Andy Mitchell hits the sweet spot on a long-planned development by bringing his world-class luxury brand — and business partner Tiger Woods — to his hometown.
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Contents/EOE
Features
34 Head of the Hacienda: Andy Mitchell — developer, Benbrook native, TCU alum, and the guy who bought the Weinstein film library — makes his way home with the highly anticipated Bluejack Ranch.
43 Dreamers, Doers, Disruptors: The magazine’s annual Entrepreneur of Excellence awards honor those in the city who think big and follow through with action.
64 Family Inc: As businesses inevitably change hands, you’ll find some successors have a couple of things in common with previous owners: genes and a last name.
6 Publisher’s Note Bizz Buzz
10 Built to Give: Reginald York, a Mansfield-based commercial builder, renovates a veteran’s Duncanville home in breakneck speed for a Lifetime show.
12 Greener Grass: At 66, David Minor, a landscape entrepreneur, launches the first-ever 100% carbonneutral commercial landscape company.
16 EO Spotlight: A former star athlete who played football at UCLA, Trevor Theriot is an Entrepreneur of Excellence finalist with a medical device company that’s tackling the opioid crisis
Inside the C-Suite
22 Tech: Fort Worth entrepreneurs Dr. Robert A. Knezek and Mike Pastusek’s Continuously Variable Displacement piston engine is smaller, cleaner, and has some pop.
28 Financial Services: After having a daughter diagnosed with Down syndrome, Higginbotham’s Carter English realized the need for a specialized school for early intervention.
Bizz Wrap-Up
76 Analyze This/ Banking: From simplification to fraud protection, Alissa Kolm provides tips for construction companies navigating loans.
78 Analyze This/ Wealth Management: John Loyd, founder of The Wealth Planner, says one should be careful when gifting assets to avoid costly tax blunders.
80 1 in 400: As the managing director of Techstars Physical Health Fort Worth Accelerator, Trey Bowles’ experience as an entrepreneur is helping others realize their startup dreams.
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Learnings From Failure
IOWNER/PUBLISHER HAL A. BROWN
n my 36-year professional career, I have received two cease and desist notices. The first arrived on my desk in 1998 and the second in 2016, both by certified mail.
In 1998, my former business partner and I had eight national magazines and were in the midst of launching Fort Worth Magazine and a national shelter magazine titled Your New House. The day we came off press with Your New House, having printed more than 40,000 copies, I received a cease and desist notice from Time Warner. They were claiming that our Your New House magazine logo was too similar to their established This Old House magazine logo.
Feeling confident the two nameplates were not similar and that there was no likelihood of confusion, we decided to fight the claim.
We had 20 employees, with single-digit millions in annual revenue. Time Warner was a behemoth with 70,000 employees and $27 billion in yearly revenue. Its in-house legal team buried us in paperwork. After spending hundreds of fruitless management hours and a ridiculously large sum in legal fees, we eventually threw in the towel.
Your New House magazine never made it to a second edition, and we took a blood bath financially. Without going into the case details, I learned a valuable lesson from this experience: Don't get into a fight with Time Warner! A 16th-century French satiric moralist, Jean de la Bruyere, once said, "Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property."
My subsequent cease and desist notice came in 2016. Generally speaking, generic terms are not considered distinct enough for trademark protection. So, when we began promoting our Fort Worth Inc. Entrepreneur of the Year award program, I was surprised to open the certified mail letter from a law
firm representing Ernst & Young. The notice claimed we infringed on their Entrepreneur of the Year award trademark.
We strongly disagreed with their claim. Our award program was (and still is) tied directly to our magazine, Fort Worth Inc., and is geographically restricted to entrepreneurs whose corporate offices are located in Tarrant County and contiguous counties (sans Dallas County). EY’s award program is not tied to a magazine and is open to entrepreneurs worldwide.
While I was confident that we were right, the memories of the pain, suffering, and financial consequences we experienced by engaging in litigation with Time Warner (albeit 18 years earlier) were permanently etched in my mind. As a result, we hurriedly acquiesced to Ernst & Young's claim, changed the Fort Worth Inc. award program's name from Entrepreneur of the Year to Entrepreneur of Excellence, and moved on down the road.
And eight years later, we bring you our eighth Entrepreneur of Excellence class of 2024.
Being an entrepreneur provides both invigorating victories and discouraging defeats. What we do with our defeats can make our future success a little easier to navigate.
Undoubtedly, the 33 finalists in this year's class of Entrepreneur of Excellence awards, as well as Andy Mitchell, our homegrown cover subject this month, have endured their share of defeats and emerged shrewder and more equipped for success. I hope you enjoy the issue.
VOLUME 10, NUMBER 4, WINTER 2024
owner/publisher hal a. brown president mike waldum editorial executive editor john henry creative director craig sylva senior art director spray gleaves contributing editor brian kendall fwtx.com digital editor stephen montoya contributing photographer richard w rodriguez contributing ad designer jonathon won copy editor sharon casseday advertising main line 817.560.6111 territory manager, fort worth inc. rita hale x133 advertising account supervisor gina burns-wigginton x150 advertising account supervisor marion c. knight x135 account executive tammy denapoli x141 account executive james houston x158 senior production manager michelle mcghee x 116 marketing director of digital robby kyser marketing manager grace behr project manager kaitlyn lisenby events and promotions director victoria albrecht corporate cfo charles newton
To subscribe to Fort Worth Inc. magazine, or to ask questions regarding your subscription, call 817.766.5550 or go to fortworthinc.com.
Fort Worth Inc. is published quarterly by Panther City Media Group LP, 6777 Camp Bowie Blvd, Suite 130, Fort Worth, TX 76116. Postage Paid at Fort Worth, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send change of address notices and undeliverable copies to Panther City Media Group, PO Box 213, Lincolnshire, IL 60069 Volume 10, Number 4, Winter 2024. Basic Subscription price: $19.95 per year. Single copy price: $6.99
Sarah LanCarte ccim, sior president, lancarte commercial
Congratulations Sarah LanCarte on your recognition as a finalist for the Entrepreneur of Excellence Award! Your leadership and dedication drive the success of the firm and set the standard in the commercial real estate industry.
EVENTS
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Bizz Buzz
Reggie York Jr., Megan York, Millicent York, and Reginald York are all part of the family-owned York Builders, which jumped at the chance to renovate the home of a U.S. Marine.
Built to Give
Commercial builder steps in to refurbish veteran’s home.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY PHOTOS BY RICHARD W. RODRIGUEZ
It seems only fitting that in an issue honoring entrepreneurs, Reginald York is included. He really is one of the most interesting — and inspiring — people you will meet.
By sheer will and persistence, he started York Builders out of the sale of a Subway franchise he owned. And acquiring the Subway required its own sort of hoops to jump through.
He epitomizes the mantra that the difference between winning and losing is quitting. But building things is a gift that he believes is God given. And with that gift, York believes, it is demanded that one gives.
That is, in essence, how York Builders, a commercial builder based in Mansfield, came to be the general contractor for a home renovation in Duncanville as part of “Military Makeover with Montel.”
York initially wasn’t sure the timing was right.
“When I found out it was a veteran family, I said, ‘We want to be a part of that,’” says York.
“Military Makeover with Montel” is hosted by Montel Williams. Contractors renovate the homes of veterans, who are completely unaware of the work being done.
The assisted veteran was a gentleman named Kevin Jones, a U.S. Marine who served deployments during Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield.
The seven-episode series began on Nov. 8 on Lifetime.
The contractors and subcontractors had eight days to completely renovate the home.
“Our subcontractors have come in with the best attitude, their time, and resources,” says Millicent York, Reginald’s wife and the business’s finance manager. “It really is a labor of love.”
York has a philanthropic arm that does things like handicap ramps and such, Millicent says. “But this is a whole different level,” she says. “We’re all blessed to be a blessing. If you’re blessed, your goal should be how am I going to give back.”
York Builders is very much a family in every way. In addition to their son, Reggie Jr.,
the Yorks’ daughter, Megan, is also a part of the business.
“God just gave me the gift,” York says humbly. “I didn’t set out to be a contractor, but whatever I was doing, I did it 100%. That was what my father taught me.”
Reginald and Millicent met while they were students at Southern Mississippi.
She finished her studies there, but York did not. He discovered that his aptitude, like his father’s, was working with his hands. Building things made him happy, and, to that end, he pursued instruction in carpentry and cabinetry. He flourished in the trade.
Life took a different turn when York and Millicent decided to move back to her hometown — Fort Worth.
While she taught school, York built cabinets. He also saw an opportunity in a sandwich franchise, Subway, in the early 1990s. There was a shop he had seen on Vickery. However, everywhere he turned for a bank loan to buy the franchise, he was rebuffed.
“I applied for a loan 10 times,” he remembers. “I had no assets.” One bank turned him down three times. To that loan officer, he offered to buy her lunch.
“She told me, ‘Reggie, we are not going to give you a loan,’” he says. She went to lunch anyway at the Subway he wanted. There was a line out the door, he says.
“I told her what I would do if I owned it,” he says, “and she tells me, ‘I tell you what, I’ve never met anyone as persistent as you. If you can come up with 25% down, I’ll convince the bank to make the loan.’ They did.”
York worked day and night, literally. During most of the day, he ran his Subway restaurant. Late afternoon and evenings, he did his carpentry. He worked as late as his clients were comfortable having him there.
York’s first commercial enterprise was a TECQ buildout on East Loop 820. He had finally gotten a commercial job after falling short of several bids. He got lucky because every other company said they could not meet the tight timeframe, which, suffice to say, was longer than the eight days of the military makeover.
Reginald York, right, discusses the renovation with Michael Willcot, a structural engineer at York Builders and nephew of the U.S. Marine whose home was being renovated.
Greener Grass
Landscape entrepreneur returns to space with greener — cleaner — business.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
At 66, after several years of socalled “retirement,” most would be content to tend their own gardens.
Or perfect the pitching wedge.
However, that’s not David Minor, an entrepreneur's entrepreneur, who says his golf game has already peaked.
“I'm just really not very good at golf,” he jokes. “I mean, I got better, but I'm just not that good at golf.”
Instead, Minor is returning to what he's not just good at, but great at — a businessman in the landscape industry where he became a leader and, in many ways, helped shape over five decades of business.
And this endeavor might be his magnum opus.
The Fort Worth native and businessman has launched The Greener Good, believed to be America’s first 100% carbon-neutral commercial landscape company.
The mission of The Greener Good is “to transform commercial landscapes services delivery by embracing sustainable practices that protect and enhance the environment.”
It’s the manifestation of an “epiphany” he had concerning the landscape services industry, which, he says, “is really, really bad as it relates to carbon output.”
“I had no idea all these years that I was doing this work,” Minor says by phone. “Climate change wasn’t on hardly anybody's radar. But then I started doing some research.”
What he found troubled him.
Minor, a past president of the National Association of Landscape Professionals, began his business journey as a 15-year-old student at Southwest High School.
Minor turned what became Minor’s Landscape Services into an annual revenue
generator in the tens of millions and a place on Inc. magazine’s list of the 500 fastest-growing privately held companies in the country.
At 39, he made a successful exit, accepting a buyout offer from TruGreen-ChemLawn. At the time, the company had three offices and upwards of 300 employees.
In 2000, Minor was named founding director of the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center at TCU, his alma mater. Over 11 years as director, he built a nationally recognized program. In his last year at TCU, the entrepreneurship program was named the model undergraduate program in the country. He was awarded the title Founder Emeritus when he retired in 2011.
Minor’s work at TCU was a determining factor in his being selected Fort Worth Inc.’s Supporter of Entrepreneurship Award winner in 2022.
Minor left TCU to devote more time to another endeavor, Landscape Partners. After 15 years, he made another successful exit.
Joining Minor in this enterprise will be Rick Onstott, former president of Landscape Partners, who will serve as CEO of The Greener Good. Patrick Wallace, a well-credentialed landscape and irrigation professional in DFW, has been appointed as operations manager.
With The Greener Good, Minor is committed to the vision of combating the industry's outsized ills, which, he says, are significant.
He cites research which concluded that operating a commercial lawnmower for just one hour produces as much smog-forming pollution as driving a car 300 miles.
Moreover, running a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour emits as much carbon dioxide as driving a car 1,100 miles, he says.
The tools of The Greener Good will be electric, including blowers that operate at about 65 decibels. The vehicle fleet will be electric, too, except for some of the bigger vehicles, which have to use gas. That carbon output, however, will be offset with another program.
Furthermore, Minor has formed The Greener Good Charitable Foundation, which is designed to promote sustainability in business.
“This is not about making a bunch of money for me,” says Minor. “But it's as much of a social mission for me than anything, trying through my business to make a difference in the world.”
Office Memos
Laura Hilton Hallmon, a partner at Cantey Hanger, has been appointed to chair the U.S. Leadership Committee for Meritas, the premier global alliance of independent law firms, serving the local legal needs of the clients of 172 law firms located across 92 countries.
Cx Precision Medicine, a groundbreaking diagnostics company founded on the research of Sid O’Bryant at UNT Health Science Center, recently was selected to join the prestigious StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot community, an enterprise designed to bring together companies, researchers, and innovators to collaborate across the spectrum of Alzheimer’s care.
Cowtown Angels has established Cowtown Seed, a funding group focused on supporting early-stage startups and providing critical pre-seed opportunities for founders in Fort Worth and Tarrant County.
Nanoscope Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing gene therapies for vision loss, said last month that it planned to start the process of applying for approval to sell its gene therapy after receiving positive regulatory feedback from the FDA.
