before an executive summary was due for the internal competition that TCU runs to determine which team it will send up to the Values and Ventures contest. “I don’t know anything about business plans,” says Brennan, whose teammate Waldo has participated in competitions and worked with startups. “I didn’t think I was ready to go.”

Brennan, a child development and psychology double major, had long been interested in sensory processing disorders, with two younger sisters who have special needs.

Her family has a sensory gym in the basement of its Colorado home with crash pads, mats, therapy swings, and balance beam. “I’ve always liked to build and design things with my dad,” she says. And the market data is strong: One in six children has a behavioral disorder.

Sky Climber – as redesigned - has a hex-shaped steel upper frame that sits atop a perpendicular central steel beam like an umbrella. The pole is sunk into the ground. Chains attached to each corner of the hex frame fall to the ground. Stretchable pieces of lycra fabric are attached at their corners to two of the chains and the beam. Sky Climber has nine levels of lycra, with two pieces stretched chain to chain on each level. Children climb the structure using the fabric, which provides deep tactile input that organizes and calms the nervous

system. “There’s a fair amount of neuroscience about it,” Brennan says.

Sky Climber, as designed before the redrawn structure, contained significantly more steel and was more expensive. Brennan and Waldo envisioned a $23,000 price point, with elementary schools, summer camps, group homes, and residential treatment centers as primary targets.

But that’s significantly more than schools would likely pay, and Brennan and Waldo heard those questions when they presented before the Shaddock Venture Capital Fund for a grant. “They ripped us to shreds on our numbers,” Waldo says. They won a $5,500 grant from the Shaddock fund and $300 from the TCU internal competition. That money comprises their startup capital.

They now envision a price of $6,500 in the first year to prove up the concept. They’ve filed for a patent and expect to move quickly to try and get Sky Climber into the hands of schools. “We may have to donate it,” Waldo says. “We’d like to get the cash flow so we can do more R&D.”

Once they prove the concept, they want to license Sky Climber to a manufacturer, taking them out of manufacturing. At that point, they see a price of about $13,000.

They are trying to raise $40,000 in seed capital. Waldo is set to graduate in May, and Brennan in 2018. Waldo says he’s applying for jobs but is committed to helping Brennan see Sky Climber through. “It is Tori’s baby,” he says.

2016 TCU VALUES AND VENTURES WINNERS

Forty-seven undergraduate teams entered this year’s Values and Ventures business plan contest at TCU.

GRAND PRIZE:

Loyola Marymount. InterWallet bill payment service for poor. Award: $25,000

SECOND PLACE:

George Washington. Rooftop Tea, empower women through gardens. $15,000

THIRD PLACE: Johns Hopkins. Separatec, surgical tip for spinal surgery. $10,000

HONORABLE MENTION: Rice. Ziel, sensor-sleeve that gives baseball pitchers feedback to mitigate injury. $2,500

H.M: Grand Valley State. UCOL, urinary incontinence device. $2,500

H.M: Florida State. DivvyUp socks, one pair donated to homeless shelters for every pair sold. $2,500

H.M: University of Texas at Dallas. Blanco Farms Exotic Mushrooms, grown in repurposed shipping containers. $2,500

H.M: San Diego State. Genius, wearable sensors that allow severely disabled people to use computers via brainwaves. $2,500

H.M: University of Brawijawa, Indonesia. Garbage Clinical Insurance picks up trash for low fees, covers healthcare. $2,500

FOUNDERS AWARD: Ohio. Vaylenx, Safe, affordable, easy larvicide to combat mosquitoes. $5,500

MARJORIE AND JAMES SLY

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Air Force. App matches adventurers to trails, waterways, slopes, with option to rent/buy gear. $2,500

RIPPLE EFFECT: University of Brawijawa. $1,000

RIPPLE: George Washington. $1,000

RIPPLE: Iowa State. KinoSol, solar food dehydrator that helps subsistence farmers reduce loss. $1,000

ELEVATOR PITCH, FIRST: Kansas. Carbon Financial, automated investment. $1,000

ELEVATOR PITCH, SECOND: Emory. Sale Split co-op. $500

ELEVATOR PITCH, THIRD: University of Strathclyde, Scotland. Befriend app combats seniors' isolation. $250

ELEVATOR PITCH, THIRD: Iowa State. $250

ELEVATOR PITCH

H.M: Brigham Young. Curo mobile wallet for developing countries. $100

ELEVATOR PITCH

H.M: Ohio. $100

Garbage Clinical Insurance's Abdul Rozaq. Photo by B.J. Lacasse

Call for nominations

Fort Worth?

FW Inc. and Fort Worth, Texas magazine are pleased to present the Best Companies to Work for in Fort Worth awards.

Our program uses a two-part assessment process taking into account the employer’s policies, practices, benefits and demographics, as well as the company’s employees and their engagement and satisfaction. After all, employees know best if their company is a great company to work for or not.

The combined employer and employee components assessment produces both quantitative and qualitative data that will be analyzed to determine the final rankings. The winning companies will be recognized in FW Inc. and Fort Worth, Texas magazine and honored at an awards event to be held in October.

To register your company for participation and award consideration, please visit: www.BestCompaniesFW.com

PARTICIPATION IN THE SURVEY IS FREE

The deadline to nominate your organization is June 30, 2016

Jeremy Brandt

The kid who sold you chocolate bars in the neighborhood? Yeah, that kid. He went big with a couple of digital real estate platforms.

