Up Close with Ray Driver
Everyone was concerned that dropping oil prices would redline Houston in 2015, and capital is typically the most skittish. But according to Q10 Kinghorn, Driver, Hough & Co principal Ray Driver, activity has been exceptional this year, and the availability of capital in Houston is extremely strong.
Ray's involvement in commercial real estate started at a young age because it's in his blood—KDH was founded by his father and A.M. Kinghorn in 1945. The native Houstonian loves that mortgage banking gives him the opportunity to directly contribute to the growth and development of his hometown. Ray began working at KDH in 1975 after graduating from Stephen F. Austin. He’s been instrumental in its growth, including being a founder of Q10 Capital and currently serving as chairman of the board for 16 offices nationwide.
Recently, some of Ray’s greatest transactions have been in the growth explosion on I-10 West. He’s been financing many transactions in the Energy Corridor, and just closed two multi-tenant office buildings there. So far he hasn’t seen the submarket being affected by recent market blips—it continues to be a dynamic focus for his clients—which is very encouraging. He says the economy has all projects under a microscope now, but he feels they always should be, and there haven’t been any real issues in getting deals financed today. Ray’s pictured here at the Colliers golf tourney last month with MBA Construction's Steve Carter, Houston Furniture Bank's Oli Mohammed (a charity KDH supports), Colliers' Pat Duffy and SepMarke Interests' Mark Sepulveda.
Ray recently joined the advisory board of the University of Houston Master's of Real Estate program; after decades of watching Houston's commercial real estate thrive, he’s excited to be part of building future industry leaders. He has three kids: a son in real estate in Dallas, a daughter working for Twitter in Los Angeles (which means Ray’s been aggressive about learning and implementing social media at work), and a son at A&M. He’s been an avid golfer all his life (but says hunting and fishing have been getting in the way) and is fulfilling a lifelong dream this week, going to Scotland to golf at St. Andrews. He and his wife are visiting London and France for the first time during that trip as well, making it one to remember.