The Fort Worth City Council in October approved incentives for Embraer’s $70 million new service center at Perot Field Alliance Airport in Fort Worth. At the same meeting, the council approved an economic development deal with Americold, one of the largest temperature-controlled warehousing and distribution providers in the world, for an expansion of its plant in north Fort Worth. Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Anette Landeros is leaving the organization to join Trinity Metro as chief strategy officer. The appointment becomes effective in December.
The Leo Potishman Foundation has pledged a $2 million gift for the construction and development of Texas A&M-Fort Worth, the university announced in October. Potishman, who died in 1981 at age 85, was a longtime Fort Worth businessman and philanthropist whose foundation continues to support local arts, education, and community institutions.
John Clay Wolfe does cool things. In October, Wolfe and actor and comedian Adam Corolla — both classic car collectors — went in together to buy Paul Newman’s 1976 Ferrari 308 GTB, also known as the “Prancing Clydesdale.”
David Woolsey President/CEO
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Trevor Theriot paid visits to a few meetings of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization in Dallas, but he came away feeling as if it wasn’t his crowd.
A friend suggested he try EO Fort Worth. “Ah,” he remembers thinking, “these are my people.”
Theriot is back as a finalist in the Fort Worth Inc.’s Entrepreneur of Excellence program. He is the founder, president, and CEO of ManaMed, a medical device company based in North Texas.
ManaMed has come a long way in eight short years.
The company, which has eight issued patents and 14 others pending, was recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the country as part of the In c. 5000 in 2021 and 2022.
In 2023, ManaMed introduced more than 20 new original products. Among those was a prescription device to treat the disease of lymphedema, a chronic condition that causes swelling due to a buildup of lymph fluid in the body. Moreover, ManaMed is tackling the opioid crisis with a proprietary at-home ultrasound device that the company says has been shown to decrease pain by 23% over the placebo group.
“This vision to enter high market caps will enable ManaMed to soar to $100 million in annual sales,” Theriot says.
Since its founding in 2015, ManaMed has sold more than $130 million worth of products. In 2023, it reached 22% year-over-year growth. That despite losing a major customer in 2022. He was overseas in October on business.
Moving the Chains
Football was pivotal in helping Trevor Theriot clear a path as a health care disruptor.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY IMAGE BY RICHARD RODRIGUEZ
he says. “After doing more than $40 million of business with foreign vendors, it is always a struggle to safeguard our intellectual property, designs, and innovations.”
Theriot prepared himself for the rugged competition of facing off with billion-dollar health care corporations as a fullback at UCLA. He played for Karl Dorrell and Rick Neuheisel. Theriot earned a full scholarship after walking on as a freshman out of Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, California. He is considered one of the most decorated athletes in Orange County history as a tri-sport athlete — football, basketball, and track and field.
Theriot was inducted into the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame as an honored high school athlete in 2005.
He played in all 13 games for the Bruins as a fifth-year senior, and three times he was a member of Pac-10 All-Academic teams while double majoring in history and political science.
A teammate, placekicker Chris Griffith, led Theriot to medical device sales.
He started ManaMed with PlasmaFlow, a portable compression device that helps prevent blood clots by stimulating blood flow in the extremities.
“I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish together, but I know there’s still so much more out there waiting for us. I'm excited to see what the future will bring.”
“The most difficult challenge I have faced is managing relationships abroad.”
“The most difficult challenge I have faced is managing relationships abroad,”
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Inside the C-Suite
22 Tech / 28 Financial Services
Despite the push toward electric, could this smaller, lighter, and more efficient gas engine gain a clientele? With the U.S. Army in their sights, the founders of AmeriBand, the Fort Worth-based company that's secured six patents on the engine's design, say absolutely.
Little Engine That Does
Fort
Worth-based AmeriBand not ‘wobbling’ about the capabilities of its AspireCVD engine.
WORDS BY JOHN STURBIN
Gearheads of a certain age likely will conjure up images of automotive entrepreneur Preston Tucker when Dr. Robert A. Knezek and Mike Pastusek lay out their vision for the Continuously Variable Displacement piston engine.
Ever hear of the term “wobble plate”?
You won’t find it in either the print or digital versions of Car and Driver or Popular Mechanics. Not yet anyway. But it’s the centerpiece of the engine designed by Dr. Knezek, a retired mechanical engineer, and his co-inventor/nephew Pastusek.
“We’ve been trying to do this for 10 years,” says Dr. Knezek, who retired from General Dynamics, now Lockheed Martin, in 2000 after a near 40-year career that included acclaimed engine work on the F-16 fighter jet.
“Robert retired in 2000,” Pastusek says,
“but his brain never retired.”
Enter the AspireCVD engine as touted by Fort Worth-based AmeriBand, LLC. The company’s goal has been to develop an engine that is small, powerful, low-cost, and fuel-efficient using regular, 87-octane gasoline in a bid to significantly reduce hazardous emissions.
“There’s nobody that has solved the configuration that is suitable for actual use,” says the soft-spoken Dr. Knezek, 89, president of the company he founded in 2006. “I don’t know anybody that has ever done that. We have accomplished this goal.”
This engine is projected to be approximately 50% smaller, 50% lighter, and improve fuel efficiency by more than 60%. Displacement of the CVD engine is infinitely variable from 3:1 (1-3, 2-6, 3-9 liters, etc.).
Dr. Knezek’s claim has been backed
by engineering design work performed at the University of Texas at Arlington, Texas Tech University, Oklahoma State University, and a private engineering consulting firm. AmeriBand, LLC also has secured six U.S. patents for this technology — although no actual metal, working engine currently exists.
As noted, the CVD employs a wobble plate, a concept used by many hydraulic pumps. The piston stroke, and therefore piston displacement, is changed by altering the wobble plate angle. By moving the wobble plate up or down the power shaft, the compression ratio can be increased, decreased, or held constant throughout a range of displacement volume.
The patented design eliminates the need for timing belts/timing chains while allowing for independent valve timing. In addition, skirt friction induced by pistons in traditional internal combustion engines (ICE) also is virtually eliminated because the piston connecting rod stays almost perpendicular to the cylinder bore. In this engine, the piston connecting rod moves only about five-six degrees. In a conventional engine, a piston connecting rod moves 50-60 degrees.
This technology can be adapted for virtually any ICE use, including the military, long-range trucking, farm equipment, school buses, RVs, boats/marine, and even the wide world of motorsports.
“We can build an engine that will power whatever you want to power, but it’s going to use a lot less [fuel] energy,” says Pastusek, 77, a self-proclaimed “country boy” from Iowa Park who has owned and operated a computerized manufacturing facility since 1976. “This engine would run on diesel; it would run on gasoline. It would run on natural gas, on any combustible fuel. The point is, if we don’t use as much to start with, it’s going to be better for the environment.”
The company’s basic engine profiles list one example with five cylinders that is 13.50 inches in diameter and 18.75 inches long, producing approximately 250 horsepower, and a seven-cylinder engine that is 17.5 inches in diameter and 25 inches long producing about 700 horsepower.
“We started off with a five-cylinder engine,” said Pastusek, armed with a
Mike Pastusek and Dr. Robert A. Knezek
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working plastic model of the CVD. “We wanted it to be an odd number of cylinders so it would fire on every other cylinder on a 4-cycle engine (1,3,5,2,4,1…etc.) making for a very smooth-running engine.
“It’s ‘scale-able.’ Basically, it can be as big as you want, and it can be virtually as small as you want. It would even work on a little three-cylinder engine as well. But five or seven [cylinders] would give you a good, smooth-running engine. The engine size will vary based on the demand. If you need more horsepower, more torque, it will increase the stroke by changing the angle of the wobble plate. And if you’re going downhill or idling, it will flatten out to where it has very little displacement.”
The engine’s axial cylinder arrangement features a driveshaft — and no crankshaft. “Getting rid of the crankshaft … to me, it’s the biggest change,” said Dr. Knezek, who obtained his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from The Ohio State University in 1975.
“The wobble plate is connected to the driveshaft,” said Pastusek, completing his uncle’s thought. “Another difference — because of the cylinder and valve actuator locations and continually firing order everyother cylinder (1,3,5,2,4,1…), there is only one ‘cam lobe’ for all the intake valves and one ‘cam lobe’ for all the exhaust valves.”
The co-inventors claim the CVD’s patented Hydraulic Valve Actuation System
virtually eliminates valve actuation system losses typical in conventional engines.
“In addition to the projected 60-plus percent improved fuel economy over a conventional engine,” Pastusek says, “this engine, we believe, will idle between 10 and 20 RPM. So, instead of having your car cut off when you stop, it goes to minimum displacement and RPM because you have virtually no power demand, consuming very little fuel.”
The ideal timetable for launching the CVD, Pastusek admits, would have been 10 years ago. “That was before there was such a big push on electrical stuff,” Pastusek says. “Right now, if you say ‘electric,’ everybody’s raising the [American] flag. And if you say anything about anything else, it’s like, ‘That’s old stuff. We don’t want to talk about that. We don’t need this.’ It was definitely the attitude we were facing.
“But people have come to the realization we’re going to need all forms of energy. And we do need to be as efficient as possible with what we do use.”
Its search for project partners has pointed Team AmeriBand toward the government. AmeriBand manager Brenda K. Reed — Dr. Knezek’s daughter — said the Army has expressed interest in the engine for its ground support vehicles and generators for its “temporary cities.”
Uncle Sam, however, is a cautious customer. “Where we are now, the only engine that we have is a 3D-printed one,” says Reed, 60, whose background is in computer software. “So, all of the tests that have been done through UTA, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State — all those computergenerated tests — have shown that what we’re claiming will happen. But it’s not a physical test. We’re claiming what they said based on their studies.
“That’s where the Army was … ‘When you have real test results, come back to us.’ They’re highly interested in the engine. But they want real tests.”
Pastusek said a prototype engine could be built using many commercially available parts at the AmeriBand compound off Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway. That locale also is home to Pastusek’s D&J Technologies, a full-service precision CNC machining, fabrication, and assembly facility.
“We’ve built engines here before — not
like this one,” said Pastusek, who will turn 78 on Nov. 26. “This is just a matter of getting all the final details worked out. And Oklahoma State right now is working with us to help us on these issues — the valve and cylinder system, primarily.”
Dr. Knezek, who will turn 90 on Nov. 12, is a lifespan removed from the farm he grew up on in Megargel, a town in Archer County located on the headwaters of Kickapoo Creek. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Megargel’s population was 174.
“My father was one of four in his graduating class,” Reed said. “My parents [Robert and wife LaVerne] are going on 67 years of marriage, and one of their wedding gifts was a toaster. And that toaster still works, just because he takes good care of it. Yeah, he’s a smart man.”
Indeed, Dr. Knezek held the positions of project engineer, senior engineering specialist, and program manager during his distinguished tenure at General Dynamics. He served as lead engineer for several projects involving advanced propulsion systems, including as chief engineer for design and integration of the GE F-101 engine into the F-16 fighter jet.
“We were having trouble with Pratt & Whitney supplying the engines. And in a single-engine airplane, that’s not very good,” Dr. Knezek quips. “So, I managed to engage General Electric, and we came up with a modified engine that had originally been designed for bombers.”
Problem solved. Next?
Dr. Knezek’s prescience does conjure up comparisons to Tucker, the Michigan native who challenged America’s automotive establishment with his Tucker Torpedo, aka the Tucker 48. The prototype for the aerodynamic, four-door sedan was powered by a rear-mounted engine and introduced a package of safety/performance enhancements including a padded dash, pop-out windshield, and disc brakes to carhungry post-World War II America.
The suggestion he might be channeling Tucker — genuine automotive maverick — drew a polite smile from Dr. Knezek. “I hope so,” he said. “I think of our future, and an engine like this has huge potential. I don’t see anything that will keep us from doing it; I’ll just put it that way.”
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‘A
God Thing’
Carter and Taylor English found a new, higher purpose in dealing with daughter’s special needs.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY PHOTO BY RICHARD W. RODRIGUEZ
Carter English has stepped into roles he never expected to fill.
A marketing graduate of TCU’s Neeley School of Business and a walk-on to the football team, English’s professional visions focused on coaching football.
And he did that for a while, working on coaching staffs at Southern Miss, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, and Texas State.
So, working at Higginbotham as chief business officer overseeing employee benefits at the corporate office in Fort Worth, the job he holds today, would have been a surprise to the younger English.
So, too, would have been the role of champion for early intervention education for the developmentally disabled and founder and chairman of the board of the Rise School in San Antonio, which sits on the CHRISTUS Children’s Hospital campus. The Rise School is widely considered
the best in class for early intervention for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities from birth until 6 years old.
That became a circumstance in English and his wife Taylor’s lives when their daughter Isabelle — “Izzy” — was born with Down syndrome two years ago.
English had friends in Dallas with the Touchdown Club, a nonprofit created to bolster funding for options for families with children with Down syndrome, who immediately encouraged him to start a Rise School in San Antonio. Taylor, too, wanted a better option where few existed for children with Down.
Of course, one doesn’t just snap his fingers and create a Rise School. The Englishes had some built-in disadvantages. They had just moved there, so, they didn’t know a soul. He had more than full-time professional obligations, and they had a newborn with Down.
No way, Carter thought. “But I just so happened to be reading the Bible and this verse, it’s in Genesis 50," he says. "I told Taylor and I told my mom: ‘I think we're supposed to start the Rise School.’”
