Marty Wender

Marty Wender met with us in his offices and was so kind and had lunch brought in for the entire class.  Marty is originally from Ft. Worth and went to UT-Austin, then moved to San Antonio in 1969 and begun his Real Estate career.  Marty is a self proclaimed infrastructure builder.  This is a man who assembles large ranch lands and puts the horizontal infrastructure, streets, sewer, water, electric, fiber optics, telephone cable, etc. and creates value.  Marty's office is decorated with photos of his projects and a large Ariel of the City. 

Marty pointed out that at one time there was a push by the Mayor to have developers develop in the South side of town and his way of disincentives for developers to build North they just kept increasing fees but it didn't work as evidenced by the growth to the North today.  Problem was building in the North had 5 issues that were a constant challenge: 1. Topography, 2. Rock, 3. Cost, 4. Containment area (water) and 5. Endangered species.  However, Marty determined there was an alternative that had been overlooked and that was to develop to the West that avoided the 5 issues stated above.  People thought he had gone bonkers...enter Westover Hills:  Westover Hills is a large scale, master-planned, mixed use development which was undeveloped ranch land Now, more than 8,200 workers are employed there, and that number will swell to 14,000 when the existing companies finish all the buildings planned for their land. Westover Hills encompasses 1,270 acres that are fully served and already zoned for development.

Marty stated the most important rule in Real Estate was:  Time is the enemy of Real Estate Deals.  Additionally, he professes: "you can prove no positive with a negative".  In other words,  do not accept negativity, always seek the positive.

It was inspiring to hear Marty's stories and success.