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA / PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LEPE

Jeremy Brandt was that kid. The one who bought bulk candy at Costco and sold it for profit in the neighborhood. The one who went door to door selling the surplus leather gloves his dad brought home from his job at the machine shop; who got a job at 16 at a computer shop and resold the discarded parts at a flea market.

The computer store job led to freelance work designing computer networks, which led to a consulting gig at the height of the tech bubble.

“I had 15 or 20 people reporting when I was 19, which was ridiculous,” Brandt says. Then the bubble burst, and Brandt was out of a job in his early 20s. What next? He put his expertise in technology to work with a friend who was flipping houses. Today, at 37, Brandt owns Fast Home Offer, one of the country’s largest lead generation businesses, and WeBuyHouses.com, a national licensing platform for investors. In his spare time, he helped co-found the Fort Worth chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization.

“I’ve been a lifelong entrepreneur since I was seven,” Brandt says. “I’ve just had an aptitude for viewing the world that way. Even the bad things look like an opportunity.”

Growing up homeschooled: Being homeschooled afforded me the ability to do what I wanted and excel at it, not spend a set amount of hours in school. My parents really encouraged that.

His fast start in real estate: When I got started in this business, the first thing I did was put an ad on the Internet to buy houses. Because nobody else was doing that at the time, everybody that went to the Internet wanting to sell their house quickly contacted me.

Founding Fast Home Offer, 2002: I started getting home sellers from all over the country contacting us. And I wasn’t going to fly to Miami to

look at a property. So I cold-called investors in Miami and L.A., asking them if they were buying houses and if they would give me a fee if I sent them a lead. Now, we do large marketing campaigns all over the country; people who want to sell their house quickly contact us and then we refer them out to our clients, local real estate investors and investors. We work with about 10,000 home sellers a month.

How he gets paid: Fast Home Offer is a bid-based subscription service. Let’s say you’re a real estate investor in Dallas and you want all the leads we can generate in Dallas and you pay us $100 a lead for home sellers in Dallas County. We’re

selling every lead to you. If another investor wants to come in and buy leads, they’ll need to pay over $100 to join the market, bidding the price per lead up. And at any time, you have the opportunity to go over the top of him.

Where the idea came from: We modeled it after Google’s Adwords system for advertising. The problem it allowed us to solve is that our advertising costs are incredibly variable by market. In Dallas, it might cost one-fourth to generate a lead, for example, what it costs in Los Angeles. We needed a way to match our revenue to our costs.

What his leads sell for: Nationally, there’s

a wide range because it’s a bid-based system. The price could be anywhere from $50 to many hundreds of dollars per lead. The price is lower in North Texas than the coasts.

Buying WeBuyHouses.com four years ago: I was looking for a brand that I could build a company under that could give reputable investors a national brand under which to operate.

His pet peeve: One of the biggest problems in our industry is there’s a lot of people coming out of real estate seminars who don’t know what they’re doing. A lot of these seminars teach ‘no-money-down’

investing. While it’s possible to buy a house with no money down, these seminars are churning out legions of people who do not have the money to buy a house.

How WeBuyHouses.com works: We find people that fit our criteria from an experience standpoint, abilityto-close standpoint, and an ethics standpoint, and then we license our brand and provide marketing, technology, and ongoing education support to them. That generally looks like a license up front that might be $20-to- $50,000 and an ongoing monthly license fee that might be a couple thousand dollars. People operate as WeBuyHouses.com in their local market.

When Knowing You Don’t Know Is the Safest Place to Be

BY JASON FORREST Forrest Performance Group

When his mentor asked Harold Muckleroy what he knew about real estate and construction, Harold said, “I really don’t know hardly anything, but I’m fixin’ to learn it.” This may not seem like the best way to start a business, but sometimes the best decisions are the most counterintuitive, and the safest place to be is the one that feels the scariest. As a young entrepreneur in 1979, he founded Muckleroy & Falls, now a successful fullservice commercial construction company based in Fort Worth.

That mentor, Dick Lowe, was a fellow TCU alum and then-president of American Quasar Petroleum, where Harold worked straight out of college. Lowe had given Harold his first break. He apparently wasn’t turned off by Harold’s lack of experience and took a genuine interest in Harold’s development—helping him make several key contacts and supporting him with office space as he got his feet under him.

Armed with advice from people who had the experience he lacked, Harold dove right in. He recalls the valuable on-the-job training he got:

“I was doing a construction project, had already purchased some property, put together an investment group, arranged financing, and hired an architect. We were actually onsite now. I hired a very seasoned superintendent, Chuck Smith, and told him, ‘Look, I’ve never built anything before, but I want to make as many decisions on this job as I can. I’m going to be here every day, all day long. Long as

you’re here, I’m going to be here.’

“If a subcontractor brought up a question I didn’t understand, I’d put him on hold and pull Chuck aside. I’d ask him, ‘Would you explain to me what he just asked?’ Chuck would give me what he thought were my two or three best solutions, and I’d make the choice. I felt like that’s how I learned.”

As a former TCU football player, Harold was tenacious, and his business was soon humming right along—until adversity struck. By the late ‘80s, businesses like Harold’s had overbuilt the market.

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The bankers showing up in his office every week wanting to lend him money and offering loans to cover almost 100 percent of project costs stopped coming. Nine of the 10 largest banks in Texas failed, and lenders became extremely skittish about putting money into real estate development. Harold’s company, which had grown to 70 employees, dwindled down to three within a year.

