Marvy Finger, Houston’s ‘king of apartments,’ dies at 86

Marvy A. Finger, an architect of Houston’s skyline, died Saturday at the age of 86, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday.

Over the course of his 64-year career, Finger built an empire of more than 28,000 residential units in Texas, California, Colorado, Georgia and Illinois.

“Marvy expected perfection in himself and those he worked with,” said Stan Creech, a friend and land broker who represented Finger on several land deals over the decades. “He was a forward-looking visionary who changed the landscape of the multifamily development industry.”

Creech said the legendary businessman was known as the “king of apartments,” and he would regularly stop by various properties unannounced to make sure the sites were impeccably managed.

Finger’s iconic career began in 1957 after he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in civil engineering and a minor in business administration. He got a job working for a small homebuilder, and when the builder fell ill unexpectedly, the 20-something Finger was tasked with completing a 32-unit apartment complex on his own.

This project is where he met his mentor, Ben G. McGuire, an influential figure in the industry at the time.

“Because I finished this little apartment, he took me under his wing and said, ‘Let me be your mentor. Let me show you how to build your own development,’” Finger recalled in an interview earlier this year. “That was really my being at the right place at the right time.”

It wasn’t long before Finger launched his own company, collecting a 3 percent fee for his first apartment complex, which was enough to pay the bills at the time. Over the years, he built up an impressive portfolio of properties located at what he called “Main and Main” spots. With a strategy of holding on to high-quality sites in the most popular, bustling areas in downtown Houston, his assets’ values weathered several economic crises, including the 1980s oil bust in Houston and the Great Recession.

“I call it Main and Main locations. When we had the deepest, darkest parts in occupancy drops, the few apartments I had in the inner city, occupancy remained. In the great locations, rent moderated, but there was the occupancy,” Finger said at a multifamily conference in 2018.

Finger’s most recognizable project is the iconic One Park Place, the luxury high-rise across from the popular Discovery Green, which is credited with spurring much of downtown Houston’s modern development.

“He proved up the downtown market when he built One Park Place,” said Mike Morgan, chairman of the apartment development firm Morgan Group.

Morgan said that caught the attention of the city of Houston, which launched an initiative of incentives to entice more residential projects in the central business district. “After One Park Place, there was a flood of all those units around the ballpark (Minute Maid Park),” he said.

Finger was a mentor to Morgan for many years, he said.

“We’d go to lunch at the original Irma’s near Minute Maid Park, which was one his favorites, and he would spend as much as the boys wanted, he was never in a hurry and we’d just talk real estate,” Morgan recalled. “He was always kind and gracious to me as my kids… (but) he was very tough. He knew what he wanted. Everybody respected him and looked up to him for what he accomplished.”

Despite his success and wealth, Finger had a reputation for remaining modest, wearing penny loafers and driving a 10-year old BMW sedan. He lived in a three-bedroom home with his wife Elaine and their cat, Esther. Even in his 80s, he woke up at 5:30 a.m. every day to hit the gym before heading to the office.

Assuming leadership of the Finger Companies is his daughter Jill Jewett.

“For more than 60 years, the Finger Cos. has had an unwavering approach to developing and managing the highest quality multifamily projects,” said Jewett. “My brother Edward and I have been working alongside our father as his business partners and officers of the company for many years. Edward and I, along with our executive management team, are committed to ensuring that business continues as usual, for the ongoing success of each property.”

— Maddy Sperling