And Joseph said, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today, so do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones.”
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
“We just felt like, OK, we're just going to pursue it until the Lord closes the door,” Carter says.
The birth of their daughter had been a test of faith. And an affirmation of love.
Prenatal testing showed no indications of any abnormalities with Izzy. So, when the parents discovered at birth that Izzy had Down syndrome, they were devastated. The news shattered the dreams they had envisioned, filling them with unexpected grief and a profound sense of loss for the life they had imagined for their child.
They knew no one in San Antonio, but their network, and even outside their network, jumped in to offer support.
Bruce Matthews, the Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive lineman, called him. His words initially “pissed me off,” Carter says. Matthews, who has a daughter with Down, told him that even if he could, he wouldn’t change his daughter, Gwyneth.
“Because, he said, then she ceases to be the daughter that I know and love,” Carter recalls Matthews telling him. “I remember thinking at that time, I'm always going to want this to be gone.
“And now, truly, I would never take it away from her. I love exactly who she is and how she is and her personality.”
Says Taylor: “The joy that we didn't have the day she was born, we are experiencing tenfold today. We know that God created her for a reason. And we're getting to see that, so I'm so grateful for it.”
The parents had a new purpose and a job to do. Carter immersed himself in literature about Down syndrome and development. He also had a calling to start a Rise School in San Antonio. Carter was transferred back to Fort Worth, but he remains committed to finishing what he started. Izzy today goes to KinderFrogs, which has a specialization in early intervention.
Carter English with his wife, Taylor, and daughter, Izzy.
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The first Rise School was established in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, by Alabama football coach Gene Stallings, whose son was born with Down. Stallings has devoted his life to promoting projects that advance quality of life for the developmentally disabled.
The first person Carter called was his best friend from high school at Highland Park — Clayton Kershaw, the professional baseball pitcher. Kershaw immediately committed $50,000, says Carter.
Each of their families also pitched in. Higginbotham employees, individually and through its community fund, have given roughly $500,000, Carter says. And, Taylor says, “San Antonio loves to give.”
Carter asked John Poston with the Touchdown Club in Dallas to come to San Antonio to give counsel. The Touchdown Club’s name derives from the concept of “touching Down” syndrome. Poston had established the Rise School in Dallas.
Carter also arranged a meeting with Cris Daskevich, the CEO of CHRISTUS Children’s Hospital, hoping it could replicate what Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston had done by establishing a Rise School on its campus.
“She walks in and I'm about to start my deal, and she goes, ‘Hey, before you start, I want to tell you two things,’” Carter says.
“She said, ‘First of all I went to TCU, go Frogs. Second of all, I came from Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. I know and believe in the Rise School.’ And she said, ‘Before you begin, we're in.’”
Daskevich told the meeting that a study around neurodevelopmentally delayed kids in San Antonio, ages 0 to 6, found that the city was 25 years behind the other top 10 cities in the U.S. when it came to that specific population. As a result of that, the hospital had just been awarded a national grant to focus on it. CHRISTUS had also just hired physicians with expertise in autism, spina bifida, and Down syndrome to move into San Antonio just for this.
The timing, she said, was “crazy.”
CHRISTUS helped with an infusion of $500,000 into the effort and a building it rents to the Rise School for a $1 a year.
“God continued to open doors,” Taylor says. “It was a God thing how everything happened. He just put us in contact with the right people at the right time.”
– Dolly Parton
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Andy Mitchell’s career in deal-making takes him full circle back to Fort Worth and the dreamy Bluejack Ranch.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY / IMAGES BY RICHARD W. RODRIGUEZ
Andy Mitchell is clearly as comfortable with beer in hand riffing and shooting the breeze as he is crafting the multimillion-dollar deals of a prolific news-making career in private equity and real estate development.
It’s clear the Fort Worth native loves to laugh as we sip drinks in the lobby of the Hotel Drover in the Fort Worth Stockyards. Whether he’s sharing captivating tales from a full life — which, at age 49, still has plenty of chapters left — or ruminating on a 1990s cult classic comingof-age comedy, his gusto is contagious.
“That’s a good scene, by the way,” he says, after making a reference to a line in “Dazed and Confused,” the film starring Matthew McConaughey.
“I only came here to do two things, kick some ass and drink some beer. Looks like we’re almost outta beer.”
He laughs, the ever-present gleam in his eyes an indication of his ever-present sense of excitement, humor, and playful mischief all mixed together the way an artist turns a blank canvas into a vibrant work of art.
While bantering and trading my questions for his answers, you get the idea pretty quickly that he likely was very much like the teen provocateurs of Richard Linklater’s 1993 film.
“I’m almost 50 now,” he says. “I can tell these stories.”
Mitchell is the founding CEO of Lantern Capital Partners, with more than 25 years of experience in investment management, financial advisory, capital markets, and restructuring. As a financier, he has guided numerous major and mid-market transactions across diverse industries, including complex restructurings, recapitalizations, private placements, distressed mergers and acquisitions, and valuations of both distressed and stable companies. His most notable acquisition involved Harvey Weinstein’s film company and its 277 feature films, acquired out of bankruptcy in 2018 for more than $400 million after Weinstein’s wellpublicized downfall.
Bluejack National is described as a “harmonious blend of comfort, recreation, and community.” It has gained national recognition and has been rated the No. 1 residential golf course in Texas by Golfweek for several years, with additional recognition as one of the best in the nation.
You have to see it to believe it, I’ve been told several times.
Throughout the development’s lifespan, he has had two faithful partners: his wife, Kristin, and Tiger — arguably the world’s greatest golfer, with all due respect to Nicklaus and Hogan, neither of whom would shy away from a money game with the 15-time major champion.
“When he [Tiger] came to the property [in Montgomery, Texas] and saw how much it reminded him of Augusta, he’s like, ‘this is crazy,’” Kristin says. “He had heard that it [resembled Augusta], and that’s why he was interested. But to see it, until you go down there and you see it, you’re like, ‘Wow, this is weird.’”
Bluejack National is elite in the range of amenities it offers. Elegant homes dot the landscape, which complement the natural beauty of the surroundings. Residences include cottages to custom estates.
Fort Worth wasn’t just the place he went to college. This is his hometown. This is the place that shaped his sense of resilience. His sense of humor. The foundation of his values and work ethic. His edge and ambition.
Beyond finance, Mitchell has expanded his influence into real estate development, focusing on high-end residential and commercial projects. A turning point in his career came when GMAC asked him to remedy its resorts investment portfolio that was limping along. The portfolio was acquired by Centerbridge Partners and in 2010 became Lantern Asset Management. Mitchell became its CEO.
His most prominent endeavor includes partnering with Tiger Woods on Bluejack National development, an award-winning private residential club and golf community that spans over 700 acres of scenic hills and woodland in Montgomery, just north of Houston.
He jokes that he won Bluejack National in a poker game. Yet, the journey to developing it does seem as if it were written in the stars. And he becomes profound recalling how it all came about.
“You can’t make this up the way the world connects,” he says of the string of events that led to the founding of the brand. “This is why I think the world is an amazing place.”
And, of course, the centerpiece is the 18-hole championship golf course, the first in the U.S. designed by Tiger Woods. It opened in 2016. It is renowned for catering to golfers of all skill levels. They call that “playability” for the higher handicaps, and “challenging” for the lower handicaps, or better golfers.
All of this became relevant for Fort Worth when in October Mitchell and his partners, Kristin and Tiger, announced they were bringing this concept to west Fort Worth — specifically Aledo.
Excavators and construction crews are moving dirt on the development called Bluejack Ranch and Spa.
Bluejack Ranch, which sits off U.S. 377 and Kelly Road, is the manifestation of the on-again, off-again plans for a championship golf course in Parker County begun in earnest two years ago by former TCU and PGA Tour player J.J. Henry, who has joined this effort as a partner.
The more than 900-acre Bluejack Ranch development will encompass about 600 home lots and a club built around a Tiger-designed golf course, stretching across somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,700 yards that will require some fairway woods to get around 18.
Estate Residences will number around 358. Roughly 232 Club Residences are planned. Private Residence Club Units, owned and controlled by the club and offered through a rental pool, will also be constructed. Mitchell expects about 60-80 such units at Bluejack Ranch.
In addition to a clubhouse and dining, Ranch amenities will include a working dude ranch with eight full-time horses, longhorns, mini-donkeys, and “other ranch friends.” The “Fort at the Ranch” will be the center of family entertainment. Spa and wellness areas will also be featured.
A Lantern Entertainment Studio will feature a film/TV and podcast studio.
In conjunction with the golf course, there will also be a lighted 10-
hole short course and a golf performance center and practice areas.
In addition to golf, sports and recreation areas will also be on the property, including a football field, basketball, tennis, whiffleball, and, of course, pickleball courts. A bowling alley will be on the premises. Seven miles of trails and 35 acres of lakes for fishing and canoeing will also be included.
A membership — a Ranch membership — just for the nongolf experiences will be available. Some of these will be open and available for use next year.
The flavor will be distinctly local. Even Tiger has some Fort Worth ties, despite only playing the Charles Schwab Challenge once. He spent a lot of time here at Nike’s R&D headquarters in Fort Worth.
“It’s extremely motivating for me to contribute to the golfing legacy of Fort Worth, and I’m excited to see what we’ll build together,” Tiger said.
The project, though, is a literal homecoming for Andy and Kristin Mitchell, both TCU graduates. The two didn’t know one another at TCU. He finished his studies in accounting and finance in 1998. She was a marketing student who graduated four years later.
Mitchell and Kristin are coming back here to live at Bluejack Ranch.
For Andy Mitchell, however, this is a return to his roots.
Fort Worth wasn’t just the place he went to college. This is his hometown. This is the place that shaped his sense of resilience. His sense of humor. The foundation of his values and work ethic. His edge and ambition.
The city that inspired and motivated him to be something.
Mitchell’s intended course of study at TCU was pre-med. He planned to be a doctor.
“You must have been good at science,” I suggest.
“No,” he says in immediate reply, “I wasn’t good at science.”
class family in Benbrook, graduated from Western Hills. Grew up in a middle-class family. This almost sounds like presidential campaign fodder.
But it was true.
Leonard Andy Mitchell was born into blue-collar, middle-class family in Benbrook. He was raised on Herndon Drive.
His father, Bill, was a switchman for BNSF Railway. His mother, Alice, would eventually go to work at TCU as an administrative assistant but not until Mitchell was an upperclassman there.
“I’ve got no money to speak of,” he says of growing up and heading to TCU.
He played football at Western Hills, but he had to scratch and claw to do it. He was undersized, but he did all the extra things no one else would do. He worked out relentlessly and drank protein supplements to get bigger.
He wound up playing on an offensive line on which, as he remembers it, every member, except him, went on the play college football.
His mother told D Magazine that the football coach later told players after a loss that the Cougars would have won had they all shown as “much heart as Andy Mitchell.”
That doesn’t require any stretch of the imagination to see.
There is a thing called the 1%, that reference to the 1% of earners or wealth holders within the population. All of them get there because they go these same extra miles Mitchell did to play high school football. They’ll check all of those boxes.
Asked what his ambition was, the purpose of his education at TCU, he says flatly: “I didn’t want to be poor.”
Asked what his ambition was, the purpose of his education at TCU, he says flatly: “I didn’t want to be poor.”
“It took me 10 years of therapy to say, ‘I don’t want to be poor.’ I knew what it was like to never be like, ‘You want to go on a trip? ‘I don’t know how much is in the jar this week.’”
It reminded me of Lyndon Johnson, whose desire to escape poverty was a defining force throughout his life and political career. He was born to a modest farming family in rural Texas. His father, a farmer and state legislator, faced financial hardship when a series of bad investments led the family to lose much of their land. It drove LBJ. Mitchell’s “financial hardship” is relevant.
There is a story out there about how a family friend tried to discourage Mitchell from going to TCU. Mitchell, who grew up in a middle-
During his senior year, he had taken visits around the state at various colleges. When he went to visit TCU, his tour guide was the “most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.” That was only the start of a great visit. His tour guide knew his Young Life leader, who was a member of a fraternity. And then he gets to spend some time with the fraternity guys. Mitchell was sold.
“It’s a horrible reason to go to college, but it’s true. ‘Oh, a beautiful girl showed you around,’” he jokes.
Not only does he get in, he gets some scholarship money and financial aid.
“That’s the truth of Andy Mitchell,” he says. “I got need-based money, I got some scholarship money, and I borrowed a shitload.”
And then, only days or weeks later, he finds himself in the company of a family friend. The exchange still gets his hackles up. The family friend said to him that she couldn’t believe his parents “let you go to TCU.”
He would never fit in there, she said, because of his socioeconomic status. Furthermore, he wouldn’t get in a fraternity. People like “us” don’t go to that side of the world.
The incident still irritates him like a patch of eczema.
An undersized overachiever, Andy Mitchell played center and linebacker for the Western Hills High School football team.
Yet, it’s Tiger Woods that Mitchell calls the “fanatic” competitor. There are obviously two. I’m clearly talking to another one.
Mitchell rose to student-body president almost by happenstance.
About to become the Interfraternity Council president, he went to the student government office to lodge a complaint about a funding cut. As he goes “storming” into the office at 4:57 p.m., a peer, Kevin Nicoletti, sees him and says, “Oh, man, it’s true. You’re going to run for student-body president.”
What?
“You’re going to run for student-body president,” Mitchell recalls Nicoletti saying. “It’s 4:57. You’re rushing in here to make sure you meet the 5 p.m. deadline to register.”
