Hines Global Real Estate Firm celebrates more than 60 years beautifying Houston's skylines

HOUSTON - Houston is famous for a lot of things and our skyline is undeniably one of them. Part of that is due to the amazing work put forth by the Hines Global Real Estate Firm, which this month is celebrating its 66th anniversary. 

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Named after real estate icon and Houston legend, Gerald D. Hines, the firm was founded in 1957 and broke ground on the Galleria in 1967. 

In fact, several buildings we've come to know and love were established by the Hines firm and continue to do so, under Hines' son, Jeff, and granddaughter Laura Hines-Pierce after he passed away in August 2020 at the age of 95. 

During an interview with Jeff Hines, we learned a little about the firm's humble beginnings starting with how this family business developed organically. 

"When I was growing up, when it was dad's turn to take me to school, probably at age 5 or 6, we would wake up and he'd wake me up at like, 5:30 in the morning, and we'd go look at buildings before he dropped me off at school," he said. "So actually, the one I remember, was what is now the Willowick apartment project, which was, high rise apartment project, right near River Oaks. And I remember that pretty distinctly, very early on."

Despite his father taking him to job sites at a young age, one could make the case Mr. Hines hoped his son would follow in his footsteps, but as Jeff explained, he did not "push him" to do so. 

"Assuming that he wanted me to join, which I think is the case, he played it exactly the right way which is not wishing me at all, because as a teenager, someone in your early 20s, you're going to probably push back," he said. "In college, I was pre-med for a while, and didn't really decide that I wanted to work at the firm until really being in business school."

Over the course of his college career, Hines soon realized he had an advantage having been exposed to the various facets of business, and knew he was making the right decision. 

"This business provided an exposure to finance to accounting to marketing, but it also touched the sort of more artistic side in terms of the architecture," he explained. "So, it just seemed to me became pretty obvious to me that being part of a firm that creates projects that are tangible and are that are clearly beneficial to their local communities is something that I could get excited about." 

The artistic side is really what the Hines firm seems to champion through collaborative work with architects. 

"I think, at the core, we want to create projects that will enhance the cities, the communities that we're in," he said. "And we certainly feel great architecture is, is one way to do that, but I think it's not always just an artistic perspective, but certainly that's important. And certainly, we work with the architects we work with, to provide things that we think will be received very well by the city."

"But the key thing, and this is something dad really was a pioneer in is being able to do great architecture, at a price that makes sense in the marketplace, and providing the sort of space that creates the sort of efficiency that tenants want," Hines continued. "Most great architects really didn't work on commercial office buildings, they tended to work on museums or university buildings, the prevailing wisdom was that it was too expensive to bring in a great architect to do an office building. But my father and his team really perfected the art of working with the architect, taking their great designs, and then working collaboratively with the architect to maybe tweak the design a little bit to where you can reduce the price of the curtain wall, but still achieve the same sort of architectural effects that the architect wanted to achieve."

The lessons Mr. Hines instilled in his son as a businessman and as a father, were certainly cherished and through that, the firm has been able to have a worldwide reach. 

"Obviously, it's a treasured experience to be able to work with your father in a business that you both are passionate about," Hines said. "I'm seeing it from the other side now, I've got three of my kids that are working in the business my daughter is now co-CEO with me, and it's just such a delight to be working with them in the business and just continuing the culture that dad created and seeing my kids bought into that exact same culture, and, I think it'll lead the firm in the same positive direction that it's been led since dad started."

Part of that success in maintaining that culture, Hines added, is by treating everyone (not just the blood relatives) like family and with respect.  

"When I talk about our culture, it's one of extreme integrity in everything we do; from dealing with our tenants dealing with our investors, dealing with our communities that were in its quality, we always want to be involved in projects that are of the highest quality level on any spectrum," Hines said. "And in a given that relates to buildings, it relates to the people we have in the firm, we've got very much managed towards having, we think we're a little biased, but having the best quality people in the business, and then giving them autonomy to run their own geographies, or regions or, or responsibilities." 

"And that is really fundamental to the firm," he continued. "But integrity and openness, I think are key parts of the culture and that dad put them in initially, and we are very active and keeping our culture consistent across the firm."

Part of this stems from each project, Hines noted, becoming a part of your life and spending all your time and energy into ensuring it's nothing short of spectacular. 

"I worked as an assistant project manager on what at the time was Bank of America center in downtown Houston," he explained. "And you spend three or four years of your life taking a building from an idea to a finished product that tenants are actually in and something tangible you can point to and be proud of." 

"We do have four kids, but there's the sort of other kid - that child - that's part of the process, which is that building," Hines elaborated. "And I think everyone who works the firm has that experience, you become very these projects you work on because you give so much of your life to it become part of your fabric."

And as any parent would try with their own children, evolving plays a big part with respect to maintaining the strong foundation put forth by those before us. 

"Being a private family lead company, just allows us to think generationally and make decisions that are very long term oriented," Hines said. "When dad made me president, yeah, we pursued some new areas that I'm not sure dad was totally comfortable with, but he'd let me do it." 

"They turned out to be very positive moves, like getting into the acquisition, business, and going international," he added. "And I think today, having that third generation there's all sorts of issues we're dealing with on technology and data." 

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All of this goes back to strengthening the metaphorical Hines Firm's family crest, by ensuring all voices are heard but working toward the same goal for hopefully another 66 years or more. 

"My gray hair, adding a little bit of experience maybe helps from time to time, but, but having that, that another generation with a strong input is also, I think, a very positive thing. And I think we've been very fortunate in that," Hines concluded. "I think part of that process is the company feels a little family-like, and I think that's a reason that people tend to stay at the firm, which, of course, going back to the culture is, as well-read, having people that have been with the firm for a long time, allows us to reinforce that culture, to our younger employees."