The fast-paced and demanding Real Estate Industry can be unsteady and, at times, challenging to navigate. Allow Whitley Penn’s knowledgeable and experienced Real Estate Advisors help to position you on the right path for financial success. Connect with an advisor at whitleypenn.com/real-estate.
Michael Crain moves on his feet as well as any late-40-something, juggling figurative fire torches while on duty for constituents in District 3 as a first-term Fort Worth City Councilman and as a partner with Will Northern in Northern Crain Realty.
For Trey and Amy Quinn, USDA- and Akaushi-certified Quinn Beef was born in the midst of crisis, the result of a drastic pandemic pivot and full cattle operation from cradle to grave.
Piñatagrams is among the entrepreneurial startups that navigated and thrived even through the pandemic’s low points. “I didn’t think pandemics and piñatas went hand in hand, but they do.”
4 Publisher’s Note
Bizz Buzz
7 Class in Session The TCU Athletics Department and the Neeley School of Business team up to help student-athletes navigate the torrents of issues related to name, image, and likeness with a course and lessons that will last past their athletic careers.
9 Real Estate Forecast
Industry analysts have spoken, and the news is good for a market expected to continue its climb in 2022.
12 EO Spotlight A beer would go well while listening to the stories of Walter Monk’s marathon journey in entrepreneurialism, which includes, yes, a few bars.
Executive Life & Style
16 Off the Clock: An elementary school field trip inspired Chad Bushaw’s life in cutting horses, and it’s no mere hobby for the investments professional.
18 Office Space: A walk through the downtown Fort Worth office of Kasey Pipes, the co-founder of Corley Pipes, is a veritable stroll through history and some priceless mementos.
20 Tech: HiWave’s contactless tech innovation helps people to stay connected but without severing that essential ingredient in business: human interaction.
22 Health and Fitness: If it’s time to pivot on a stalled New Year’s resolution or expand one, training for a triathlon is a good way to do it. Just beware: You might get hooked.
58 Analyze This/Legal: Do your real estate contracts protect you against the Perfect Storm of pandemic, labor shortages, and supply chain issues?
58 Analyze This/Real Estate: As the real estate title process goes digital, a critical question lingers: What is more important — customer service or convenience?
60 Business Leadership: Catching up with Fort Worth-native Morton Meyerson, 84, a recent inductee into the Texas Business Hall of Fame, who reminisces on life at Ross Perot’s EDS.
62 Management Tips: There is much for the company and the employee to consider for those “boomerang” employees who left the company but want to return.
64 1-400: The first in a series of profiles of Fort Worth Inc.’s The 400 list of most influential people in town examines attorney Hunter McLean and his family’s deep connections in the field.
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One of our stories in this issue details a collaboration between TCU’s Neeley School of Business and TCU’s athletics department. The partnership was created in 2021 to help student-athletes navigate the game-changing NCAA policy that allows college athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness (NIL) by monetizing their social media accounts, teaching camps, individual coaching lessons, signing autographs, etc.
The partnership is a very smart move. How many 18-year-olds do you know who, with no assistance, would act responsibly if $100,000 to $1,000,000 was deposited into their bank account overnight? While I am responsible today and would consider myself more responsible than many with whom I played football at TCU in the early 1980s, I can assure you that at 18, I would not have made great decisions with that much money at such a young age.
There is a more significant concern beyond the numerous issues these young men and women must deal with related to the NIL decision, and that is what does it mean for college sports as a whole?
According to an interview with Alabama head coach Nick Saban, it means the schools with the most money will now sign the top classes and have the best chance to have the best team. This is coming from a coach of a school with 18 national championships, including six that he has coached. Alabama has an endowment of $1 billion. And while TCU’s endowment is double that at $2.1 billion, it is a fraction compared to the University of Texas with $32 billion.
In my opinion, unless the current NIL ruling to allow payments to players is regulated, smaller schools like TCU and, yes, even Alabama, will eventually lose out … as the old saying goes, cash is king. While I applaud TCU athletics for what they are doing with its Neeley School partnership, I would suggest TCU athletics consider another partnership. Perhaps one with TCU’s Political Science Department, possibly led by one of my all-time favorite professors, Dr. James Riddlesperger. The objective would be to work with lobbyists to have this crazy, unregulated NIL decision reversed, or at the very least, modified.
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Class in Session The TCU Athletics Department and the Neeley School of Business team up to help student-athletes navigate the torrents of issues related to name, image, and likeness with a course and lessons that will last past their athletic careers.
Antonio Bounds of the Neeley School leads students through the details of brand and contract management, and business formation, as well as financial literacy for TCU's newest entrepreneurs.
The course provides real-world learning for students who are now students, athletes, and entrepreneurs.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
TCU athletics director Jeremiah Donati on a phone call recently praised the Horned Frogs basketball team as one “that sets the tone” in Big 12 games.
The athletics department and the acclaimed Neeley School of Business have
partnered to set the tone for the new world of college athletics with a course designed to empower student-athletes and provide the tools to flourish in what has become known as the era of the NIL.
Last summer, in a break from years of mandate and tradition, the NCAA decided
to allow athletes to profit from their name, images, and likeness in the wake of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that redefined the concept of amateurism in an industry — college athletics — that collectively generates “billions of dollars in revenues for colleges every year,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a majority concurring opinion.
The Neeley school, in collaboration with athletics, has developed a course in its entrepreneurial studies that provides applicable, real-world learning for students who are now no longer merely student-athletes but now entrepreneurs.
“It’s a big deal for us, not only on campus, but for recruiting,” says Donati. “Student-athletes have filled the class. Interest is really high. Basically, what we did when this legislation was passed was instantly create 525 entrepreneurs in our athletic department.
“While in the short term getting an NIL deal is a big deal for some of our studentathletes, I think the bigger deal is long term — you’re setting them up with an entrepreneurial skill set they’ll have for life, long after leaving TCU. That’s the bigger play here.”
The genesis for the class was a lunch meeting between Donati and Daniel Pullin, dean of the Neeley School of Business, two years ago to start a conversation about ways athletics and the business school could better collaborate for students and a discussion of the great prevailing issues that could be coming down the pike. Donati raised the issue of name, image, and likeness, which has been a topic for years.
“Over those two years we were able to devise what we believe is a leading approach,” Pullin says, a unique value proposition, he adds.
The curriculum is not merely for student-athletes but for all students who are seeking a real-world, experiential opportunity on how businesses and brands are built.
The curriculum was developed by Rodney D’Souza, director of the Neeley Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Antonio Bands, the assistant director who teaches the class, which centers on brand management, contract management, business formation, taxation and legal information as well as financial literacy.
“It’s really exciting for athletes and nonathletes to take advantage of it,” says Bri Gonzalez, a senior member of TCU’s equestrian team. “It’s so new and growing so rapidly, I felt like this class would be a good opportunity to bring some insight on the key components on what it will take in this space, not only in your athletic career but outside of it.
“In reading the key takeaways and principles this class will offer, it’ll stretch far beyond our athletic career to further develop my entrepreneurial aspirations.”
Read more about the partnership at fortworthinc.com.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
Late last year Colliers International tabbed Dallas-Fort Worth the country’s top property market for 2022, citing continued population and job growth.
The industrial market will be the top investment target overall, according to Colliers. In Fort Worth, of course, the industrial has been “our bread and butter,” specifically in the Alliance corridor.
“I don’t think we’ve hit anywhere near the top” of industrial potential, says M2G Ventures’ Jessica Miller Essl of a market driven by the e-commerce evolution of retail.
Fort Worth is 20-30 markets below toprate rents. Though rents are increasing here, they are also on the rise in every other market.
“That trend will continue,” Miller Essl says. “There’s a really big runway to continue to attract and absorb industrial space.”
• U.S.: 17.6 billion square feet
• DFW: 1 billion square feet (second-largest in the U.S.)
• U.S.: 518 million square feet
• DFW: 61.7 million square feet (No.1 in the U.S.)
• U.S.: 479 million square feet
• DFW: 44.9 million square feet (No. 1 in the U.S.)
Source: CoStar
Retail was already in transition before the pandemic struck. COVID only hastened the shift to e-commerce and online shopping. Seventeen percent of consumers surveyed said they were buying groceries online, according to a survey conducted by Category Partners.
“By summer of ’21, this number had jumped to 51%,” says Amber Calhoun, commercial real estate broker at Graham Property Brokerage. However, don’t go writing off brick-and-mortar grocery stores just yet.
“If it’s toilet paper, that’s easy to order online, but I think some people still enjoy the experience of walking down every aisle,” she says.
The Hotel Drover was a noted star at the conference. The Marriott property continues to stay about maximum occupancy since opening in March, Calhoun notes.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
It’s very hopeful, say speakers at the 2022 Tarrant County Commercial Real Estate Forecast seminar at the Fort Worth Convention Center in January.
Three developments promise hope for a healthy rebound of the office market post-pandemic, says Cannon Camp, senior vice president of JLL, a presenter at the seminar hosted by the Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth.
The three, all of which have planned openings in 2023, are John Goff’s Crescent Fort Worth, which will offer 168,000 square feet of office space; the Van Zandt, a Goldenrod Companies development on West 7th with 109,000 square feet of office space; and Hillwood Commons II, a Hillwood project in AllianceTexas, with 135,295 square feet of office space.
$400 million dedicated toward Panther Island.” – Robert Sturns, director of economic development for the city of Fort Worth, on what he’s most excited about in 2022. That’s the federal infusion of dollars to the Trinity River Vision project.
“I think on a go-forward basis more institutionalized capital has been flooding in and people taking more risks in Fort Worth because we are the 12th largest city in the country,” says Jessica Miller Essl of M2G Ventures. “I see that for the next 10 years. We have a lot of things going for us.”
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
The multifamily residential and real estate market is prospering. The Dallas-Fort Worth area led the nation, posting $27.9 billion in sales, making up 8.3% of the country’s total, according to a report by CBRE, a real estate leader.
The Greater Fort Worth area increased in occupancy, from 94.6% to 97.2%, according to speaker Drew Kile, who predicted last year that operations would stay stable in 2021 for an industry that had a phenomenal 2020.
“Nothing could have been more different” from that prediction. Rents increased 17%.
In both Fort Worth and Dallas, apartments are being rented faster than they’re being built, officials say. Overbuilding is not a concern, according to the CBRE report. Fort Worth ranked 17th in new supply, with 6,200 new units, while Dallas was third at 15,300 in 2021.
The following shows market, 2021 net absorption, and absorption as a percentage of inventory.
1. Dallas-Fort Worth+48,800+5.8%
2. New York+42,300+2.1%
3. Houston+36,300+5.1%
4. Los Angeles+35,900+3.2%
5. Washington, D.C.+27,000+4.2%
6. Chicago+25,600+3.5%
7. Austin+20,600+8.0%
8. Miami+17,600+5.7%
9. SeattleTacoma+17,600+4.3%
10. Northern New Jersey+16,800+4.4%
Source: Institutional Property Advisors
Fort Worth Apartment Submarket Rank 4Q 2021 Vacancy Rate
The following shows area, fourth-quarter 2021 vacancy, and year-on-year basispoints change.
• Burleson-Johnson County+2.3%+-140
• South Fort Worth+2.3%+-240
• GrapevineSouthlake+2.5%+-340
• Hurst-EulessBedford+2.5%+-240
• Haltom CityMeacham+2.8%+-270
• Northeast Fort Worth-North Richland Hills+2.8%+-220
• South ArlingtonMansfield+2.8%+-110
• North Fort WorthKeller+3.0%+-210
• West Fort Worth-Parker County+3.1%+-190
• North Arlington+3.4%+-100
• Intown Fort WorthUniversity+3.6%+-300
• SW Fort Worth+3.9%+-160
• East Fort Worth+4.1%+-240
• Fort Worth+3.1%+-210
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In addition to a mastery of George Carlin’s seven words you can’t say on TV, one other prerequisite to this thing called entrepreneurship is a sense of humor.