“I don’t know what happened to my mind,” Mitchell says, “but I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s why I’m here. I’m going to run for student-body president.’”
Nicoletti told him there was a meeting imminently in the Student House of Representatives chambers. Fill out the paperwork, pronto. Oh, and who is his campaign chairman?
Campaign chairman what? The Student House … chambers … what?
“He goes, ‘You don’t know? You’re telling me you’re a leader on campus and you’ve never once stepped in the chambers?’”
less I speak to you and tell you what to say.”
He built a harmonious coalition of the fraternities and sororities — he was, as it turned out, one of them — international students, and athletes through network, tacos, and video games.
“So, Nancy, wherever you are, they let me in a fraternity. They made me vice president of the fraternity council, and I became student-body president. They trusted me to help hire a chancellor. And now there's a scholarship in my name. You can kiss my ass, Nancy.”
Mitchell grabbed a freshman student, told him to say he was his campaign chairman, and nod his head and don’t open his mouth “un-
“It was taco night when we went to visit the International Students Association,” he recalls.
“I show up, I see all these tacos, I see that they’re bored. I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m Andy Mitchell. I’m running for student-body president. I would say most of what [his opponents] said probably is relevant to what I’m doing. Anyways, those tacos look like they’re getting cold. How about we have some tacos?’”
The night the candidates went to visit the athletes, they were more interested in a “John Madden” football videogame tournament. They all “looked like they were pissed off” that the candidates were interrupting. When it came his time to speak, he spoke efficiently and quickly, and then asked if he could join them in the tournament.
He recalls losing to basketball player James Penny, a Grapevine guy, in the final.
At any rate, Mitchell, who also earned the Skiff endorsement, outlasted five other candidates and won in a runoff.
He even survived controversy on a campaign spending dustup. Each candidate was limited to spending $40 on their campaign. He had a girlfriend who was a graphic design intern at Belo, parent of the Dallas
Developers Kristin and Andy Mitchell's Bluejack Ranch will include a working dude ranch with longhorn cattle, horses, donkeys and other ranch friends.
Morning News. She was only too happy to assist him and design his campaign posters.
That amounted to an alleged in-kind contribution of $4,000. Or 100 times the limit. Nonetheless, after an inquiry, the student tribunal sustained his win.
But the job of student-body president opened more doors and exposed him to more things. He met former Speaker of the House Jim Wright and Van Cliburn. His outgoing personality made him ideal to make presentations to trustees.
“With Andy, there always was a sense he was going to reach as high as he could in whatever he did,” then-vice chancellor for student affairs Don Mills told TCU Magazine.
Mitchell was also appointed by Chancellor William Tucker to sit on the Chancellor’s Selection Committee, the only student to sit on the committee. He jokes that he’s sure Don Mills advised against it.
Michael R. Ferrari, predecessor to current Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, was the selection.
“One of the great honors of my life was Chancellor Tucker asking me to be on the committee,” Mitchell says.
He takes a sip of beer and ponders just a brief moment before his mind goes back to the family friend who told him he would never work out at TCU, much less make an impact.
“So, Nancy, wherever you are, they let me in a fraternity. They made me vice president of the fraternity council, and I became student-body president. They trusted me to help hire a chancellor.
“And now there’s a scholarship in my name. You can kiss my ass, Nancy.”
“Josh would be like, ‘This is my friend, he’s an investment banker,’” Mitchell recalls. “Well, in New York, that’s really hot. But in Hollywood, that reminds them of their father.”
So, reading the crowd, Governale would introduce him as the “Pretty Woman” guy. “You know, the guy in the tower who does the deals.”
Mitchell would even go a step further and joke that he delivered water for Culligan.
In reality, Mitchell was a “private equity turnaround investor,” or a finance professional whose focus is on operational turnarounds and improvements as the primary way to create value.
Mitchell and Kristin met nonetheless through TCU at a Chicago alumni association event. I believe the occasion was Cinco de Mayo fiesta. He was president of the 900-member chapter. It’s not hard, he says, to become president of the alumni association.
There is certain liberation that comes with “making it,” though he doesn’t strike one of ever lacking the freedom to fully inhabit who he is or the inhibition to make the choices of who he wanted to become.
Andy and Kristin were two ships passing in the night at TCU. As he was going off to build a career, first at PricewaterhouseCoopers, investment bank Houlihan Lokey, and capital manager Cerberus and then GMAC, Kristin was just beginning an academic career in the pursuit of a marketing degree.
His job demanded constant travel. He lived at various times from coast to coast from Los Angeles to Chicago.
In his 20s, he lived for a minute in Los Angeles with his Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity brother Josh Governale, today a media consultant and partner in the Bluejack brand. In many ways, Governale is a righthand man.
His profession, he says, bored the Hollywood set crowd to death. Mitchell and Governale would go to parties, and he’d tell them he was “kind of an accountant. I do business deals.” The party crowd was generally young production people looking for an in. They were there to network and suck up to somebody who’s in production.
He was appointed by the alumni chapter board in the manner these things happen. He was on the board and had missed a meeting. He called the president, Mr. David Bond, to find out what he missed. Turns out, quite a bit.
Recalls Mitchell: “He says, ‘Well, I’m stepping down as president because I’m moving to Houston.’ I said, ‘What sucker are you going to get to be president.’ He says, ‘It’s funny you mention that because we nominated you and voted you in. Congratulations, you’re now president of the Chicago alumni board. We knew you’d do it.’”
He was smitten instantly by Kristin’s acquaintance. She was interested but more cautious. He called her the next day, but she deferred.
It was some weeks later that she told him she was traveling to Dallas. He told her he would just happen to be in Dallas at the same time. They should meet up. So, they did. That’s where this courtship turned in earnest.
It’s amazing after all how the world connects, right?
“I found out later he wasn’t supposed to be in Dallas at all,” Kristin says. “He took a plane down there to meet me.”
Ingenuity: The quality of being clever, inventive, and resourceful, especially in finding new ways to approach tasks. It involves creativity, originality, and the ability to think outside the box to develop effective solutions.
They were engaged in December. And married the next July.
“When you know, you know,” she says.
Strangely enough, the decision to move to Texas was made at a Mi Cocina in Fort Worth. Whether it was over a Mambo Taxi, who knows?
They are the parents of five children, ranging in age from 20 to 4, and live in Dallas. For now. When they move to Bluejack Ranch depends on how life goes for their teenage daughters, Kristin says. The parents don’t want to uproot them at this stage of their lives.
Like Bluejack National in Montgomery, Texas, the Parker County development will feature a Tiger Woods-designed golf course.
Over 900 acres, Bluejack Ranch will encompass more than 600 home lots and a club built around a Tiger Woods-designed course.
Kristin is a full partner in the Bluejack brand.
She is the brainchild of Blue jack Village at the Montgomery development and Bluejack Town in Aledo. Sixty acres have been set aside for commercial purposes at Bluejack Ranch. They will be boutique shopping destinations in the spirt of Round Top and open to the public. Shop and eat. Shop and eat.
In fact, she was instrumental in the decision to going ahead with this entire Bluejack Ranch development deal.
Bluejack Ranch will be the ful fillment of J.J. Henry’s vision. Henry has kept Fort Worth as home since moving from Connecticut as a col lege freshman. Henry also played on the 2006 Ryder Cup team with Tiger. So, this marriage, too, seemed as if it would fit together like hand in glove.
In November 2022, Henry, along with Bubba Vann, developer of the renowned South Padre Island Golf Club, announced their intention to build a golf course as part of the Avanzada Golf & Ranch Club in the Kelly Ranch development. After the development was not able to be brought to completion, Henry went to Mitchell to gauge his interest.
The setting was a golf tournament fundraiser at Bluejack National.
“J.J. is a competitor, man. That guy hates to lose as much as Tiger Woods,” Mitchell says of the personal setback that was the collapse of Avanzada. “So, he came to me, and I remember this going through my mind, and I’m pretty sure it came out of my mouth. I said, ‘There’s no effing way I’d do another one of these.’ All I do is put money in this thing. It’s a reverse piggy bank.”
“My wife would kill me. Plus, I can’t find a CEO for the Weinstein Company,” which meant Mitchell had to take on that role until he could fill it, which provided him little extra time to consider taking on a second Bluejack development in Fort Worth.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, J.J., now I’m going to start another golf course
It was like, he says, “Dazed and Confused” out there.
“That’s what’s out there,” he says, recalling his days of yore at Western Hills. That is, not much. Of course, what he couldn’t have foreseen 30 years ago was the life and infrastructure investment that has effectively expanded Fort
Yet, Mitchell and Kristin came up to look at it. And “snuck out” the next couple of days for more looks. They fell in love.
Says Henry: “I like to think how things happen for a reason and to be able to circle back with Andy, who obviously I went to college with, and knowing him and all his success in both investment banking and private equity and real estate, hospitality, what he’s done for 10 years at Bluejack National … I said, ‘Andy, you got to come take a look at this property.’
“Sure enough, Kristin came out, and she says, ‘I
However, Escalante Golf had already moved in. Before talks could really get started, Ryan Voorhies, the developer of Kelly Ranch, made another deal.
The founding of Bluejack National in Montgomery wasn’t intentional, Mitchell says.
“One of the great honors of my life was Chancellor Tucker asking me to be on the committee.”
The political climate in Hollywood was deeply strained following the #MeToo movement, as the industry grappled with widespread allegations, a culture of silence being exposed, and a reckoning that left lasting impacts on its power structures and reputations. Hell, if you were male, you were persona non grata.
He was in Cabo tending to one of a portfolio of hotel and resort properties Lantern had taken over or invested in in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, better known as the Great Recession. During a meet-up down there, he heard about this property north of Houston.
It was the old abandoned Blaketree National Golf Course. As the story goes, millionaire Thomas Blake wanted to set Augusta National down in Texas after he was denied entry at the exclusive golf club. Who knows if this is true. We have one of those urban legends down here. Supposedly, H.H. Cobb founded Glen Garden Country Club, renowned as the work home of young caddies named Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan, because he was denied entry at River Crest.
The only problem with the story is that it wasn’t true.
Whatever the case, Blake, a golf nut who was said to have once regretted challenging Hogan to a money game, indeed had dreams of a course on this piece of land.
Blake enlisted the help of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore to begin construction in 1985. The course was never finished. Developers Casey Paulson and Michael Abbott, both at one time of Discovery Land Company, had started a company — Beacon Land Development — to redevelop the property in 2014.
They came to Mitchell to put the money together.
Progress became a slog, however. Initial projections began to slip, putting timelines and the project in jeopardy. Lantern eventually replaced Beacon with Bluejack Management Company, a team 100% dedicated to Bluejack and its properties.
So, it didn’t look great going forward.
“We had brought in all these founders; we kind of raised this money together,” Mitchell says. “Tiger felt obligated, and so did I. So, we thought we’d market it for a couple months [to sale].
The offers didn’t impress.
“Everybody looked at it, and I said, ‘I don’t sell companies at this price, I buy companies at this price.’”
Mitchell says he bought out half the guys, and “that’s when I brought Kristin in to be co-chairman of the board.”
Mitchell was already working with Beau Welling, a senior design consultant for Tiger’s TGR Design. That’s how he met Tiger.
“I didn’t realize that was the back door to Tiger,” Mitchell says. “And, so, Beau Welling calls and said, ‘Would you like to talk to Tiger about it?’ Why not? What’s the least that could happen? I get to talk to Tiger.”
Tiger, sight unseen, wants to get involved. Welling and Bryon Bell, the president of TGR, had both recommended it.
“I said, ‘Have you been there?’ He said no. I said, ‘Tiger, I think it’s pretty important you go there.’ So, he said, ‘OK, I’ll fly out there and meet you guys.’”
BLUEJACK RANCH
854 Resort Acres
60 Commercial Acres
914 Total Acres
400 Golf Members Planned
200 Lifestyle Members Planned (assumes 3.25 members per family)
232
the world. I thought I knew competitors. If he’s going to build the best course in the world, he’s going to build the best course in the world.”
Tiger, Mitchell says, has been “a great business partner, and he does a lot behind the scenes.”
At an event soon after Mitchell’s group had acquired the property for redevelopment, Tom Blake Jr., the son of the original Blaketree National developer, approached Mitchell and asked him, “Am I dead?”
“He goes, ‘I can’t tell you how many times my old man back in the ’80s was talking about how this is going to be a glorious golf course here, and people are going to come from all over, the best golfers in the world, are going to come here,’” Mitchell recalls the conversation. “And he starts crying.”
To Downtown Fort Worth
Mitchell and Woods actually have quite a bit in common. They are almost exactly the same age. They share the experience of being parents. “He’s a father who loves his kids.” And they are both high-end, “fanatic” competitors.
Where Mitchell is outgoing, however, Tiger is reserved. Kristin says even “shy.”
“A buddy of mine is sitting there, and he’s like, ‘It’s going to be a long day’ because this dude hasn’t talked to anybody,” Mitchell says of Tiger.
The two found something in common: Olympic gold medal skier Lindsey Vonn. Mitchell and Kristin had met her, and Tiger, at the time, was dating her.
“That kind of opened him up,” Mitchell says, as did a joke that Tiger enjoyed and Mitchell refuses to tell me.
Kristin had lunch with him.
“He was so excited to show our kids his kids’ videos,” Kristin says. Says Mitchell: “He’s a competitor like I’ve never known anybody in
Mitchell continues the conversation with the son. “‘I wondered if I died and you’re my dad showing off. Like, ‘Welcome to heaven. This is that golf course I told you I was gonna build.’”
