Future of Downtown

Anything uptown and urban in real estate is Jack Gosnell’s forte. Jack is an Executive Vice President with CBRE | UCR Urban in Dallas. His arrival prompted the development of our Urban division – formed to pursue urban redevelopment for mixed-use projects in the urban core. The principal focus of Jack’s energy has turned to adaptive re-use and redevelopment of urban cores. He is active in the redevelopment of Downtown Dallas. In 2016, Jack received the Stemmons Service Award, the highest award and honor given in the commercial real estate industry in Dallas by The North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors (NTCAR). Prior to CBRE | UCR, Jack began his real estate career in specialty retail leasing and commercial sales in 1972 with real estate legend Henry S. Miller, Jr. There he worked on leasing assignments with Turtle Creek Village and Old Town Village, which were prototypes of denser urban centers such as Mockingbird Station and West Village. He was Henry S. Miller, Jr.’s assistant during the acquisition of Highland Park Village in 1975. Gosnell began moving toward the urban core when he established his own business in 1978. He moved his focus from specialty retail to a multi-tiered approach to real estate. He assembled five major blocks in Uptown, which included the land for One McKinney Place, The Residence on McKinney and the Worthington. He was instrumental in assembling much of the land currently known as the State Thomas area in Uptown. During the 80’s and 90’s, Gosnell brokered over 200 building sales and over 300 leases south of Northwest Highway, 75 percent of the leases being restaurants. At one time in the 90’s, Gosnell had brokered 65 percent of Uptown/Downtown’s 145 restaurants. These include: 8.0 Bar, Meddlesome Moth, Taverna, The Common Table, Fedora, Asian Mint, The Knox Street Pub, The Idle Rich Pub, Iron Cactus, Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille, Palomino, Wild Salsa, Capital Grille, Dallas Chop House, Ocean Prime, Dee Lincoln’s Tasting Room, Pho Colonial, Stephan Pyles’ Stampede 66, FT 33, Ascension Coffee, Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, Katy Trail Ice House, the Rustic, Mutts Cantina, Mesero, Moxie, Shelby County Café, OAK, Mudhen, Adelmo’s and Shake Shack to name a few. Gosnell brought Forest City to Dallas to redevelop the notable Mercantile Bank building, the Continental building and the historic Wilson Building as a downtown mixed-use complex. CBRE | UCR Urban will lease the retail component and is active in the retail reemergence of the downtown Central Business District (CBD). He has chaired the Retail Recruitment Committee for Downtown Dallas, Inc. (DDI) and is working on a leasing plan for the Specialty Retail District in Downtown Dallas. Gosnell’s current projects include 1401 Elm in downtown, McKinney & Olive in Uptown, The Union, and The Farmers Market privatization. 1401 Elm is a landmark Skidmore tower with 120,000 square feet of retail to be redeveloped and delivered late in 2016. McKinney & Olive is a new César Pelli tower with 60,000 square feet of luxury retail and restaurant space in the heart of Uptown Dallas. The Union is 100,000 square feet of retail plus office and a residential tower. The Farmers Market represents a $90 million dollar redevelopment of a Dallas landmark. Originally from Arlington, Virginia, Jack received his Bachelor of Science degree from Vanderbilt University. He served in the Armed Forces and resigned from the Army with commendation as a Captain in the Corps of Engineers.

John L. Zogg, Jr. serves as managing director for Crescent Real Estate Equities, LLC. Mr. Zogg manages the leasing efforts in the Dallas and Houston markets of over 2,300,000 square feet. Mr. Zogg serves on the board of various local civic organizations including Executive Committees of Uptown Public Improvement District, Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation, Downtown Dallas and The Rise School of Dallas. He is a member of The Dallas Assembly, Urban Land Institute, City Center Tax Incentive Finance District, as well as the Downtown Connection Tax Incentive Finance District. Mr. Zogg is vice chairman of the AT&T Cotton Bowl and a founding member of the Advisory Council to the Center for Real Estate Finance at the University of Texas at Austin, Business School. In 2002, Mayor Laura Miller appointed Mr. Zogg to the Dallas Inside the Loop Committee. Mr. Zogg was named #1 Office Leasing Agent in Dallas/Fort Worth by the Dallas Business Journal in 1995 and again in 1996. Mr. Zogg joined Crescent Real Estate Equities as vice president of leasing and marketing in May of 1994. In 2004, he was promoted to managing director in Crescent’s Dallas Region. Mr. Zogg served as managing director until Crescent was sold to Morgan Stanley in 2007. Prior to rejoining Crescent, Mr. Zogg worked at Silverstone Capital Group. From January 1989 to May 1994, Mr. Zogg served as vice president of the commercial real estate group for Rosewood Property Company, responsible for marketing and leasing office space in the Dallas and Denver areas. Prior to joining Rosewood, he worked as marketing manager of Gerald D. Hines Interests. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Mr. Zogg holds a Master of Business Administration Degree from the University of Dallas.