Harold describes this as a very hard and humbling time in his life. He owed money to 13 lenders, all of whom suddenly wanted full repayment of the principal on the loans they had given him at a time when money was very hard to come by. He repaid and settled with them one by one, until the money finally ran out with one debt remaining.

lion’s job is to roar and send prey scattering away from the startling noise—right into the path of the waiting lionesses, the true hunters. If gazelles knew to run toward the frightening sound, they would have a better chance of survival. The roar doesn’t represent the real danger.

Likewise, humans sometimes have an instinctive desire to shy away from pursuits that look and sound scary. But often, running toward those challenges and conflicts is the best (or only) way to grow and meet our goals. In business, those who run from the deafening noise never reach their full potential, while those who turn and face the fear thrive.

mixing of personal and business interests, and as his business slowly started coming back, Harold repaid his father in full, plus interest, within four years.

That last debt, the smallest one among the 13, proved to be the hardest to satisfy. Harold’s money was gone, and the bank wouldn’t budge on repayment terms. Reluctantly, Harold turned to two people— his father and a local businessman who had been an investor with him—for help paying off the loan. It was the first time he had ever borrowed money from his father, and asking him was an uncomfortable and humbling experience. “I had gotten myself into the problem, and felt like I needed to get myself out of it,” Harold recalls.

It was important to him not to take advantage of his relationship with his dad, and he drafted and signed a note on this loan as he would for any other. Treating it this way kept it from being a messy

That comeback took seven years. Harold brought on a former employee as a partner, and together they’ve grown Muckleroy & Falls into what is today, the eighth-largest general contractor in Tarrant County. The firm currently employs 35 people, and its goal is to crack the top five in revenue countywide. It’ll be a challenge to get there—Harold is quick to point out that there’s a big gap between eight and five. But don’t bet against this overcomer, who has made his mark on the football field, in business, and in life with his never-quit attitude and work ethic.

The natural world has a thing or two to teach us about success in life. Lions—with their intimidating teeth and deafening roars—are designed to provoke fear. But the real danger lies with the smaller, quieter lionesses. In the animal kingdom, the

For Harold, the only thing scarier than launching into a business without knowing anything about it was asking for money from his dad. But without running toward the roars in his life, Harold would not be where he is today.

“If you’re confident about what you’re doing, it comes across, and it works. Outworking somebody is one of the keys to success.” Being ready, willing and able to work harder and smarter sets Harold apart and makes running toward the roar a way of life that has paved the way for his success.

Jason Forrest is CEO of Forrest Performance Group, a global leader and designer of sales, management, and corporate training programs. Forrest’s Running Toward the Roar appears in each issue of FW Inc.

Muckleroy & Falls' projects have included the Jane Justin Field House at TCU and Ben Hogan Learning Center in Fort Worth.

Fort Worth – We’ve Got Just the Right Neighborhood

BY DAVID BERZINA Executive Vice President of Economic Development Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce

Are you looking for space to open a boutique in a pedestrian village where you can live just a few yards from your workplace? Fort Worth has a neighborhood for that.

How about a large warehouse for an aviation manufacturing company that is surrounded by a wide range of retail and residential options for employees? Fort Worth has a neighborhood for that, too.

What about a modern tower with advanced technology for a professional services firm? I know just the right places.

Fort Worth is not a one-size-fits-all community, which is essential when working to attract companies that are as diverse as our neighborhoods. Companies of all sizes want a presence in neighbor-

hoods with characteristics that align with their brands and with the lifestyles of their employees and customers, so the distinctive “personalities” of our neighborhoods turn out to be one of the city’s best-selling features.

One of Fort Worth’s most iconic neighborhoods is Downtown. Brand new skyscrapers and fully restored historic buildings line the bustling streets of this business district, offering visitors a glimpse of the city’s past, present and future. The heart of Downtown Fort Worth is Sundance Square, a nationally acclaimed 35-block shopping and entertainment village that draws millions of visitors annually. With a robust daytime business presence and a vibrant nightlife, the characteristics of Downtown appeal to a wide range of professional service firms, boutique stores, hotels, restaurants, entertainment facilities, performance halls and residents seeking upscale urban living.

The success of Downtown’s revitalization is resonating in other Fort Worth neighborhoods like Near Southside. Once a dilapidated neighborhood severely impacted by urban flight, the 1,400-acre medical district just south of Downtown has transformed into a trendy urban village, thanks to millions of dollars that were invested in renovat-

ing historic buildings, streetscapes and other projects. Old buildings have been renovated for eclectic boutiques, salons, art studios, nationally recognized local restaurants and craft breweries, medical offices, law firms, townhomes and apartments.

The district benefits from the presence of major healthcare facilities, such as Baylor All Saints Medical Center, Cook Children’s Medical Center, Texas Health Harris Methodist, JPS Health Network, Plaza Medical Center and the Moncrief Cancer Institute. With approximately 39,000 jobs, Near Southside is the secondlargest employment center in Tarrant County. The community has mainly focused on fostering local entrepreneurs, and these efforts have paid off for Near Southside with a tax base that has more than doubled to about $548 million since 1997.

Like Near Southside, the nine-mile Camp Bowie Historic District has also morphed into a thriving community for local entrepreneurs. Formerly the training site of the 36th Infantry Division, Camp Bowie is now home to some of Fort Worth’s most elite businesses, luxury spas, antique shops, high-end car dealerships, top-of-the-line electronics stores and upscale boutiques.

