Not-so-simple signs

BY BRANDI SMITH

For most consumers, signs are their first exposure to a brand, be it a restaurant, a store or a service. But often when commercial real estate professionals discuss retail and its trends, that first point-of-contact initially gets forgotten or looked over. That’s not the case at Plano-based American Signs.

“What happens over time in any type of advertising is that the more that someone sees a brand, the more they start to embrace the message that comes with it. Ideally, there’s some trust built into that,” says Bill Young, the company’s general manager. “So when they see that brand while they’re driving by, they recognize it and connect with it.”

Because brands, logos and consumer messages change so often, so too should a company’s signage, according to Young. He estimates the lifespan of a sign to be about 10 years before either the message is obsolete or the weather has taken its toll.

 

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Reconfiguring retail: The trends that are changing the face of the market

BY BRANDI SMITH

When it was built around 1860, the large brick building at the corner of Vickery and South Freeway in Fort Worth served as a stagecoach hotel. O.B. Macaroni took it over in the early
years of the 20th century and operated out of it until just a few years ago. The three-story building is one of the oldest still standing in Texas’ 16th-largest city.

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CCIM March Luncheon: Jonathan Brinsden, Speaker – The Midway Companies

BY RAY HANKAMER

Jonathan Brinsden addressed the March luncheon and gave some insights on Midway’s development philosophy and a glimpse into some of its recently completed and future projects. Midway is best known for City Centre, and many of the elements of this development are being carried forward into the company’s new deals.

First, some of the Insights:
• We like to create remarkable places that enrich peoples’ lives
• Sometimes our capital partners cringe, but we like to do projects where everybody wins, including our employees, our tenants, and their customers
• When considering a project, we always ask ‘What’s best for the community?’
• We look for the best real estate that ‘is generational and has permanence of location’, which means it will just get better over time and will appeal to future generations-the mix must be disciplined so that a stable income stream will be created for a long time into the future

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Working well at The Work Well: Caldwell Companies open coworking space

BY BRANDI SMITH

Just as the well was a gathering point in pioneer towns, longtime Houston firm Caldwell Companies hopes its new coworking enterprise, The Work Well, can bring people and ideas
together.

“We want this to be the well where ideas are launched and your business takes flight,” says Miranda Hadamik, Caldwell’s vice president of investments.

The name came to William Hatfield, The Work Well’s community and workstyle director, in a kind of light bulb moment. It neatly wraps up all Caldwell hoped to convey: a connection to the company, how people will interact and a visual cue of a meeting place.

“We want you to work well, we want you to be productive and we want your business to grow into bigger and better things,” Hadamik says.

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Catching Up With Creech: The man behind Stan Creech Properties

BY BRANDI SMITH

Here’s the thing about Stan Creech: he’s a talker – in the best way. Not the annoying I-can’t-wait-until- this-person-pipes-down person who jabbers incessantly, but the kind you could listen to for hours on end. He’s well-versed in seemingly any topic, but he just might know more about Houston real estate than anyone else in the game.

That knowledge dates back to 1971, the year Creech graduated from the University of Texas law school. Yes, law. He says it didn’t take him long to realize that wasn’t going to be the career path for him.

“I talked to a couple of law firms, but I needed more interaction with people. I like reading them and negotiating with them,” Creech says. “To me, that’s the most fascinating thing about meeting people: figuring out how to negotiate with them.”

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Innovating Industrial: 2018 Trends to Watch

BY BRANDI SMITH

When it’s built out to its full potential, a 350-acre joint venture between Hillwood and T5 will offer 400 megawatts of data power.

“To put that in perspective, the entire Dallas- Fort Worth data center market is about 400 megawatts,” says Hillwood’s Tony Creme. “We’re very excited about this and see a lot of potential
in this new project.”

‘That property is part of AllianceTexas, the company’s 18,000-acre master-planned mixed-use community in North Fort Worth. Though it’s far from complete, the project is already home to
more than 480 companies, which provide more than 48,000 jobs, including Facebook. “This is the gift that seems to keep on giving,” Creme says of the social network’s data center.

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