J.J. Henry kind of knows how he feels. He has been dreaming and working to get this course online for over four years.
That opportunity, as well as bringing Bluejack to Fort Worth, became a reality when Escalante backed out.
Mitchell and Kristin “snuck” back out there to take a look. They noticed the flowers were blooming.
“It’s even more beautiful,” Kristin says.
Mitchell and Voorhies began discussions and negotiations. Five months later, a deal was done.
And the hometown boy was coming home to do something big again.
“This is that point in life that I get to come back, build it in West Fort Worth,” says Mitchell. “I have always loved Fort Worth. I think to have been around the country and to be able to come back, it’s going to stay surreal. It really is.”
The original Bluejack National north of Houston
Mitchell with his wife, Kristin, and their five children
For over a decade, Winter and Ashley Moore have been honored to build WinterGreen Synthetic Grass right here in Fort Worth. Growing from a family dream into a trusted name, WinterGreen owes its success to the incredible support of the North Texas community. With deep gratitude, we thank our clients and neighbors for embracing our vision and allowing us to transform outdoor spaces across the region. Here’s to many more years of elevating landscapes together!
DREAMERS, DOERS, DISRUPTORS
These entrepreneurs exemplify Fort Worth’s pioneering spirit.
BY JOHN HENRY / PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICHARD W. RODRIGUEZ
In the world of entrepreneurship, visionaries don’t just imagine the future, they build it — dream by dream.
The entrepreneur is a creator, a visionary who transforms ideas into things and obstacles into steppingstones. Their path is one of resilience, risk, and reward.
Fort Worth Inc.’s 2024 Entrepreneurs of Excellence showcases these trailblazers who dared to take the leap.
Thirty-three remarkable individuals, representing 23 fields as diverse as construction, health care, consumer goods, real estate, and more, each bring their unique contributions to the city’s business landscape.
Some have launched promising startups, while others lead established enterprises, all driven by a commitment to innovation and growth.
In its eighth year, this Entrepreneur of Excellence edition honors their achievements. Independent judges from across the region reviewed applications confidentially, considering growth, ethical standards, perseverance, and community impact. Each winner and finalist was carefully selected based on these criteria, keeping financial data strictly private.
The winners were celebrated at a gala at the Fort Worth Club on Nov. 21, their identities revealed in a night dedicated to the spirit of entrepreneurship.
Sponsored by Whitley Penn, TCU Neeley School of Business, Texas Capital Bank, and Justin Boot Co., this recognition highlights the people who fuel the economy with their derring-do and drive.
John Avila Byrne Construction
CATEGORY WINNER:
John Avila Byrne Construction
John Avila, leader of the largest minority-owned commercial construction company in the state, is making a reappearance as a finalist in this category.
He has made it count.
Avila is a decorated Vietnam veteran who has a degree in architectural engineering from University of Texas and is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College.
At age 32, he was appointed vice president of operations for Linbeck Construction. He also served as executive vice president for Manhattan Construction Company.
In 1995, he acquired Thos. S. Byrne. At the time, the oldest active, continuous operating contractor, founded in 1923, was a shell of its former self.
Under Avila’s leadership, Byrne has regained its status as world-class corporation — brick by brick, steel beam by steel beam.
Avila “leveraged his earned client network, reenergized Byrne’s past client network and aggressively sought new clients in returning the company to prominence,” his EOE application states. “His leadership skills in his former companies inspired loyalty in his former subordinates, and many flocked to join the new and emerging Byrne.”
He won over existing employees, forming “a dedicated cohesive team of construction professionals.”
Byrne has demonstrated sustained steady growth over the past 30 years. In 1995, Byrne’s annual sales were $27 million ($55.8 million in today’s money). In 2022, annual sales were $211 million.
CATEGORY FINALIST: Jonathan Gaspard
Restoration Roofing
Restoration Roofing has operated on an ethos since Day 1.
“I see Restoration Roofing as a family affair,” Jonathan Gaspard says. “And in the same way a family shares in the successes of its members, the team at Restoration Roofing shares and contributes to the success.”
Gaspard, a return finalist,
started his company with $50. They’re today doing business in the tens of millions. And revenue was back up last year after a dip in 2022.
However, he remains steadfast in his goal of $100 million in annual sales by 2028. The year 2024 has been bright, he says, with roughly $50 million in contracts in progress or in backlog through the end of the year.
The company will get there, he says, by offering unique and
cutting-edge solutions to clients, from carbon-neutral roofing products to preventative maintenance, allowing “our clients’ investments to last much longer, providing a measurable ROI and delivering our promise to be a partner, not just a transaction.”
The vision is to be a premier contractor in the private and public sector and an innovator among our peers in the industry,” he says.
Jonathan Gaspard Restoration Roofing
2024 Entrepreneur of Excellence / Consumer and Durable Goods
CATEGORY FINALISTS:
Chris and Cheryl Favors Favors Business Solutions
Despite what conventional wisdom might say, it’s the layoff that is often the mother of all invention. And so it was with Chris Favors, laid off from an executive position in the frac sand industry in 2020.
Favors Business Solutions was founded in 2021 because of demand for Favors’ expertise. What started as consultancy and sales services for sand companies and oil and gas operators quickly morphed into launching a full-service, mine-towellhead suite of services for the oil and gas industry.
Favors Business Solutions has seen “explosive growth” since its formation. From 2021 to 2022, revenue grew by 4,758%, and income before taxes grew by 1,199%. From 2022 to 2023, revenue grew by 37%, and income before taxes grew by 41%.
“The company has been able to gain an impressive market share with zero outside investment and operates the business with a low, stable headcount of three employees and the assistance of two outside contractors,” the Favors say.
Favors’ vision is providing excellent service to customers with zero
frack downtime because of sand while “saving customers money on total spend for sand delivered to their well sites.”
Natividad Ramirez Rios Interiors
Natividad Ramirez’s story is one of Texas. He came from his native Mexico to the land of opportunity for a new life and a dream, just like Sam Houston himself and all the others.
After moving to Dallas at 22, Ramirez found work at Martinek Design Studios, an interior design firm. After working there for eight years and studying the industry, he felt confident that he had found his passion.
In 1998, he rented a tiny 269 square feet of space at the Dallas Farmers Market. Year after year, he rented more and more space until circumstances forced him to
CATEGORY WINNER: Stephen Gilchrist
Gilchrist Automotive
Gilchrist Automotive almost wasn’t.
Stephen Gilchrist’s father, Charlie, who became a car dealer in the 1980s, weighed an option to sell the sevenstore dealership in 2015.
Charlie huddled with his son, who was running SouthWest VW and Mitsubishi in Weatherford, to discuss.
“I told him that that wasn’t my choice,” Stephen Gilchrist says. “He had built this.”
Charlie Gilchrist declined the offer to sell.
“From that point I began to work on a plan to take what my dad had successfully built and position it to be a viable dealer group that could withstand the coming industry consolidation and be a successful growing concern for 100 years or more,” says Gilchrist, a TCU graduate.
examine his operation. He discovered through his database that 33% of his customers were from Tarrant County.
So, it was to the fertile grounds of the Fort Worth Stockyards that he moved into an almost 14,000-square-foot showroom. Rios survived its first year in 2008, the year of the Great Recession, and has been trending up ever since.
In 2020, Rios completed a big commercial project, furnishing the Hotel Drover, and, combined with the skyrocketing interest in home décor during the shutdown, Rios experienced its “most vital financial years to date.”
With the increased growth came the purchase of multiple warehouses to export and import the company’s goods.
Ramirez is the very definition of the American Dream.
The plan called for growing and diversifying the company’s dealerships. Gilchrist Automotive was formed in 2017. Under that umbrella, the company has grown to 20 locations, from Weatherford to Lawton, Oklahoma, to Cleburne, Denison, Ennis, Gatesville, Pilot Point, Stephenville, and Terrell.
Revenue growth has increased 211% over the past three years. Its standing among the Top 150 New Vehicle Dealers in the nation has also improved dramatically, from 132 in 2020 to 92 in 2023.
Stephen Gilchrist, who has an MBA from LSU, also founded Gilchrist Insurance Group.
Chris and Cheryl Favors Favors Business Solutions
Natividad Ramirez Rios Interiors
Stephen Gilchrist Gilchrist Automotive
2024 Entrepreneur of Excellence / Health Care and Life Sciences
Steven and Sara Camp
Steven Camp MD Plastic Surgery
CATEGORY WINNER:
Sara and Steven Camp
Steven Camp MD Plastic Surgery
Sara and Steven Camp were finalists in 2022 and are winners in 2024 because of the continued growth
Steven Camp MD Plastic Surgery has experienced since opening in 2016.
The practice had eclipsed its 2023 gross revenue by the first four months of 2024 even as the fundamentals of the economy have shifted unfavorably. That is due in part because of its new 10,000-square-foot building with two operating rooms accredited by American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities.
“The last two years in our own building with our own two operating rooms has been very special,” says Camp, who runs the practice with her husband. “After the pandemic, literally everyone in America wanted plastic surgery. We couldn’t keep up with the demand. Then the economy shifted, and money got tighter for people. What was once something that everyone wanted became something that they just couldn’t do.”
Patients were no longer “busting the doors down.”
The practice reverted to what they were doing during pandemic shutdown: pulled together as a team and went back to basics of what it did when it opened the doors eight years ago.
“We have hired a smart staff that cares about our patients, care about their work, and is here for the right reasons — taking care of people,” Camp says. “It easily fell into place.”
CATEGORY FINALISTS:
Trevor Theriot
ManaMed
Trevor Theriot’s story begins on a football field at UCLA where he earned a scholarship after walking on the team as a nonscholarship player. He played for Karl Dorrell and Rick Neuheisel. He found a career in medical device sales through a former teammate. Beginning as a distributor, Theriot eventually became a manufacturer of Plasma Flow, an FDA-approved device that helps prevent blood clots.
ManaMed has sold more than $130 million worth of products since opening in 2015. In 2023, ManaMed reached 22% year-overyear growth with a revenue figure close to $22 million.
“We managed to surpass industry growth even though we lost a major customer in 2022,” Theriot says.
In 2024, the company expects to exceed its 2022 figure in sales.
In 2021, the North Texas-based medical device company was recognized as one of the fastest growing in the country, finding a place on the Inc. 5000 with 485% revenue growth over the previous three years.
For a consecutive year, they are finalists for the Entrepreneur of Excellence.
The company says it has consistently demonstrated sales growth every year since 2012. Except for 2018, the company has maintained profitability every year and has not required any external investment, despite interest from several private equity firms seeking to purchase or invest.
Its annual revenue growth has varied between 5% and 165%.
In Q4 2021, the company introduced temporary staffing solutions for X-ray and CT, which swiftly contributed to 38% of net income.
After the dip in 2018, the company experienced a 35% revenue surge in 2019, 5% in 2021, 53% in 2022, and a roughly 49% increase in 2023.
David Woolsey and Ramon Cazares
Integrated Ultrasound
David Woolsey and Ramon Cazares opened Integrated Ultrasound Consultants in 2012. Woolsey had been an ownership stakeholder in D2 Imaging, and Cazares was an employee there.
Integrated Ultrasound has grown to offer radiology services to several major hospital systems in DFW, including an enterprise agreement with Texas Health Resources, encompassing 23 facilities, along with the majority of the Medical City locations, USPI Surgical Hospitals and Surgical Centers, and various free standing emergency departments and doctor’s offices.
Trevor Theriot ManaMed
David Woolsey and Ramon Cazares Integrated Ultrasound
2024 Entrepreneur of Excellence / Hospitality
CATEGORY FINALISTS:
Justin Howe
HTeaO
Justin Howe knew a hot ticket when he saw one. A private pilot and venture capitalist who had his hands in construction, real estate, and aircraft management, Howe was struck by the amount of iced tea his family was moving at their Amarillo burger joint. Partnering with his parents, Howe opened a prototype tea store in 2012. Its success would lead to franchising in 2018, when Howe secured 29 franchise agreements within one month. Keeping his foot on the gas, HTeaO opened store No. 118 earlier this year, an impressive ascension thanks largely to Howe’s preparation before scaling — three years earlier, he became a franchisee for another company to learn about the challenges firsthand.
the day he was born. Rex’s father, David Benson, and aunt Bette Brozgoldin opened Ol’ South right next door to its current spot off University Drive in 1962. Over the next few decades, the 24-hour diner would become one of Fort Worth’s most iconic breakfast joints.
While the restaurant experienced growth and the addition of new locations in the ’80s and ’90s, those locations would eventually shutter.
Rex took over Ol’ South in 2008 and “understanding change was necessary … he embarked on a comprehensive transformational journey.” According to his EOE application, Rex would revamp the menu, embrace digital point-ofsale systems, harness the power of social media, and implement cutting-edge digital inventory management solutions. The result was a steep rise in annual sales from below $3 million to $5.7 million.
The business would expand again in 2021 with a new Burleson location. And, coming full circle, a new concept, Rex’s Bar and Grill, is set to open this fall where the original Ol’ South once stood on University Drive.
CATEGORY WINNER: Trevor Armstrong and Larry Auth Game On Sports Complex
Just because you didn’t make it from the peewees to the pros doesn’t mean you have to give up on organized sports once becoming an adult. And, if you follow the path of Trevor Armstrong and Larry Auth, you can still make it your livelihood.
