{"id":6540,"date":"2017-07-06T07:00:13","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=6540"},"modified":"2017-07-07T10:05:52","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T15:05:52","slug":"w-brent-lumpkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2017\/07\/06\/w-brent-lumpkin\/","title":{"rendered":"W. Brent Lumpkin"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Conversation With Commercial Real Estate Developer,\u00a0W. Brent Lumpkin<\/em><\/p>\n

By Scott E. Raymond<\/em><\/p>\n

When I meet commercial real estate investor, developer and broker W. Brent Lumpkin at his downtown Lake Charles office for this interview, he enthusiastically greets me, offers me a bottle of water, then quickly proceeds to show me a large map on a wall in his conference room which details the various commercial properties on both sides of the Calcasieu River that he and his partners own.<\/p>\n

Through his partnerships with several local businessmen, Lumpkin has reached new heights in the Lake Charles-Southwest Louisiana commercial real estate market. He appears to love what he\u2019s doing and the direction things are going.<\/p>\n

Today, Lumpkin is successfully taking advantage of the \u201cboom\u201d that is occurring in Southwest Louisiana, and the real estate portfolio he shows me by way of the map is impressive.<\/p>\n

But for Lumpkin, 68, it wasn\u2019t always so easy. Lumpkin first had to be a young apprentice in the very competitive commercial real estate development world he was so determined to enter, and he will be the first to tell you that the long road to the success he now enjoys was paved with some difficult learning lessons.<\/p>\n

Strong Family Roots And Work Ethic<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lumpkin\u2019s earliest recollections are of being a child in Lake Charles in the 1950s. His parents, Bryan and Nona Lumpkin, started an insurance agency \u2014 following in the footsteps of Lumpkin\u2019s grandfather, who was in the insurance business \u2014 while his dad continued working at one of the petro-chemical plants. Lumpkin says he vaguely recalls that when he was 5, his dad had a black lunch box he took with him to work every day. He also remembers going with his mother to drop him off at and pick him up at school.<\/p>\n

