#408 - Jordan Levi - The Largest Cattle Feeder In America

This week Chris sits down with Ross Perot Jr., Chairman of Hillwood and The Perot Group. Ross founded Hillwood in 1988 and built Alliance Texas, his masterpiece, a 1 of 1 27,000-acre development. They discuss:• Why Trammell Crow told him to just build warehouses• How Hillwood developed Alliance Texas• How a rare earth company got its air permit in three weeks• How President Bush helped close Scotiabank's move to Texas• What the 1992 campaign looked like from inside the family• The Iran War and why cheap oil prices are on the way• Why every community should want a data center• How to keep China from taking Taiwan• Why he expects markets to boom after the midterms Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(00:42) Why Texas Is Winning the Data Center Boom(06:20) The Facts Behind the Data Center Backlash(11:49) Why California, Illinois, and New York Are Losing to Texas(18:12) How Fort Worth Landed Elon Musk, MP Materials, and Taylor Sheridan(23:39) Building Alliance for Flying Taxis and Drone Delivery(27:47) Fighter Pilot Heroes and the First Helicopter Flight Around the World(34:29) Why EDS Left Dallas and Hillwood Became a Developer(38:31) Why the Rail Yard Matters More Than the Runway(44:51) Tariffs and How to Deal with China(50:35) Deterring a War over Taiwan by 2027(55:32) The Iran War and the Coming Oil Glut(59:10) The Case for a Post-Midterm Market Boom(1:04:34) Smart AI Regulation and the Quantum Encryption Threat(1:09:24) Buying Land After the S&L Crisis and Trammell Crow's Advice(1:12:31) Why Circle T Ranch Has Been Replanned 30 Times(1:17:43) How George W. Bush Closed the Scotiabank Deal(1:19:11) Inside the 1992 Perot Presidential Campaign(1:24:34) How Hillwood Runs as a Company of Entrepreneurs(1:32:04) Why Finding Talent Is the Hardest Part of the Business === Presented by Juniper Square: Juniper SquareJuniper Square is the operations partner for GPs in private equity, venture capital, oil and gas, real estate, and infrastructure. It brings technology, data, and administration together on one governed source of truth you own, so your team spends less time reconciling and more time running the firm your LPs are backing. Learn more at https://www.junipersquare.com/powers === Sponsored by: Collateral PartnersCollateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNXVisit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

In this episode, Chris sits down with Woody Hunt, Chairman Emeritus of Hunt Companies, the El Paso holding company that grew out of a hardware and building materials business his family bought in 1947. Woody joined in 1968 and watched his father take the company public when he was 23. Five years later, fixed-price contracts in a year of runaway inflation cost it about 25% of its equity, and by 1977 he was the controlling shareholder. When the next big shock came in 2008, Hunt had been building cash for five years. As a fellow El Pasoan, Chris has followed Woody's journey for years. They get into what each of those moments taught Woody about scaling, risk, liquidity, leading boards, and building a company that doesn't depend on him. They discuss:• The Friday a buyer walked away from a $250 million deal• How deflation in 2008 made his construction backlog more profitable• What has to be true before he buys a company• Why he sold a profitable company that needed 10,000 employees• Why a business shouldn't be tied to its owner's life cycle• What separates an exceptional board from a weak one• Why he's careful about who he asks questions• Why he wants El Paso to welcome data centers Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(01:05) How Hunt Grew from a $50,000 Hardware Store(07:18) Going Public at 23 and Breaking Into Military Housing(14:11) How Inflation Wiped Out 25% of Hunt's Equity in 1974(18:44) The 1977 Buyback and the Pivot to Niche Housing(25:08) How Hunt Won 60% of the Military Housing Market(32:37) Military Housing Goes from $500 Million to $10 Billion a Year(36:33) How Hunt Came Out of 2008 with Record Cash(41:34) Why Hunt Diversified as Military Housing Ran Out(48:39) What Has to Be True to Buy or Sell a Company(54:21) Why a Business Shouldn't Be Tied to the Owner's Life Cycle(59:19) What Separates an Exceptional Board from a Weak One(1:05:44) Why Raising Third-Party Capital Is Hunt's Hardest Challenge(1:10:07) How to Spot a High-Functioning Board in One Meeting(1:13:53) Why a Controlling Shareholder Has to Be Careful What He Asks(1:19:39) Why Woody Checks Liquidity Every Day(1:21:55) Why El Paso Shouldn't Push Data Centers Away(1:26:36) The Long-Term Pitch for El Paso === Presented by Juniper Square: Juniper Square is the operations partner for GPs in private equity, venture capital, oil and gas, real estate, and infrastructure. It brings technology, data, and administration together on one governed source of truth you own, so your team spends less time reconciling and more time running the firm your LPs are backing. Learn more at https://www.junipersquare.com/powers === Sponsored by: Collateral PartnersCollateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNXVisit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

