"We have had provisions for a changing of the guard in process for a couple years," J. Mikel Reynolds, principal of the new firm, tells GlobeSt.com. "It wasn't so much as everyone leaving as we've organized as a separate company." The new firm's principals include Leigh C. Richter, this year's president of the CREW Dallas chapter, and Richard Lapp, who have 25 years and 35 years in the business, respectively, and Charles Hicks, a long-time client of Joe Foster Co. Hicks, sporting 37 years' experience, is a residential lot developer, with projects at Lake Ray Hubbard in Garland and Bay Island of Roatan in the Caribbean Sea off the northern coast of Honduras. Now as before, Hicks will concentrate on development rather than brokerage, according to Reynolds.
"The new name is on the office door and our telephones, but that's about it," Reynolds says. "Our business cards come in Wednesday." The office remains rooted in 5,700 sf at 8401 N. Central Expressway.
[IMGCAP(2)]Richter Reynolds & Lapp is starting with eight seasoned brokers in investments, land and financing. The rest of the team includes Hank Schlachter, James Struble, Buddy Hayden and Bruce Harbour, all senior vice presidents, and Frank Cole as an associate.
Reynolds, marking his 40th year as commercial real estate broker, says the plan is to hire five more brokers before the year ends. "In a couple weeks, we're going to start actively going after seasoned producers in investment sales and land and mortgage brokers," he says.
Reynolds explains that Joe Foster Co. will remain in business, but its founder and president is planning to limit, possibly halt, brokering deals. Foster, with a long roster of credentials, was inducted in 2002 to the North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors Hall of Fame. He started in the business in 1962, hanging the Joe Foster Co. shingle in 1974.
[IMGCAP(3)]As the transition took place, Reynolds says it was business as usual, with the team bedding down construction financing for Dallas-based Incap Fund, which is developing a couple hundred acres in North Oak Cliff, and other clients with a pipeline of loans for redevelopments in the emerging Trinity Uptown area of Downtown Fort Worth. Reynolds says about 50% of the firm's business is mortgage brokerage, with the team surpassing $200 million of financings last year.
Reynolds says most loans these days are passing through community banks. "They're definitely open for business, aggressive and clearly gaining a share of the market with the situation of the national banks," he says, citing Texas' growth as the underlying factor for closing deals still in the pipeline.
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