Five things to know about Dallas retail real estate mogul Ray Washburne

Ray Washburne’s Constitution Holdings has teamed up with DuWest Realty of Dallas to purchase Allen’s Watters Creek procuring center, and Washburne claims he wants to make it the “Knox Street of the North.”

Who is this real estate titan? In this article are five things to know:

1. His Illinois roots

Washburne’s father was a banker who moved to Texas from Chicago in the 1950s. His good-grandfather, Hempstead Washburne, was mayor of Chicago in the 1890s when the town secured the World’s Reasonable. His fantastic-terrific-grandfather, Elihu Benjamin Washburne, was a congressman from Illinois and one of Abraham Lincoln’s pallbearers.

2. Finding out the ropes

His entrepreneurial streak took off when he was a student at Southern Methodist University in the 1980s. He acquired and managed rental residence, operated a soda-vending small business and bought carpets he slice from remnants that properly fit the dorm rooms.

3. A massive purchase

His spouse, Heather Hill Washburne, and her sister, Elisa Hill Summers, are good granddaughters of oilman H.L. Hunt, who designed his fortune in the East Texas oil area. The Washburnes and Elisa and Stephen Summers purchased Highland Park Village together in 2009 for $170 million. At the time, the Wall Avenue Journal said it was the highest price paid out for a U.S. retail property that 12 months. It is value a large amount much more now.

4. Political fundraising

Washburne had been associated in political fundraising, but when requested about it now, he suggests, “I’m centered on my authentic estate and rising Mi Cocina.” (He co-started the Tex-Mex chain in 1991, and there are now 15 in Dallas-Fort Worth.) When he was only in his 20s, he served on the Dallas Plan Commission. From 2017-19, he ran the Overseas Non-public Investment decision Corp. He was energetic in Republican fundraising in the 2016 election, to start with as Chris Christie’s finance chair and then with the joint Republican National Committee-Trump campaign. He skipped all this sort of routines in the 2020 election.

5. Preserving a landmark

Washburne has purchased the former longtime headquarters of The Dallas Morning Information at 508 Young Avenue. He has ideas to redevelop the residence but says he wants to hold the building’s façade simply because he’s a huge supporter of its architect, George Dahl.

Twitter: @MariaHalkias

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