Today we’d like to introduce you to Shaun Vembutty.
Shaun, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Started off in real estate by buying rental properties, then flipped houses, then got into residential new construction, then transitioned into the luxury market new construction. In addition to that, we have added commercial developments like hotels, retail centers etc. to our portfolio. Also, developing a gated retirement community of 80 houses on 10 acres in Richmond TX.
Has it been a smooth road?
Any developer is going to experience growing pains the first couple of years. And it is typically dealing with contractors and finding the right crew initially. Once that is sorted out, the next challenge faced is making sure you have the right banking partners to finance your projects. This gets addressed and the banks get on board as you deliver and build a track record. Once these two are taken care of, there are not any challenges per se except managing your team and staying on top of execution.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Ashton Gray Development story. Tell us more about the business.
We build luxury spec homes in some of the most exclusive and priciest neighborhoods in Houston. We also develop commercial projects like hotels and retail shopping centers. We are now in the midst of developing a 10 acre gated retirement community with its own clubhouse and other amenities. We also have a private equity fund, with several million dollars under management, which invests in real estate developments and different types of assets.
What sets us apart is our execution. We have our construction process down to a science – on average, 7 months to build a 6000 sq. ft. luxury spec home, which is pretty unheard of. Another aspect is the kind of investor base and following we have due to our track record. We are actually in a position where we need to screen prospective investors and only let a few of them in at a time. That is a pretty good problem to have, in my opinion.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Houston has always been a very stable market – no crazy swings and we like it like that. The neighborhoods and price points we build in are kind of immune to the typical market fluctuations to a certain extent because inventory is so low and the target clientele is very exclusive. On the commercial side, we are pretty diverse as well and we only sign off on a project if the location is absolutely a homerun. Even on the private equity side, we review multiple opportunities a day. Only a fraction of this gets to our team to conduct feasibility and within that, we sign off on about 1 in 5 deals. So, there is a lot of work that goes in before capital gets deployed.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3 Sugar Creek Center, Suite 100
Sugar Land TX 77478 - Website: http://ashtongraydev.com http://ashtongraycapital.com
- Phone: (281) 912-3364
- Email: info@ashtongraydev.com
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