In the next year of his life, Lumpkin says, the Lumpkin Insurance Agency was started in the family\u2019s home. \u201cI remember a Remington typewriter sitting on our dining room table,\u201d Lumpkin says, \u201cand that was the beginning of the Lumpkin Insurance Agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin says the Lumpkin Insurance Agency eventually made enough revenue that both his parents could work full-time in their insurance business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fortunate,\u201d says Lumpkin.\u00a0 \u201cI (grew up with) two older brothers, and we got to grow up with not only a great mom and dad, but also with two great entrepreneurs.\u00a0 They loved business; they loved people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were actually able to watch them build a business, and, over the years, (they) purchased other insurance agencies, and we learned a lot from that. It taught us: once you start something, you finish it; and, not only the joys, but also the challenges that go along with it in the process with any business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin says he and his brothers got involved in sports and his parents stayed very involved in their sons\u2019 school athletic careers while at the same time running the family business. At their residence, while the three sons were at Lake Charles High School, Lumpkin\u2019s dad built his sons a regulation basketball court and a weight room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough high school,\u201d says Lumpkin, \u201cthe daily weight room \u2014 workouts \u2014 was where we congregated. My Lake Charles High School friends \u2014 most all of them were very involved in athletics. What we learned through sports was fantastic: we had wonderful coaches who not only inspired us, but also did everything in their power to make us understand that we weren\u2019t going to quit; we weren\u2019t going to give up or we weren\u2019t going to cut a practice short because we wanted (to do something else). And they taught us how to stay focused, work hard, and achieve results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin continues discussing some of the things his parents did to instill a work ethic in their sons. \u201cMy dad would take a piece of paper \u2014 we were going to have a game that day, whether it was football; whether it was track \u2014 and [he] would tape a note to our bathroom mirror of how many yards [he] would want us to achieve in a game or how far we were going to throw the discus in that track meet. [My parents] continually supported us, but they pushed and they pushed hard, and it was a great lesson for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents had a strong work ethic. We not only learned it, but we saw it in action. In other words, we were able to live it. Once you set a goal, you just achieved it unless there was a really good reason not to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very fortunate growing up in a business family. Our parents supported us. They never wanted to see us taking shortcuts; they wanted us to learn life lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very straightforward about some things, and one of them was: don\u2019t ever think that you are any better than anyone else or they any better than you. What you have to remember: treat them like you want people to treat you. And they were very adamant about that. It was a lifelong lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin reaches in his pocket, pulls out a wooden token the size of a large coin, and talks about when he met Ivory Dorsey \u201cwho became a motivational speaker all over the country.\u00a0 She gave me a bag of these (wooden tokens) and (through that meeting, I developed) my philosophy. Sometimes, when you\u2019re tired, you\u2019ve got to persevere, and you\u2019ve got to keep going, and you do whatever it takes to complete the tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this juncture of our interview, Lumpkin receives a phone call from one of his property\u2019s tenants. He takes care of business on the phone then continues the interview, talking about some things he has learned over the years from working with different American ethnic groups in the commercial real estate business. \u201cWhen I was in the eighth grade, we had a Cuban refugee who lived with us for three years. It was a wonderful opportunity not only for him, but also for our family. He made us appreciate what a great country we lived in.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who immigrate to this country, they will not say this to us, but sometimes they see Americans who are complacent, and some people are just indifferent. They come from such a totally different economic environment \u2014 sometimes near starving. They come to this country, and they don\u2019t know anybody \u2014 some can barely speak the language \u2014 and they go into businesses where there is a low economic entry; where many people are unwilling to work. Most immigrants see a country with so much opportunity to improve their economic standing and quality of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Vietnamese, over the years, took over the nail shop business in this country. Several of the people from India I know have become hotel owners and have become successful hoteliers. There are many (ethnic) families here, and I have become friends with many of them. We just got into the hotel business in the last couple of years, and I am now actually learning from them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tenant that just called me on the telephone\u2026 his English isn\u2019t great (but) his work ethic is unbelievable.\u00a0 (He is a) hard worker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning to Sell And Learning The Real Estate Business<\/strong><\/p>\n

After high school, Lumpkin attended LSU, studying business, but his heart wasn\u2019t in it. \u201cWhy am I sitting here?\u00a0 I\u2019m going to end up working for myself,\u201d he remembers thinking at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was having too much fun at LSU and not taking care of what I was there for, and my father said after a year, \u2018OK, you\u2019re going to come home for six months and you are going to get a job. Then we can talk about going back to school.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin came back home to Lake Charles and that transition became the pivotal point in his ultimately choosing commercial real estate as his career. Through the help of several good friends, he learned the art of marketing. First, he sold radio advertising for six months. He then got a real estate license and sold residential real estate for a year. He was in his early 20s.<\/p>\n

Through these business experiences, he learned what he really wanted to do: sell commercial real estate and become a developer and owner of real estate. In 1973, he got his brokers licenses and established Lumpkin Properties.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Courtesy of Lumpkin Properties<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Says Lumpkin: \u201cThere weren\u2019t a lot of people here to teach me, so I went to work for a builder: a man who had moved to Lake Charles from Connecticut. And he had his own airplane, and that\u2019s when I learned to fly. He had on-going commercial real estate and multi-family developments in Lake Charles, Lafayette, Houma, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. All of a sudden I was learning from a man who was really smart and had success in working with real estate investments trusts. (This was) back in the early \u201870s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot about commercial real estate and finance. I also learned the development process, building apartment complexes and commercial buildings, and that\u2019s when I got my (pilot\u2019s) license. We would fly back and forth to his various developments during the week. I spent a year working with him, and I built my first apartments within a year of going out on my own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I started attending commercial real estate classes all over the country. I had the opportunity to be around some really successful people, and some helped me. And I just soaked up (mentally) whatever I could like a sponge. I\u2019ve got a lot of those same friends still today. I was a real estate broker then and was in the brokerage business until about 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many, in my early career I didn\u2019t have much money when I started. (I would buy a small house with a friend); we would go in there and put up the wallpaper and paint it and fix it up and sell it. And if we could make five thousand dollars profit \u2014 this was back in the \u201870s \u2014 we were thrilled. I did that to survive in the early years, but still wanted to develop commercial real estate. Thank goodness I wasn\u2019t married with a family to support back then!<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized I needed some steady income \u2026 So I decided to build a restaurant called The Patti Wagon. I (told myself), \u2018I\u2019m going to take off (from real estate) for a year and work in (the restaurant) business, and then I\u2019ll come back to my real estate business.\u2019 After one year, I had somebody running the restaurant \u2026 I wasn\u2019t watching the books, and I learned a lesson there; another life lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized I couldn\u2019t do both; I couldn\u2019t be in real estate and do what I wanted to do there and (run a restaurant). I needed to stay focused. I didn\u2019t want to spend the rest of my life working inside, so I stayed with real estate and developed my career.<\/p>\n