Jihane A Boury joined Harwood International in 2003 and is currently responsible for pre-leasing of new developments, build-to-suits, national accounts leasing and overall marketing of spaces for lease for Harwood International in Dallas. She is also involved in the Master-planning of the district of HARWOOD, encompassing 18 city blocks in the heart of Uptown. As a registered interior designer in the State of Texas, Mrs. Boury brings 20+ years of experience in programming, master planning and all phases of space planning and interior architectural design. Prior to joining Harwood International, Jihane was a principal at one of Dallas’ most renowned architectural and interior design firms, where she directed the design and development of major corporate headquarters nationwide, including several preeminent Dallas law firms and international advertising companies. Jihane is fluent in French, Arabic and English. She has served on the board of the International Red Cross in Beirut, Lebanon and was also involved in the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Hearts and Hammers, and Habitat for Humanity. Jihane holds a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design from the University of Texas in Arlington.

Holly Reed is the managing director, external affairs for Texas Central Partners, LLC. Holly leads all of our outreach, government relations and communications activities. Holly spent 25 years at AT&T and its predecessor companies, most recently as Regional Vice President of External Affairs. In this role, Holly was responsible for government affairs, working with local, state and federal officials on diverse business and technology issues and outreach to civic groups on the company’s commitments to local communities. Holly has also held leadership positions in customer service, finance operations, data center operations, marketing and advertising.

While completing his MBA from the University of Western Ontario in 1982, Jack joined Matthews Group Ltd, the family construction company. In 1985 Jack was appointed President and presided over a period of unprecedented growth as company revenues grew from $69 million to over $500 million. In 1988, Jack founded Matthews Southwest to provide an American presence in the development business. From 1991 to 1993 Jack served as Chief Executive Officer of Paxport International, the firm awarded the $4 billion Federal contract to privatize and redevelop Pearson International Airport in Toronto. In 1994, Jack purchased Matthews Southwest and relocated to Dallas, Texas and has continued to develop innovative, quality commercial, industrial and residential projects in Canada, the United States and Mexico. He has also established an international presence with Matthews Southwest EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). Jack has led the completion of many diverse projects including hotels, condominiums, offices, retail, residential and industrial space. His experience and mastery of all aspects of development – from imagining to creating, acquiring the land, financing the deal, building the project, then holding or selling on completion – helps to create value at all stages in the process. Jack's greatest strength is his ability to assemble and complete complex projects that include hidden opportunities for value creation. He routinely finds under-utilized re-development sites, structures the financing very skillfully, and manages the civic implications of urban re-development. In his understated way, he is as comfortable being part of a team as leading it.

Larry was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. At Ripon College (Wisconsin) he was president of the student body, and editor of the campus newspaper. Having majored in history, he had an interest in historic structures that would emerge later in professional life. In his military career, he directed a Czech-German border resident intelligence office during the cold war. In 1970 he joined the Colorado Governor’s Office to build a new downtown campus for the University of Colorado at Denver and two other colleges. The Auraria Campus was the largest capital construction project in state history and today has the State’s largest enrollment. He spared many of the historic buildings then slated for demolition – Tivoli Brewery, St. Cajetan’s Church, the Golda Meir house and a dozen historic structures on 9th Street that today give the Campus its architectural diversity and flavor. He left higher education for the private sector joining Gerri Von Frellick, the State’s largest retail developer. Larry became an equity investor in several of Von Frellick’s projects and formed Hamilton Properties Corporation in 1976. While his late campus development served as one of downtown’s building blocks, Von Frellick’s regional malls ironically had abetted the flight to suburbia. During the 1980’s Hamilton Properties focused on suburban office parks but Larry remained a downtown proponent and was appointed to the downtown master plan committee by Mayor Federico Pena in 1983. The Denver central business district was then plagued by commercial vacancy, dead after-hours life and lack of residential living. That would change and Larry’s belief in a nation-wide trend to urbanism would cause Hamilton Properties to focus on downtowns and preservation of historic buildings. Larry helped convince the Holtze organization to depart suburbia and develop a down-town hotel in Denver’s former First National Bank Building. The Magnolia chain was born and he later helped expand it to reconstructed historic buildings in central Dallas and Houston. In the mid-1990s Larry’s son Ted joined Hamilton Properties as a principal. In Dallas, the father son team has been the primary force behind the revitalization of a once dying downtown. Their dynamic mixed use developments, three occupying full city blocks, have preserved historic buildings and strengthened the City’s architectural legacy. His civic involvements have included leading two foundations and chairing two higher education governing boards, including the Colorado State Board for Community Colleges. He has served on the downtown planning committees for Mayors of both Denver and Dallas and has received various honors and awards for contributions to higher education, business leadership and historic preservation and development.

