Joe Beard

Beard has played a central role in the revitalization of Dallas’ Deep Ellum neighborhood, helping transform the once-gritty district through a series of large-scale real estate bets. He linked up with a Canadian family office to found Dallas-based Westdale in 1991as a start-up and subsidiary of Canada-based Westdale. 

Beard launched the firm with a focus on distressed commercial properties, but it also does development. Now, the company has completed over 300 acquisitions. 

Beard’s biggest Deep Ellum project is The Epic, an 8-acre mixed-use development on the edge of downtown Dallas. It was developed with KDC, Streetlights Residential and Vine Street Ventures. It features office space, apartments, a hotel and retail and restaurants. Westdale bought the property in 1998 and started construction in 2017. It was completed between 2019 and 2022. Westdale struggled to lease up the property after Uber left in 2021, but a 2024 refi deal from undisclosed Israeli investors totaling $115 million gave the project a boost as it tries to make the case for luxury offerings in Deep Ellum.    

— Jess Hardin