If you’ve visited Fort Worth’s Waterside, WestBend or Alliance Town Center, you’ve set foot in a Trademark Property.
Trademark Property Co. founder and CEO Terry Montesi has been in the real estate business for more than 30 years and shared some of his industry wisdom, advocacy for conscious capitalism and more on March 6 as part of the Tandy Executive Speaker Series at Texas Christian University’s Neeley School of Business.
Montesi founded Trademark in 1992 after working as a principal and co-founder of Huff, Brous, McDowell & Montesi Inc., and Lincoln Property Co.
Montesi says Trademark has a “big hairy audacious goal” – or BHAG, as coined by business speaker and writer Jim Collins – that is reflected in the company’s purpose statement “to be extraordinary stewards, enhance communities and enrich lives.”
“Hidden in that is the stakeholder model [of conscious capitalism],” Montesi said. “We realized we can do well in business by doing well by stakeholders.”
Under Montesi’s leadership, Trademark has invested in or developed more than 11.8 million square feet of retail and mixed-use assets worth more than $2.5 billion. Montesi is also the father of Trademark’s collaborative, community-driven approach to mixed use development.
A first-generation college graduate and third-generation Italian immigrant, he grew up knowing the value of a dollar, rooted in his faith and grateful for all he had, he says.
He has taken his years of experience and cultivated a philosophy in Trademark that is rooted in the values of conscious capitalism, which is made up of conscious leadership, stakeholder orientation, conscious culture and higher purpose.
Montesi and Trademark Property have been involved in that philosophy since the Conscious Capitalism nonprofit invited him to its CEO summit in Austin more than a decade ago.
Montesi says the philosophy aligns well with the goals of the company because it wants to give back to all major stakeholders, be they customers, employees, investors, communities, suppliers or the environment.
Montesi says that in order to know whether a market is viable for development, the first step is research in demographics, but he added that it has to be assumed that 20, 30 or 40 years in the future there will be no “white” category in demographics because everyone will be of mixed race or ancestry.
“We need to get used to mixed demographics,” Montesi said. “We are not building for millennials or for baby boomers. We’re building places where everybody that has a soul will enjoy.”
In building to address these changes and values, Trademark has created what it calls the Conscious Place, which Montesi says at the macro level means that Trademark builds places where people feel inspired as they use them.
“You can have an impact on people who work with you and communities you build in,” Montesi said. “Naturally we want to give back and we want to do more than we have to.”
Fort Worth’s Waterside development is the first Conscious Place that Trademark has built.
As a Conscious Place, in addition to retail, residential and business space, Waterside features community spaces including a public venue, outdoor seating under hundred-year-old trees, Wi-Fi, educational opportunities and “instagrammable moments” Montesi said.
“Waterside is a place more thoughtful than the place before,” Montesi said. And to pull a phrase from Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, the development has a live, work, play focus.
When the topic came up of keeping Fort Worth from becoming a bedroom community as cautioned about in the city’s recent strategic economic development plan, Montesi said he believes Price is onto something but there’s still more to be done.
“Why are North Dallas and Uptown [Dallas] attracting so many companies?” he asked, answering, “There are spec buildings ready to go.”
He explained that right now Fort Worth doesn’t have a supply of space-ready buildings for companies that might want to call the city home. Companies looking to relocate would have to come in and find an architect and commission a building before they could start working, whereas Dallas does have that supply, he said.
“The city might want to subsidize or support a big, new office building. The size of our market holds us back a bit,” Montesi said. “As a community you have to invest in advance of and then overcome.”
Montesi believes that mixed-use developments are a better and more enjoyable space for consumers.
Mixed-use developments like Waterside, Near South Side, Clearfork and Panther Island are working to increase the upbeat, live, work and play environment in Fort Worth.
Montesi says his company is doing its best to lead the way.
“We’re trying to lead our industry in a better direction,” he said. “We want to be a model other communities will be inspired by and insist on.”
Trademark Property Co.
1701 River Run
817-870-1122
trademarkproperty.com