Armstrong and Auth, who first met in 2007, had been playing in an adult indoor soccer league for years when they closed on the purchase of their league’s facility, Game On Arena Sports, in 2012. The pair would subsequently purchase the adjacent land, doubling the facility’s capacity, and expand operations into flag football, basketball, volleyball, pickleball, golf, baseball, softball, and outdoor beach volleyball.
In its first few years of business, HTeaO’s revenue growth has seen a steep climb, which includes a 207% revenue increase in 2020 and a 270% increase in 2023 that equaled $79.8 million in systemwide sales.
“Howe’s growth mindset is evident in every facet of HTeaO’s business approach,” his EOE application states. “Through an innovative drive-thru model and a focus on customer satisfaction, Howe has established a scalable franchise system that appeals to a wide range of consumers and potential franchisees.”
Rex Benson Ol’ South Pancake House
Though he’s been at the helm of Ol’ South Pancake House for the past 16 years, one could argue Rex Benson has had one foot in the hospitality industry since
“Over the past 12 years, we have grown from managing three revenue streams to over 50,” Armstrong and Auth said in their EOE application.
Their success and industry expertise has led to a growing reputation within the industry, which resulted in the creation of LT Sports Consulting. According to their application, this new venture “enables Larry and Trevor to share their expertise and help guide cities and developers to navigate the challenging and rewarding mission of growing sports participation, health, and wellness nationwide.”
Rex Benson Ol’ South Pancake House
Justin Howe HTeaO
Trevor Armstrong and Larry Auth Game On Sports Complex
Ralph Manning and Edward Crawford Coltala Holdings
CATEGORY WINNER:
Ralph Manning and Edward Crawford Coltala Holdings
One would be hard-pressed to find resumes as diverse and impressive as Ralph Manning’s and Edward Crawford’s.
Graduates of Harvard Business School and the MIT Sloan School of Management, respectively, Manning and Crawford have over 35 years of combined business experience, as well as impressive prior and current vocations in military service and equestrianism — Crawford is a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer who earned a Bronze Star while serving in Afghanistan, and Crawford is the president and owner of an equestrian facility in Johnson County.
In 2017, the two founded and are now co-CEOs of Coltala Holdings, a purposedriven holding company that practices conscious capitalism. “We hold mission and margin in equal regard,” Manning says regarding the company’s purpose. “Meaning they are mutually inclusive, not exclusive. This ethos was born through extensive service in the nonprofit sector.”
According to their EOE application, Coltala’s annual revenues and earnings have grown from zero in 2017 to over $22.2 million for calendar year-end 2023.
“Our goal is to have a meaningful impact not just on the bottom line,” Crawford says, “but on the lives of all: employees, boards of directors, investors, lenders, customers, vendors and other stakeholders.”
CATEGORY FINALISTS:
Benson Varghese and Anna Summersett Varghese Summersett
Benson Varghese’s first foray into running a business came while attending boarding school in India, where he assisted his grandparents with their rubber plantation.
“He became responsible for the entire business,” his EOE application says. “From hiring seasonal employees to managing finances to ensuring that the trees were tapped properly and pressed into usable materials.”
Having previously lived in Dallas, Varghese would return at 18 to seek U.S. citizenship and earn his law degree from Texas Tech. He would meet his future wife, Anna Summersett when both served as prosecutors with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office. With little chances for upward mobility, the pair borrowed $9,000 from Varghese’s uncle and launched their own firm, Varghese Summersett, in 2014.
According to their EOE application, “Within three years, the firm moved into a gorgeous 8,500-square-foot space … and was recognized as the 782nd fastest-growing business in the U.S. by Inc.”
Today, the husband-and-wife firm has three locations; 50 top-tier legal professionals, including 18
attorneys of the highest caliber, many of whom are board certified; and is currently on pace to do over $9 million in revenue in 2024, which represents a 158% increase over the past three years.
Bradley Bruce mFORCE Capital
Amid a successful three-decadeplus career at Merrill Lynch, Bradley Bruce realized his clients needed and were requesting more service than the giant investment management company could offer.
“I believed we could deliver on those needs in an independent and fiduciary-driven environment,” Bruce says. “The challenge was to be able to communicate our vision and find our voice with an unknown brand in a crowded market.”
In 2021, Bruce kicked off mFORCE
Capital, an independent wealth management firm that, according to Bruce’s EOE application, “tries to be a resource for not only financial activities but within other parts of their lives. We are there through building and exiting of companies, building of families, and even through the dismantling of families. At the end, we are there to help transition the wealth to the next generation.”
What started with three employees and under $1 million in revenue in 2021 has quickly expanded to 11 current employees and $3.8 million in revenue in 2023.
mFORCE, which stands for Multi Family Office Relationship and Client Experience, has now expanded its initial goal of being the dominant provider in its backyard to being the dominant provider in its region.
Benson Varghese and Anna Summersett Varghese Summersett
Bradley Bruce mFORCE Capital
2024 Entrepreneur of Excellence / Real Estate
CATEGORY FINALISTS:
Sarah LanCarte
LanCarte Commercial
Sarah LanCarte jumped into the real estate scene years ago and made a splash.
She began her career as an associate at NAI Huff Partners before eventually joining Transwestern as a principal. She demonstrated a deep understanding of market trends, client needs, and the intricacies of real estate transactions “that I believe set me apart in the industry.”
Her next stop was Fort Capital, which brought her in to establish its commercial division.
“I was approached by big shops,” she says, “but I wanted to do things differently and not just be another person working under a big brand, which led to founding LanCarte Commercial.”
LanCarte Commercial was founded in 2019 with her clear vision to create a brokerage firm that not only excelled in real estate transactions but also prioritized client relationships and community impact.
The firm quickly became a trusted name. The firm, which employs 40, offers a range of services, including tenant representation, landlord representation, investment sales, and property management. In only six years, LanCarte
cial property management company in West Texas, and his uncle was a broker.
So, it should have been no surprise that he and Jeff Anderson founded what has become the largest independently owned brokerage in Fort Worth.
In the firm’s nine years, League has never failed to outperform its previous year by double-digit growth in both revenue and net operating income.
“We grew our business solely on relationships and caring more about our people’s success than our own,” Lewis says. “It’s amazing the pure reaction you receive when you truly show up for someone. Relationship by relationship, we moved from one agent to over 100.”
CATEGORY WINNER:
Jessica Miller Essl and Susan Miller M2G Ventures
M2G Ventures is a certified women-owned commercial real estate private equity and advisory development company based in Fort Worth, with offices in Austin and Dallas. It invests in distinctive mixed-use and industrial development projects.
has achieved more than 30 million square feet sold or leased, and it currently is managing 2.9 million square feet.
Matt Lewis and Jeff Anderson League Real Estate
“Real estate,” Matt Lewis says, “has been in my blood since youth.” His grandmother sold houses, his father owned a commer-
Lewis was one who wasn’t sure his fledgling firm would survive the pandemic crisis.
“We lost 70% of our deal flow in a week,” he says. “Our leadership team met and made the decision that the only thing we could control was our attitude and our drive. So, we just kept showing up. Three months later, we were in the hottest real estate market we will probably ever see.”
M2G Ventures transacted or redeveloped more than 2.6 million square feet over the past two years, representing more than $226 million in capitalized value. It has executed almost 50 leases in the past 18 months, representing approximately 1 million square feet in the highly competitive DFW market. Moreover, M2G has over $1.5 billion in assets under management, investment capacity, and under development.
Over the past year, M2G raised its first fund designed to provide M2G and its investors the ability to execute its strategy on a larger, more efficient scale with a more “nimble and opportunistic approach.”
“The fund offers investors the ability to exclusively participate in M2G’s investment strategy and deal flow, while providing investors discretion and flexibility on which projects they further participate in,” Essl and Miller say. “As we look toward the future, while others may see challenges, we see opportunity.”
The company’s capstone is its 501(c)(3) certified Mental Health Initiative, which works to change the way mental illness is identified and treated. In 2023, the company’s nonprofit achieved its milliondollar fundraising goal and is committed to raising another $600,000 in 2024.
Sarah LanCarte LanCarte Commercial
Matt Lewis and Jeff Anderson League Real Estate
Jessica Miller Essl and Susan Miller
M2G Ventures
Ginger Curtis Urbanology Designs
CATEGORY WINNER:
Ginger Curtis
Urbanology Designs
Ginger Curtis, a returning finalist, started Urbanology Designs with old-fashioned desire. What we call “want-to.”
With no formal training but what she calls a “surplus of raw talent” and zealous entrepreneurial streak, she went to work on birthing Urbanology Designs.
The firm, whose niche is luxury interior design, has demonstrated steady financial performance, she says, over the past three years with 40% growth in 2023.
As we noted last year, in 2017, she purchased an abandoned fire station in North Richland Hills and renovated it into a multipurpose office space, the Urban Fire House. Now home to her firm, the space also created an opportunity to start two new businesses: Urban Design Works LLC oversees the leasing of executive offices to local entrepreneurs in the portion of the building that served as the firefighters’ living quarters.
In 2022, Curtis expanded the Urbanology name to start Urbanology Properties, which provides luxury short-term rentals across the nation. The first investment property in the portfolio launched in Weatherford named the Urbanology Cottage.
In 2023, Curtis, a breast cancer survivor, launched her own lighting line which is now sold on numerous platforms.
CATEGORY FINALISTS:
Robert Johns and Jennifer Johns
The Kitchen Source
Armed with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and an MBA, Robert Johns envisioned a career in corporate America. It didn’t take long for him to realize that that wasn’t his calling.
Having been raised in a family that owned a kitchen remodeling business, Johns decided to follow suit in the retail space. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree after all. So, he opened a kitchen remodeling store in 1981.
For over 40 years, The Kitchen Store has been installing what he describes as a “piece of art in the home that becomes integral to daily life.”
Today, The Kitchen Source has
three locations with two more planned to open over the next three years.
Johns’ daughter, Jennifer Johns, is the vice president of operations.
Jennifer, naturally, spent a lot of time in the showroom growing up. She didn’t realize at the time that her father was building one of the leading kitchen and bath design and remodel companies in Fort Worth and Dallas.
She, too, explored the corporate world for 10 years before heeding the call to join her father in the business he established two generations ago.
Winter and Ashley Moore WinterGreen Synthetic Grass
Husband-and-wife duo Winter and Ashley Moore, who met while both worked in the service
industry, each were born with the entrepreneurial itch.
Winter found it while working for a local pest control company: artificial grass. It “sparked a deep fascination.”
“He instantly knew that this was the opportunity they had been searching for,” Ashley says. Four months after their marriage, WinterGreen was conceived.
While Winter immersed himself in the study of turf and eventually door-to-door sales, he also took a job as a waiter to help any early shortages in the family budget. Meanwhile, Ashley continued her job at a local painting company and took on a job as a hostess at the same restaurant.
Winter sold his first job in December 2014, “setting off a snowball effect of rapid growth.”
What began with Winter handling sales and completing jobs on his own has now expanded into an enterprise with nearly 50 employees.
“WinterGreen has experienced quick but steady growth over the past decade, and we continue to build this momentum year after year,” Ashley says. “The first six years of our business, we doubled our sales each year, and since then we have maintained substantial sales growth.”
Winter and Ashley Moore WinterGreen Synthetic Grass
Robert Johns and Jennifer Johns The Kitchen Source
2024 Entrepreneur of Excellence / Up-and-Coming
CATEGORY FINALISTS:
Chelsie Synatschk
Fort Worth Focused Real Estate
Chelsie Synatschk’s path to real estate began from a desire for the inherent flexibility in the career that would allow her to raise young children. It was practical.
The career became a passion.
Over the past three years, Fort Worth Focused Real Estate has grown from a husband-and-wife team to a boutique brokerage comprised of 15 dedicated agents.
“Balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship has been challenging,” says the TCU graduate, “but it’s also been incredibly rewarding.”
She created a mantra that became a guiding principle: “Work hard and be nice to people.”
“We have experienced strong sales and profit growth, allowing us to invest in our team, technology, and community initiatives,” she says. “This financial stability is crucial in maintaining a supportive work environment for our agents, which, in turn, translates into exceptional service for our
clients. Our unwavering commitment to excellence in all aspects of our business has positioned Fort Worth Focused Real Estate as an up-and-coming force in the Fort Worth real estate market.”
Christie K. Redmon Moore
Mansfield
Funeral Home & Cremations
Christie Redmon Moore, a graduate of Hampton University, returns as a finalist. She has built her business on a credo.
“Ever since we opened our doors in Mansfield, we have approached life — and death — differently. While some just see the end of a loved one’s life as a time for grief and mourning, we prefer to think of it as a time for reflection, appreciation, and even celebration. This is evident in everything we do from the
way we conduct our services to the amenities we offer. We are a close-knit community dedicated to honoring, sharing, and preserving the amazing and inspirational stories that are life.”
Moore says she knew at 9 years old that she wanted to be a mortician. Her parents insisted she go to college first before pursuing her credentials. She did all that.
Several underwriters, Moore says, tried to discourage her, saying the industry was not for a young Black woman. She remained undeterred, eventually acquiring a funeral home that was generating minimal income, no profits, and was thought to have been a lost cause.
That same funeral home 7 1/2 years later is nationally recognized.
CATEGORY WINNER: Katy Abraham
Construction Cost Management
Keith Kothmann opened Construction Cost Management in 1979 to provide estimating and cost management services to architecture and engineering companies.