\u201cReal estate fees got better as the markets grew and there was more opportunity. But ultimately I wanted to be on the ownership side \u2014 not just flipping properties, but developing and buying and building an investment real estate portfolio. I made that transition about 25 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin says he then got into a commercial real estate partnership that was challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was out of state and that was the first time I had done that. We thought we would be in that partnership for about 3 years, but it ended up being about 17. Although we made a profit, a hurricane made us end up selling the nine-story building that we had on the Mississippi gulf coast. After that, when (it was) suggested \u2014 (another) partnership, I said, \u2018I don\u2019t know.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Game Changer<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the course of this interview, Lumpkin explains the many aspects of building a successful career in commercial real estate. Aside from the education, information and understanding of the particular market, another important ingredient, he says, is business relationships.<\/p>\n

It was one of these relationships that Lumpkin had built over the years that proved, above all else, to be the game changer that would propel him to a whole new playing field in the world of commercial real estate.<\/p>\n

Initially, Lumpkin brokered a property to get his client \u2014 a good friend he considered \u201ca mentor\u201d \u2014 a total of 25 acres; the frontage was on I-210 and along Nelson Road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI brokered the large tract and building,\u201d says Lumpkin, \u201cthe building on the corner and the 25 acres around it. That was in 1983.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1995, his real estate client and friend called him, offering to sell him the property that Lumpkin had brokered for him years before. Lumpkin thought about passing on the deal because he didn\u2019t feel he was ready to buy the property. But with his friend\u2019s encouragement, he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we worked out an agreement, which was real easy because I had sold him the property in the first place, and we agreed to it. I\u2019m very thankful for the opportunity he gave me. This was a very high-profile piece of property. It was 25 acres, and it had its challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly a third of the property was commercial; the rest was residential. And it wasn\u2019t located in the city (limits) of Lake Charles, and didn\u2019t have water services. This meant it had to be annexed into the city and rezoned commercial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt fronted Nelson Road, which at the time was a two-lane road. The wetlands had to be permitted with the Corps of Engineers. There was a lot that had to happen in order for an end user to locate on the property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin realized early on that this property would need the attention that only a partnership could bring. As Lumpkin had the property under contract to purchase in 1997, a partnership\u00a0 was formed with the family partnership of CEH, which is managed by Jim Boyer, and the other interest by Lumpkin. The new joint partnership of Southland Capital was created, and Lumpkin began the work of the development process to make the commercial real estate property available. He began marketing the property to tenant interests.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to the development today. The popular location includes a Walmart Supercenter, Texas Roadhouse, Chick-fil-A, the Lumpkin Plaza Shopping Center and a variety of business-to-consumer businesses.<\/p>\n