A district generating tremendous economic impact for Fort Worth is AllianceTexas. Located in north Fort Worth, and spanning both Tarrant and Denton counties, the 18,000-acre master-planned, mixed-use community is designed to provide business, retail, recreation and residential options for every lifestyle and age range.

Anchored by the Alliance Global Logistics Hub, one of the world’s premier inland ports, the development is a highly desirable location for logistics companies, shippers, ecommerce fulfillment centers and manufacturers from around the world. It is also home to technology companies, data centers and professional services firms seeking space that ranges from hundreds of acres for corporate

campuses to a few thousand square feet of flexible office space. It is the largest employment center in Tarrant County with more than 45,000 jobs, and its economic impact since 1989 exceeds $60 billion.

West 7th is one of Fort Worth’s newest districts, and in just over five years, it has already made an indelible mark. Situated at the convergence of six intersections, this 13-acre gateway to the Cultural District offers close access to the city’s prominent museums and to major employment centers. The pedestrian-friendly village features high-concept restaurants, boutiques and lifestyle retailers, along with professional offices, urban residential lofts and apartments. The project is near Montgomery Plaza, formerly a historic Montgomery Ward regional warehouse that has been converted into luxury condos and retail space for national chains

and local shops.

The establishment of West 7th had the added benefit of spurring redevelopment of the adjoining Linwood residential community, which was hit hard by an F3 tornado in 2000. Dozens of abandoned lots have been filled in with modern townhomes.

As Fort Worth continues to grow and evolve, so will its communities. For example, we are already getting an idea of the characteristics that Panther Island/Central City will add to Fort Worth. While still in its infancy, this waterfront Trinity River Vision project offers access to concerts and festivals at Panther Island Pavilion, as well as to watersports. The project includes revitalization of the 1,000-acre Gateway Park, which will be the largest urban-programmed park in the area with first-class recreational amenities.

With neighborhoods this diverse, it’s easy to see why Fort Worth is a premier destination for business relocation and expansion opportunities. We’ve got just the right place for the needs of any company, no matter its size, culture or target audience.

David Berzina is executive vice president of economic development for the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, and he joined the Chamber in 2004. His projects have resulted in more than 13 million square feet of building space, $3.4 billion in capital investment, and more than 20,000 jobs and $1.2 billion in annual payroll. The Chamber will provide an economic development update in each issue of FW Inc.

Hunting Oil and Gas –in School Curriculum

TCU’s Energy Institute, with help from industry, wants to try and get oil and gas into public schools.

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA

The TCU Energy Institute has its hands in a lot of barrels these days. Its latest initiative: Trying to get geology education into Texas public schools.

“There’s nothing in there that helps them understand anything about energy,” Ken Morgan, the institute’s director, says. “This is a state that lives and dies by energy.”

The institute, with help from industry, is developing three proposed classroom modules for grades 8-12 that Morgan says could be dropped into physical science curriculum. The institute has been working on them since January and plans to get the

modules into the hands of the State Board of Education this summer. “We’ll know by August whether some school districts are going to begin experimenting with it,” he said in an interview.

The idea came from the misperceptions of TCU’s own students about energy, Morgan says. To further development of more modules, the institute is going to be looking for money in the next Legislature, Morgan said.

The Energy Institute, founded in 2007, plays largely an advisory role to the university and assists other departments. TCU doesn’t have an energy major, but students can take six courses and 18 hours of credit

to get an energy minor, choosing courses from several schools, including engineering, business, and geology.

Who’s interested in the energy minor: finance, marketing, accounting, teaching, ranch management, communications, journalism, and public relations, say Morgan and faculty member Larry Brogdon, a geologist and ex-partner in Four Sevens Oil Co. in Fort Worth who helped direct the company to the Barnett Shale natural gas play in its earliest days.

Brogdon for several years has taught the “Prospect to Production” class, which industry professionals jammed at the peak of energy prices. Interest is off the peak with the industry downturn, but Brogdon has a strong message for students.

“Layoffs are happening everywhere,” Brogdon says. “Some of those people are not going to come back. There’s going to be a need for those students. Now is the time to be in school getting the education.”

Morgan and Brogdon are also helping TCU choose the new Hunter Enis Chair of Petroleum Geology in the School of Geology; Enis is one of two lead partners in Four Sevens. TCU, which has a petroleum engineering professorship in the Department of Engineering and an entrepreneur-in-residence in the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center, both established by gifts to the university, has a strong pool of candidates for the Enis Chair, Morgan and Brogdon said.

“That’s one of the benefits of the downturn,” Brogdon said. “We have lots of good candidates.”

The Energy Institute also this spring brought Alex Epstein, a philosopher and author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, in for talks at the Fort Worth Club and university. Epstein argues the moral case for inexpensive, reliable energy. Spinning off that, the Energy Institute is putting together a spring 2017 senior-level course on the origins of energy that will combine teachers from several disciplines, ranging from business to psychology and environmental science. “We’re going to make them read,” Morgan says.

Congratulations to the Best Workplaces for Women Awards:

Small Businesses Balcom Agency PeopleFund Skyline Sector 5

Medium Businesses

Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains

National Bank of Texas United Way of Tarrant County Businesses

BDO USA, LLP

NAS Fort Worth JRB Texas Wesleyan University

Awards luncheon on Thursday, May 5, 2016 with keynote speaker TheCyclist-Lawyer.com’s Megan Hottman.

