Lionstone Investments Shuts Down After 23 Years in Business

Lionstone Investments is set to leave a significant amount of vacant office space in downtown Houston as it prepares to wind down its operations.

Ameriprise Financial, the firm’s parent company, will transition the firm’s $5.5 billion in assets to other investment firms over the next several months, the Houston Business Journal reported.

Lionstone, founded in 2001, will vacate its 11,000-square-foot headquarters at 712 Main Street, which is in the Jones on Main mixed-use development. Ameriprise said the closure won’t have a significant financial impact and that its focus would be on growing its alternatives business, including real estate ventures in the U.K. and Europe.

The decision to shut down Lionstone’s operations comes after ongoing tensions between the company’s leadership and Columbia Threadneedle Investments, the Ameriprise subsidiary that acquired Lionstone in 2017.

“There were a lot of points of disagreement between Lionstone and the parent company,” said one former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Since the acquisition, co-founders Dan Dubrowski, Glenn Lowenstein and Tom Bacon have left the company. Dubrowski, who left last month, could not be reached for comment, nor could his fellow co-founders, who have since gone on to start their own firms. Former CEO Bryan Sanchez, who left in 2023, is now with Boston Consulting Group.

The firm bought The James, a 344-unit multifamily building in Houston’s River Oaks District, a few months ago. It is invested in several apartment complexes and mixed-use developments in Houston.

The Houston multifamily market has begun to show signs of distress. Foreclosure auctions surged this month, with 12 properties with $340 million in loans facing potential auctions.

Rising interest rates and tightening credit conditions are contributing to this shift, with Houston ranking fifth in the nation for commercial foreclosures. While some owners are finding resolutions through loan modifications, the environment is tense.

— Andrew Terrell