DFW Real Estate Pros Who Double as Weekend Ranchers, Part 3
From the boardroom to the barn, we’ve introduced you to the movers and shakers who find ranching and farming a way to escape day-to-day stress. Here’s our final installment in the three-part series on commercial real estate pros who are weekend ranchers.
Randy Heady, Heady Investments
Heady Investments top dog Randy Heady (right, with son and colleague Sayres Heady) loves to ride horses at the family’s 845-acre ranch, known as the RRR Ranch. Situated equidistant between Bonham and Durant, the ranch is about a 75-minute drive from Randy’s office in Plano or from his second home, the Preston Trail Golf Club. He can be found at the ranch at least one day every weekend to convalesce and recharge, he tells us. Randy tells us this photo is one of his favorites because their horses are two of his favorites, and he loves this mountain vista overlooking a 23-acre lake (which the Headys built 10 years ago).
Randy says he’s constantly on the go, either riding one of eight horses, mowing on his big John Deere tractor or fishing on one of the seven lakes. Three of those have been built since purchasing the property, he tells us. He likes to finish the evening with a cigar around the outdoor fire pit. Buying this land was the smartest thing he’s ever done, Randy tells us. Prices on surrounding acreage are up 700% since his purchasing the initial 395-acre tract in 1993; that’s a more than 30% annual increase. Yet, Randy says there’s no amount of money he would take for the ranch today. It’s too meaningful and can’t be replaced given the varying elevation, proximity to North Dallas and abundant wildlife.
Randy says his family enjoys the ranch and he’s adopted a miniature donkey named Shorty who keeps him company while he works at the ranch. He’s spotted a small mountain lion while riding and has heard tales of black bear 40 to 50 miles from the ranch or even closer. He’s even hired a formal wildlife and game commissioner as a fish consultant on three different lakes ranging from 16 acres to 23 acres. He likes to keep the lakes stocked and has a mission: growing a 10-pound bass. Sayres also just inked a $3M lease with Scottish Rite hospital for 20k SF in an MOB in West Plano and closed a $7.5M sale on 12 acres on the North Dallas Tollway across the tollway from the new Dallas Cowboys HQ in Frisco.
Rick Hughes, Cushman & Wakefield
Cushman & Wakefield EVP Rick Hughes spent much of his youth at his grandparents’ ranch just outside the small town of St. Joe. After years of city life, he discovered a love for deer hunting with his son after his good friend, Skybox's Tom Leiser, invited him on a South Texas hunt. Rick and his wife, Patsy, were sold on watching their son, Gray, hunt, which led them to start looking for country living spaces. They joined into a shared ranch near Bosque County, Bosque Canyon Ranch. He tells us it has multiple owners, each with a fee interest of five acres, and all with a partnership interest in 3,900 acres. They bought a site in 2007 and have since enjoyed the common area amenities, which include a clubhouse with a pool, two casitas for owners use, a horse stable, another ranch house for member use and a crew to maintain the ranch. He says it’s a great way to enjoy a huge ranch without an astronomical investment.
Three years ago, he began leasing a ranch owned by a good friend and real estate legend, Myers & Crow president Marc Myers (who owns numerous ranches in Bosque County, most with ranch houses that he leases out to his friends.) Rick’s leased ranch, The Sheffield, is a 500-acre ranch with about a mile of frontage on the Bosque River. It has a rock ranch house filled with wine and good food, where he and his wife have set up a remote office (WiFi is everywhere). The ranch is just under two hours from his Dallas home: far enough to be away and close enough to get to often. They go almost every weekend, leaving more often now on Thursday and returning on Sunday night. He’s hoping to build on the Bosque Canyon Ranch lot in the next year. He tells us he recently completed a 165k SF HQ assignment for Monitronics in Farmers Branch with the Billingsley Cos. He also recently completed one of the largest data center leases in North America with a 10.5 MW lease with an undisclosed user.
Terry Smith, Southwest Bank
Southwest Bank EVP Terry Smith grew up a real spur-wearing cowboy working on the family ranch. He and his brother now own the place and have it leased out to another operator. The best part: They get to enjoy all the lifestyle and don’t have any of the expenses or risk, he tells us. The ranch is just over 2,000 acres spread across three tracts straddling Falls and Milam counties outside of Rosebud. About half of the land is in ranching and half in farming (corn and cotton). It all started with Terry’s great-grandfather, S.T. Souther, who came to Texas from Missouri in the late 1800s. He opened the first mercantile store in Rosebud around 1890 when he heard the train was coming to town. Over the years, the family started buying land and by the 1930s, his grandparents had bought about 1,000 acres (which the family still owns).
Terry tells us his dad purchased the 1,100-acre Tamworth Ranch in Waco for $55/acre in 1958. His dad turned the land into cattle production and was a pioneer of the stocker cattle business, which put Falls County on the map as one of the largest beef producing counties in Texas in the 1970s. Today, Terry and his brother, Owen III, still own the land individually or through family trusts and are planning the transition to the next generation. The family prides itself on the privilege and responsibility of owning and stewarding land; the operators are amongst the finest in the agriculture industry and are excellent stewards of the land while running successful ag businesses, he tells us. While the family has branched out into various careers from banking to engineering, there’s still lots of time spent on the ranch for dove/duck/hog hunting, fishing, or just to relax and watch the grass grow.