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www.fortworthchamber.com 817-338-3371

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Next-Generation Transportation

T transportation plan provides path to efficient mobility.

BY MICHAEL BENNETT

Bennett Benner Partners Chairman, The Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth

Have you driven in Austin traffic? What about Houston? Not just at rush hour, but anytime? It’s a challenge, negatively impacts quality of life and results in enormous productivity loss. And the younger generations, those who will soon be leading our community and creating good jobs, are clear in their desire for convenient and efficient mobility options. For them, a community that doesn’t move is a community that doesn’t live right. Fort Worth and Tarrant County are not Austin and Houston, for now. But our explosive population growth could easily cause our automobile traffic to mirror those cities, and sooner than one might think. How can we escape the traffic nightmare that befalls Austin and Houston? Our

opportunity to ensure there are effective mobility options for future generations (think millennials who demand convenience and believe the best car is a parked car or an Uber car) has arrived. The Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) Master Plan Recommendation Report (www.tmasterplan. org) provides a path to efficient local mobility.

The Master Plan is a thoughtful, straight-forward document that bluntly assesses missed opportunities of the past, the challenges of the future (which are somewhat intimidating) and the path to a more mobile and easy-to-navigate Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

Where are we today? The T has the lowest per capita ridership, the fewest hours of annual service per capita and the lowest operating funding per capita of any major transportation authority in Texas. And it’s not even close. We are squarely in last place. There is some good news. The T has the second lowest operating cost per service hour compared to the largest authorities; $15 per hour less than Austin and $23 less than Houston. And for the best news of all, The T has an executive director who has deep experience in mobility and a proven history of efficiently maximizing revenue to expand services. Combine his leadership with a top-notch executive staff and a board of directors led by a successful busi-

ness owner, and you have a team in place to change the face of mobility in Tarrant County.

Where are we headed tomorrow? The Master Plan is ambitious. It addresses our short- and long-term mobility needs. It acknowledges and even embraces the desires and lifestyles of younger generations. The Plan calls for more convenient and strategic park-and-ride lots, expanded express and regional services, developing outlying transit centers and developing comprehensive premium services, which will include commuter rail, rapid bus, streetcar and core area shuttles. The Plan is ultimately based on two key principles: The mobility system The T puts in place should “reflect local desires” and should be funded in part by developing “alternative funding approaches.” In other words, The T will listen and will work with the private sector to maximize funding opportunities.

The Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth (commercial development professionals and those who serve the development profession) has spent countless hours studying the mobility challenges of Tarrant County. We believe the future of mobility in our community starts now, with this Master Plan. We will continue to work with The T and others to ensure Tarrant County doesn’t become the gridlocked mess of Austin or Houston. In fact, we hope to lead a group of business leaders in forming a support organization to assist The T in reaching the aggressive goals it has set for the next twenty years. The time has come. We will be at the table. Please join us.

Michael Bennett is principal and CEO of Bennett Benner Partners. He has led design teams on many notable projects, including Acme Brick’s new headquarters, TCC Trinity River East Campus, West 7th, the Watters Creek and WestBend mixed-use developments, Two City Place, Sundance Square, MOLA at the Fort Worth Zoo, the 26-story Anthracite Tower and several projects at TCU.

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Underused Real Estate Tax Strategy

Cost segregation continues to provide cash flow for real estate.

BY DAVID DEGRAND SourceHOV

Cost segregation studies are an established tax strategy available to owners of commercial and residential real estate. Yet, cost segregation remains one of the more underutilized tax strategies available. With the increase in new building construction, properties exchanging hands as prices rise and older properties being remodeled and renovated, cost segregation studies can provide an immediate tax benefit.

The new tangible property regulations have also increased the value of cost segregation studies, which may provide a basis for property that is demolished, retired or removed and that qualifies for dispositions expensing. Additionally, future repairs expensing may be facilitated through the proper identification of units of property and major components of buildings.

Cost segregation studies identify property that can be allocated to shorter depreciable lives than 27.5 years for residential property or 39 years for commercial property. Shorter depreciable lives in the early years provide larger depreciation deductions.

This results in lower taxable income and increased cash flow from lowered taxes. The amount of shorter life property identified in a building can vary widely depending on the type of building. Every generic building is going to have a foundation, walls, a roof, windows, electrical outlets, plumbing and HVAC systems. These are normally considered real property under section 1250 of the IRS code and

depreciated over 27.5 or 39 years. It’s the building components that exist to support the business functions of the building that are normally identified as shorter life property, either section 1245 tangible personal property or land improvements.

Section 1245 tangible personal property is normally found on the inside of a building and is there to support the business aspects of the property.

Examples include built-in cabinetry, glued-on surfaces such as carpet or tile, decorative lighting, television/ cable/computer equipment connections, demountable partitions, window coverings, telephone systems, machinery and equipment, electrical and plumbing connections, emergency generators and many other components. Land improvements, which may be either section 1245 or section 1250 property, are normally found outside the building and include fences and walls, lighting, paving, walks, roads, storm drainage, retaining walls, landscaping, irrigation, wheel stops, pipe bollards and other components.

The depreciable life of section 1245 tangible personal property is normally 5 or 7 years. Under MACRS, the class life for assets are determined by the activity class. The most common activity class for cost segregation is 57.0 Distributive Trades & Services which has a 5-year life for section 1245 property. Many manufacturing activity classes depreciate the same type of assets over a 7-year life. Land improvements generally have a 15-year depreciable life.

