By Ray Hankamer
RN: Dennis, you come from a prominent commercial construction family and you served on the Board of your father’s company at a young age. How did this educate you as a young man and get you started in developing real estate?
DM: I am a Houston native. I went to work during the summer at age 12 doing construction labor for my dad’s company and it taught me the value of hard work and how buildings actually come together. Ten summers in the hot sun taught me about manual labor and trying to use my brain, rather than my back, to earn money in the future. I got into commercial real estate at age 24 and went on Dad’s company board two years later. That was a real learning experience. All the other directors were at least 30 years older than I was, so all I had to do was shut up, listen and learn.