Houston Oilman Russell Gordy Launches Real Estate Firm

Russell Gordy, founder of oil and gas company SG Interests, has launched a company to manage and develop properties in his Houston-area portfolio.

The firm, called BKR Real Estate Management, has already taken over management duties for the Gordy family’s properties, many of which are located on the bustling Washington Avenue corridor near downtown, the Houston Business Journal reported.

Houston-based Midway was Gordy’s primary property manager prior to launching BKR.

Gordy’s assets include the office buildings at 55 Waugh Drive and 100 Waugh Drive, the Memorial Heights apartment complex, at 201 South Heights Boulevard, and the Buffalo Heights mixed-use development, at the corner of Washington Avenue and South Heights Boulevard.

“We really saw this as an opportunity to grow,” Gordy told the outlet. “By bringing in real estate experts to oversee things in house, we could make decisions more quickly with our own staff than if we were paying someone else to do it.”

Gordy wants to focus on growing the portfolio, and BKR hired away two employees that Gordy worked with at Midway: Colleen McLaughlin as director of asset management, and Chris Haine as director of development.

The firm’s ability to self-fund development costs and acquisitions positions it to act swiftly when opportunities arise, especially in a challenging real estate environment marked by high interest rates and construction costs.

Gordy has plans for a potential 6-acre development next to the office building at 100 Waugh Drive, envisioning high-rise office buildings, a hotel and green space. But even a self-funded oilman can’t pencil out the high cost of construction to build office.

“I think that will all happen one day. It’s just a matter of seeing what happens in the world of offices. We had plans to do something as recently as six months ago, so we have some ideas for what we want to do. But the costs are still out of sync with the return,” Gordy said.

—Quinn Donoghue