The federal PATH Act of 2015 extended

some taxpayer favorable provisions for cost segregation that previously expired at the end of 2014. Fifteen-year depreciation for qualified leasehold improvements (QLHI), qualified restaurant improvements (QRP), and qualified retail improvement property (QRIP) are now permanent provisions.

QLHI is eligible for bonus depreciation. Bonus depreciation is additional depreciation taken for new construction in the year it is placed in service for building components with depreciable lives of less than 20 years. Cost segregation identifies property in a building that is less than 20 years. Bonus depreciation has been extended at 50 percent for 2015-2017, 40 percent in 2018 and 30 percent in 2019.

It’s not just newly acquired, constructed or renovated buildings that can benefit from a cost segregation study; it also includes buildings placed in service in previous years. IRS Revenue Procedure 2015-14 allows taxpayers to go back and reclassify assets to their proper shorter recovery periods. The additional depreciation is recovered in the year the change is made via a section 481(a) adjustment. With an increase in real estate activity, the PATH Act extending tax incentives and the Tangible Property Regulations providing expensing opportunities, there has never been a better time to consider cost segregation. Experienced cost segregation providers can provide accurate estimates of the potential tax benefit at no cost. Now is the time to look at the tax benefits cost segregation can provide.

provides SourceHOV Tax’s LIFO, R&D tax credit studies, cost segregation, and Green Building 179D Certification/ Analysis specialized tax services to CPAs and businesses in Texas. The Fort Worth Chapter of the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants is a contributor to each issue of FW Inc.

David Degrand

President, Embree Capital Markets Group

As a Tarleton student, Rocky Hardin was the first in his family to leave the farm and earn a college degree.

Today, Rocky is a partner in a real estate services group providing real estate advisory services to investors and commercial development and construction to clients nationwide. His success has earned recognition as a College of Business Administration Outstanding Alumnus.

Step Away From the Door

Bombarded with hail and would-be roofers? Here’s how to protect yourself.

BY SCOTT NISHIMURA

If you live in Fort Worth, chances are you got hit by hail in the St. Patrick’s Day storms a few weeks ago, which turn out to be among the costliest storms to have occurred in the state at an estimated $600 million in damage. Chances are you’ve also been pounded by people who offer to examine your roof and put a new one on it.

The Insurance Council of Texas, an industry group that represents 500 insurers that do business in the state, can’t put an estimate on how many folks who show up after a storm like this.

“It depends on the size of the catastrophe, it depends on the company, it depends on the number of disasters they’re currently working, it depends on

where in Texas that catastrophe might be,” Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the council, says. “There’s a lot of variables. And there are a lot of adjusters and roofers who are already in the Dallas-Fort Worth market.”

Texas has no licensing or registration requirements. How do you begin to assess the folks who show up offering to help? The Insurance Council says no need to worry about that. Really.

“You first start off by trying to avoid people you’ve never met, who you’ve never talked to,” Hanna says. “Stay away from the cold calls. Stay away from people walking down the street.”

The potential problems are obvious, he says. “You don’t know who they are, what kinds of materials they’re going to use, what the quality of their work is going to be, whether they’re going to be back, whether there are any guarantees for their work,” Hanna says. “You should avoid these people. It’s just common sense.”

Instead, he says, “look at the areas where you live. Look at the people who’ve been doing this for many, many years. They have built up a reputation, good or bad.”

You should check with the Better Business Bureau on any vendors you’re considering using, Hanna said. Check your social media feeds for comments, and look for word of mouth, he said.

Check “whether you know these people,” he said. “Do your children go to school with their children? Do you go to church with them? Do you play on the

COSTLIEST TEXAS STORMS

This year’s St. Patrick’s Day hailstorms were among the worst in Texas history for damages, estimates the Insurance Council of Texas. Here are the worst Texas storms, ranked by damages:

1. Hurricane Ike, Sept. 13, 2008, Galveston, $12 billion

2. Tropical Storm Allison, June 8, 2001, Houston, $3.5 billion

3. Hurricane Rita, Sept. 24, 2005, Sabine Pass, $2.8 billion

4. San Antonio hailstorm, April 12, 2016, $1.4 billion

5. Garland-Rowlett tornadoes, Dec. 26, 2015, $1.2 billion

6. North Texas hailstorm, May 5, 1995, $1.1 billion

7. DFW hailstorm, June 13, 2012, $890 million

8. North Texas hailstorm, April 5, 2003, $885 million

9. Denton tornadoes and hail, April 3, 2014, $850 million

10. Hurricane Alicia, Galveston, Aug. 18, 1993, $795 million

11. DFW tornado and hail, April 3, 2012, $775 million

12. Fort Worth-Waco hailstorm, April 28, 1992, $750 million

13. Plano hailstorm, March 23, 2016, $700 million

14. Fort Worth hailstorm, March 16, 2016, $600 million

15. McAllen hailstorm, March 29, 2012, $600 million

same softball team? Do you know family or friends? They can tell you about the quality of their work.”

Finally, he said, “don’t be in a rush. Your home is the most expensive thing you own. At some point in time, your insurer will give you money to repair your home. And you want it done right.”

Lending More Than a Helping Hand

Follow the Leader

Can’t find your organization’s leader on the flow chart? She might be at the bottom.