Since founding Todd Interests in 1990, Shawn has led the firm in acquiring and developing profitable and successful properties across the United States spanning a broad and diverse category of product types. Todd Interests development projects have been the subject of National Public Radio (NPR) broadcasts; won numerous Historic Preservation awards, a Telly award, a NAHB Pillar of The Industry award, A/E/C Topping Out Visionary Award and other numerous accolades. The University of Virginia's, McIntire School of Commerce utilizes Todd Interests projects in numerous case studies each semester as part of their real estate curriculum. Shawn has previously served on the executive committee of The Real Estate Council, as Chairs of both the Public Policy Advisory Committee and the Political Action Committee. He also sits on the Downtown Dallas Inc. advisory board. Additionally, Shawn has been very involved in the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, having most recently served as the 2017-2019 Summit Chair for the Monticello Cabinet. Shawn is a 1985 graduate of Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business with a BBA in Entrepreneurship, Real Estate and Finance. He and his wife, Cheryl met at Baylor University and are celebrating their 35 th  year of marriage. Both are active members at Watermark Community Church.

Elie founded the KFK Group in 1996, and has spearheaded numerous successful development and construction projects since that time. Prior to forming KFK Group, Mr. Khoury was the President of a regional Mexican restaurant chain “Cucos” which became a publicly traded company in the mid 1980’s and grew from a single restaurant in the New Orleans area to over 40 restaurants operating in several states. Mr. Khoury’s comprehensive knowledge of finance, real estate, construction, hospitality and restaurants established the foundation for KFK Group and its affiliate – Southeast Restaurant Group (SRG) which owns and operates twenty five full service restaurants in seven states. Elie is a member of the TGI Friday’s executive concept advisory council, the Blue Ribbon Commission for post-Katrina school rebuilding, and is involved with various charitable organizations such as St. Jude Children’s Hospital, the St. Bernard Project, and Covenant House.

Mehul B. “Mike” Patel was born in Valsad, Gujarat, India, and immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 14 years old. After graduating from high school in Garland, Texas, he earned an associate's degree in Business from Richland College, Dallas, in 1998. Two years later, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems from the University of Texas at Arlington. Mehul is a second-generation hotelier who learned the lodging business from his father. Mehul and his brother acquired their first hotel, an independent property, in 1994 when Mehul was only 17 years old. He quickly mastered the deal-making skills that have been critical for purchasing and developing 26 hotels during his career as an hotelier. As many hotel owners in the Southwest have discovered, Mehul is also very willing to share his hard-earned knowledge. Mehul began a three-year term on the AAHOA Board of Directors in March 2005 as the North Texas Regional Director. He is the chairman and CEO of Sagestar Hotels, Ltd., Dallas, a company that owns, manages, builds and sells lodging properties. In addition to his membership in AAHOA, Mehul is active in the American Hotel & Motel Association and the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders. He is multi-lingual in English, Gujarati, and Hindi.

A highly respected architect and real estate strategist, Zach leads Gensler’s Corporate Campuses Practice Area for our South Central Region. His expertise includes high-performance office buildings, urban in-fill projects, building repositionings and campus developments. Zach is a stalwart in the Dallas real estate industry. He is a graduate of TREC’s Associate Leadership Council and a select recipient of both the ENR Texas & Louisiana “Top 20 Under 40” and the Dallas Business Journal’s “Top 40 Under 40” awards. His fervent support of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Dallas earned him the Club’s “Step Up to the Plate” Service Award. Zach holds Masters in both Architecture and Business Administration from Texas Tech University.