Olaf Growald
Troy Kunkel likes to put the pieces together. The former TCU tight end has experienced the roller-coaster ride of residential real estate since he graduated in 2001 with a degree in business marketing. He says it has left him humble but energized. After starting out flipping properties and eventually building up to 100 “doors” for student housing, the crash in 2008 left him days away from foreclosure of his own home because of too much leverage with his company, TCU Froghouses. He now owns 50 properties near TCU and in Stephenville near Tarleton State University. Student housing is the “bread and butter” of his business, but Kunkel, 40, is expanding into commercial, including seven properties he’s bought and is developing on Stanley Avenue, just west of Cleburne behind Paschal High School. His first project is The Vintage Rail, a restored 3,500-square-foot 1940s Quonset hut he turned into an event center primarily for weddings. Other plans he has on Stanley include an icehouse brewery, pizza restaurant, coffee shop and parking. Kunkel also is restoring the Berry Movie Theater, an abandoned 1930s property on the corner of South Hemphill and Berry streets, with plans to remake it into an event space and theater.
Preserving the Past. “I love the way we do business in Fort Worth. It’s relational, not transactional. Everybody’s one degree from someone else in the business world. My clients become my friends. Many of us in Fort Worth are repurposing old buildings. In other areas, they just scrap and build new. Everybody that’s doing this knows each other. We’re on the same page about preserving landmark buildings in Fort Worth.”
No. 1 Business Axiom: Watch the Cash. “Don’t run out of cash. I have, and it’s very difficult. You lose your momentum, your confidence. It’s depressing. Warren Buffett has a funny quote: ‘You don’t know who’s skinny dipping until the tide rolls out.’”
Stay in Your Lane. “I’ve owned a CrossFit gym and mini storage units, but I realized I really didn’t want to be an operator; I just wanted to own real estate. I’ll buy a property and put other people in to run the business. I’ll buy the bus and put other people in it; then I’ll start moving to the back and eventually get on another bus.”
Feet on the Ground. “Stanley Avenue is two miles from my house. I drive by there or go out for runs through the neighborhood, and I think about what the street’s going to look like and how it’s going to fit together as a whole. I knock on doors of neighbors, meet the owners. It’s taken a year or two years to build relationships. I see what their needs are and how I can meet those needs.”
Servant Leader. “I was a believer when I was a little guy, but in 2013-14, God said I don’t want one foot on either side of the fence; I want all of you. I had a friend die of brain cancer, it was a hard season. He takes you through the harder times to refine you and grow you and humble you. Now I’m involved with Christ Chapel kids’ ministry, help with the Good News Club at Como Elementary, sharing the Gospel with them in an after-school club. I volunteer at Justin’s Place in the Stop Six neighborhood. I’m playing with the kids, doing pushups with kids on my back.”