Silver Star Properties appointed industry heavyweight Gerald Haddock to co-CEO. Haddock, who is also the embattled firm’s executive chairman, will serve alongside interim CEO David Wheeler.
Haddock is the former CEO of Crescent Real Estate Equities and is president of Fort Worth-based Haddock Investments. He’s worked in commercial real estate for over 40 years, investing in commercial properties primarily in Houston and Dallas.
Haddock joined Houston-based Silver Star, formerly Hartman Short Term Income Properties XX, as an independent director in May 2020, according to a Securities and Exchange Committee filing.
He was instrumental in establishing plans to shift Silver Star’s 7 million square feet of retail and office properties to the self-storage asset class amid falling valuations, market distress and looming default.
Haddock, as part of Silver Star’s three-person board of directors, hurled accusations of mismanagement at Silver Star founder Allen Hartman. Hartman served as Silver Star’s executive chairman and CEO until April, when Haddock and the firm’s other directors, Jim Still and Jack Tompkins, ousted Hartman for alleged breaches of fiduciary duty.
Silver Star has sued Hartman, accusing him of unlawfully soliciting shareholders in an attempt to retain control of the firm and halt the ouster. Haddock also accused Hartman of harmful nepotism and taking out millions in unauthorized debt, in a shareholder presentation filed with the SEC.
Haddock is the fourth person to serve as CEO of Silver Star since May.
Lawyer Mark Torok served as CEO after Hartman transitioned to executive chairman in October 2022. Torok left the firm a month after Hartman’s dismissal. Wheeler was appointed interim CEO until self-storage veteran Steve Treadwell was announced as the firm’s CEO in August. Treadwell departed Silver Star in October after Hartman SPE, a subsidiary of Silver Star, filed for bankruptcy protection and amid corporate attempts to refinance a maturing $259 million SASB loan securitized against 39 commercial properties. Silver Star is under contract to sell nine properties to pay off the remaining $217 million on the loan, according to SEC filings. Interim CEO David Wheeler told The Real Deal he expects the loan, which defaulted in October, to be paid in full by the end of January as the firm continues its pivot to self-storage.