Lumpkin recognized from the beginning that the property location had tremendous potential, and says he and his partners are proud of their development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took our profit,\u201d Lumpkin says, \u201cand our partnership purchased an 85,000-square-foot industrial park.\u00a0 Two months later, Southland Capital purchased another five industrial buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin\u2019s Southland Capital partnership has also invested in other industrial properties on the west side of the river where rapid industrial expansion is taking place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in Biloxi, I didn\u2019t know the first thing about casinos,\u201d he says. \u201cI developed relationships with the casino industry, and since then we\u2019ve leased a lot of buildings and property to casinos over the years. It\u2019s been very good relationships for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with two partners in another partnership, Lumpkin recently built two new adjacent Marriott hotels in Lake Charles, the Courtyard by Marriott, and the TownePlace Suites, located off Nelson Road and in close proximity to two casino resorts. The Courtyard by Marriott opened in August 2016 and the TownePlace Suites by Marriott opened on June 13, 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t mind saying that we have worked hard and are good at what we do. But the biggest part of that truth is really that the Lord has blessed us,\u201d says Lumpkin. \u201cThere has been a lot of opportunity in this community and the community has been very good to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Economic Boom And Serving The Community<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our conversation shifts to his thoughts about the historic economic boom underway in Southwest Louisiana and the community service work Lumpkin has been involved with.<\/p>\n

Says Lumpkin: \u201cAll these large industrial numbers you read about and the boom are tied to financing, just like a real estate project. But a lot of the industrial projects are going to happen. If we get just 50 percent of the rest of (the projects announced) we\u2019ve done extremely well. For Southwest Louisiana, we are number one in industrial expansion and in growth in the country. In past years in Louisiana, if you had $3 or $4 billion a year in industrial expansion in the whole state, that was phenomenal. So we\u2019ve been blessed with the amount of opportunity created. But it\u2019s also created a lot of challenges. There are growth and infrastructure issues. With growth come challenges.\u00a0 With a boom come a lot bigger challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin is a founding board member of the Alliance for Positive Growth, a relatively new organization he says is involved with having a \u201cgood working relationship with (local) government\u201d that will assist in the group\u2019s efforts for positive growth in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Local government has) been very receptive,\u201d says Lumpkin. \u201cIt\u2019s a great group (and) there\u2019s been a great response from the community and the membership. The Alliance for Positive Growth is growing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin, who is a strong believer in giving back to the community, has been a board member of the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana for several years. He chaired the effort to add the first pedestrian bike lane on the proposed new Contraband Bayou Bridge that would connect Nelson Rd. over the bayou to Sallier St. He says he is proud of the many efforts by the members of the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all kind of came together.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I ask Lumpkin if there is some advice he would give a person wanting to break into the commercial real estate business today, he says the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cI will say this. Commercial real estate and development involves multiple and various skills. Whether it\u2019s marketing and developing properties, managing properties, shopping centers, industrial properties or hotels \u2014 it\u2019s all about real estate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the process, it ultimately all has to come together, but the journey to get there takes perseverance, hard work, and weathering the economic cycles.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the people that have gotten to this point (of success) and have worked all their lives to do this, I promise you, it\u2019s been an exciting, yet very challenging, path. Things didn\u2019t always go the way they anticipated or thought it would no matter how hard they worked. The person that has the most information, the person that\u2019s most informed, can make the best decision. But even when you make that decision, it gives you a better chance (when) you\u2019re more educated in a venture that you are getting involved with.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn development, (being informed and educated) doesn\u2019t guarantee (success). That\u2019s part of the challenge with development. There\u2019s risk involved, and where there\u2019s more risk, there should be more reward. Consequently, sometimes someone looks at someone and says they\u2019ve done very well and it looks like it has been pretty easy. Well, it probably hasn\u2019t been easy for very many people at all. It just looks easier today to other people, but it\u2019s truly a multitude of challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou and I talked earlier about the old adage about real estate: it really is about location, location, location. I\u2019m a very strong believer in that, and if you look at our properties, that\u2019s always been our primary consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, (doing business) is all about people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin and I conclude our conversation in his office with his talking about the business relationship factor that is such an important part of real estate. Lumpkin says he has been fortunate to be around successful people that he has enjoyed developing business relationships with and that have turned into long-term friendships.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, (doing business) is all about people. You take (the economics) and all that information in as a developer and then (you question yourself): will this be a good and successful development in my community and will the financial commitment be a good return for the risk that is taken?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve bought new projects as well, and built hotels.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut before you make a final determination to move forward or not, you\u2019ve all the market information and then, ultimately, based on that information, it\u2019s an informed and educated decision. Do I move forward with this or not? And the bigger the project \u2026 We\u2019ve had to work with our banks and we\u2019ve had a great local bank here that we have a long-term relationship (with) and has worked with us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look at our bank actually as a partner. It has been a good and successful 20 years of projects. And so, we\u2019ve been very fortunate. It\u2019s a great place to be doing business in \u2014 Calcasieu Parish (with) what\u2019s going on. And yes, it is fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ask Lumpkin, who is married with a blended family, if he is looking at slowing down anytime in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the future and slowing down, I keep looking at that. I have six children and three stepchildren, and we\u2019ve got a total of 12 grandchildren. Jane and I, who have been best friends since early high school, are getting ready to take them all on a vacation to the beach, and there\u2019s 30 of us. It\u2019s going to be fun!\u201d<\/p>\n