Walter Monk, 69, could tour America with a full standup routine.
His hearty laughter is intermixed with a discussion about his 40-plus-year journey through startups.
His current enterprise, Pollmakers, is a hit. So much so that he was a Fort Worth Inc. Entrepreneurs in Excellence Award winner in 2021. Pollmakers is a political polling service that also works in political and nonprofit fundraising campaigns. It employs 30. The concept came through a discussion with a political consultant during a children’s soccer game.
His first dip into the entrepreneurial waters was as a barely 20-something. He had quit his pursuit of a wildlife fisheries management degree (“I hated going to classes”) at South Dakota State. One go at a gas station turned into three stations in the upper Midwest.
“I thought I was God’s gift to entrepreneurs,” he recalls. “But I didn’t want to do it anymore. I wanted to go someplace where it is warm, and people are tolerant of each other and like each other. So, we [he and his wife] sold all our stuff and moved to Hawaii to catch lobsters. Had a pile of money.”
FW Inc.: What happened in Hawaii?
Walter Monk: Long story short, I was over there about a year, never caught one lobster. Came back with my tail between my legs and my last $10,000.
Yet, Walter Monk figured it out and had a blast doing it.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY IMAGE BY OLAF GROWALD
FW Inc.: What did you do when you came back stateside?
WM: I put that $10,000 in a little bar in Brookings, South Dakota. It was touch and go. We were sleeping on the floor in the place because we couldn’t afford rent. I eventually got it up to a point that it was making pretty good money but couldn’t figure out how to make it any more money. So, I sold it.
FW Inc.: You eventually got back into the bar business?
WM: I had bought a beef jerky plant in Minnesota. I did that for about six months, and we were blowing and going pretty good. And then the price of our meat doubled, and there were quality control problems that were absolutely really hard to figure out because I didn’t know jack about it. During that time, I had learned more about the bar business because we were selling beef jerky to hundreds of bars. The guy I sold the bar to quit making payments, so I repossessed the bar and I thought, “Heck, I could go back and do this better.” I sold the beef jerky plant and took over the bar.
I got to selling more beer than anyone in South Dakota. We started expanding into other states, and I had the No. 1-selling bar in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota. Then things went south. I got in over my head. Had more people than I could manage, right? Well, I went bankrupt, totally lost everything. Got divorced. Started over.
FW Inc.: What is your advice to a young entrepreneur?
WM: It’s no big deal what people call “failing.” I call it experimenting. Four out of five businesses fail. If you try five, one will probably work.
“When you watch people that you’re serving do well, it’s a great, great joy.”
A field trip inspired Chad Bushaw to dream of a life in the West. Today, the investments professional is living all of that in Weatherford — riding, training, and breeding cutting horses.
WORDS BY KRISTIN PITZER
It’s a beautiful, early spring morning on Chad Bushaw’s Crown Ranch in Weatherford. The sun is shining, the cows are lowing, and Bushaw and his sons are out working their cutting horses. With the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Super Stakes just around the corner — one of the sport’s biggest horse shows — there’s much work to be done in preparation.
Practice makes perfect, after all, and training his horses is one of Bushaw’s favorite pursuits. He’s been an avid fan of cutting horses since he was a little kid,
so much so that he followed his passion to Fort Worth in 1991 and never left. Now approaching $4 million in rider earnings through the NCHA, some days he still has to pinch himself to make sure this isn’t some Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale he is dreaming in his deepest sleep.
Bushaw, a 1995 TCU graduate, is an investments consultant, most recently senior vice president of investments at Wells Fargo. He has made a career as a financial professional, making investment recommendations or conducting security analyses. He has also taken on
a second career as a developer, purchasing another ranch near to his heart and developing it into a subdivision complete with street names honoring cutting horse mentors he holds dear.
However, when he’s not doing all that, he’s almost certainly on the back of a horse, or some other aspect of breeding or training a cutting horse, on some part of his 4,000 acres of ranchland.
He competes as a non-pro, and as a breeder, he has produced horses competing at the uppermost levels of the sport. He was inducted into the NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame and is a two-time NCHA Futurity Non-Pro Champion. He campaigned one of his Futurity winners, Bittersweet, to NCHA Non-Pro Horse of the Year.
Cutting has a long history with Fort Worth. The first recorded arena cutting was held at the 1919 Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show, and the city has held cutting’s three biggest “Triple Crown” events at the Will Rogers Memorial Center for years. The NCHA, which governs the sport, is based in Fort Worth, and many trainers reside around the area, particularly in Weatherford.
Cutting, in fact, is what drew Bushaw to the city 30 years ago. Having grown up in the tiny town of Long Creek in eastern Oregon, Bushaw was always enamored with the idea of ranching. His parents, Grant and Michelle, were schoolteachers, but a fateful third-grade class field trip cemented his desire to pursue the Western lifestyle.
The trip took Bushaw and his classmates to the Oxbow Ranch, 20 miles away in Prairie City. Owned at the time by Dan Lufkin, a founding partner of the Wall Street firm of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Oxbow Ranch was one of the most famous cutting horse ranches in the country.
Perhaps none of the children were as enchanted by the experience as Bushaw, who watched, mesmerized, as shiny, athletic quarter horses swooped back and forth in front of cattle, their shoulders rolling and ears pricked forward.
“I think that was probably the pivotal moment that I really just fell in love with it,” Bushaw says. “It was a pretty special class field trip that sort of shaped my life.”
Afterward, Bushaw was itching to go to Texas. When it came time to pick a college,
Bushaw — motivated by Lufkin to pursue a career in investments — picked TCU for his studies.
The land of Horned Frogs had a big advantage as far as Bushaw was concerned: Will Rogers Coliseum was nearby.
“It was more of a geographical decision,” Bushaw admits. “They also had a great business school, and it was a fabulous school in general.”
Bushaw was suddenly 2,000 miles from home with only his old Ford truck, a twohorse trailer, a couple horses and several possessions in tow. The first thing he did was pull into the driveway of the Bar H Ranche.
A few friends Bushaw had met through cutting helped facilitate his arrival. They vouched for Bushaw and asked Bar H Ranche’s owner Bobby Pidgeon, as well as Pidgeon’s recently hired trainers, Paul and Winston Hansma, to “take a chance on helping a young guy out with a place to stay.”
“It’s silly to talk about it now because Paul and Winston are two of the most legendary people in our sport, and probably the two finest human beings I know. At the time, I had not heard of either of them as they had
both just moved to the Bar H that year,” Bushaw says. “I didn’t know how good I had it.”
Being around the Hansmas was lifechanging, Bushaw says. The horse skills and life lessons they taught helped shape him.
Bushaw has no doubt passed on a lot of those things to his own children. Charles Russell, 17, and Will, 15, both compete in cutting horses. Charles Russell is an NCHA Futurity Amateur Champion, and Will boasts a Youth World Champion title.
Bushaw’s youngest son, Wesley, 10, is more into football and basketball than horseback riding, but all three boys help Bushaw and his wife, Amie, on the ranch by cutting hay, taking care of fences, and doing all the chores such a life requires.
“I’ve tried to really instill those values in them. I think it’s kind of a lost art, even in our sport, because people don’t quite understand the nature of how cutting even started,” Bushaw says. “My boys have learned so much as far as work
ethic, responsibility, interacting with people, being a humble winner and a gracious loser. The family environment that cutting has is just second to none.”
The kid who once dreamed of owning a ranch now has land totaling around 4,000 acres, a brand decorating some of the top people and horses in the industry, and 1,000 head of mother cows. He bought the Bar H Ranche, which he developed into a subdivision complete with street names like “Hansma Way” and “Pidgeon Lane,” in honor of two of the guys he most admires. Sometimes, everyday life can feel a little surreal.
“It’s crazy to look back and think about that random chance occurrence, where you take this field trip, and then later you have a couple of friends that introduce you to two really good guys [the Hansmas]. God’s timing was amazing,” Bushaw says. “I’m proud that I’ve been able to establish a brand and a program that’s not only important to me, but to other people as well.”
Kasey Pipes’ office could double as a history classroom.
Awalk through the downtown Fort Worth office of the co-founder of Corley Pipes is a veritable stroll through history and some priceless artifacts.
Kasey Pipes serves is a public affairs specialist who focuses on media relations, crisis communication, and issue management. Before that, he spent 10 years in politics as a communications and policy adviser working for U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth), in the George W. Bush administration, as well as California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Pipes is also a historian, authoring two books on former presidents. One was a biography of Dwight Eisenhower, Ike’s Final Battle, an examination of the president’s role in race relations and desegregating Little Rock Central High School. The other was titled After the Fall, detailing the public rehabilitation of former President Richard Nixon. Both books were critical successes. Along the way, Pipes has picked up some historic mementos. We explore it.
1
Copies of Pipes’ two books.
2
A cherished photo of Pipes with his wife, Lacie, and George and Barbara Bush at their Kennebunkport home. “In the foreground is a medal I won from Harvard for Outstanding Thesis on Nixon’s post-presidency. Nixon would have thought it was hilariously ironic for a thesis about him to win an award at Harvard.”
3
A sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt, 26th president. “There are six small busts in the office representing my three favorite presidents and three favorite prime ministers: Lincoln, TR, Reagan, Disraeli, Churchill, and Thatcher. I tend to favor leaders who were communicators and those who were writers.”
4
In the Summer of 1995, Pipes interned in President Reagan's post-presidential office in California. “He had announced he had Alzheimer's about six months prior. When I saw him that summer, he was still in good shape. He did occasionally repeat himself. But he was very much still the Gipper.”
5
“I was at the White House in my office the morning of 9-11. So, I took it kind of personally. I sought out a military commission and was chosen as a Naval Reserve Officer in Public Affairs. This is the presidential commissioning document. I served for eight years in the Reserves.”
6
“This was June 5, 2002. It's what happens when the president is unhappy with a speech you wrote. He had already called me three times that morning with edits. Finally, he summoned me to the Oval Office to show me additional edits. I have other photos with him. But this remains my all-time favorite.”
7“In 1937, Winston Churchill was finishing the fourth volume of his biography of his ancestor, John Churchill, known to history as the first Duke of Marlborough. This is a letter Churchill wrote to his editor in London,” which includes handwritten notes. “I bought it from an auction house, and it wasn't cheap. But to me, it's priceless.” 2 3 4 7 6 1 5
HiWave preserves the essential element of human interaction during pandemic
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
Consider HiWave merely ahead of its time.
CEO Philip Greenwald’s startup mission was to make it as easy as possible for people to connect face to face. To that end, he developed a method of people exchanging contact information with just a tap of one another’s phone.
And he did it before COVID-19 marched ashore, sending humankind scrambling to their caves like a rabbit going for its hole. Though it’s contactless, it still requires that essential element of building relationships — human interaction. Even during COVID, the company was meeting its mis-
sion statement of connecting people in the real world, whether that be at a conference or a bar top.
All it requires is a free — yes, free — sticker you can order from HiWave’s website. There is a charge for companies that want a logo on the sticker, as well as for high-volume orders.
However, for individuals who want a generic sticker, simply go to hiwave.co and order a sticker. (And, no, Greenwald says, HiWave does not — repeat, does not — sell anybody’s data.)
