One of Texas’ biggest apartment developers and investors is adding eight leaders to its bench in a move expected to position the firm for more growth.
OHT Partners, an Austin-based company with projects underway in the four major Texas markets of Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, has named new principals to its leadership team to oversee the firm’s ongoing development and investment in apartments across the Lone Star State.
“We have super-star developers, construction executives and finance executives that have made tremendous contributions to the organization — and deserve to be made principals,” Steve Oden, founding principal, told CoStar News in an email.
OHT Partners got its start 15 years ago when it was known as Oden Hughes. Company co-founder Craig Hughes has retired but remains a key investor.
“By doing this, we’ve structured this company for prosperity for the next 20 years and beyond,” Oden said. “This was a natural evolution for our company.”
OHT Partners is led by Oden and Eric Taylor, who is also founding principal.
Each of the eight new principals plays a “critical role” in the firm’s operations, Oden said, with this next generation helping guide OHT Partners’ future. The new principals are Howell Beaver, Stephen Bedell, Matt Bratton, Ben Browder, David Godvin, Chad Hallmark, Jackson Simons and Thomas Terwilliger.
Beaver is a principal in real estate overseeing the Dallas-Fort Worth region. He has been at the firm in various roles for nearly 13 years after he worked at Wood Partners. Browder, as a principal in real estate, oversees the Austin region. He has been at OHT Partners since 2014.
New principal Hallmark oversees development in the Austin region. He has been with the firm since 2018 after spending a year in land acquisitions for an oil and gas firm. Simons now oversees Houston and San Antonio. He joined the firm in 2019 from JPMorgan Asset Management, where he worked as an analyst.
Bedell is a principal and chief financial officer for OHT Partners, where he began his career as the firm’s controller in 2013. Godvin has been named principal of capital markets; he came from JLL in 2021.
Bratton is now a principal of construction for OHT Partners, overseeing all construction in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. He joined the firm in 2017, serving in the U.S. Army for seven years prior to his real estate career.
Terwilliger, who joined OHT Partners in 2013, is also a principal of construction for the firm, responsible for business in the greater Houston region.
Since OHT Partners was founded, it has developed more than 60,000 apartment units in Texas. Notable projects include the redevelopment of the historic Ambassador Hotel site just south of downtown Dallas; The Brentwood in Austin; and a new project overseen by a joint venture with a fund advised by Crow Holdings in the greater Houston region.