POWERS

This week Chris sits down with Shlomo Chopp, Founder of Case Equity Partners. His job is helping real estate owners get out of or restructure loans they can't pay. Shlomo got into this after an attorney told him to read the CMBS loan documents, and he read them cover to cover. Today his clients range from owners with a couple million dollars of debt to an $800 million capital stack. They get into what is actually in a modern loan document, and what a borrower should do before the lender starts looking. They discuss:• Why 2008 did not play out like the savings and loan crisis• How a non-recourse loan turns into full recourse• How a payment due on a holiday can lock up your cash• How to study your loan documents before the next deal• Why an underwater property is the borrower's biggest leverage• Why Shlomo thinks the worst has already happened• Where Shlomo would put $50 million today Timestamps(00:00) Intro(01:03) Why the Savings and Loan Playbook Failed in 2008(08:18) How Loan Documents Got Tougher After 2008(16:12) Why You Should Model Every Clause in Your Loan Documents(22:16) Which Lenders Hide Full Recourse in the Fine Print(25:21) How to Learn and Negotiate Your Loan Documents(32:18) What's Usually Gone Wrong by the Time a Borrower Calls(39:54) A Borrower's Leverage in a Loan Workout(44:09) Restructuring a Loan When You're Out of Cash(49:36) The Game Theory of Negotiating With Your Lender(53:14) A Good Operator Is Not the Same as a Good GP(54:53) Why Office and Multifamily Are Seeing the Most Distress(1:01:17) How Lenders' View of Office Has Shifted(1:03:26) Why the Worst of the Distress Is Already Here === Presented by Juniper Square: Juniper SquareJuniper Square is the operations partner for GPs in private equity, venture capital, oil and gas, real estate, and infrastructure. It brings technology, data, and administration together on one governed source of truth you own, so your team spends less time reconciling and more time running the firm your LPs are backing. Learn more at https://www.junipersquare.com/powers === Sponsored by: Collateral PartnersCollateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNXVisit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

This week Chris sits down with Terry Montesi, Founder and CEO of Trademark Property Company, a Fort Worth developer of retail and mixed-use real estate he started in 1992. Terry was last on the show in 2019, in the middle of what the business was calling the retail apocalypse. They have closed four retail deals in the last 30 days, more than they have ever closed in a month, and Terry now says retail is the best asset class in the country. They get into why almost no new retail space got built for 17 years, what that shortage is doing to rents, and his playbook for creating value at each of his centers. They discuss:• Why almost no new retail space got built for 17 years• Why retailers started volunteering higher rents on their own• The call from a city manager offering to cover a $5 million gap• How a pop fountain landed Tommy Bahama as a tenant• What one grocery lease did to the returns on an entire project• Why he turned down the chance to take the company public• What he is doing to make sure Trademark outlasts him Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(00:54) How Retail Went from Apocalypse to Top Asset Class(05:31) Why Retail Vacancy Is Down to 4.4%(09:49) How Arlington Helped Trademark Win Lincoln Square(16:15) Picking Tenants with Demographics and Expected Distance(21:15) Why Tenant Build-Out Costs Have Doubled(23:44) The Tommy Bahama Deal That Proved Placemaking Pays(31:08) Dunham Point and Landing Whole Foods Late(37:09) Why Trademark Never Became a REIT(41:54) Getting Back into Development and Launching Multifamily(49:33) The Southlake Deal and an $18 Million City Incentive(54:17) Why Capital Chases Grocery-Anchored Retail(58:45) Succession Planning and Keeping Trademark Independent === Presented by Juniper Square: Juniper SquareJuniper Square is the operations partner for GPs in private equity, venture capital, oil and gas, real estate, and infrastructure. It brings technology, data, and administration together on one governed source of truth you own, so your team spends less time reconciling and more time running the firm your LPs are backing. Learn more at https://www.junipersquare.com/powers === Sponsored by: Collateral PartnersCollateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers True North AdvisorsTrue North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNXVisit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