“People today are already used to QR codes for everything, but this is even
easier and [a] more seamless experience,” says Greenwald, formerly the associate director of technology at Harvard Innovation Labs. “You don’t even need to open your camera.”
Greenwald and his team designed HiWave’s first product, the HiWave sticker using near-field communication technology, a feature that is now integrated into most smart phones.
Near-field communication is shortrange wireless technology that makes your smartphone, and other devices, even smarter. With near-field communication, you can transfer information between devices quickly and easily with a single touch.
“Our sticker that utilizes NFC is a much better alternative to the old and awkward ways of networking and meeting people in person,” says Greenwald.
That is, business cards are so yesterday.
The first triathlon might hurt at first, yes, but it’ll be worth it every ache and pain.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
Is it time to pivot on a stalled New Year’s resolution to work on your health or perhaps expand on one?
“It’s whatever people want to do,” says Tim Tarpley, a local health and fitness coach. “Everyone’s goal should be to be able to check their mail when they are 80 years old. Walk to the street, check your mail, and walk back inside. So many people in their 70s and 80s have trouble getting around. There are so many things they could have done younger to make their quality of life better when they are older.”
OK, so, are you sitting down? Have you thought about a triathlon as a rare spice to
your health-and-fitness goals?
Tarpley says if he can be a triathlete, you can, too. No, not one like he is … yet.
But for the beginner, a sprint triathlon of a swim of quarter-mile to a half-mile, a 10- to 15-mile bike race, and a 3.1-mile footrace is doable with a startup training program and the will to do it.
“I had to be rescued in the water in my first tri,” Tarpley says of his first dip into the multi-disciplinary race. That was 1998. Now, he’s an Ironman-caliber triathlete who, among many others, coaches Betsy Price, the former Fort Worth mayor and current candidate for Tarrant County judge. “I got started
in triathlons after I saw a video of two girls crawling to the finish line. They would get up and collapse, get up and collapse, get up and collapse. And they were like vying for fourth or fifth place.
“I said at that moment, ‘That’s what I want. Where my mind is saying keep going, my body is shutting down.’ That was now where I wanted to get to.”
Tarpley’s New Year’s resolution is qualifying for the Ironman World Championship in October in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. That’s a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and then a marathon — 26.2-mile run.
Whoa, Nellie! We’ve got some guys reading this right now who have done that, no doubt. However, we’re staying in our lane. Tim Tarpley, just tell us what we need to get going on that beginner’s excursion.
Just say yes Make the decision to go for it. Tarpley has a number of “isms” that he likes to use with clients. One is, “Stop worrying about what can go wrong, and get excited about what can go right.” Another: “So many of my clients and friends are always nervous about starting their journey to become better and happier. Once we work through their barriers, a sense of liberation develops. Then we reach a point of confidence with limitless possibilities. Are you ready? Let’s get started!”
What gear do I need? Nothing fancy. Goggles for the swim (always smart to bring two to a race, just in case), a swim suit, and a good pair of running shoes. Get fitted for those, Tarpley says. And a helmet for the bicycle ride. Those are bottom-line necessities. The bicycle? You can buy one, of course. “I know people who borrow a bike for a year to see how it’s going. Bike shorts you don’t need, but you’re probably going to work up to needing them.”
Do I need a coach? Training plans are a triathlete’s best friend. “Ideally, if you want to do it properly, invest in a coach.” It’s like starting a business. “You’ll learn all the small details without having to learn on your own. Failure can be your best friend, but you’ll save so much time and money by doing it properly the first time. A coach will also school you on best practices for transition and nutrition.
Michael Crain’s schedule is as complicated as the IRS tax code in his jobs as Fort Worth City Councilman and partner at Northern Crain.
One can probably credit the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, the one-time spouse of the troubled Prince Andrew, with helping Michael Crain master the art of shifting gears on a dime.
Crain, then the chief of staff of the U.S. Embassy in the People’s Republic of China, was in attendance, as was Ms. Ferguson, at the grand opening of a Ronald McDonald House in Beijing. Ferguson, immersed of course in the Queen’s deportment, protocol, and style, noticed Crain chewing gum.
“I never chewed gum like a cow,” Crain says recently. “My mom would backhand me. But Sarah looked at me and said, ‘Are you chewing gum?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ Then I swallowed the gum, and she said, ‘Did you just swallow the gum?’ And I said, ‘I did!’
“She summoned for her help and said, ‘He needs a mint.’ From that day on, I’ve only carried mints or something else because of her.”
He says a better rebuttal would have been something to the effect of a reference to those salacious photos the paparazzi shot that made the rounds 30 years ago with the duchess and a Texas oilman carousing poolside at a resort. “But you’re scolding me for chewing gum?” However, discretion being the better part of valor — and remembrances of a mother’s backhand — he passed.
Today, Crain — who has a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M, a law degree from the A&M Law School in Fort Worth, and an MBA from Rutgers — moves on his feet as well as any late-40-something, juggling figurative fire torches while on duty for constituents in District 3 as a first-term Fort Worth City Councilman, succeeding Brian Byrd, and clients as a partner with Will Northern in Northern Crain Realty. Saying he is busy is minimizing words. Crain is more like a Swiss Army knife’s implements in use all at once. Or think of a life in which every moment sounds as if an orchestra warming up before showtime.
“I think I am,” Crain says when asked if and how he gets it all done. “You’d have to ask people I represent. It depends on what your definition of ‘it’ is [laughs]. I am spending a lot of time [at City Hall]. I’m sure Will would like me to spend more time at the brokerage.”
He gets it done, observers say, because he works so hard.
“I just don’t sleep that much,” he says. “If there’s something I have to do, I just get up and do it.”
council meeting day, when he’s chock-full of meetings (he intentionally schedules that way), the hot matter needing council attention is a concessions and catering contract at Will Rogers Memorial Center. As written, at-risk is wording in the contract that many local caterers fear will leave them out of business at Will Rogers.
He takes a phone call, presumably on that issue. When asked about it, he says he is confident the council will reach agreement on wording that will take care of the local concerns. (They eventually do and approve it unanimously later that evening.) It’s part of the theory of “win-win” solutions that public servants vie for.
“Knowing him personally and the sheer volume of workload he can handle gave me the confidence to be comfortable with [Crain running for a place on the dais at City Hall],” Northern says. “We had some good talks about him running for office beforehand. That’s a huge time commitment. I’ve supported him every step of the way because I know he’s still available to the company and to the community. A lot of positive things come out of it.
“For our clients, just having someone who knows the ins and outs of how a city functions. We work with a lot of commercial clients, and Michael is a great connector. If a developer is having a problem with a project, he can help.”
Like any public servant in the public eye, speculation swarms about his future in politics. “Much to my wife’s dismay, there is no game plan.”
He has plenty to do right now, he says.
And ain’t that the truth.
Crain, 49, was born and raised in Fort Worth, graduating from Saginaw Boswell High School. He likes to joke — the first thing you learn about him is he does a lot of that — that he is as well-rounded as anyone on council.
That might include taking his three children to school, two 13-yearold twins, Mackenzie and Mackaylee — who do as most teens that age do and give dad the stiff arm as they get closer to the school building — and Ainsley, the youngest, whom dad says has a unique zeal for living.
There are lots of wild cards in the chambers of City Hall, including those of real estate and commercial development in the 12th-largest city in the U.S., which lacks home inventory commensurate to its size. A variety of issues pop up at a minute’s notice, and not all of them are potholes needed filling or lampposts gone dark. On this day, a
During the campaign in the spring, he would answer the question of where he was from like this: “Well, I live in District 3. I was born at Harris Hospital, so I was District 9 before Ann Zadeh and now Elizabeth Beck. I grew up on NW 25th Street so I was District 2 before Carlos Flores was District 2. My dad had an auto salvage on Riverside Drive, so I was District 8 before Kelly Allen Gray and now Chris Nettles. And I lived on Eagle Mountain Lake, so I was District 7 before Dennis Shingleton and now Leonard Firestone.”
His father’s business was Crain Auto Salvage, owned by David Crain. It’s still there but under different owners. Michael Crain says he spent “tons of my summers putting tags on parts.”
It’s a point of pride, this idea of a strong work ethic.
At the brokerage, Crain oversees the residential and property management piece. Northern, who founded the company in 2010, handles the commercial real estate portion. The firm will soon move into a new building in the 800 block of Hemphill Street.
“Will and I see eye to eye on how we want to treat people, how we think clients and agents should be served, and just in general have the
same philosophy. We share the same values: character and integrity. When you say you’re going to do something, follow through with it. It’s a Fort Worth ethos, he says.
“In this city, your character means much more than most anything you do,” Crain says. “I want people to know that I’ve worked far too long and hard on what my character is. That people know if I say something, I’m going to do it or come back and say why I couldn’t get it done. But probably 90% of the time, I got it done. I’m going to do it efficiently and with everybody’s best interest at heart.”
Crain and Northern became friends through each’s association with Steer Fort Worth and Leadership Fort Worth and a lot of other things that overlap. They formed a friendship. They have been partners for 2 1/2 years.
Northern, whom Crain calls “just a really solid guy,” has his own share of local government experience, only recently stepping aside after eight years on the city’s Zoning Commission.
Northern says he needed help managing the residential domain of the company and wanted to bring on a different skill set.
“Right out of the gates, I’ve never met a harder worker than Michael Crain,” says Northern, who in 2019 won the Charles Tandy award for most complicated transaction of the year for his years-long work on Race Street from the Texas Association of Realtors. “He is relentless, which goes a long way, especially in the real estate business because there is so much communication and correspondence. So, it really takes someone that’s an effective communicator that is very direct, and that is absolutely him. He can accomplish a large volume of correspondence in a condensed time.”
The firm, Crain says, is about building business and being present in Fort Worth.
“The vision is to build a team as invested as Will and me in seeing the city grow and prosper, all parts of the city,” says Crain, noting the firm’s interest — and Northern’s expertise — in historic preservation. We have this idea of legacy of sorts that we want to leave for our kids and grandkids — that we have been present here in the city.”
On council, Crain brings a heaping helping of levity. He enjoys having a good time; that is clear the first time you meet him. It’s just who he is, but it can be very strategic in his professional life trying to navigate the sticky issues that arise.
“He’s really funny. He can also be wildly inappropriate,” Northern adds, laughing. “What I’ll say about that is when he goes into a lot of intense meetings, he can disarm people. And get people talking to one another. He is a natural mediator. He just has a knack for it. He applies that skill set and knowledge base in real estate and his role as city council member. An he’s making a lot of really cool stuff happen.
At the city and the issues that come before it, there is naturally conflict. Northern says one of the best lessons Crain has taught him is “not to be conflict avoidant.”
“Meet it head on,” Northern says. “It’s really helped me out in my business addressing things as soon as they come up. Don’t let them build because they become bigger issues than they otherwise would be. Nipping things in the bud, so to speak. It might not be the outcome everyone thought would happen or wanted, but it’s at least pushing the ball forward as opposed to a stalemate that continues to fester. He’s good at busting up gridlock.”
Says council colleague Beck, the District 9 representative: “I think he brings levity in a way that we need when we’re having these real heavy conversations. And Michael can say things in a way that makes everybody laugh and not in a silly way but like in a ‘this is hard, and the tension is building,’ and Michael has a way to just decompress it, right, make everybody laugh.”
Before there was real estate, there was public service and leadership. Crain has always been drawn to it, it seems. He was the student council president at Boswell, class vice president at Texas A&M as an undergrad, and the bar association president.
His opportunities in public service all came from merely showing up. It’s amazing what happens when one simply shows up. Through working on the reelection campaign of U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth) in 1996, he met two very important figures. One was George W. Bush, the then-governor of Texas and leading prospect for the Republican nomination for president in 2000. The other even more important figure was his wife, Joanna. Crain also got to know then-council candidate Brian Byrd much the same way. He asked him if he needed help on the campaign. When he became a member of the council, Byrd asked Crain to stay on as district director. Crain says he was immediately drawn to Byrd’s work in reaching voters, saying he is convinced that Byrd — who stepped aside as a council member to run for mayor — increased voter participation in municipal elections by this vigorous campaign to walk the streets during his three elections.
says, ‘I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, but you’re going to run it.’ I had a history with the White House doing advance.”
Crain and his wife expected to stay until Bush’s term was complete in 2009, “but over the course of things, a year in, we liked it.” The couple stayed another five years and put down roots. That’s probably oversimplifying it.
After his work with the embassy was complete, Crain took a job with an international law firm facilitating inbound and outbound investment. Joanna started a business assisting business executives traveling to China.
The couple also started a philanthropy, Foodie Philanthropy. It has raised more than $1 million for more than 35 charities in China. It’s a good deed the couple brought back with them to Fort Worth when they returned in 2014. The philanthropy, a registered 501(c)(3), is a collaboration with restaurants, who host dining events and fundraisers. Restaurants donate a table of 10, which includes a three-course meal. Patrons host a full table or purchase individual seats. So far, more than $225,000 has been donated to charities here. (Disclosure: Fort Worth Magazine is this year’s media sponsor.)
Granger facilitated a contact to work on Bush’s first presidential campaign in 1999. By 2001, Crain was in the White House, first working as a scheduler, doing advance work for the president and first lady. In short, that person briefs the president on the event and what to expect at it. That led to a job in the Department of Health and Human Services to then the Republican National Committee for the reelection campaign and the 2005 inaugural committee to the Department of Commerce, and eventually to a place in the biggest departments of them all in a presidential administration, the Department of State.
The ambassador to China, Sandy Randt, asked Crain to serve as chief of staff. He says whatever made him accept is still a mystery to him.
But the job was life-changing, and not merely because he had to live without air conditioning or the great gum dustup with the Duchess of York.
During his three years there, he was the lead officer for Bush’s trip to the 2008 Olympics, which marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the Games on foreign soil. He was also the lead officer for George H.W. Bush’s trip to open the new embassy.
Generally, the deputy chief of mission handles presidential visits. However, the deputy had other responsibilities associated with the Olympics that prevented his handling Bush’s visit.
“The ambassador was fretting over it,” Crain says. “And then he
Foodie Philanthropy wasn’t all the Crains brought back with them.
Adopted daughters Mackaylee and Mackenzie were also in tow, kindergartners when the Crains returned. The new parents wanted the girls educated in the U.S., “so they could fully understand the honor of being an American,” Crain says.
“Those girls were meant to be ours. I know that,” he says. “God had a plan for us and the girls, for them and for us. Families work out the way families are supposed work out.”
He follows with a quip that only a dad could make, that God thought the parents had it too easy with their girls and gave them another, Ainsley.
The moral of the story is, you never know what might come next.
As far as public service goes, Crain says he doesn’t even know if he’ll run again. Yeah, yeah … that sounds very typical of elected policymakers, he knows. However, if there’s anything about Crain, it’s sincerity.
“My hope is that as a brokerage, we built and held true to our principles and values and is serving our clients and the community. We don’t have designs to be the biggest and all this stuff because we want to serve our clients and attract the best agents out there with an understanding that this is where Will’s and my hearts are. The rest will take care of itself.”
In 10 years, he won’t be sitting on council.
“I don’t know what I’ll be doing. We’ll see how this sorts out. If I’m still viable and effective for citizens, I’ll continue to do it if they want me to run again. If at some point I’m not and someone better comes along to do it, I don’t have enough pride in it. I’ll go sit on the beach and drink a margarita. This is not about power or name or pay or anything like that. It really is about trying to make this city the best it can be.”
USDA- and Akaushi-certified Quinn Beef was born in the midst of crisis, the result of a pandemic pivot.
WORDS
HENRY
Trey Quinn had always kept in the back of his mind a vision of a full-service beef company — cradle to grave and a place on the shelves of a retail store or a restaurant freezer.
For several years, he had been raising and backgrounding cattle to sell or to finish at feedlots in Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska.
And then the pandemic descended from the sky like an Old Testament horror story, taking us back in time kicking and screaming — and masked — to the days of ancestors. The blasted pandemic turned normalcy into a novelty for just about all of us, including Quinn and his wife, Amy.
Since 2017, Quinn had been breeding Akaushi calves. He had had a commercial operation with angus cattle for years, but curiosity and lots of research led him to buying two Akaushi bulls from Texas-based HeartBrand Beef, which has a commanding presence in Akaushi genetics in the U.S. He was breeding to an angus cow, an F1 cross that certifies the beef as Akaushi. Once the cattle had reached “finishing” stage, he had an arrangement to sell them back to HeartBrand, which then processed them and took them to the retail market.
“If nothing had changed, including the agreement we had, we would have kept going as it was,” he says. “We’d have kept six back a year, sell some halves. I would have gotten a premium for selling them. And I still would have enjoyed it.”
It did change, of course. The pandemic led to the shutdown that caused the closure of restaurants and eateries. Beef stacked up like oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico with nowhere to go. Processing facilities began to go dark, and some shut down altogether.
“I got a call one day” from HeartBrand, says Quinn, “and they told me they couldn’t buy back the cattle. I told them, ‘I get it.’”
He had Akaushi cattle that were finishing at the feedlot ready for processing but now nowhere to go. And more on the way, also with nowhere to go. He basically had to give away those ready for slaughter.
Now he had to come up with a plan promptus for the calves on the way, about eight months out.
“I got out over my skis a little bit,” he says. “I told Amy, ‘Let’s do it ourselves. We’ll just
do it ourselves. I’ve done this for years. I can do this.’”
That was how Quinn’s drastic pandemic pivot began. USDA- and Akaushi-certified Quinn Beef was born in the midst — and a result of — crisis. Certainly not an unheard-of scenario for entrepreneurs. He readily acknowledges that had he planned to expand the business he had going under normal circumstances, he would have needed probably close to two years to plan and sort out all the logistics involved. And there are many moving parts that under the pressing timelines have required a kind of quick thinking reserved for the clever and nimble.
However, Quinn, a graduate of Arlington Heights, also was able to leverage existing expertise.
The cattle operation was what he called a “side hustle.” His day job comes with the title of vice president at AZZ Inc.’s metal coatings division in Fort Worth.
But, he had grown up in the world of agriculture and ranching operations. His father, Mickey Quinn, owned and operated Cattle Raisers Supply Co. in the Stockyards for more than 40 years. Quinn has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas A&M and Texas Tech in ag economics and ag finance. As an Aggie, he was a calf roper on the rodeo team. He continued in rodeo on into the pro circuit with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.
A job at AmeriCredit in the late 1990s was
the first he ever had indoors, he says.
“Growing up, I was always out cowboying,” he says. “I always loved horses and cattle. My dad knew all these ranch people, and they told him, ‘When he gets old enough, send him out here.’ So, I spent summers and Christmas vacations working on ranches. I got to work on some ranches most never do. It wasn’t like I was one of their cowboys. I was a guest for sure, but I was working.
“I loved it.”
Among them was the storied Four Sixes of the famed Burnett properties. In the summer after his freshman year at A&M, he went to work at a feed yard in Colorado. The feed yard is where livestock are fattened for market.
His mentors told him to learn about the mill.
The cattle-feeding industry is a behemoth in Texas — that’s not so much a secret — and her neighbors. The industry has a total economic impact of $16.8 billion across the region of Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, according to the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.
“I learned a lot,” he says. “Feeding cattle is an art and a science. You have to be able to read cattle. They change like us. Some days they’re more hungry than other days.”
Akaushi were introduced to the U.S. on a Boeing 747. That sounds like the start of an Aggie joke, but it’s true according to Progressive Farmer. The livestock didn’t exist
outside of Japan until 1994, the year eight females and three males were shipped to the U.S. on a specially equipped 747.
Akaushi — “red beauties,” as some call them — are one of four breeds known collectively as “Wagyu,” or “Japanese cow.” Akaushi in the native tongue of its motherland is known as the “Emperor’s Breed.”
According to the American Akaushi Association, the breed has been crossed with 13 other breeds: English, Continental, and American. In each case, they have doubled the grade and improved yield. No other breed can make that claim. The common denominator, according to the Association, was the Akaushi bull.
Today, there are roughly 2,000 full-blooded Akaushi bulls and 8,700 fullblooded females that make up the U.S. Akaushi population. A bull goes for between $6,000-$7,000.
At the time Quinn bought his bulls, HeartBrand was paying a 20-cent premium for each pound of DNA-verified Akaushi beef.
Before he had bought his bulls at the suggestion of a cattle broker, Quinn purchased some of the meat to try. “It was like nothing I had ever eaten,” he says. “The beef was off the charts. It sold me right there. We bought some more to try to make sure.”
Akaushi cattle have the genetics to consistently grade prime, processors and brokers say. That is what the years of documentation and breeding in Japan prior to coming to the U.S. made sure of.
The beef is also better for the consumer because it has higher levels of oleic acid — that is, the good fat found in olive oil — and conjugated linoleic acid than other beef. It also has more monounsaturated fat than saturated fat. As Progressive Farmer pointed out, “It’s not a lean product — it’s more of an anti-lean product — with its value and health benefits derived from its marbling.”
Mike Newton, a chef contestant on Season Eight of Gordon Ramsey’s “MasterChef,” featured tomahawk cuts from Quinn Beef at his restaurant in Stephenville, Newton’s at the Cellar.
Consider him onboard.
The limited-time special did very well, Newton says. An osso buco shank special is in the works for late February or early March, Newton adds.
“I loved them; they had great flavor and
marbling to them,” Newton says of the tomahawk special. “Nice cuts. People have got such a generic style of beef nowadays. These were really, really nice.”
Quinn jokes — sort of — of his invitation to Texas A&M for a seminar roundtable discussion on his experience with the Akaushi breed, and, more broadly, taking on the cradle-to-grave beef business.
“Beware what you wish for,” he says he told one person.
Again, he’s joking. Again, sort of. Ultimately, he wants to grow the business into possibly a store front. Currently, the Quinns sell their product at quinnbeef.com. It’s literally a mom-and-pop operation. Amy Quinn handles most of the marketing and sales with help from Ranch House Designs Inc. Also out there working cattle you’ll find their daughter, Olivia, as confident on a horse as an actor on a stage.
Amy was charged with the task of finding a processor when many were either out of business or taking only three here and four there.
“I made so many phone calls to processors around the state,” Amy Quinn says. “We had three booked here in four months, four booked here in five months. We made reservations with six or seven processors; then we met Annie and Dustin Dean at Dean and Peeler.”
Amy arranged a call with her husband and Dean and Peeler Premium Beef of Floresville, Texas, near San Antonio.
The Quinns were told they didn’t have any openings for six months. Trey Quinn asked them to keep him in mind if there were any cancellations.
“A few weeks later, they called,” Quinn says. “‘Can you be here tomorrow?’”
Quinn loaded four head from his Akaushi feeding operation in Stephenville. He leases land down there from Kevin Parker’s ranch.
“I’ve never been anywhere else,” Quinn says. “First class. They do a lot of cattle like ours. There are a lot of good processors out
there, but Dean and Peeler just fits us. And I like them. They’re good to me.”
Dean and Peeler also have an expertise in all the cuts that the Akaushi offer, such as the tri-tip, flat iron steak, beef short ribs, and a petite tender.
Collaboration and building relationships have been key ingredients to getting this thing off the ground. Another issue Quinn confronted was storage. He suddenly had thousands of pounds of meat.
Joe Musacchio of Cinnamon Creek Ranch, who placed an order for ground beef, has been involved in processing for years. He asked about the soaking baptism of doing it yourself. During that conversation, Quinn asked Musacchio if he had any storage space available.
“I had about 8,000 pounds of meat, and I didn’t have anywhere to go,” Quinn says. “He said, ‘Yes.’ He was nice enough to give me freezer space.”
Musacchio had saved Quinn’s life, he says, figuratively of course. What he saved was literally thousands of dollars. An inevitable fire sale would have ensued had freezers not come available.
Everybody needs friends, especially entrepreneurs, lest they be left out in the cold.
That’s cowboy culture, lending a hand when your horse runs into a swollen stream. And the Quinns, rest assured, will repay the favor to someone else one of these days. Probably sooner than later because the best of business and steak lies just ahead at Quinn Beef.
Piñatagrams is among the entrepreneurial startups that navigated and thrived even through the pandemic’s low points.
WORDS BY TERESA MCUSIC
While hundreds, if not thousands, of small businesses in Tarrant County have cratered since COVID-19 hit here in February 2020, others have succeeded, and even thrived, because of the pandemic.
Take Piñatagrams, a now million-dollar small business in Fort Worth that sends 12-inch, candy stuffed piñatas to everyone from consumers caught on Facebook to corporate clients Google, consulting firm RSM, and TCU. Founder Nathan Butorac has been on a rollercoaster ride since the pandemic hit, from flailing to rising to pivoting. “I didn’t think pandemics and piñatas went hand in hand, but
they do,” he observes with a laugh. After losing some big corporate orders immediately when the pandemic hit, Butorac returned to his teenage roots as a Southwest High School entrepreneur and began edging yards again to make some money. He noticed the same struggle with people in his apartment complex who were freelancers in the wedding industry.
Inspiration hit, and he hired the wedding photographers and videographers and other creatives to build a Facebook ad.
“We bought $3,000 worth of ads in a day,” he says. “High stakes, but high rewards.” The tactic paid off, and Piñatagrams did 75 times previous sales over the next three quarters. “We were on a
rocket ship trying to get inventory and fulfillments,” he said.
But at the end of 2020, Butorac found himself competing with election ads on Facebook, so he pivoted again. This time, he went to the B2B market and found companies hungry for “contactless touches” for customer acquisition and employee appreciation, so his focus went to his related company BetterThanALetter. Once again, the orders started rolling in, although this time it was in the hundreds at a time. Piñatagrams turned into a milliondollar business.
Butorac enjoys what his colorful piñatas bring to the world — especially during this time. “The world is in such turmoil and stress,” he says. “We get to inject a bright spot of happiness in a pandemic. It’s very rewarding.”
It’s too soon to say how small business fared during the pandemic, says Cameron Cushman, assistant vice president of Innovative Ecosystems at UNT’s Health Science Center and one of the founders of Sparkyard,
a local resource for entrepreneurs created through a consortium of UNTHSC, TCU, and the city of Fort Worth. But Cushman says in 2019 (before the pandemic), new businesses in their first year created more than 30,000 jobs in Tarrant County in a study by Sparkyard.
“During the pandemic, we saw a whole lot of businesses go out of business, but the startup rates went through the roof,” Cushman says.
In January, the U.S. Census Bureau said that nationally a record 5.4 million new business applications were filed in 2021, outpacing the 4.4 million record set in 2020.
For college buddies Luke Hejl, Chris Clark, and Alan Dennington, the pandemic timing was just about perfect for their new business, TimelyMD. The Abilene Christian classmates saw a need for telehealth for students in higher education and launched their platform connecting students via their phones or laptops to health professionals in 2018. The company, located in Fort Worth’s Medical District, had slowly built up to around a dozen clients when the pandemic hit.
“We had a team in place and processes in place to scale,” says Hejl, the company’s CEO. “Then the pandemic hit, and schools started to shut down. Many started reaching out to us. Instead of explaining how telehealth can help their students, the schools were asking what’s the best way to implement the system. The conversation changed completely overnight.”
The slow and steady growth suddenly took off. Within the two years of the pandemic, TimelyMD now reaches more than 150 universities, colleges, and community college campuses across the nation and more than 1 million students, providing them with access to medical care at no cost to them. Among the client list are some elite schools such as Johns Hopkins, Duke, Notre Dame, and Georgetown. Others in higher education, like part of the California Community College system, also have come on board.
The No. 1 use of TimelyMD services by students? Mental health. “Prior to the pandemic, 10% of students used us for mental health. After the pandemic hit, that went up to 70%,” Hejl says. TimelyMD’s Care Team, led by Dennington, a medical doctor, is made up of 500 staff and freelance licensed health care professionals around the country. The service is available 24/7, with mental health issues ranging far beyond overload during exams week.
“We treat suicidal students every single day, and our outcomes have been positive,” Hejl says. “Our client card sets up protocols they would like us to follow in each case that allows us to communicate with others on campus to provide additional help.”
TimelyMD’s growth was a whopping 1,300% in 2020 because of the pandemic, Hejl says. Last year, growth was 100%, and Hejl sees another year of significant growth this year for the company, which currently employs 117 in addition to their Care Team.
Here are our 2022 Top Commercial Brokers and Agents in the Fort Worth area. We arrive at this annual list by scraping CoStar data on sales volume and numbers of transactions and polling the largest brokerages for their top producers. We add heads of locally owned firms. To make the list, a producer must be licensed as a sales agent or broker by the Texas Real Estate Commission. BY JOHN HENRY
Bo Avery
Investor/owner
TriMarsh Properties, LLC
Michael Berkowitz
President/CEO
Colonial Commercial Real Estate, LLC
Jerry Bolz Partner Worth Commercial Real Estate
LeAnn Brown
Managing partner-broker Silver Oak Commercial Realty
Alex Bryant
President of brokerage Dodson Commercial Real Estate
Wayne Burgdorf
Senior advisor and CCIM SVN/Trinity Advisors
Todd Burnette
Managing director, Fort Worth JLL
Stephen Coslik
Chairman The Woodmont Co.
Lane Cowden
Owner Cowden Real Estate
George Curry
Managing director JLL
David R. Dunn
Managing director/principal broker SVN/Dunn Commercial
Eric English
Member English Realty, LLC
Lisa Estrada
Vice president, leasing and brokerage Burk Collins Co.
Jordan Foster
President
Peyco Southwest Realty
Dak Hatfield
President Hatfield Advisors
Grant Huff Vice president Transwestern Real Estate Services
Brandon Karr
Senior vice president, investments Marcus & Millichap
Jim Kelley Principal Champions DFW Commercial Realty
Sarah LanCarte CCIM, SIOR LanCarte Commercial Real Estate
Tim Lancaster
President TLC Realty, Inc.
Jim Leatherwood
Managing partner, broker Silver Oak Commercial Realty
Scott Lowe
Associate broker Vision Commercial RE DFW LLC
Matt Matthews CCIM Matthews Commercial
Jonathan T. McDaniel
Principal/president-Fort Worth retail NAI Robert Lynn
Patrick McDowell Managing director JLL
Will Northern Partner-broker Northern Crain
Trenton Price
Senior director-associate broker Vision Commercial RE DFW LLC
Grant Pruitt
President and managing director Whitebox Real Estate
Beaux Riley
Senior vice president Advisors Commercial Real Estate
Joe Rudd Vice president Transwestern Real Estate Services
Bob Scully
Senior vice president CBRE
Kirk Searcy
Team lead, Texas retail investments Colliers International
Roger Smeltzer
Principal and broker
Vision Commercial RE DFW LLC
Gary Smith Broker Andrews Dillingham Properties
Robert W. Snider
Associate The Woodmont Co.
Al Sorrells
Senior vice president
Majestic Realty Co.
Benjamin R. Sumner
Managing partner Centurion Real Estate Partners LLC
C.B. Team
Vice president and principal Ellis & Tinsley, Inc.
Gary Vasseur
Managing director Vasseur Commercial Real Estate
Russ B. Webb
CCIM/managing partner/broker Silver Oak Commercial Realty
Ryan Wood
Executive vice president TCRG Properties, LLC
David Adams Vice president The Woodmont Co.
Steve Aldrich
Senior vice president, office developmnt Hillwood Development Corp.
David Aldrich President
William C. Jennings Co.
Derek Anthony Vice president The Woodmont Co.
David Barber
Partner/principal Formation Real Estate LLC
Alan Baxter
Commercial real estate agent Colonial Commercial Real Estate, LLC
Erik E. Blais First vice president Bradford Cos.
Paul Blight Partner Glacier Commercial Realty LP
Zach G. Boatwright Director Vision Commercial RE DFW LLC
Ford Braly
First vice president, investments Marcus & Millichap
Theron Bryant
Principal Transwestern Real Estate Services
Stephanie Bunn
Commercial Realtor Northern Crain
Amber Calhoun Partner Graham Property Brokerage LLC
Cannon Camp Senior vice president JLL
Matt Carthey
Managing principal, partner Holt Lunsford Commercial, Inc.
Forrest Cook Vice president Stream Realty Partners
David Corley
Associate LanCarte Commercial Real Estate
Chris Doggett
Executive vice president Stream Realty Partners
Robert Donough
Commercial real estate agent Colonial Commercial Real Estate, LLC
Bryan Dyer Senior vice president The Woodmont Co.
Austin Edelmon Associate Colliers International
Keith W. Fisher Principal Centurion Real Estate Partners LLC
Jack Forney Director Centurion Real Estate Partners LLC
Jamie Galati
Executive vice president JLL
Benjamin Gehrke
Commercial sales agent Colonial Commercial Real Estate, LLC
Jeff Givens
Principal-industrial services Transwestern Real Estate Services
Eric Goodwin Director of office/industrial services Champions DFW Commercial Realty
Thomas Grafton
Marketing associate Holt Lunsford Commercial, Inc.
Tracy Gray
Principal-retail division Holt Lunsford Commercial, Inc.
Trip Green
Senior vice president The Woodmont Co.
Cameron Haddad Director Vision Commercial RE DFW LLC
Evan Hammer Vice president Whitebox Real Estate
Hogan Harrison Associate-industrial Holt Lunsford Commercial, Inc.
Todd Hawpe Principal Transwestern Real Estate Services
Hunter Hayes
Vice president NAI Robert Lynn
Todd Hubbard
Managing principal/president-Fort Worth NAI Robert Lynn
JP Humphrey
Assistant vice president Advisors Commercial Real Estate
Jeffry Jackson Vice president NAI Robert Lynn
George Jennings
Industrial market associate Holt Lunsford Commercial, Inc.
Drew Kile
Senior managing director Institutional Property Advisors
Seth Koschak
Managing director, partner, Fort Worth Stream Realty Partners
Garrison Lackey
Associate Transwestern Real Estate Services
Molly MacEwan Director Vision Commercial RE DFW LLC
Jeff Marek
Vice president Vision Commercial RE DFW LLC
Taylor Marks Director of brokerage Woodcrest Capital LLC
Logan May
Market director NAI Robert Lynn
Mark McCoy
Regional manager Marcus & Millichap
Jake McCoy
Associate vice president The Woodmont Co.