BY HARRIET HARRAL Executive Director Leadership Fort Worth

Leadership has been defined in numerous ways. In business, leadership is often judged by the bottom line. In the nonprofit world, leadership is defined by the ability to achieve the mission. In communities, leadership is judged in hindsight by whether there was vision and ability to create infrastructure for events and growth far in the future. Credit usually goes to the person with the title that identifies him/her as the leader.

In the past, it was easy to find the leader on the organization chart - the person at the top of the pyramid. All those levels below were enlisted to implement the leader’s vision. The chart visually placed all the responsibility in the leader’s lap: Top-down leadership was expected.

In recent years, that theoretical concept has been literally turned upside down. The organization chart is still a pyramid, but the apex is at the bottom. The person with the leadership title is now at the foundation of the organization, providing support to all those levels above that are critical to achieving success.

Robert Greenleaf, who developed the ser-

vant leadership model, asks two questions to help the leader test whether actions or decisions are indeed supporting others:

• “Do those served grow as persons?”

• “Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become [leaders serving others]?”

Tough questions. An additional question calls on leaders and organizations to consider the context in which they do business. A business decides to locate in a particular community because it provides workforce, transportation, tax incentives, and other infrastructure it needs. It is appropriate, then, to ask those leaders and organizations what they are doing to support the community. Greenleaf once again provides a challenging lens through which to judge decisions:

• “What is the effect on the least privileged in society: Will they benefit, or, at least, not be further deprived?”

If a community thrives, a business is more likely to do so as well. And a community only thrives when all its elements are healthy.

These are difficult standards to meet. They require leaders to make long-term investment in personnel and community that might not reap immediate profits.

Community leadership organizations (locally, Leadership Fort Worth) developed to help leaders learn strategies to make these difficult decisions. One effective model to help leaders function effectively as collaborators both within the organization and within the community is The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership model developed by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. The practices are:

• Model the Way: Create standards of excellence; set an example for others to follow.

• Inspire a Shared Vision: Envision the future; enlist others in their vision.

• Challenge the Process: Search for opportunities to change the status quo.

• Enable Others to Act: Foster collaboration; build spirited teams.

• Encourage the Heart: Recognize contributions that individuals make.

The book detailing the model, The Leadership Challenge, was selected as one of the top 10 books on leadership in Covert and Sattersten’s The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.

In the next few issues of FW Inc., we will explore each of these practices and look at specific ways businesses are using them within our own community.

Harriet Briscoe Harral, Ph.D., is executive director of Leadership Fort Worth, an organization that empowers and connects diverse leaders to serve as catalysts to strengthen and improve the Fort Worth community.

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An instructor to thousands of dentists from all over the world, Dr. Conditt takes a great deal of pride in having built a practice where patients—like you—feel rejuvenated simply because of the amount of care and experience that has been invested in their personal smile needs.

Contact Dr. Conditt’s practice today to schedule your smile consultation. We are ready to help you start the journey to a smile that is unlike any other.

Twelve Growth Tips for Entrepreneurs

Develop mindsets and skills for growth, and constantly push your brain to adapt.

BY HAYDEN BLACKBURN Director, IDEA Works FW

Businesses can take various growth paths, but entrepreneurs, no matter stage or age, can benefit from some key tips to laying the foundation for a growth mindset and maintaining momentum.

1. Validate Everything From ideas to customer segments and markets, put strategies in place and dedicated effort into validating. If anything feels like an assumption, it is.

2. Be A Lifetime Learn-

er Having a limitless but guided thirst for knowledge can open the door to finding inspiration from the most unexpected places. To me, this is a vital character trait of entrepreneurs. They can identify the learning opportunities with every experience and challenge they face.

3. Be A Big Picture

Thinker It’s all about getting out of the minutiae daily. Schedule and have a process for big, long-term strategic thinking. Whatever you call it, make a habit of it. Connect dots where you didn’t once see them.

4. Don’t Go Alone: Build Community Even if you are a

sole proprietor and have no staff members, it doesn’t mean you must always be a lone wolf. Create relationships with mentors, identify your trusted advisors and meet with peers who are open to sharing knowledge. Or you can even create a board of directors. Isolation removes opportunity to poke holes, get differing perspectives and eliminate assumptions.

5. Listen While you’re learning, spend time actively listening. Listen to potential customers, current customers, former customers, staff, partners and everyone else connected to your business.

6. Measure What Matters Filter any clutter you might be feeling by identifying key performing indicators. Find these for the activities that define and help you deliver your value proposition. Avoid the temptation of feeling like you have to know everything before moving forward.

7. Take Action Remember the moment you first took action and self-identified as an entrepreneur? Good. Now, repeat that every day.

8. Always Be Increasing Capacity Never miss an opportunity to invest time and resources into

increasing the capacity of the most important functions of your business. Capacitybuilding can reap big rewards when you do it before it is even needed. Plan to scale and work to avoid the moment of panic when the big contract lands and the systems and processes aren’t in place for the smooth growth.

9. Delegate Effectively. You have your strengths, and you have your…”areas to improve.” Understand what is best to outsource, and hand it to the people smarter than you.

10. Eliminate Silos Silos within an organization create in-fighting and deter cross-departmental work, which hampers potential growth of the organization and team morale.

11. Be An Idea Machine My personal favorite. Pumping out idea after idea every time you are called on is a skill that allows your mind to explore new territory for your business as well as “wow” your friends. Push your mind to come up with as many ideas as possible in 10 minutes, and you start to flex its ability to do it on its own.

