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photo by Olaf Growald
Happy Baggett in his home
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photo by Olaf Growald
Happy Baggett in his home
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photo by Olaf Growald
Happy Baggett with friends at GRACE
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photo by Olaf Growald
Happy Baggett at GRACE
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photo by Olaf Growald
Happy Baggett with friends and staff of GRACE
Most days this spring and summer, after he told friends and family over Facebook in early June that he was dying of colon and liver cancer, had been given six months to live, and declined treatment, you’ve still been able to predictably find Hap Baggett at his usual 4:30 p.m. watering hole: a reserved table in the bar at the GRACE restaurant downtown, where he’s an investor. Baggett’s had to swap his scotch for gin and tonic because he says the scotch tastes like metal shavings. And unlike recent years, when happy hour has often led to dinner with a gaggle of friends, Baggett hasn’t been able to eat a real meal since June. But that hasn’t stopped him from those “dinners”; he slams down protein shakes at home beforehand and nurses a gin or two the rest of the evening.
Baggett’s not exiting quietly: He’s packed his schedule with coffees, lunches, dinners, and road trips to favorite old spots, like a high school reunion organized for him by friends in his hometown of Odessa. He’s consulted with city and economic development leaders and anybody else who wants to talk about his vision for Southeast Fort Worth, where Baggett led a group of partners in establishing the mixed-use Renaissance Square, the first major development in decades in Southeast Fort Worth. It’s created a landing pad for a Walmart-anchored shopping center; market-rate and affordable-rent apartments; Uplift charter school; YMCA branch; Cook Children’s clinic; and headquarters campus for ACH Child and Family Services, which runs critical foster and family support programs.
And Baggett’s trying to raise $1 million by an Oct. 16 luncheon — or when he dies, whichever is first — for Child Care Associates, a nonprofit that runs early child care programs for kids who are at risk of being left behind. “I have had a fabulous life,” Baggett, who also packed in time this summer with his twin 47-year-old children and four grandchildren and planning his funeral at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, told well-wishers in his Facebook post. “I’m doing great. I’ll be spending what time I have left continuing to be the same Hap Baggett that I’ve always been. I love you all and want to share the joy, happiness, and laughter that has been my last 67 years!” Baggett carved out a few hours on a Monday afternoon in early August for an interview with Fort Worth Magazine over cocktails at the Little Red Wasp downtown. Baggett, as usual, spared no words for a few of his favorite targets, like regulators. This transcript has been edited for brevity.
FW: What were you up to this weekend?
Happy: Okay, wow. This weekend, three days in Columbus for a wedding. This kind of starts what I call my holy month between now and Aug. 31. After Aug. 31, I’ve not basically booked anything. I’ve probably lost about, I calculate, about a third of my strength. I’m pacing myself for next month, and it’s my weekends away to places that hold really good memories for me. Tonight, I have dinner with the owners of Cat City Grill. Tomorrow morning, I’m speaking to 17 people [at the city]. And then right after that, I’m putting on the superhero cape for CASA Fort Worth. They do a 5K run every year; they invite different people to put on the hero cape. I’ve got a group of friends coming to take me out Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning, I’m up doing personal business, but then I’m getting ready for dinner that’s being thrown by friends at Capital Grille. About 40 people, and Mayor Price is coming. [At the dinner, Price presented Baggett with a City Council resolution declaring his birthday this December as Happy Baggett Day in Fort Worth.] And before that, during the day, I’ll be working with Child Care Associates on the fundraiser. Thursday, I have two luncheons and one dinner. Friday morning, I’m up and headed for the Bryan-College Station. Pick up my dear friend there, and we’re going to go spend three days in San Saba. She was raised there, and she’s going to show me things that I don’t know about San Saba.
FW: What’s the fundraising goal for Child Care Associates?
Happy: The fund, the Happy Baggett Early Childhood Fund, is $12 million. Me personally, I’m hoping I can raise a million dollars. I’m on the phone pretty much every day, going, “Okay, brother, this is for the babies.”
FW: Besides lack of energy, how do you feel physically?
Happy: I get up, I get dressed. My big deal is my mental, and my doctors will go, “Okay, Hap, how are you doing all the things that you do?” And they go, “Wait, wait, wait. We know you. It’s your spirit.” The Downtown Fort Worth Rotary invited me to be their guest speaker Sept. 13. I’m very excited about that. They want me to spend the first 10 minutes talking about the Early Childhood Learning Center that’s being built. And the last 15 minutes, they want me to talk about how do you create a legacy? We’ll talk about my early history in Odessa, Texas. Great parents. Dad was in the Army, and when I got put into the elementary school, my first class, I was in the poorest part of town. So that’s why I feel for my babies. But the old families in Odessa committed to our kids getting a great education. From Day One, I had the most fabulous education.
FW: So, you worked out in the oil fields?
Happy: I did. I started mowing lawns at eight, and my dad came out of the Army and worked for BJ Hughes for 38 years. They hired four of the employees’ boys during summer to work three months to make $1.75 an hour. Everybody wanted that job. So, at 14, I interviewed. By my 15th birthday the next year, they hired me again, and I was in charge of the entire staff of young guys. Because my daddy said, “You go to work, son, and you make a good hand.” I worked six days a week before and after school. That’s what you did. That’s how I got my car. That’s how I afforded my dates.
FW: Tell me the story about your given name.
Happy: My real name is Howard Dwayne. I’m the fourth generation to get a Howard name. If you look back in Old English, one of the translations is “shining spirit.” I had not cried for two days, and my grandma said, “That’s a happy baby.” So, I’ve been called Happy ever since. I had it legally changed in 1987.
FW: But wait, there’s more.
Happy: So then, Baggett, the last name. The root word is Bacchus, God of wine. Well, Bacchus, we all know him: pot belly, curly hair, cloven hooves, wine, surrounded by beautiful women. So, Howard Baggett turned into happy, short, fat, hairy, cloven hoofs, wine, and surrounded by beautiful women.
FW: Coming out of high school, what were your options?
Happy: I was the oldest in my generation, so I didn’t have anybody older than me to look up to. During high school, I sang with the Gatlin Brothers. We had a group and sang with them in church. Our choir program was like an all-state football team for 20 years, every year. All my counselors looked at me and said, “You’ll be a great preacher or teacher.”
FW: Did you go to college?
Happy: One semester. I had to wear a gold and black Odessa College beanie on my head for the first six weeks because I was a freshman. I go, “This isn’t for me.” Then in ’73, the oil embargo hit. All of a sudden, everybody’s moving to Odessa and Midland because of the oil explosion. My father-in-law, Rudy Jones, my mentor and the man who taught me everything I know for the real estate business, said, “Would you like to go to work for me?” He taught me the business from the ground up. I spent the first year learning all the things that you do. He said, “Your second year, I’m going to teach you how to bid everything we do.” And then into landscape. My father-in-law saw in me that I was always, “Hey, let’s talk about new product.” So, he sent me around the states looking at new product in the late ’70s. Like zero-lot-line homes. Townhomes. We did great properties. I learned everything from Rudy Jones, who is dying of Alzheimer’s right now.
FW: How’d you get into land?
Happy: About ’81, I’m watching Dallas, and I’m seeing DFW Airport under construction and reading the stories about all the land guys who went out and bought the big tracts and sold them to the airport. And I’m going, “Okay. I’m not building anymore buildings. I’m going to go do land.” I moved there not knowing anybody except Ebby Halliday. I was on a couple of boards; we knew each other. So, I called her, I said, “Ebby, I’m here in town.” I officed with Ebby for about two months. The long story of this, when we moved into Highland Park, my wife was in the Odessa Junior League. We transferred into Highland Park. I find out that my old dentist from when I was a kid, Dr. Moody, was a dentist there. So, I called him up, and he said, “Well, where are y’all going to church?” So, we go to the First Presbyterian Church in Highland Park, and he said, “Okay, there’s a class you need to go here.” Jim Smith had a big Sunday school class of about 600 every Sunday, and it was young professional people, middle age professional people, movers and shakers. Dr. Moody introduced us to Jim, and goes, “Now these kids sing.”
FW: So, your turn in land goes through the church choir?
Happy: At that time, I’d done over 20 musical productions in Midland-Odessa. So, Jim said, “Y’all want to sing? Okay I’m putting you down for [Sunday School] two weeks now.” Deb and I, we get up there and do a duet. Sunday school’s over, and we get mobbed. And they go, “Okay, two weeks from now, we have each year what is called the Follies for the Highland Park Junior League, and we raised $2 million in one night.” This is 1983. We audition. We get a call from the director. He goes, “I got a problem.” We go, “Oh God, we’ve only been in Highland Park four weeks, we’re causing problems.” He says, “Okay, Deb. You got the female lead. Hap, you got the male lead, and both your kids made the show. How do I explain this?” I go, “I’ve done this every year for 19 years.” So, during one of the rehearsals, I’m getting dressed with Clyde Jackson, the up-and-coming developer [who was in the show]. Clyde looks over at me. I got my pants halfway up; his are halfway, he goes, “I want you to go to work for me.” I go, “What do you do?”
FW: What do you do?
Happy: We have breakfast at the Westin Galleria. He goes, “Well, why don’t you go to work for me at Plaza of the Americas, the third tower.” So, I call my wife, said, “Okay. I’ve just been offered a fabulous job, but it’s exactly what I came here to get away from. Building buildings.” I take the job. For two years I was there, I got to meet everybody in the real estate business in Dallas, Texas, on a level of this Hap Baggett, he now works for Clyde and Toddie [Wynne, legendary co-developer of Plaza of the Americas].
FW: How’d you end up in Fort Worth?
Happy: David Craig of Craig Properties hired me to be the president of land development. We sold $400 million in land the first year. In ’86, the collapse hit, so I decided I’m going to go out on my own. I get a call from Jeff Beck, who’s a big developer in Dallas who’d I’d sold land to. He said, “Hap, I’m a contrarian. I’m ready to start buying land. Go find me a deal.” The first deal I find is Trophy Club, which has been in bankruptcy for six years with the RTC and the FDIC motherf-----s. God damn, I lose my Christianity. I went to Jeff, I said, “Hey, there’s 1,000 acres of undeveloped land surrounded by golf course. It’s got water and sewer.” I buy 60% of the entire town for Jeff. We paid $10 million. Two weeks after I buy it, Perot announces that he bought the Circle T Ranch across the street. So that started my relationship up in North Fort Worth with the big major play. The next year, I bought half the town of Roanoke, next door.
FW: Did you have equity in these deals, or are you fronting other people?
Happy: OPM. All my partners put up all the cash.
FW: You got paid for fronting these deals and doing the assemblages.
Happy: I do the assemblage and pay all the money to put the deal together. I get reimbursed on that. If I need two partners, when I did Roanoke, I had 16 partners, all oil and gas guys. The five years we’ve actually had to hold Renaissance Square chewed up all my profits. Six or 7, 10 percent preferred return [to investors], five years, your money’s gone, because you’ve got to pay all your partners. Every day I don’t sell something, my percentage gets smaller and smaller. That’s why my partners have never lost money with me.
FW: Tell me how the Masonic Home — future site of Renaissance Square — came on your radar screen?
Happy: I had been looking at it about 12 years ago when the Masons first put it up. Some big group won the RFP. They fell off. Then [developer] Michael Mallick and Mayor Moncrief came to me. The mayor said, “I want you to buy a deal, Southeast Fort Worth.” I said, “Yes, sir.” Michael had explained the deal to me, and he had it under contract, so I came in and closed on 187 of the 207, which would give the other acres to ACH for their headquarters there. I called my partners. I said, “I need $16 million. I want to close within the next 90 to 120 days.” I had no zoning, other than A5, which is big lots. I had no incentives. I would have to replace all the water and sewer and drainage around the entire site, not counting getting on our property, for about $12 million.
FW: You built a great relationship with the neighborhoods.
Happy: In the first three years, I had 671 private and group meetings with the associations because they’re distrustful. I went through the whole process. We’re going to build off Michael’s plan [to bring in] ACH. I said, “The first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to build Class A national tenant retail before I ask you for any zoning on anything else.” We built the retail. We have 1,000 jobs here. We’ve got the largest YMCA in Tarrant County. We brought in Cook Children’s. I have a 2,000-student, 11-acre charter school. We’re master planning, landscaping, 10-foot sidewalks, sight lines so that you can walk and be safe, connector roads. We built that around a Purpose Built Communities philosophy. Shirley Franklin, the mayor of Atlanta for two terms, is the CEO for Purpose Built, and they introduced us to Columbia Residential, the finest developers [and developers of Renaissance’s residential piece]. I have affordable housing, and I have market-rate housing.
FW: Let’s talk about the flap over the McDonald YMCA. Do you remember telling me, “They can kiss my ass goodbye?” How did the city rehabilitate itself with you after that? [Baggett, in recruiting the Y to Renaissance, engineered a deal to sell the nearby McDonald branch to an apartment developer. The Y would use the sale proceeds to buy a discounted lot in Renaissance. Even though Baggett lined up all but one neighborhood leader in support of his plan, it was derailed in 2012 at the City Council when a neighboring church pastor protested and packed the chamber with protestors who neighborhood leaders later said didn’t live in Southeast Fort Worth. Baggett, denied a chance to speak because there was no record he’d signed up, threatened to pull his investors out of the city afterwards. The McDonald site is still for sale.]
Happy: Other than the bishop, I’ve never had a single person out of neighborhoods vote against me at anything that came through the council. Never had a single person send a letter. Never had a single person voice anything to me, other than 100% support for 12 years on everything I’ve asked for.
FW: How did the city rehabilitate itself with you?
Happy: I had council members call me, going, “I’m sorry. We’re sorry.” They were in all the meetings where we were putting stuff for Renaissance together, and we were building. They saw what was going on.
FW: What did Walmart need to know to get sold on Renaissance?
Happy: I already had it all done. Here it is. Here’s the master plan [for the 67 acres of retail]. Here’s the incentives I have. Everything I design, I design around your business.
FW: How’s Renaissance retail doing today?
Happy: We’ve had 20% increases in sales every year for five years. We had 15,000 cars a day when we bought Renaissance. We have 45,000 cars a day. What’s built is 100% leased. We have one tenant that’s not in there, but that was a corporate decision where they went out all over the country.
FW: How about T&P Warehouse downtown? You’ve never spoken about it publicly, but you did have an offer into the owner to buy it. Can you talk about that?
Happy: That’s a crazy woman. She’s not going to do anything, I think, until she passes away, and her son can sell it, if she doesn’t restrict him. We dropped that three years ago. There’s no reason. It’s a waste of my time. When you go and offer somebody 60% more for the property, a million nonrefundable Day One, I close in 30 days, and they don’t take it? That’s a crazy person.
FW: What about transit? What have you learned from serving on the Transit Alliance board?
Happy: I always laugh about transit. What blows me away [are] the costs. Do you know how many roads I can build with that? We’re going to get people off the road. Kiss my butt. Why do you think people are going to buy cars, drive cars? Because it’s easier.
FW: Is there anything about the transit plan you think is worthwhile?
Happy: If you can get my workers, people that work and they need that transportation to get to work, that’s the first thing I want to see.
FW: What would you change about the City of Fort Worth and the way it interacts with developing and developers?
Happy: Every city [has a bad reputation]. You know why? This is not a dig on anybody. It’s all ran by bureaucracies. What used to take me six months now takes me two years.
FW: So, you’re 67.
Happy: I’ll be 68 on December 27th. My goal is to make it to November 1st. I really don’t want to be here during the holidays. I can feel it inside. I’m just trying to be me. I want to die being me. I don’t want to learn something different. That’s where I’m going next; I’m going to take my [protein] meal and go out tonight and have dinner with friends.
Happy’s Kids: Child Care Associates
what: Happy Baggett Early Childhood Development Fund
the ask: $12 million over several years to improve Child Care Associates’ 23 early childhood education campuses in Fort Worth and Tarrant County and build new ones. Baggett has set a personal goal of raising $1 million by an Oct. 16 Early Childhood Investor luncheon at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel.
what CCA does: Early education through Head Start and Early Head Start programs. CCA centers serve about 17,000 children per year.
why it’s important: Influence of family in a child’s development is critical. CCA programs play a key role in helping families who struggle with poverty and parenting. Such programs are expected to play an even bigger role as the community ramps up its focus on early childhood intervention to improve kids’ ability to perform well in school.
early childhood investor 2019 luncheon: 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m., Omni Fort Worth Hotel. Tickets: $175. Tables: $1,250 per table. Sponsorships available, Rattana Mao, director of development, CCA, [email protected]. Event chairs: County Judge Glen Whitley, honorary chair; Happy Baggett, chair
to give: childcareassociates.org/luncheon