But after much reflection and a gentle push from her father, Katy Abraham purchased the company in 2012 to ensure the family’s legacy. She has been called a seasoned business leader highly skilled in negotiation, operations management, and business development. And she wasted no time making her mark in the maledominated industry.
Since the leadership change, CCM has experienced more than 500% in revenue growth and obtained the necessary certifications that opened a multitude of opportunities to work on federal contracts.
She also created programs to recruit top talent. CCM has gone from two employees to a team that fluctuates between 10-15 employees and has the capacity to take on some of the largest, most important federal projects.
The firm’s sales increased 20% in 2023 over 2022. Moreover, CCM wrote 30% more proposals in 2023 than in 2022, and won 85% of them.
Prior to taking over Construction Cost Management, she held leadership roles, including district manager for Royal Canin and territory manager at Stallion Oilfield services.
Christie K. Redmon Moore Mansfield Funeral Home & Cremations
Chelsie Synatschk Fort Worth Focused Real Estate
Supporter of Entrepreneurship Award: Netty Matthews
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
Netty Matthews discovered in the land of opportunity that her dream job was helping others fulfill dreams.
Matthews, senior vice president for business advocacy at the Fort Worth Chamber, is Fort Worth Inc. 2024 Supporter of Entrepreneurship Award winner.
“I don't even know how to say this without being [overly sentimental], but that absolutely meant the world to me,” she says of being informed about the honor. “For me, connecting small business owners, assisting small business owners over the years, getting to develop our Small Business of the Year Award program — that has been where my passion has been. That is what excites me in the morning when I get up, supporting people in what they're doing as it relates to their entrepreneurial dreams.”
Matthews was hired by then-chamber president and CEO Terry Ryan in 1989. She found the chamber through an agency.
“When they asked what kind of job I was looking for, I said any job where I get to meet a lot of people. My passion is people.”
In the late 1990s, Ryan asked Matthews to develop a focus on small business, including a small business legislative agenda.
Following that was a program to help local companies grow by developing an updated business plan..
The chamber also developed a Small Business of the Year awards program, as well as small business workshops, specifically geared toward small business owners, for startups and existing businesses.
Matthews’s trip around the world began in her native Netherlands. She was working with her father. He was doing business with Europeans investing in real estate in Florida and Texas.
“But my dad didn't speak English,” she says. “So, whenever he went on a trip, I would go with him for translating purposes.”
Matthews was ultimately hired by the real estate company, which had developments in Colleyville and Southlake. Fort Worth is home sweet home today. She has been here since she was 20 years old.
“It's always been a blast, I will tell you that much. I met my husband through that particular real estate connection. I have loved living here from day 1.”
The job in Fort Worth has been a marriage made in heaven.
“What I've loved about the job is connecting with people, and I've said this before to some of my friends, ‘To me life is really just a huge treasure hunt, and people are the treasure.’ Through my job, I have become connected to literally thousands of treasures.”
Thank you to the 2024 Entrepreneur of Excellence program sponsors.
Home Shown: 16 Cardona
North Texas Gives Here
North Texas Community Foundation is here to help you make the most of your charitable giving. Whether you’re an individual, family or business, we specialize in creating taxefficient giving plans tailored to support the causes and nonprofits you care about most. Explore our range of charitable funds designed to support your goals today and for generations to come.
Brad Chapman, Cheryl Chapman, Sandra McGlothlin and Mark McGlothlin
Family Inc.
Bloodlines and Bottom Lines: The Family-Owned Business
Fort Worth is fertile ground for dreamers whose ambition is to build something generational for descendants.
A family-run business is more than a place of innovation. It’s also steeped in tradition. It's where decades of dreams, hard work, and, yes, a few tears, blend with a steadfast commitment to build something timeless.
At the core of a family business lies the family itself, intertwined with every aspect of the enterprise. They invest more than just funds. They pour their hearts and dedication into the journey. Future generations take up the mantle, carrying forward this shared legacy.
Kee and Hannah Song came here from the far reaches of South Korea with nothing but an idea. Mike Cook
arrived here from Dallas by way of West Texas. He wanted to grow and sell plants.
Ben Rosenthal followed in the footsteps of Fort Worth’s great packing plants, establishing a fresh-meat purveyor to cut fresh steaks for hotels, country clubs, and restaurants. His son, Manny, built Standard Meat into an industry leader over three decades, mass producing precut steaks, hamburger patties, and pizza toppings for restaurant chains like Pizza Hut and Steak and Ale.
They were all united by the common thread of ambition and dreams. A vision.
We profile three family-owned businesses whose hopes and dreams have been achieved, though the work endures forever.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
IMAGES BY RICHARD W. RODRIGUEZ AND THANIN VIRIYAKI
Men’s Collections
Kee and Hannah Song came to the U.S. from South Korea with nothing, but they came here for the reason most everybody else does — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They spoke not a “lick of English.”
However, Kee, “by a miracle of God,” was able to secure a bank loan to buy into a clothing store. He eventually bought out his partner and rebranded the store Men’s Collections.
It’s at the same location since opening 44 years ago. Forty-four years in December to be exact.
Those early days included lonely nights in a small studio apartment with nothing except a mattress on the floor and the Yellow Pages. If Kee had a good day at work, “he’d go to Whataburger because they have the biggest burgers.”
Today, Men’s Collections is a thriving business.
Going into the family business was not a part of son Jonathan Song’s plans after finishing school at TCU where he was a place-kicker on the football team. He believed he, too, would start his own business. Maybe a kicking school. Perhaps in shoes.
“I always had an idea that I wanted to start my own business. I just had no idea what it was,” says Jonathan.
He went to work at the store to help his father get through the pandemic. During that time, he was still looking for another shot to kick somewhere professionally. But he fell in love with the business of suits.
“So, my dad and my mother joke that I'm vice president,” Song says to me through his smart phone. “I will laugh and joke that I'm the bottom of the totem pole who has to do everything my father doesn't want to do.
“That's how I describe it. I’m expected to know and do whatever’s needed.”
Kee, Hannah, and Jonathan Song
Mike’s Garden Center
Mike Cook Jr. remembers well the options he had as a youngster: He could go to work at Mike’s Garden Center for an hourly wage, or he could stay at home with a list of chores and work for free.
One morning he didn’t make it up in time to go to “work.” Mike Cook Sr. left him a list of things to do around the house.
Says Mike Jr. today: “The next morning I was up, ready to go, and he goes, ‘Boy, you're a smart guy, I like smart guys.’ He said, ‘You're going to get paid today, Mike.’ So, I learned really quick.”
Mike’s Garden Center has been as much a part of Mike Cook Jr.’s life as his name. Mike Sr. founded the company in 1972. Their doors have been open on Crowley Road since 1974. Another location operates in Southlake.
Plants were a fascination for the young Mike Sr., who grew up in Dallas and went to Texas Tech to study horticulture. At Mike’s Garden Center, Mike Sr. seemed to always have a good slogan handy, such as, “Cow Poo-Poo Fertilizer.” Mike Sr. always had a ready joke in his holster, too.
All of the Cook children worked at the business at one time or another.
After his own studies at Texas Tech, Mike Jr. opened a landscape design business, which he folded into Mike’s Garden Center when he came over at age 30.
“He kept tapping me on the shoulder like, ‘Hey, I'm not getting any younger here, and we've got to figure out what's going to happen down the road,’” Mike Jr. recalls.
When Mike Cook Sr. passed away in 2019, he had a ready successor.
Today, Mike Jr.’s daughter, Bridget, is also on staff.
Bridget handles the company’s marketing and social media presence.
And, of course, whatever else needs doing in the office.
That’s the way these family-owned businesses work.
Bridget Cook and Mike Cook Jr.
Standard Meat
The Rosenthals of Texas, that is Standard Meat, are the sort-of Paul Bunyon of family-owned businesses in Fort Worth.
Founded in 1935 by Ben Rosenthal, they are today run by the fourth generation of the family, the second Ben Rosenthal, CEO and co-president, and his sister and copresident, Ashli Rosenthal Blumenthal.
They are the children of Billy Rosenthal, grandson of the original Ben Rosenthal. It can be “intimidating” living up to the legacy.
“You put some pressure on yourself,” says Ashli. “It's not even about following the footsteps. It's kind of like dredging your own path, if you will. And I think that for me at least, the thing that made it a little less scary was to be able to do it with Ben. I think that when we started out, our horizons were pretty wide, and we didn't say it needed to look a certain way to ourselves, which allowed us to really sort of navigate and make the last six years our own.”
The two took over in 2019. Their father is chairman.
Manny Rosenthal, Billy’s father and son of Ben I, joined the company at age 13, the year the company began operations. After school at Texas A&M, Manny rejoined the company in 1946.
Manny became president in 1959. Ben moved to chairman.
Billy, who, like his father, began working at Standard Meat as a teen, ascended to president in 1981. Two years later, the company sold to Consolidated Foods.
The story of the second iteration of Standard Meat began in 1994. Outback Steakhouse asked Billy to consider becoming a vendor. He brought in Donnie Freedman to be a partner. Investors included Howard Katz and others.
Standard Meat returned to full family ownership in 2019.
Today, the company has plants in Dallas, Ponder, Saginaw, and another under construction in the Fort Worth Stockyards.
Ben Rosenthal and Ashli Rosenthal Blumenthal
Guardado Landscaping & Garden Center
CONCENTRATION: Guardado Landscaping is a landscaping and retail garden center. HONORS/RECOGNITIONS: We have many different recognitions through Fort Worth Magazine throughout the years. FOUNDED: Eloy Guardado founded Guardado Landscaping & Garden Center in1998. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: We just recently donated eight pieces of Talavera (Mexican and Spanish ceramic pottery) to a local elementary school for the “Boo Bash,” which is what they call their cake walk, as well as two separate art pieces for them to raffle off. It’s always a blessing to be able to give back to the community. FUTURE GOALS: My future goals are to be able to run this business until my children can succeed me in the business. What an honor it would be for either one of my sons or my daughter to take over when the time is right. SERVICES/PRODUCTS: For many years now, we’ve offered full-scale residential and commercial landscaping services, as well as offering an extremely large plant selection for purchase. WHAT SETS THEM APART: There are not many family-owned landscaping companies that have a garden center, which makes us unique in that respect. We also keep up to date with plant knowledge and care for the plants. PICTURED: (top, l to r) Ivan Hernandez, Ta’Marion Oliver, Edgar Lopez; (bottom, l to r) Blaire Goss, Nicolasa Guardado, Sabrina Guardado. Guardado Landscaping | 3228 Alta Mere | Fort Worth 76116 | 817.732.3434 | sales@guardadolandscaping.net guardadolandscaping.com
M-Pak, Inc.
MISSION: It is the mission of M-Pak, Inc. to provide the most innovative and dependable solutions available, from packaging products to protecting people. GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY: Community involvement is an essential aspect of what we do, with support for Como Lion’s Heart, LVTRise, The Parenting Center, CASA, Fort Worth Police Bike Support Group, Do You Back the Blue, Kupferle Foundation, One Safe Place, and Alliance for Children. PRODUCTS AND SERVICES: In primary support of federal, state, and local agencies, we provide industrial packaging supplies, tactical uniforms, equipment, armor, weapons optics, and tactical medical supplies. Each custom solution is designed to meet the needs of the agency. AWARDS/RECOGNITIONS: Fort Worth Business Press Top 100, Inc. 5000, Fort Worth Inc. Fastest Growing Companies, Dallas Business Journal Largest Women Owned Businesses. Debbie – Great Women of Texas, Entrepreneur of Excellence, FWBP Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, FWBP Legacy of Business Leadership Award. Anna – 40 Under 40, Great Women of Texas. FUTURE GOALS: To continue to expand each of our three divisions: Packaging, Tactical, and Medical. WHAT SETS THEM APART: Since 1999, our expectation of exceptional customer service has been ingrained in our culture. PICTURED: Debbie Cooley and Anna Boulware. M-Pak, Inc. | 11255 Camp Bowie West, Ste. 108 | Aledo 76008 | 817.696.0004 m-pakinc.com | accounts@m-pakinc.com
The Original Mattress Factory
AWARDS/RECOGNITIONS: Recognized as a top small business in Tarrant County by the Better Business Bureau. FOUNDED: 1896 by Harry Keeton, Sr. MOTTO: Quality Bedding at Dream Prices. A Texas Original since 1896. CHARITIES SUPPORTED: Young Life Ministries and Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County. ASPIRATIONS: The goal that my children and grandchildren would continue the tradition of serving the bedding needs that my great-grandfather started. PRODUCTS/SERVICES: Custom-built mattresses, box springs, odd-sized mattresses, bed frames, comforters, and pillows. CHALLENGE BUSINESS FACES: Letting people know that we are here for their bedding needs. WHAT SETS THEM APART: Better quality and construction, as well as know-how since 1896, set us apart from our competition. Our buying power, prices, custom sizes, no sales commissions, along with the “no middleman” concept give maximum savings, which are passed along to the customer. PICTURED: Trey Duncan and Peter Duncan. Harry Keeton & family, circa 1940s.