This week Chris sits down with Shlomo Chopp, Founder of Case Equity Partners. His job is helping real estate owners get out of or restructure loans they can't pay. Shlomo got into this after an attorney told him to read the CMBS loan documents, and he read them cover to cover. Today his clients range from owners with a couple million dollars of debt to an $800 million capital stack. They get into what is actually in a modern loan document, and what a borrower should do before the lender starts looking. They discuss:• Why 2008 did not play out like the savings and loan crisis• How a non-recourse loan turns into full recourse• How a payment due on a holiday can lock up your cash• How to study your loan documents before the next deal• Why an underwater property is the borrower's biggest leverage• Why Shlomo thinks the worst has already happened• Where Shlomo would put $50 million today Timestamps(00:00) Intro(01:03) Why the Savings and Loan Playbook Failed in 2008(08:18) How Loan Documents Got Tougher After 2008(16:12) Why You Should Model Every Clause in Your Loan Documents(22:16) Which Lenders Hide Full Recourse in the Fine Print(25:21) How to Learn and Negotiate Your Loan Documents(32:18) What's Usually Gone Wrong by the Time a Borrower Calls(39:54) A Borrower's Leverage in a Loan Workout(44:09) Restructuring a Loan When You're Out of Cash(49:36) The Game Theory of Negotiating With Your Lender(53:14) A Good Operator Is Not the Same as a Good GP(54:53) Why Office and Multifamily Are Seeing the Most Distress(1:01:17) How Lenders' View of Office Has Shifted(1:03:26) Why the Worst of the Distress Is Already Here === Presented by Juniper Square: Juniper SquareJuniper Square is the operations partner for GPs in private equity, venture capital, oil and gas, real estate, and infrastructure. It brings technology, data, and administration together on one governed source of truth you own, so your team spends less time reconciling and more time running the firm your LPs are backing. Learn more at https://www.junipersquare.com/powers === Sponsored by: Collateral PartnersCollateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNXVisit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

This week Chris sits down with Terry Montesi, Founder and CEO of Trademark Property Company, a Fort Worth developer of retail and mixed-use real estate he started in 1992. Terry was last on the show in 2019, in the middle of what the business was calling the retail apocalypse. They have closed four retail deals in the last 30 days, more than they have ever closed in a month, and Terry now says retail is the best asset class in the country. They get into why almost no new retail space got built for 17 years, what that shortage is doing to rents, and his playbook for creating value at each of his centers. They discuss:• Why almost no new retail space got built for 17 years• Why retailers started volunteering higher rents on their own• The call from a city manager offering to cover a $5 million gap• How a pop fountain landed Tommy Bahama as a tenant• What one grocery lease did to the returns on an entire project• Why he turned down the chance to take the company public• What he is doing to make sure Trademark outlasts him Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(00:54) How Retail Went from Apocalypse to Top Asset Class(05:31) Why Retail Vacancy Is Down to 4.4%(09:49) How Arlington Helped Trademark Win Lincoln Square(16:15) Picking Tenants with Demographics and Expected Distance(21:15) Why Tenant Build-Out Costs Have Doubled(23:44) The Tommy Bahama Deal That Proved Placemaking Pays(31:08) Dunham Point and Landing Whole Foods Late(37:09) Why Trademark Never Became a REIT(41:54) Getting Back into Development and Launching Multifamily(49:33) The Southlake Deal and an $18 Million City Incentive(54:17) Why Capital Chases Grocery-Anchored Retail(58:45) Succession Planning and Keeping Trademark Independent === Presented by Juniper Square: Juniper SquareJuniper Square is the operations partner for GPs in private equity, venture capital, oil and gas, real estate, and infrastructure. It brings technology, data, and administration together on one governed source of truth you own, so your team spends less time reconciling and more time running the firm your LPs are backing. Learn more at https://www.junipersquare.com/powers === Sponsored by: Collateral PartnersCollateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers True North AdvisorsTrue North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNXVisit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

This week Chris sits down with Adam Blake, Co-founder and CEO of Mavria. Adam spent a little more than a year leading the DOGE team inside the Department of Energy. He has been a private person for 15 years, and last week he broke his silence with a tweet that got over 2 million views. Chris has known Adam since 2004. They met shortly after Chris arrived at TCU, and the school paper named Adam Entrepreneur of the Year for the real estate he was buying around campus. One lunch with him at a Chipotle changed the trajectory of Chris' life. Adam went on to build a commercial solar company that did around 2,000 projects across 17 states, then sold a software company to Vista Equity Partners. In early 2025 a friend called about DOGE. Within about a week he was on a plane to DC, and two weeks after that he was sitting in the West Wing with Elon Musk and the Secretary of Energy. The executive order that set a goal of three new nuclear reactors going critical by July 4th, 2026 put his team in charge of making it happen. Everyone thought it was impossible. It got done. Along the way he got death threats over an anonymous quote that the chairman of the NRC later denied under oath. Now he is building Mavria with two of the people who were in those rooms with him, backed by a $30M pre-seed from a single investor. His view is simple. AI is power, and America has to build a lot more of it. Timestamps(00:00) Intro(01:18) Why He Decided to Speak Publicly Now(04:37) From Campus Real Estate to Brightergy to Zego(09:03) The Week That Took Him From Coronado to the West Wing(13:02) What DOGE Was Actually There to Do(19:52) Inside the DOGE Team, Working Under Elon(24:53) Why He Calls Washington the Hunger Games(28:08) The Tijuana Sewage Crisis Nobody Has Fixed(31:45) Three New Reactors by July 4, 2026(35:02) Death Threats Over a Story That Was Never True(41:52) Why Fear Is Not a Strategy on AI(49:09) Why It Takes a Decade to Plug Into the Grid(55:30) Winning Back Public Trust on Data Centers(1:02:29) Spec Builds, Modular Factories, Smaller Data Centers(1:08:52) Why Big Tech Should Behave Like a Nation State(1:14:15) Inside Mavria, His New Infrastructure Company(1:19:45) Loving the Country More, Hating Politics More === Presented by Collateral Partners: Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers === Sponsored by: AirshareAirshare is trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management. With over 25 years of experience, their own fleet, and the top safety ratings in the industry, they give you a smarter way to fly private. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Learn more at https://flyairshare.com True North AdvisorsTrue North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNXVisit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO