Slate Real Estate Partners

About

Design-driven developments form the foundation of Slate Real Estate Partners (Slate). With a focus on key urban markets, Slate creates and develops mid-rise, high-rise and mixed-use communities that excel through intelligent blueprints and superior details. Founded by commercial real estate industry leaders, our strategic planning combined with our architectural vision generates exceptional investments of lasting value that lead to award-winning projects.

Specializing In

Podium

Four Story

Mid Rise

High Rise

Mixed Use

Our Key Strengths

FINANCIAL STRENGTH

With consistent financial backing as both a guarantee corporation and as co-investors, Slate has the ability and agility to execute and deliver developments.

LONG AND SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIPS

Due to our extensive backgrounds in the real estate industry, Slate leverages experiences and long-term relationships to create remarkable real estate solutions.

ICONIC PROJECTS

Slate exceeds market expectations by creating innovative and irreplaceable developments via smart design.

LEADERSHIP

As industry experts in real estate sectors of finance, acquisition and development, Slate’s team of specialists are dedicated to creating thoroughly-planned projects.

ENDURING COMMITMENT TO PROJECTS AND COMMUNITY

At Slate, we recognize our developments form a lasting impact on a community. We design our properties to blend with existing neighborhoods while simultaneously triggering improvement in the area.

Our communities embody a tailored design focus, an enduring presence and an inspired way of life.

OUR HISTORY BY THE NUMBERS

13,000
LUXURY APARTMENT HOMES

$2.7 BILLION
TOTAL CAPITAL DEPLOYED

725,000
SQ.FT. OF RETAIL DEVELOPMENT

50+
CONSTRUCTION LOANS

100+
LAND TRANSACTIONS OVER THE PAST 17 YEARS

17
MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENTS DESIGNED, AND MANAGED

Leadership

Slate Real Estate Partners’ founders, Ben Pisklak, Steven Webster and Mark Stevenson possess a proven track record of leadership and real estate solutions.

BEN PISKLAK

Ben Pisklak is a founding principal of Slate Real Estate Partners. In his role, Ben is responsible for all aspects of the company’s development, financing, construction and acquisition activities. Prior to founding Slate Real Estate Partners, Ben served as the Chief Investment Officer and Executive Vice President for Gables Residential, where he led all aspects of the company’s development, construction and acquisition activities. […]

STEVEN WEBSTER

Steven Webster is a founding partner for Slate Real Estate Partners. Mr. Webster also co-founded Avista Capital Partners in 2005, and previously served as the Chairman of Global Energy Partners, a specialty group within DLJ Merchant Banking, which sourced, executed and managed DLJMB’s energy-related investments beginning in 2000. Mr. Webster has been an active investor in real estate, energy and private equity investments throughout his business career. […]

Read More… from STEVEN WEBSTER

Steven Webster is a founding partner for Slate Real Estate Partners. Mr. Webster has been an active investor in real estate, energy, and private equity investments throughout his business career.

He began his career in 1975 as an investment banker. In 1979, Mr Webster co-founded Jones, Loyd & Webster, a firm specializing in finance and venture activities in the energy industry. In 1988, he founded and served as CEO of Falcon Drilling Company, an offshore drilling contractor which executed an aggressive consolidation strategy. Falcon was publicly-listed in 1995 and then merged with Reading & Bates in 1997 and Cliffs Drilling in 1998, creating R&B Falcon Corporation (FLC:nyse), one of the world’s largest offshore drilling companies. Mr Webster was a founder and lead investor in various other energy companies, including Carrizo Oil & Gas (CRZO:nasdaq), Grey Wolf Drilling (GW:ase), Basic Energy Services (BAS:nyse), Hercules Offshore (HERO:nasdaq), Laredo Energy, Peregrine Oil & Gas, and, most recently, Enterprise Offshore Drilling and Gran Lago Services.

Mr Webster has also been a lead investor in non-energy companies including Crown Resources (CRCE:nasdaq), Encore Bancshares (EBTX:nasdaq ), Gow Media, Savage Arms (hunting rifle manufacturer), and ELV Holdings (wine producer). In 1993, he became a founding trust manager of Camden Property Trust (CPT:nyse), one of the industry’s leading multi-family housing real estate investment trusts.

Following the merger of R&B Falcon with Transocean in 2000, Mr Webster joined DLI Merchant Banking to develop and lead Global Energy Partners, DLI’s entry into energy private equity. After DLI’s sale to Credit Suisse, Mr Webster co-founded Avista Capital Partners in 2005, which invested in healthcare, energy, and media. Through four institutional funds in the two entities, over $10 billion in equity was invested during his tenure. In 2018, Mr Webster led the spin out from Avista of both AEC Partners to focus on energy and JTS Capital, Avista’s lead investment in the successor to First City Financial (FCF:nyse), which had acquired and managed distressed debt for over 20 years.

Mr Webster has served on numerous public company boards including Chairman of Falcon, Carrizo and Basic. He currently serves as a director of Callon Petroleum (CPE:nyse and successor to Carrizo), Oceaneering International (OII:nyse), Camden and various private companies.

For over 30 years, Mr Webster has been an active real estate investor. Most of his focus has been in the multi-family housing space. With Slate, he has joined with highly accomplished partners to focus on merchant development with leading institutional fund investors as partners.

In 1973, Mr Webster graduated with a BSIM degree with Distinction from Purdue University and in 1975, he graduated with an MBA with High Distinction from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar. In 2009, Mr Webster was awarded an honorary doctorate from Purdue. Mr Webster and his wife live in Houston, as do his four married children.

MARK STEVENSON

Mark Stevenson is a founding principal of Slate Real Estate Partners. Mark’s primary role is responsibility for the company’s financing, debt placement, joint venture negotiations, acquisitions, land assemblage and development concepts. Prior to the founding of Slate Real Estate Partners, Mark has enjoyed a 35-year career in varied aspects of real estate development, investment and finance. […]

Read More… from MARK STEVENSON

Prior to the founding of Slate Real Estate Partners, Mark has enjoyed a 35-year career in varied aspects of real estate development, investment and finance. For the past 18 years, under the entities of MSI Development LLC, JMS Consulting, SWK Real Estate Partners LP, and other property specific companies, Mark has been active in multi-family and retail development and investment. The most significant alliance during this period has been development partnerships with Gables Residential. Mark developed the concept and assembled and acquired development sites in more than 27 separate land transactions over a 15-year period with Gables. He worked in an arms-length capacity from concept to acquisition and construction for such notable projects as Gables West Ave, Gables Upper Kirby, Gables Post Oak, Gables Tanglewood, Gables Jackson Hill, Gables Republic Park Austin and many others. During this process, Mark and Ben Pisklak developed a close working relationship and an effective partnership in project execution.

Prior to and during the Gables years, Mark invested along with financial partners in the acquisition of investment real estate for long term hold and value-add short term investments. Mark’s investment and financial partner in numerous deals, was Steve Webster, who is also a principal in Slate Real Estate Partners. The Pisklak, Stevenson, Webster professional relationship has been developing over almost 20 years with a high level of success and trust.

During the early and mid 1990’s, Mark was the founder and manager of MSI Financial Group, Inc. MSI Financial purchased pools of financial instrument assets from the RTC and FDIC and subsidiary clearing partners. The asset pools contained loan assets from failed banks and Savings and Loan companies. The area of concentration for MSI Financial was real estate backed loan pools of $5 to $10 million. These loans were all non-performing and charged off assets and MSI settled and litigated the deficiencies after real estate value. It was a lucrative business during the years of unwinding the failed thrift industry.

Earlier in his career, Mark was a Managing Partner for Corum Development Company, a Houston based retail shopping center developer. Over the six years with Corum, Mark was responsible for developments and acquisitions outside the state of Texas including south Florida, Nashville TN, several North Carolina markets, Arizona and Virginia. Following Corum, Mark remained in Nashville for an additional 6 years in various real estate investment activities.

As an avocation and passion, Mark is an active partner and managing director of a group of wine producing enterprises. Evening Land Vineyards, Domaine de la Côte, and Sandhi are brands owned and operated by the group. They own vineyards and wineries in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, the Santa Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County, California and a winery asset in the Burgundy region of France.

Mark lives in Houston with his wife Jennifer and two teenagers Haley and Harrison.

Additional Team Members

JEFF LAHR

Jeff Lahr serves as Partner for Slate Real Estate Partners and is responsible for sourcing, underwriting, and executing new development opportunities in the Austin and Dallas / Ft Worth markets. Jeff’s industry experience includes the successful completion of over $500M in residential and mixed-use projects ranging from luxury high-rise, mid-rise and student housing developments to garden-style apartments and retail shopping centers. […]

JEFFREY KILGORE

Jeffrey Kilgore serves as a Managing Director for Slate Real Estate Partners where he is responsible for the coordination and execution of new development opportunities in the greater Houston area.
Prior to joining Slate, Jeffrey was involved in the construction and development of over 1,650 apartment units in Houston and Denver for Gables Residential between 2012-2018, where he worked closely with Ben Pisklak. His time prior to Gables was spent in Houston coordinating and managing high-end interior office remodel projects for The SpawMaxwell Company. […]

RAY VARGAS

Ray Vargas is the Construction Director for Slate Real Estate Partners. In his role, Ray is responsible for executing the company’s strategies related to development and construction of multifamily projects. Ray has over 40 years of experience in all aspects of the real estate development and construction industry. […]

RYAN YEAGER

Ryan Yeager serves as a Managing Director. In his role, he helps forecast budgets, underwrite development projects and aids in the financial analysis of various deals. His responsibilities range from initial underwriting to managing ongoing project operations to ensure an effective transition from site selection through project stabilization. Ryan’s role is to help maintain investments from inception to exit. […]

SEAN WOLFF

Sean Wolff serves as a Managing Director in the Austin office. In his role, he assists in all facets of development projects including financial underwriting, site selection, project coordination and operation management from inception through project stabilization and investment conclusion. […]

KEVIN ALLEN

Kevin Allen is the Controller for Slate Real Estate Partners. In his role, he is responsible for managing all facets of accounting and finance including financial reporting & analysis, job cost accounting and corporate accounting. Kevin also reviews the financial reporting of ongoing project operations, monitors due diligence expenditures and supports the principals in cash and working capital management. […]

PAUL HARRISON

Paul Harrison serves as Construction Manager for Slate Real Estate Partners in the Austin market. In his role, Paul assists all aspects of the company’s construction strategies of multifamily projects. Paul has over a decade of construction management experience in all levels of the real estate development and the construction industry. […]

JENNIFER HAWKES

Jennifer is the Director of Business Operations for Slate Real Estate Partners. In her role, she is responsible for all aspects of the company’s day to day activities, including office management, marketing, accounts payable/receivable and job cost accounting. Jennifer also supports the development group, providing assistance in due diligence activities, consultant scheduling, contract administration, permitting and interior design. […]

RUSSELL GARNER

Russell Garner serves as Construction Director for Slate Real Estate Partners in the Austin market. In his role, Russell is responsible for executing all aspects of the company’s construction strategies of multifamily projects. Russell has over 38 years of construction management experience in all levels of the real estate development and construction industry. […]

LAURA SANCHEZ

Laura Sanchez is the Administrative Assistant at Slate Real Estate Partners. In her role, she is responsible for day to day activities, ranging from clerical duties to providing assistance in accounts receivable, handling invoicing and office due diligence activities. […]

Contact Us

9811 Katy Freeway, Suite 925
Houston, Texas 77024
info@slaterep.com

713.491.2860