Chris Mendez Broker SCM Real Estate Services
Josh Meraz
Transaction specialist Bradford Cos.
Matt Montague
Executive vice president JLL
Bobby Montgomery
Market director NAI Robert Lynn
Jake Neal
Market director
Holt Lunsford Commercial, Inc.
Michael Newsome
Principal/executive vice president
NAI Robert Lynn
Kyle Newswanger
Associate Colliers International
Cody Payne
Senior vice presidnet/Dallas-Fort Worth Colliers International
Debra Perryman
Managing partner
Silver Oak Commercial Realty
Payne Pittman
Senior vice president PMW Realty Partners
Kyle Poulson
Principal Transwestern Real Estate Services
Colt Power
Partner-Fort Worth office division
NAI Robert Lynn
Leland Prowse
Principal Transwestern Real Estate Services
Jeff Rein
Senior associate Stream Realty Partners
Blake Rogers Vice president JLL
Daniel Shelley
Associate LanCarte Commercial Real Estate
Geoff Shelton
Managing principal Holt Lunsford Commercial, Inc.
Al Silva
Senior managing dirrector Marcus & Millichap
Courtney Stanford
Advisor CCIM
SVN/Dunn Commercial
Mark Sullivan Agent Ritter and Associates Real Estate
Nick Talley
Executive vice president and managing partner Bradford Cos.
Frank Taylor
Senior vice president JLL
Casey Tounget Broker
Transwestern Real Estate Services
Michael Tran
Associate Colliers International
Nathan Vasseur
Principal Vasseur Commercial Real Estate
David Walters Senior vice president CBRE
Brice J. Wells Vice president CBRE
Andrew Wilson
Associate LanCarte Commercial Real Estate
In need of that perfect location for your office, manufacturing or warehousing space? Maybe you’re looking for commercial or residential investment property. The commercial Realtors, advisors and property managers on the following pages would like to tell you about themselves, their practices and why working with them will help facilitate your professional goals. The information in this section is provided by the advertisers and has not been independently verified by Fort Worth Inc.
SPECIALTY: Tenant representation, project development. EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS: Texas Real Estate Broker License; BBA in Finance from the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University in College Station. RECOGNITIONS: Fort Worth Business Press’ 40 under 40 award in 2014; Newcomer of the Year at Grubb & Ellis, 2011. GREATEST
PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Closing and breaking ground on The 701, a 68,000-square-foot, mixed-use development on the Near Southside in the middle of a global pandemic. AREAS SERVED: North Texas/Statewide. WHY CHOOSE THEM: Alex provides a unique hands-on culture to seek out clients’ specific needs and address direct concerns. What separates Dodson CRE from other real estate firms is their commitment to work on behalf of clients from an owner’s perspective. This strategy has been fueling great ideas while driving value for clients for over 40 years. BEST MARKETING STRATEGY FOR CLIENTS WHO ARE BUYING OR SELLING THEIR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY: Dodson CRE is a boutique commercial services firm that delivers a custom approach to each assignment. They offer creative solutions for users in addition to standard lease/sale transactions, such as joint venture ownership opportunities, and ground up development. FREE ADVICE: Don’t buy anything without a plan. PICTURED: Jackson Berling, Colton Wallis, Wes Mugarian, Alex Bryant, Suzannah Fritchman.
Dodson CRE
500 E. Front St., Ste. 120 Arlington, Texas 76011 817.469.4868 dodsoncre.com
SPECIALTY: Since 1983, Ellis & Tinsley, Inc. has specialized in the Brokerage and Management of Office, Medical, Retail, and Light Industrial properties. EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS: Over 170 years of brokerage experience across six brokers makes Ellis & Tinsley one of the most experienced teams in Fort Worth. RECOGNITIONS: Numerous awards received such as the Charles D. Tandy Commercial REALTOR Award, Certificate of Recognition from the City of Fort Worth, the REALTOR Spirit Award, and Fort Worth Business Press 40 Under 40. AFFILIATIONS: Office affiliations include CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member), The Society of Commercial REALTORS, The Institute for Professionals in Property Taxation, The Juneteenth Celebration Committee, Fort Worth Stock
Show and Rodeo, Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Love4Locals, Camp Bowie District, and The Boy Scouts’ Longhorn Council. AREAS SERVED: We serve the Greater North Texas area with an emphasis on Tarrant County. WHY CHOOSE THEM: Locally owned commercial firm with unrivaled market knowledge combined with industry leading platforms that meet the needs of clients today and tomorrow. PICTURED: Bill Ellis, Charles “C.B.” Team, Kevin Cavasos, Kent McKeever, Clifton Ellis, Bill Tinsley.
Ellis & Tinsley, Inc.
6421 Camp Bowie Blvd., Ste. 302 | Fort Worth, Texas 76116
817.737.5000 | ellis-tinsley.com
SPECIALTY: Local Restaurant and Retail Brokerage and Development. EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS: Amber Calhoun – Texas Wesleyan University, BBA Marketing. Trey Neville – Texas Tech University, BBA Finance; USGBC LEED AP. Drew McGuire – Texas State University, BBA. RECOGNITIONS: Amber Calhoun – Fort Worth Magazine Top Commercial Agent, 2019. Trey Neville – AIA Design Studio and Merit Award for Hotel Revel and Como Fresh, Fort Worth Magazine The 400, 2021. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT: Watching our clients grow from a food truck to multiple brick-and-mortar locations throughout DFW. WHAT SETS THEM APART: Graham Property Brokerage has over 40 years of commercial real estate experience in Fort Worth. Since formation in 2018, Graham strives to achieve integrity, respect, and leadership. Tap into our vast network and allow us to
match you with the right location and the right opportunity to grow your business. BEST MARKETING STRATEGY FOR BUYING OR SELLING COMMERCIAL PROPERTY: Providing custom strategies and solutions to our clients. From urban to suburban, Graham is relevant in every community and shares a passion for creating a unique experience. Graham is a service business at its core, providing commercial real estate services such as project leasing, tenant representation, acquisitions, and dispositions. PICTURED: Trey Neville, Amber Calhoun, Drew McGuire.
Graham Property Brokerage
2000 West Berry St., Ste. 210 | Fort Worth, Texas 76110
817.420.9450 graham-ltd.com
SPECIALTY: Investment Sales, Medical/Professional
Owner – Occupant Buildings, Leasing, Farm and Ranch Sales. EDUCATION/CERTIFICTIONS:
BBA, Marketing, Texas Tech University; Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM designation).
RECOGNITIONS: 2002 Top 35 under 35 Blacks Guide; 2018 Best of Denton County Commercial Broker; 2016 Presidents Award, 2016 Paul Harris Fellow, and 2018 People of Action Award from Cross Timbers Rotary. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Webb was the broker of record for the sale of the Lockheed building in Abilene, Texas, a 100,000-square-foot industrial complex.
AREAS SERVED: Tarrant, Dallas, Denton, Taylor, Throckmorton and Shackelford counties. WHY CHOOSE HIM: With extensive local market knowledge and personal relationships in six counties, I look at every purchase or sale as if it was my own and advise my clients accordingly. I can provide industry experts for each phase with the end goal of closing each transaction as quickly as possible. BEST MARKETING PLAN OR STRATEGY FOR CLIENTS BUYING OR SELLING COMMERCIAL
PROPERTY: In today’s real estate world, we take advantage of multiple marketing websites and social media to ensure the best exposure for clients selling buildings. For clients who are looking to purchase, we identify the goals and objectives they want for a property as well as highest and best use for that location and submarket. PICTURED: Russell Webb.
Silver Oak Commercial Realty
2805 Market Loop, Ste. 100 Southlake, Texas 76092
817.233.7100
Fax 817.849.8281
rwebb@silveroakcre.com silveroakcre.com
SPECIALTY: Office and Industrial Leasing and Acquisition. EDUCATION: BBA, Finance and Real Estate, Texas Christian University. GREATEST
PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT: My first job out of college was working for Trinity Works, helping masterplan the Clearfork development. It was a great opportunity to work on such an important project so early in my career. I have been able to take the lessons I learned from that project and apply them to my career in brokerage. WHAT SETS HIM APART: I personally own and invest in commercial real estate which allows me to advise my clients from a unique perspective. I approach every transaction as if it were my own.
BEST STRATEGY FOR BUYING OR SELLING COMMERCIAL PROPERTY: Many times, it comes down to experience and knowing who has the demand for your client’s product at that moment in time. Having an idea of potential prospects for a property the day you take it to market is a huge advantage. FREE ADVICE: You always make your money in commercial real estate the day you purchase a property, not the day you sell.
Transwestern
777 Main St., Ste. 1500 Fort Worth, Texas 76102
817.475.2343
transwestern.com
SPECIALTY: Vasseur Commercial Real Estate, Inc. offers experienced personnel and a diverse range of real estate brokerage services for office, retail, industrial, multifamily, investment properties, tenant/landlord representation, and vacant land.
EDUCATION: Gary Vasseur is a graduate of TCU. Nathan Vasseur is a graduate of UT Austin. AWARDS/ HONORS: Gary and Nathan have consistently earned “Top Producer” Awards and multiple Platinum Awards. Gary is the recipient of the Realtor Emeritus designation from the National Association of Realtors, the 2017 recipient of the Charles D. Tandy Award, and a 2018 Fort Worth Inc. Entrepreneurs of Excellence finalist.
MEMBERSHIPS/AFFILIATIONS: Gary – Fort Worth Association of Realtors, Society of Commercial Realtors, All Saints Episcopal Church, American Cancer Society, Meals on Wheels of Tarrant County, TCU Ex-Lettermen’s Association and Frog Club, and Fort Worth Near Southside Inc. Nathan – Texas Association of Realtors, National Association of Realtors, First United Methodist Church, Stage West Theatre, Cowtown Executive Association, Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, and the Parenting Center of Fort Worth. WHAT SETS THEM APART: With more than 65 years of combined real estate experience, they put morals and ethics before “chasing a commission.” BEST MARKETING STRATEGY FOR BUYING/SELLING COMMERCIAL PROPERTY: Be factual. Promote and market effectively with integrity and honesty. FREE ADVICE: Be hesitant to accept unsolicited advice, but always be receptive to new ideas or strategies.
Vasseur Commercial Real Estate, Inc.
2931 Oak Park Circle
Fort Worth, Texas 76109
817.335.7575
Fax 817.870.1911
vasseurcre.com
SPECIALTY: Tenant Representation. AREAS SERVED: Whitebox serves users, buyers, and sellers of space across the nation and the world, with offices based in Fort Worth, Dallas, and Houston. WHAT SETS THEM APART: Our Passion is Your Solution. We use a commercial real estate strategy which can solve the unique challenges of companies big and small. Being a boutique agency allows us to custom-tailor a process that best suits the individual needs of our clients (no corporate red tape). BEST MARKETING STRATEGY FOR CLIENTS WHO ARE BUYING OR SELLING THEIR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY: Engage with an advisor. While it may be tempting to handle the transaction in-house, working with an expert who is a specialist in your market will ultimately give you better leverage for an optimal outcome. FREE ADVICE: We can’t say it enough! Engage with a tenant advisor and let someone else do the legwork. At Whitebox, we can align your real estate with your company’s goals and objectives — allowing you to focus on what’s most important: your business! PICTURED: PICTURED: Grant Pruitt, SIOR; Evan Hammer, CCIM.
420 Throckmorton St., Ste. 200 Fort Worth, Texas 76102
817.502.1140
whiteboxrealestate.com
For over 21 years, FortWorthMagazine’s Dream Home projects have brought together the area’s best industry professionals to build one-of-a-kind, luxury homes that are toured by our readers. Dream Street 2022 will feature 3 homes side by side in the new Montrachet development in southwest Fort Worth.
$20 entry fee: includes a one-year subscription to Fort WorthMagazineand a $10 donation to a Wish with Wings. To learn more and purchase tickets, visit
They stand by us through some of life’s more memorable moments. They guide us through everything from an adoption to starting a company. They are some of Greater Fort Worth’s brightest, most-sought-after professionals, and they want to tell you how hiring them will benefit you.
The information in this section is provided by the advertisers and has not been independently verified by Fort Worth Inc.
FEATURED SPECIALTY: Real Estate Document Preparation and Compliance for the Title Insurance and Mortgage Industries. AWARDS/ HONORS: Lawyers of Distinction 2021; Super Lawyers 2021. MEMBERSHIPS/AFFILIATIONS: Texas Land Title Association; State Bar of Texas. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT: Consistently taking care of our clients’ professional needs is our greatest professional achievement. FIRM’S PROFESSIONAL MISSION: Our mission is to provide clients with superior legal services in specialized legal areas. WHAT SETS OUR FIRM APART: Specialized industry knowledge
and our law firm team members set our firm apart. FREE ADVICE: Use a law firm that supports your business. PICTURED: (left to right) Victoria Cornett, Tricia Wachsmann, and Stephanie Carper.
Dorsett Johnson, LLP 407 Throckmorton St., Ste. 500 | Fort Worth, Texas 76102 817.900.8202 | Fax 817.882.8526
DorsettJohnson.com jcjohnson@dorsettjohnson.com
SPECIALTY: Family Law and Probate. EDUCATION:
Janine McGill – J.D., Texas A&M School of Law, cum laude; Chandni Patel, J.D., Southern University.
RECOGNITIONS: Top Attorney, Fort Worth Magazine GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS:
We are most proud of the numerous referrals we receive from our clients. Consistent five-star reviews and feedback reinforce that our clients are pleased with their results and that they feel our genuine care and compassion for them. MISSION: We focus on your family, your finances, and your future. We seek to develop authentic relationships with each client through empathy, trust, and open communication. WHAT SETS THEM APART: We have a team of people who are passionate about helping others. We make a positive impact as we navigate through each case, and we continuously strive to find creative solutions to our clients’ problems. We are a small firm, but we are mighty. FREE ADVICE: If you don’t hire us to help you, please hire someone else. You have too much to lose by litigating your family law matter on your own. PICTURED: (front) Chandni Patel (attorney) and Janine McGill (managing attorney); (back) Sue Ellen Kennemer (senior paralegal) and Stephanie Christian (legal assistant).
Holland McGill Law 1833 Bedford Road Bedford, Texas 76021
817.545.8576 hollandmcgill.com
SPECIALTY: Board Certified Family Law. EDUCATION/ CERTIFICATIONS: B.A., SMU; J.D., SMU School of Law; Board-Certified by State Bar of Texas in Family Law. HONORS/AWARDS: Texas Super Lawyer; Arlington Family Law Attorney of the Year; Top Attorney, Family Law, Fort Worth Magazine GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT: Being sworn in by Chief Justice Rehnquist to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000. APPROACH TO LAW: We strive to provide the highest level of legal expertise tempered with an empathy and understanding of the great emotional toll that clients are experiencing in their family law cases. WHAT SETS THEM APART: Experience, excellence, and empathy. PICTURED: Donna J. Smiedt.
Family Law Firm of Donna J. Smiedt, PLLC 3216 W. Arkansas Lane Arlington, Texas 76016 817.572.9900
djs@smiedtlaw.com arlingtondivorces.com
58 Analyze This / 60 Business Leadership / 62 Management Tips / 64 1 in 400
Fort
Morton
a business and philanthropy giant, reminisces about life and Ross Perot.
Do your real estate contracts protect you against the Perfect Storm of pandemic, labor shortages, and supply chain issues?
WORDS BY MICHAEL GOODRICH
First it was pandemic, pandemic, pandemic. Now, it’s supply chain, omicron, gas prices, labor shortages, inflation, supply chain, omicron, gas prices, supply chain. Countless lawsuits, opinions, and articles have addressed many of the legal issues that could arise in a real estate project from the pandemic. The next territory to be explored is how to deal with the aftereffects of the ongoing pandemic, labor shortages, and supply chain issues. I refer to these items as the Perfect Storm.
How might all this affect a real estate project? Many contracts contain performance clauses relating to timely completion of services or delivery of goods. Every well-drafted real estate contract (whether for a sale, lease, construction, or other type of real estate transaction) contains some time frame within which a party to the contract must perform. Because of the Perfect Storm, many performance obligations in contracts have become difficult to perform on a timely basis or cost-effectively because of the Perfect Storm.
Materials cannot be obtained, or if they can, the delivery period may be substantially beyond customary. Your supplier cannot hire enough workers to meet your needs. Prices in many areas have skyrocketed. This Perfect Storm has created the probability of a substantial number of contractual disputes and, ultimately, litigation.
While most contracts contain a force majeure clause, which may be helpful in mitigating damages or modifying performance
obligations, many contracts written prePerfect Storm may not adequately address some of the issues presented by the Perfect Storm. Who could have predicted this confluence of events? Fortunately, common law provides some relief, such as impossibility of performance and unforeseen circumstances, but it is always preferable to be proactive in the contract phase.
Imagine that you enter a construction contract that calls for a date certain for completion, yet you cannot obtain the materials you need through no fault of your own, resulting in a breach of contract. Is the supplier liable to you because they couldn’t deliver the materials on time? Are you liable since it was not your fault?
Going forward, it will take creative drafting to achieve the protection you need in a real estate contract. Does your contract address changes in the price of materials? Who bears the burden of the increased pricing? Is there a price adjustment mechanism? Do you have a contract with a material supplier that provides penalties for failure to timely deliver or that covers liability to third parties because of the supplier’s failure to timely deliver? Are your contracts coordinated to handle the potential domino effect?
The lawsuits coming down the road have tremendous complexities and complications, and many people will be pointing the finger at somebody else in their supply chain. If you intend to enter a real estate project, I encourage you to seek legal counsel prior to entering into any agreements.
It will take proper and creative drafting of contracts to help minimize risk and damage for the next perfect storm.
Michael Goodrich is a shareholder in the Decker Jones law firm in Fort Worth, with more than 35 years specializing in real estate. He is writing this column on behalf of the Society of Commercial Realtors, a regular contributor to Fort Worth Inc.
What becomes more important — customer service or convenience?
TWORDS BY TROY MONCRIEF
he world is becoming more technology-based than ever before, and the real estate industry is no exception. From checking the weather on an app to asking Alexa for a recipe and going to Google to find a restaurant open for delivery, convenience has become second nature. Will obtaining title, such a pivotal part of a real estate transaction, become a more modern experience in the industry’s future? The title process is the final piece of the puzzle for the acquisition of property. We get to see our clients’ joy and anticipation as they’re handed the keys to their new homes, properties, or businesses. We work hard at keeping this process as pain-free as possible, while making it comfortable and personal as well. We continue to be in one of the hottest housing markets on record, and contactless closings became a necessity during the peak of COVID-19. Because of this, we pivoted to drive-up closings, mobile notaries, and social distancing in the workplace. Unfor-
tunately, when there is a lien on a property, the lenders tie our hands and require “wet signatures” on certain documents so the process cannot be completely digital.
COVID-19 created a need for more digital closing options. But even with huge leaps in real estate technology, the title process can be time-consuming, depending on the difficulty of the transaction.
With few digital options to manage the underwriting processes, tracking the progress of a file, and creating more convenient closing options for consumers, it is difficult to increase efficiency.
Companies such as Fidelity National Title are implementing portals where agents can receive notifications and check the status of their transaction so that title teams must no longer choose between fulfilling the necessary responsibilities to conclude the deal or spend most of their time responding to emails, texts, and calls from clients requesting updates.
With tools such as online portals, the benefit of cutting numerous hours out of our processes each week has been enticing, but the idea of removing a reason to touch base with clients seems problematic. It eliminates some of the personal touches on which we pride ourselves.
Taking baby steps to enhance the customer experience by creating, sending, and signing forms through digital signature platforms is providing a great segue into the digital world. However, with that said, banks and counties currently require “wet signatures” on certain documents, and that may prevent closings from going entirely digital. Our customers’ experiences will always be at the forefront of any business decision, and we never want to take away the ability to bond with clients and customers. So, the question is, will the impact of going digital — for buyers and sellers — make for a better consumer experience or take away the ability to build relationships?
By using technology, there is no doubt we can fine-tune the experience of working with title companies. But will there be a point where face-to-face interaction will be missed and customer relationships suffer? I know you will agree with me that this is indeed an interesting question to ponder.
Fort Worth Inc. is read by an influential range of successful businessmen and businesswomen around the Metroplex. The magazine is targeted to business owners and C-level management across a broad range of businesses.
From brilliant business minds who fly beneath the radar to startup entrepreneurs, Fort Worth Inc. unpacks their stories.
To Morton Meyerson, growing up in Fort Worth was the most important thing that ever happened to him.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
Over the course of its 140 years and various incarnations, Paschal High School has sent some heavyweights out into the world. Talk to an alum — any alum — and they’ll likely remind you that the school sent one of their own to the moon, as if they blasted Alan Bean from a platform on the football field during lunch.
The realm of business, finance, and philanthropy is no different. There are some giants whose adolescence was captured
for posterity in yearbooks. Before the world knew them, Paschal was molding them into thoughtful, literate, and adaptable business and community leaders.
The first to come to mind is Charles Tandy, he of Central High School, before the school was renamed in honor of its longtime principal. Richard Rainwater is, of course, another, the billionaire investor whose mark on the city will live for generations through the Rainwater Foundation.
And then there is Morton Meyerson, the
Dallasite who calls his formation in Fort Worth the most important thing that ever happened to him. The foundation for this gentle soul who is strong in deed was Paschal High School, as well as his Jewish heritage.
Meyerson, 83, a 1956 graduate of Paschal, looks back fondly on those days.
“It was fantastic. Really, really good teachers. Powerhouse academically. Athletic powerhouse in baseball and basketball. Football, we were highly ranked,” says Meyerson by phone.
“Academically, it was the best school in town. I was incredibly lucky to have gone there. I had some really good teachers who stepped in and took an interest in me and encouraged me to be more than who I thought I was.”
Meyerson played football at Paschal, just as his father did a generation before. Both wore No. 72. Brudus Meyerson played on Paschal’s — well, Central’s — 1928 state football team. Football was important to Meyerson, getting the “fundamentally” introverted teen out of his shell and the realization that a young Jewish boy could coexist in a very Baptist community, and, on a larger scale, the world at large.
“It was a great lesson, and that’s the way I handled myself the rest of my life. I just found places [in his career] where performance was No. 1 and who you were was not as important.”
Meyerson graduated from the University of Texas in 1961 with bachelor’s degrees in economics and philosophy. The university marked his life of note by bestowing on him its “Distinguished Alumnus Award” in 2005.
The year 1961 began Meyerson’s term of service in the U.S. Army. There, he received occupational specialty training in automatic data processing, a skill that would serve him well.
Meyerson is chair of 2M Companies, a family office he established in 1983, and of The Morton H. Meyerson Family Foundation.
In 1966, he took a job with Electronic Data Systems Inc as a systems engineer trainee,
ultimately becoming president and vice chair and leading 45,000 employees.