The Original Mattress Factory | 900 E. Vickery Blvd. | Fort Worth, Texas 76104 817.334.0361 | peter@themattressfactory.com | themattressfactory.com
Ol’ South Pancake House & Japanese Palace Restaurant
FOUNDED: Benson family-owned businesses: Rex Benson’s father, David Benson, opened Ol’ South Pancake House in 1962 and founded Japanese Palace Restaurant in 1975. Japanese Palace is now owned and operated by Rex’s sister, Pam Benson. MOTTO: “Friends don’t let friends eat at chains. Support your local independent restaurants.” RECOGNITIONS: Over the years, Ol’ South Pancake House has been featured in many publications; voted Best Breakfast and late-night restaurant for six consecutive years. Japanese Palace Restaurant was featured on Trey’s Chow Down, Episode 4, and Fort Worth Today TV; named Best Tableside Restaurant Preparations in DFW by CBS News. SERVICES: Ol’ South Pancake House, a 24/7, family restaurant with signature Southern cooking, has a full-menu selection from waffles to chicken-fried steak to delicious pecan pie. Japanese Palace, open for evening meals, features authentic Japanese teppanyaki cooking tables and sushi bar. Rex’s Bar & Grill, Rex Benson’s new entity, is next door to Ol’ South at 1501 South University Drive. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Japanese Society, Fort Worth Memories Toy Drive, Toys for Tots, and many other organizations. WHAT SETS THEM APART: The quality of the product and extraordinary service set us above the crowd. PICTURED: Rex Benson; (not pictured) Pam Benson. Ol’ South Pancake House | 1509 South University | Fort Worth 76107| 817.336.0311 |225 E. Renfro St. | Burleson 76028 817.989.9090 | olsouthpancakehouse.com
Japanese Palace Restaurant | 8445 Camp Bowie West Blvd. | Fort Worth 76116 | 817.244.0144 | japanesepalace.net
Standard Meat Company
AWARDS/RECOGNITIONS: Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Southwest Region; D CEO - Dallas 500; Dallas Morning NewsDFW Top Workplaces; Fort Worth Business Press - Top 100 and Great Women of Texas; Fort Worth Inc. - Entrepreneur of Excellence; AA+ BRC Certification. BUSINESS FOUNDED: 1935 by Ben H. Rosenthal (great-grandfather of current co-presidents Ashli Rosenthal Blumenfeld and Ben Rosenthal). MISSION: To inspire the connections and breakthroughs that ultimately feed our life. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Susan G. Komen Foundation, Tarrant Area Food Bank, and other causes that are important to our team. GOALS/ASPIRATIONS: Longevity. Our hope is that we can continue to grow and evolve our fourth-generation family business through innovation and thoughtful service to all of our stakeholders who are all critical to our future, from our employees and customers to our suppliers and shareholders, as well as the community. PRODUCTS/SERVICES: Customized protein solutions, like packaging, portioning, and more. WHAT SETS THEM APART: Our culture. We may be in the protein business, but we’re ultimately in the relationship business. Our deep, trusted connections power everything we do at Standard Meat. PICTURED: Ashli Rosenthal Blumenfeld and Ben Rosenthal. Standard Meat Company
600 E. Exchange Ave., Ste. 200 | Fort Worth 76164 | standardmeat.com
Family ~ Owned Business
Thompson’s Harveson & Cole and Martin Thompson & Son
FOUNDED: In 1911, Quincy Adams Harveson opened one of the first mortuaries in Fort Worth. Later, Harveson’s son-in-law, Grover Cleveland Cole, joined the company. In 1948, Guy Thompson joined and became vice president and general manager of what is now Thompson Harveson Cole. In 2012, Martin Thompson and his son, Jon, opened a second location, Martin Thompson and Son Funeral Home & Crematory. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Our roots run deep in Fort Worth – Thompson family ancestors, the Seela family, purchased land in 1859 just west of Fort Worth. The original cabin was destroyed by a flood in the early 1860s and was rebuilt. The cabin remained strong until it was moved in the 1950s to the Fort Worth Log Cabin Village Lane, shown in the picture. SERVICES: Funeral and Cremation Services. WHAT SETS THEM APART: Our connection to the area extends to the founding of Thompson’s Harveson & Cole Funeral Home in 1911. We take pride in being one of the last remaining family-owned and -operated funeral homes in the area. PICTURED: Jon, Palmer and Martin Thompson (standing); Guy Thompson (portrait). Thompson’s Harveson & Cole | 4350 River Oaks Blvd. | Fort Worth 76114 | 817.336.0345 | thompsonfunerals.com Martin Thompson & Son | 6009 Wedgwood Drive | Fort Worth 76113 | 817.292.2250 | thompsonfuneral.com
Questions for Construction Businesses Navigating Loans
WORDS BY ALISSA KOLM
According to analysis from StorageCafe of the U.S. Census, Yardi Matrix, and CommercialEdge data, Fort Worth clocks in at No. 9 in terms of the top 50 U.S. cities for real estate development in 2024.
Most living in the Fort Worth area wouldn’t need that statistic to know it to be true. Area residential and business communities are thriving.
Despite the explosive growth in the area, finding the right bank to work with as a construction company can be a challenge.
Why? For starters, it is an industry that can experience a lot of variation as revenue is project-based, which means volume can vary from one year to the next. Construction is also impacted by other variables like weather conditions, the broader economic environment, interest rates, and vacancy and absorption rates, which are largely outside of a contractor’s control.
To find the right fit in a bank, begin by noting the intricacies of your business. The three questions below can help outline the structure and supports to consider when reviewing your banking relationships.
Question 1. What are your business’s unique/specific banking needs?
Even within the construction world, there are differences in the way companies approach business. For example, general contractors versus subcontractors.
Typically, general contractors have fewer hard assets or “collateral” and fewer financing needs to run their business. In this case, a banking relationship
might focus more on setting up accounts receivable solutions like online payments and ACH capabilities.
In the case of subcontractors who are normally buying the tools and equipment needed to perform their portion of a construction project, there may be a need for bank debt to support those costs.
When it comes to securing financing, banks will generally want to understand the timing and consistency of revenue and profit margins from year to year. For example, how much of the company’s work is won through competitive bid versus negotiated bid? How much revenue is tied to any one customer? Additionally, providing a backlog, as well as a summary of projects in various stages of negotiation, can provide insight into a company’s future performance. Ultimately, a bank will want to understand how your company has historically performed and how likely that performance is to continue.
Question 2. What processes do you need to simplify?
No matter how smooth a business is running, the right banker can help keep owners up to date on the new technologies and systems that can help maximize cash flow and processes.
One trend we are seeing in construction is moving away from writing checks to using Visa Payables Automation, or VPA. This is often a good fit for construction companies, as they have many payables to manage. VPA can be used to automate the procure-to-pay process and can enhance reconsolidation through reporting. Setting this up can protect both your company and the recipient.
Question 3. How are you protecting your business from financial risk?
Construction companies are very familiar with the need for risk management tools specific to the industry, but they should also be thinking about how to manage risk when it comes to their bank accounts.
In today’s world, fraud is unfortunately a common occurrence. However, there are many tools and resources available to protect companies. Banks are generally eager to discuss a company’s payment processes, any fraud risks associated with those payment types, and protections that can be added to protect against bad actors. For example, if you write a lot of checks, there are tools such as Positive Pay that can be utilized to protect against attempts at check fraud.
Nailing down answers to the above questions can be a helpful step for construction companies vetting potential banking relationships.
Solutions for Success
The big picture is that construction companies want a bank and banker that understand their business as well as the construction industry and its ebbs and flows. UMB has banked the construction industry since our inception in 1913, and we recognize each client has unique needs, which is why we offer customized solutions for every business type and industry.
With the recent Fed rate cuts, we anticipate there will be an upswing in construction projects soon, making now an ideal time to begin the process of reviewing your current banking situation. If you are sidelined right now with your construction financing, reevaluate what your needs and complexities are and create a game plan alongside the right institution.
Alissa Kolm has worked with UMB in Fort Worth for six years, first in business development and now as a relationship manager. Originally from Nebraska, she attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is a graduate of Bellevue University with a degree in business.
Be Careful When Selling or Gifting an Asset
WORDS BY JOHN LOYD
My Grandpa used to tell me, “If you’re paying taxes, you’re doing something right!” There is an element of truth to that statement: If you are paying taxes, it means you are making money! In other words, having a large income tax bill can be a good problem to have. However, there are a few things to be aware of in order to avoid making big, costly tax blunders, especially when it comes to selling or gifting away assets.
A charismatic client of mine, upon completion of service in the military, got a job “flipping burgers” in 1968 for 90 cents an hour with a major food chain. His boss encouraged him to invest in the company, to which he replied, “Sounds great. But I don’t have any money.” His boss paused for a moment, then said, “We’ll fix that. Hop in my car.”
The boss drove to a local bank and helped my client get a $2,000 loan by co-signing the note. My client invested the entire $2,000 in the company (known for their golden arches) and never touched it. Today, that $2,000 investment is worth over $1 million. Guess what? No tax was ever paid on that massive appreciation. How is that possible?
When one passes away with nonretirement assets (that is, stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.), the heirs get a “step-up” in the cost basis to the value on the date of death of the decedent.
Like any business owner, my client dealt with the sometimes-harsh realities of running a business. Staffing issues, machine malfunctions, new regulatory procedures, and a host of other things that can sometimes cause a business owner to bonk their head against the
proverbial wall. A few times, my client called and would consider “selling all” of that particular stock. This would often be on a day when things weren’t running so smoothly. I would listen to his concerns and explain to him the positive aspects of the stock, along with the hefty tax consequences if he were to sell. He would literally have a seven-figure capital gain (taxed at 20%). I also knew he was having some health issues, and while he was still going strong, a recent stroke indicated his life expectancy was likely to be shorter than anticipated. He held onto the stock, and upon passing away, his beneficiary (his wife, in this case) gets a “step-up” in the cost basis on his date of death. Long story short, tax on the entire appreciation can be avoided upon someone’s passing. In essence, one needs to be mindful of selling assets with significant appreciation if it appears that longevity is not in order.
Another issue I see is when aging parents consider gifting certain assets to their children. The rationale for this is often “to make it easier when Mom or Dad pass away.” The thought is, the asset can be re-titled while the parents are alive, perhaps avoiding probate when the parents pass. That could be true, but probate in Texas is a relatively inexpensive and a mostly painless process.
A client’s mother had inherited land more than 40 years ago near Round Rock, Texas. At that time, the mother would have received a “step-up” in basis, but since then, there had been considerable appreciation of the land value. My client called me one day and said, “Since my mom is getting up in age, she is going
to gift me this land.” I nearly leapt out of my chair and said, “Hold on! Don’t do anything yet!”
I explained that when one gifts an asset, in most cases, the gift recipient will simply take the donor’s basis (sometimes referred to as a “carryover basis,” as the basis of the donor simply “carries over” to the gift recipient). In other words, my client would take on her mother’s (very low) cost basis and upon selling, would have a massive amount of tax to pay given the huge appreciation of the land over the years. However, when her mother (who was in her 80s) passed away, she could simply inherit the land, receive a “step-up” in basis of the value on her mother’s date of death, and could sell the property with zero tax on the appreciation, allowing a huge tax bill to be avoided.
In a court case in the 1930s, presiding Judge Learned Hand famously stated, “Anyone may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.” The IRS is unforgiving, and ignorance of the law is not a defense. Major financial decisions should always be coordinated with a seasoned financial and/or tax advisor to help minimize any adverse tax consequences.
John Loyd, CFP®, MBA, EA is founder of The Wealth Planner™. For over two decades, he has been providing wealth management advice to small business owners and high-income professionals. Contact him at john@thewealthplanner.com. Securities & Advisory Services offered through LPL Financial, a Registered Investment Advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC. Above are hypothetical situations based on real-life examples. The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which investments or strategies may be appropriate for you, consult your advisor prior to investing.
Better Business Builder
Trey
Bowles: entrepreneur and startup architect.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
RODRIGUEZ
Trey Bowles is a good example of what can happen if you just make time.
As a soon-to-be senior at Baylor, a friend asked him to help with his new business.
“I said, ‘I don’t have time,’” Bowles remembers. “I had two jobs.”
Well, he made time. The friend sold the dot-com company in eight months “for a ton of money.” He asked Bowles to move with him to Nashville to start another company. And they built another company.
“About the third company that I built, I was like, ‘Oh, wait, I think I may be an entrepreneur.’”
The taste was as fulfilling as a well-seasoned rib-eye. Today, Bowles’ avocation is helping other entrepreneurs build companies as the managing director of the Techstars Physical Health Fort Worth Accelerator.
He is a member of Fort Worth Inc.’s The 400, the list of the most influential people and leaders in Fort Worth.
Techstars Fort Worth is in the midst of its third cohort. Founders from all over the world live here for three months for mentorship and introductions with potential investors.
“They love it,” says Bowles, a 40-something. “It's amazing to see people from Russia and the Ukraine and Chile and Nigeria. I mean, you name it, we have it from all over the world.”
Bowles describes his career in three phases.
The first being an entrepreneur, beginning in college. He started building companies primarily in the tech and media space, but also in the video sharing space. Those included music companies and management companies.
“Basically, for about 20 years, I just did anything I got excited about and would teach myself how to do it, and then I'd build a company doing it.”
He calls his second phase his “give back phase,” focusing on building entrepreneurial ecosystems. For example, establishing an entrepreneurship department at SMU, as well as six
nonprofits to help support ecosystem building. The Dallas Entrepreneur Center, aka the DEC Network, was another of his innovations. The DEC Center runs Create FW. With former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, he established a leadership development organization over there.
Three years ago, phase three began at Techstars.
“I've lived in 10 cities, places like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, D.C., Birmingham, Nashville, Oklahoma City,” Bowles says. “No city I have lived in has the potential that DFW does to grow and expand. I think Fort Worth has even more potential to grow than Dallas does.”