12. Build A Self Care Plan Make the commitment to attend to all the domains of your life. This isn’t about the mythical work-life balance you so often hear about. This is about how all areas of life, work, body, emotions, mind, relationships, and spirit, interact and impact your overall well-being. Just as you plan for your business, plan for yourself.

Hayden Blackburn is the Director of IDEA Works FW. He is an explorer of ideas and a passionate doer. Here (hayden@ ideaworksfw.org) to be a switchboard to fellow entrepreneurs and build community.

6:30 a.m.: Wake-up call from Kaitlyn’s (my daughter who is 9 years old) Disneythemed alarm clock. Good mornings to Kaitlyn and Kristi (my wife) and a quick walk with our dog, Pebbles.

7:30 a.m.: Leave the house in Southlake to drop Kaitlyn at school.

Pick up my morning coffee at Starbucks (a triple venti soy latte) to get me through the commute. Listen to KLTY when Kaitlyn is in the car and Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket the rest of the way.

8:30 a.m.: Arrive at the office in downtown Fort Worth. Quick tour

Jack Clark

Red Oak Realty president, Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. chairman, maintains a full schedule, but carves out time for Kaitlyn, Kristi, Pebbles the dog, and Harry Potter.

11:30 a.m.– 1

through the office to say hello and to my desk to start the day. Mornings are spent reviewing new and ongoing leasing deals with co-workers, discussing our marketing strategy and opportunities for new business, making phone calls and returning emails.

p.m.: Lunchtime is spent attending Board Meetings (BOMA, Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth, Child Study Center), meeting with current and prospective clients, catching up with a friend or a quick sandwich at my desk. Afternoons are similar to the mornings, but I focus more on the operations side of our business rather than the marketing/leasing. The phone calls and emails do not slow down, but I don’t mind. Additionally, I have monthly and/or quarterly board meetings for Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. (my term as chairman ends in April 2017) and Near Southside Inc.

5:15 p.m.: Leave the office and start the commute back to Southlake. If I’m not home by 6, the girls have dinner without me, and I get cold leftovers. My typical commute home has me on the phone returning calls I missed during

the day, catching up with friends and a call to my mom and dad at least once a week.

6 p.m. – 7 p.m.: Dinner with the family. We spend this time discussing everyone’s activities for the day and plans for tomorrow.

7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.: Begin the nightly adventure of getting Kaitlyn ready for bedtime. Part of this adventure includes reading time together. We finished the first two Harry Potter books together, she read books three and four without me! Hopefully we can get through book five together. Eight-thirty is lights out!

8:30 p.m. – 9 p.m.: Downtime with Kristi talking about family activities before her bedtime.

9 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.: I catch up on sports (Mavericks and Rangers are my favorites), take Pebbles for a walk, pay bills and relax in my office. Bed time is 11:30 for me.

What can Mills Systems Solutions do for you?

We are always identifying new ways to save electricity for our customers. No other electrical contractor in the state has a wider array of services specifically intended to save commercial property owners money. Our mission is to explore all avenues to reduce your investments payback period. As technology improves we are adapting right along with it. To this point, we are now ready to offer our customers the option to utilize battery banks as a way to save money for their business.

Why would I need a battery bank? Simple, as more electricity is being drawn from the grid to cool buildings during the summer months. Power companies will charge higher rates known as peak demand charges to their larger energy users. However, battery banks can be set to charge at night when power is inexpensive and give property owners the option to switch to battery back up as rates climb on hot summer days.

What is the goal of Mills Systems Solutions?

We want to show commercial property owners how to lower electricity usage and save money by upgrading their property. Here’s how...

Custom LED lighting Commercial air conditioning control upgrades UV protective window film Solar panel installation Commercial battery installation

Saving you money is our goal! That’s what we do.

Have questions? Call now.

The multiple-offer scenario is having a big impact on the way buyers write offers. The savvy buyer has already interviewed a lender and received a prequalification letter to submit with an offer. Also, if a buyer locates a desirable property, he must be decisive and ready to pull the trigger. Many younger buyers rely on the advice of friends or family when it comes time to make a big decision. The savvy buyer will have his “committee” ready to go.”

What is trending in Real Estate?

“A major trend in our area right now due to the hot, fast-paced market is “buying while selling.” For this buyer to be taken seriously by sellers, it is important to have an effective marketing plan for their current home, a pre-approval letter (not a pre-qualification letter) with a local lender and an experienced Realtor with top negotiating skills. An experienced Realtor can juggle the most crucial factor of this processtiming - and assist in a stress-free transition.”

“As the DFW area experiences growth at a rate of one new buyer every five minutes, inventory remains low. This expansion increases pricing and lowers days on market, creating greater opportunities for those wishing to list their home. With interest rates remaining low, many homeowners are trading up and several are choosing to build new.”

“DFW experienced a 15 percent increase in job growth from 2010 to 2015 and an 8.2 percent increase in population from 2010 to 2014, according to Forbes. With strong domestic immigration, low unemployment rates and a rising population of young families, the Spring 2016 Market is very busy. As a result of hikes in income growth and major corporate relocations, many buyers are continuing to search for luxury homes in desirable Fort Worth neighborhoods.”

“Young homebuyers between ages 25 and 34 are returning to the market, most often as firsttime buyers, while many retirement age individuals are looking to downsize to smaller homes. With low inventory and a continuing seller’s market, these buyers find bidding wars and multiple offers are often the rule rather than the exception. The increased demand for affordable housing in the slowly recovering new construction market is prompting builders to produce a more affordable product in 2016.”