This week Chris sits down with Adam Blake, Co-founder and CEO of Mavria. Adam spent a little more than a year leading the DOGE team inside the Department of Energy. He has been a private person for 15 years, and last week he broke his silence with a tweet that got over 2 million views. Chris has known Adam since 2004. They met shortly after Chris arrived at TCU, and the school paper named Adam Entrepreneur of the Year for the real estate he was buying around campus. One lunch with him at a Chipotle changed the trajectory of Chris' life. Adam went on to build a commercial solar company that did around 2,000 projects across 17 states, then sold a software company to Vista Equity Partners. In early 2025 a friend called about DOGE. Within about a week he was on a plane to DC, and two weeks after that he was sitting in the West Wing with Elon Musk and the Secretary of Energy. The executive order that set a goal of three new nuclear reactors going critical by July 4th, 2026 put his team in charge of making it happen. Everyone thought it was impossible. It got done. Along the way he got death threats over an anonymous quote that the chairman of the NRC later denied under oath. Now he is building Mavria with two of the people who were in those rooms with him, backed by a $30M pre-seed from a single investor. His view is simple. AI is power, and America has to build a lot more of it. Timestamps(00:00) Intro(01:18) Why He Decided to Speak Publicly Now(04:37) From Campus Real Estate to Brightergy to Zego(09:03) The Week That Took Him From Coronado to the West Wing(13:02) What DOGE Was Actually There to Do(19:52) Inside the DOGE Team, Working Under Elon(24:53) Why He Calls Washington the Hunger Games(28:08) The Tijuana Sewage Crisis Nobody Has Fixed(31:45) Three New Reactors by July 4, 2026(35:02) Death Threats Over a Story That Was Never True(41:52) Why Fear Is Not a Strategy on AI(49:09) Why It Takes a Decade to Plug Into the Grid(55:30) Winning Back Public Trust on Data Centers(1:02:29) Spec Builds, Modular Factories, Smaller Data Centers(1:08:52) Why Big Tech Should Behave Like a Nation State(1:14:15) Inside Mavria, His New Infrastructure Company(1:19:45) Loving the Country More, Hating Politics More === Presented by Collateral Partners: Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers === Sponsored by: AirshareAirshare is trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management. With over 25 years of experience, their own fleet, and the top safety ratings in the industry, they give you a smarter way to fly private. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Learn more at https://flyairshare.com True North AdvisorsTrue North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNXVisit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

This week Chris sits down with Zane Hengsperger, Founder and CEO of NOX Metals, a metal supplier in Detroit he started in 2025. NOX buys metal from the mill, cuts it to the exact size a machine shop needs, and ships it out. The whole operation runs on software the company writes itself. Zane is 26, and his first job was scrubbing the floors of his dad's machine shop at 14. He went into software, then came back to run a machine shop. That is where he saw that metal was the bottleneck for everyone making parts in America. The incumbents have been around for 200 years and have never put software to work. NOX is a year old and has raised an $11.5M seed round. It has written a million lines of code and quotes an order in 10 seconds. They discuss:• The 18-minute call with Y Combinator that put him on a plane the next day• Why his dad hired software engineers for a machine shop back in 2017• How one piece of software does the work of 20 salespeople• Why two of his engineers moved their desks onto the factory floor• Why the forklift driver gets equity after three months• The 7pm order that was in Dallas by 10 the next morning• Why he says America needs 100x more factories• Where AI has let him down so far This one is for anyone betting on American manufacturing. Timestamps(00:00) Intro(01:10) Reading Alex Karp and Walking Back Into a Machine Shop(06:06) Hiring Young Technicians Who Want Hard Work(09:10) Why the Brand Is the Moat(14:28) Lessons From a Dad Who Ran a Machine Shop(16:14) Getting Into Y Combinator With One Day's Notice(22:06) Buy a Saw and Write Instant Quoting Software(27:37) Software Engineers on the Factory Floor(34:29) Is America Actually Reindustrializing?(40:55) America Needs 100 Times More Factories(45:26) Quotes in 10 Seconds Instead of Eight Hours(50:09) Delta Cargo Deliveries and Why Detroit Is Ripping(56:07) Where AI Falls Short and What the Next 24 Months Hold(59:13) The Customer Is the Core Thing Left in America === Presented by True North Advisors: True North AdvisorsTrue North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com === Sponsored by: AirshareAirshare is trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management. They give you a smarter way to fly private - over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to flyairshare.com to learn more. Collateral PartnersCollateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNXVisit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

This week Chris sits down with Lucy Billingsley, Co-founder and Partner of Billingsley Company, the Dallas development firm she started with her husband Henry in 1978. Lucy is the daughter of Trammell Crow, who built the largest real estate development company in America. She left the family business because she did not want to be a minority vote. She and Henry built their own firm instead, and today they run it with their kids. Billingsley plays a longer game than almost anyone in real estate. They buy land 30 or 40 years before the growth arrives and hold it until the market is ready. Cypress Waters alone is 1,300 acres zoned for 10,000 apartments and over 12 million square feet of office. They discuss:• Why every building they develop goes in the kids' names from day one• The rule that keeps siblings from ever voting on each other's deals• The lake at Cypress Waters they bought for 50 cents a foot• The difference between a park people look at and a park people actually use• Why new office space now rents for more than Dallas has ever seen• Where AI is already saving them real money in construction Timestamps(00:00) Intro(00:52) Building a Family Business and Putting Assets in the Kids' Names(05:55) From the Dallas Market Center Into Development(09:15) Picking Land and Staying Ahead of the Growth Wave(14:33) Designing the Public Arena to Make a Place(18:00) Zoning Is an Art, Not a Guarantee(20:52) What Cities Want and What the State Took Away(22:31) The Future of Office and Why Amenities Win(28:44) How They Decide What to Build and Where to Buy Next(33:15) The Events Business and Public-Private Partnerships(36:52) Buying a Lake for 50 Cents a Foot and Draining It(37:54) Construction Costs and the Frozen Single Family Market(42:07) Reinventing Herself and the Cypress Waters Trail(46:37) Going All In on AI === Presented by True North Advisors:True North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com === Sponsored by: AirshareAirshare is trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management. They give you a smarter way to fly private, over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to flyairshare.com to learn more. Collateral PartnersCollateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNXVisit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO