Richard R. Nelson III
Firm Profile
Richard Nelson began his real estate career with the Trammell Crow Company in 1984 as a leasing agent and ultimately was named a partner in the commercial division. During his tenure with Trammell Crow, Richard was a perennial top marketing producer. He handled the negotiation of a 70,000 square foot build-to-suit laboratory facility with Standard Oil/British Petroleum and received the 1987 national award for closing the largest service center lease in the country. After becoming a partner, he coordinated the marketing and management of a diverse 13 million square foot portfolio of commercial properties.
After leaving Trammell Crow in 1991, Richard worked with Levering and Company as Executive Vice President and later Senterra Development as Senior Vice President. With both of these firms, Richard coordinated new acquisition and development activities, which included multiple acquisitions, development joint ventures and multiple public/private partnerships.
In November 1996, Richard was recruited to assume the leadership of Betz Realty Investors (BRI), with the goal of building BRI into a major Houston commercial real estate firm. Capitalizing on his previous experience, Richard designed and implemented an aggressive multi-faceted acquisition and development plan for BRI that included the acquisition and total renovation of more than 5300 multifamily housing units in the Houston and Dallas markets. Through his leadership, the company grew to a portfolio valued in excess of $150 million. Knowing that this exponential growth would require significant capital, Richard ensured that numerous financing vehicles were negotiated, including construction, interim, permanent and two consecutive $50 million acquisition credit facilities with Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company.
Richard left BRI and founded his own firm, Nelson Interests, Inc. (NII) in September 2002. The firm was designed to capitalize on Richard’s extensive commercial and residential experience coupled with proven capital relationships, but more specifically to seek out undervalued real estate properties where significant value increases could be generated through focused management and leasing activities, as well as insightful capital expenditures. During its first 18 months of existence, NII acquired a multifamily property in San Antonio, a retail property, an industrial property and a development land site in Houston. Three of these four properties have already been re-sold at significant profits to the investors, and the fourth property is generating considerable operating cash flow.
Richard decided to partner with John Duffie in March 2004 in order to accelerate the growth and capitalize on more investment opportunities. The firm was then renamed Nelson Duffie Interests, Inc. (NDI). In no time at all, the team acquired three additional “value add” commercial properties, as well as two large land development sites and this trend of growth continues today.
Richard is a third generation Houstonian and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, with a bachelor’s degree in Finance. He and his wife Tricia have two daughters, Leigh and Laura. He is involved in local and national trade organizations, serves as the Immediate Past Board Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Open Door Mission, and attends St. Martin’s Episcopal Church.