After the sale of EDS to General Motors in 1984, Meyerson stayed on, becoming the chief technology officer of GM. In 1986, he left GM to focus on private investing, working closely with Rainwater and mentoring Michael Dell during the formative period of Dell Computer. In 1992, he again teamed with Perot, becoming chair and CEO of Perot Systems and leading it to $1 billion in revenue.
All of that to say that in October, Meyerson was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame in Houston.
“I’ve had probably more recognition in my life than I deserve so I wasn’t particularly taken by the ‘it’s about me,’” he says of the Hall of Fame honor. “The reason I accepted is I felt like a Fort Worth person — there aren’t that many in there, that were raised there — No. 1. I was asked about going on the list about 30 years ago. I declined because I’m fundamentally an introvert. I’m not very big on accolades and those things. I asked them not to put my name up. This time, they didn’t ask me. They just did it.”
Meyerson laughs at that.
“Timing, luck, and having a good family were everything.”
“I’d put it in and say, wait a minute, I don’t have a quarter anymore; I have 20 cents. He would say, ‘Yeah, but you have money, and you have to share it with other people. That was his way of teaching me. My parents did the same thing. I had [learned] from the earlier time period, all of my family, and much of my school, etc., was about giving back. It came like drinking water.”
Meyerson was planning to go to Israel in 1998 when his son David died unexpectantly in Los Angeles at age 31. Working through his grief, Meyerson almost decided not to go on the trip.
“I decided to go. And I extended the trip and stayed two months and studied. One
the committee planning its construction. It was the culmination of a relationship that started as anything but warm.
Having started his career as a data processing engineer at Bell Helicopter in 1963, Meyerson accepted a job with Perot’s EDS in 1966 as a systems engineer trainee. Ultimately rising to the very top of the organization was the very last thing one could have expected at the time.
To Perot early on, Meyerson was a “square peg in a round hole,” more interested in discarding his young employee than mentoring him in a leadership role. The boss simply didn’t like him. Meyerson says it was company president Milledge “Mitch” Hart who saved his job.
The values learned in the Meyerson home also included the obligation to help others. Instilled at a very early age, he says, this ethos is the bedrock of the Morton H. Meyerson Family Foundation and its philosophy rooted in the Jewish concept of “tzedakah,” a Hebrew word for a moral obligation to give back to those less fortunate. The foundation’s focus is on assisting underserved communities and individuals, providing access to basic human needs, and supporting Jewish organizations and programs.
“My focus on giving back comes from my parents and grandparents. At the earliest age, 4 or 5, I can remember my grandfather would give me a quarter, but he’d give me five nickels. And if he gave me five nickels, he would say, take one of the nickels and put it in the pushke — a Yiddish term for the charity box.
of the things I studied was tzedakah with a rabbi. I came back and formed a foundation. I think we’re making a difference. I’m active in the foundation, and the reason is, I learned as a child that if you have more resources than you can use and your family can use, you’re required to share it.”
The Meyerson foundations don’t accept applications for funding. They go out and find beneficiaries.
The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in the Arts District of Dallas was named for Meyerson when Perot insisted that he would make a signature donation for its construction only if the hall carried the name of the former president of EDS.
Ross Perot insistence is different from any other kind.
Meyerson, whose aptitude for music came naturally through a mother who was a talented classical pianist, was the chair of
Yet, later, Perot moved Meyerson out of the tech side and into the business side. Meyerson, again fundamentally an introvert, was a “deep nerd, techie guy,” he says.
“In the beginning he didn’t like me. But later he adopted me and treated me as a son. I don’t know why. I have asked him 20 times how he went about selecting me to move into the business side, and he never answered me. To this day, I don’t know why.”
History recalls those days in 1992 when Perot, who died in 2019, stepped into the political industry, running for president in 1992 and 1996 on the ticket of the Reform Party he founded. He was most certainly an industry disruptor, impacting and transforming the 1992 presidential election model, value propositions, and strategic direction.
What kind of president would Ross Perot have made?
“I’ve thought about this many times, and I don’t know. Ross had exceptional skills, but he had a way of doing things that he was very locked into. Part of me thinks in an absolute way, if I look at what presidents do, he might have had a hard time. But then I look at who has been president subsequently and say to myself, ‘Would Ross be worse than them?’ I don’t think so. I think Ross would have been a good president.”
What both sides should consider before working together again.
WORDS BY ERIC HARKINS
After months of the “Great Resignation,” another workforce trend is developing — “boomerang” employees, or those who are returning to companies they left.
In some cases, businesses are pursuing former employees to rejoin them. In others, ex-employees, either dissatisfied with a new job or having been on the sidelines awhile, are seeking a return to their old workplace. The reacquainting process in interviewing and rehiring can mean some awkward moments, and for both company leaders and former employees, there are important considerations before deciding to work together again.
Boomerang employees can be a powerful force for your company if they come back for the right reasons. If they found the grass was not greener on the other side, a boomerang employee may be your biggest advocate on culture. They save companies time and money in the usual recruiting process and strengthen the business because they’re a known commodity.
And for returning employees, there’s often a renewed sense of appreciation for where they work and with whom they work. They feel more appreciated. But it can be dicey if issues that led to their leaving are still there.
Here are some tips for former employees when considering a return to a company and also some advice for leaders when weighing whether to bring a former employee back:
Do your homework. It can be a good thing to go back, but only if the company addressed whatever issues caused you to
leave in the first place. If it was leadership, have they fixed that? It’s important to do your homework to find out what changes have been made that would encourage you to want to work there again.
Ask your employer the hard questions. Employees should feel comfortable asking tough questions, such as: “What steps have you taken to make sure I won’t dread coming to my job anymore? Why won’t you allow more people to work remotely? How have you improved the work culture since I left?”
Sell them on the benefits of rehiring you. New employees take both training and time to ramp up at a new job. When ex-employees pursue a job at their old company, they should emphasize their track record with the company and their familiarity with processes and people strengths that save the company time and money to recruit and interview other candidates.
Be prepared for changes. The job the employee left may have changed; thus, when that person returns to his former employer, they may be reporting to new people and using new processes. A real selling point about a former employee returning is that person embracing flexibility and having added skills that make them even more valuable. They should promote those while being prepared to view their old job with new eyes.
Sharply focus interview questions to determine compatibility. Most importantly, the company needs to identify why the employee left the first time. Do those issues still exist? The leaders should ask specific questions related to
the former employee’s recent experience and about their “whys” regarding returning. Have they added a new skill set that makes them even more valuable? If any prior issues with the company are resolved, does the leader sense a longterm commitment this time?
Don’t be desperate. Although numerous companies are struggling to fill open positions, it’s important that the company doesn’t get desperate because of hiring needs and welcome back a toxic employee. As much damage as they did the first time they worked for you, it will be multiplied by 10 times if a high-performing employee watches the company bring someone back who underperformed and caused issues the first time they were there.
Don’t make it all about money. While many companies are increasing pay packages to find high-quality workers, that shouldn’t be automatic when welcoming back former employees. That could alienate other employees who stayed with the company and have not gotten increases. For the return engagement to work, it can’t all be about money and benefits. It’s important to find out what it is about their overall workplace experience that will help keep them there. Is it a more specific career growth plan or working from home?
In the movies, they say the sequel is rarely better than the original. But the second time around can be better for boomerang employees and their employers, as long as both sides are up front and appreciation is equal.
Eric Harkins (ericharkins.com) is the president and founder of GKG Search & Consulting, a Minneapolis-based consulting firm that helps organizations acquire and retain top performers. He is the ForbesBooks author of Great Leaders Make Sure Monday Morning Doesn’t Suck: How To Get, Keep & Grow Talent. During his 25-year career in corporate America, Harkins has held leadership positions ranging from manager to chief talent officer and chief administrative officer. He is a motivational speaker, executive coach, and an expert in helping companies create a culture that high performers want to be a part of.
Is your company one of the best places to work for in Fort Worth?
Fort Worth Inc. is once again presenting 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 winning companies will be recognized in Fort Worth Inc. and honored at an awards event to be held in August.
However, Hunter McLean’s only concerns are his clients and the rule of law.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
IMAGE BY OLAF GROWALD
It would come as no surprise if in Hunter McLean’s DNA is a strand stamped “Lawyer.”
He is after all the great-great-grandson of Judge William P. McLean, the namesake of Fort Worth’s McLean Middle School. The profession of law has wound its way around generations of McLeans since, including the renowned defense attorney William P. McLean Jr., Jeff McLean, and, more recently, Hunter McLean’s father, William Robert McLean.
Hunter McLean is a descendent of the branch of Dr. John Howell McLean, one of the judge’s sons, who married Anita Hunter.
While the genealogy is certainly of interest to him, Hunter McLean’s pursuits have nothing to do with trying to live up to the standards set before him or any monuments.
“I just try to operate in the world where I have influence,” he says. “People that I do business with. To me my faith is first, family is second, and what I do with my time — I hope most of it has an eternal value and has a positive impact on people I intersect with. That’s really the only thing that lasts. Every-
thing else fades away.”
McLean, 53, is a managing partner with Whitaker Chalk, his practice focusing mostly on representing clients in all manner of commercial and business disputes with an emphasis on large complex litigation.
McLean last year was selected to Fort Worth Inc.’s The 400, a list of the most influential players in the city, chosen through an examination of a range of sectors locally.
McLean is the first in a series of articles profiling members of The 400. Others will be available online at fortworthinc.com.
“I have always held the truth as some-
thing that is lofty and honorable,” he says.
“I think, particularly today, our society has walked away from it. The truth is whatever you say it is. The justice system is what really holds everything in check and balance. For a society to function, it’s critical that you have law and order.
“I had this strong sense of justice as a kid. I’m sure it’s in my genes. Which is probably why you have all these lawyers in my background.”
McLean earned a bachelor’s at SMU and his law degree at the University of Houston.
Looking forward, Texas Capital Bank uses strengths to bolster its mission of serving the community and clients.
For Texas Capital Bank, last year was one of remarkable comeback.
And its post-pandemic progress is only expected to strengthen this year.
“We came back in full force,” said Eddie Broussard, who serves as the company’s Fort Worth region president. “We got back in the office and began collaborating with each other again, but also focused on meeting with our clients and creating relationships with our prospects.
“We felt like there was an opportunity to serve our community better, while other folks
weren’t at that place yet,” he added.
Founded in Dallas in 1998, Texas Capital Bank offers a wide range of services in commercial banking, wealth management, and personal banking — bringing some of the most knowledgeable bankers in the state to the forefront of customer relations.
The firm also recently announced the launch of Texas Capital Securities, its affiliated broker dealer, which will offer a suite of investment banking products and solutions to further enhance the bank’s ability to serve clients.
Moving forward into the new year, Broussard wants to use the company’s strengths to build meaningful relationships with prospects and broaden its existing relationships.
“Fort Worth is such a relationship town, and we choose to appreciate and hone in on that,” Broussard said.
Some of Texas Capital Bank’s most important work is its central focus on community relationships.
For instance, all support services — underwriters, creditors, and support staff — are primarily in the Fort Worth area.
If a Fort Worth-based individual isn’t available, whomever is available will never be outside of Texas. This gives Texas Capital Bank an edge of being quicker to respond to and support its clients.
“Ultimately, we want to grow deeper with our existing customers and support them in any way we can,” Broussard said. “Our vision, in a nutshell, is to be the flagship financial services firm in Texas, and to serve the best clients in each of our markets.”
If you’re ready to connect with a team of bankers that’s focused and motivated by empowering your success, call Texas Capital Bank’s Fort Worth office at 817.852.4000 or visit www.texascapitalbank.com to learn more about its services.