The interview is about to conclude when Lumpkin surprises me by inviting me to go with him to visit his new Marriott Courtyard by Marriott. We jump into his SUV and travel to the new hotel, which opened in August of 2016.<\/p>\n

As we get ready to leave, Lumpkin tells me that one of his sons is now in the commercial real estate business. \u201cHe\u2019s on the brokerage side,\u201d he says proudly, \u201cand he\u2019s getting more involved! (Lumpkin smiles.) I am very proud of all my children. Family, family, family!\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin tosses me two 8 by 10 photos of his Courtyard by Marriott: one, before the opening and the other after the hotel opened. I can see he is really charged to show me the property.<\/p>\n

We drive to the hotel \u2014 a quick drive from his office \u2014 then exit the vehicle. Almost immediately I come to understand what he means when he tells me, \u201cIt is all about people.\u201d He points out to me the parked hotel van near the hotel entrance and says he occasionally plays the role of driver on weekends so he can talk to the out of town guests and have a better understanding of how the guests like his hotel and what they think of Lake Charles and its casinos and the surrounding area.<\/p>\n

He uses this same philosophy when he tells me when we are inside the lobby that he sometimes works in The Bistro to engage with customers.<\/p>\n

Lumpkin greets all the employees as we walk by them \u2014 I see this in action as we walk around the front desk, the lobby and The Bistro areas.\u00a0 At one time or another, he says, he does many of the tasks the hotel employees do, so he is always engaged in what\u2019s happening on all levels.<\/p>\n

Lumpkin says he and his partners in the hotels are excited about the two properties.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Our partnerships) are working on a couple of other projects,\u201d he says enthusiastically. \u201cAll these projects together are going to exceed $100 million (in investments).\u201d<\/p>\n

We meet the manager, I take a few photos inside, and then we head back outside at the entrance, where he talks further about the attributes of the properties. \u201cWe were just fortunate to be able to acquire (this) land (where the new hotels are). We started working on that (project) in 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn commercial real estate development, it\u2019s usually a long thought-out process,\u201d Lumpkin says, \u201cbut it\u2019s very exciting, and it\u2019s a lot more fun when you\u2019ve got the right projects!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Conversation With Commercial Real Estate Developer,\u00a0W. Brent Lumpkin By Scott E. Raymond When I meet commercial real estate investor, developer and broker W. Brent Lumpkin at his downtown Lake Charles office for this interview, he enthusiastically greets me, offers me a bottle of water, then quickly proceeds to show me a large map on [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":6541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,1507,982,1508],"yoast_head":"\nW. Brent Lumpkin - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2017\/07\/06\/w-brent-lumpkin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"W. 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