Andy Lucas joined the Beauxwright team in 2016, bringing experience in credit analysis, principal investment, asset management, capital markets and structured finance. Andy shares a bit about his background, his thoughts on real estate and how he would describe Beauxwright.
Your background is in finance--was working in real estate always a part of your plan? What drew you to the field of real estate development?
Real estate wasn’t always part of the plan for me. I have always been deeply interested in capital markets, and my first job gave me exposure to mortgage-backed securities. This early experience helped establish a real estate theme for the balance of my career. Real estate development, in particular, is attractive to me because it's a “maker” role at its core, but it also allows me to leverage my finance background.
Do you think your finance background influences your decision-making and overall approach to real estate?
Without a doubt. Most of my career was spent lending money to companies similar to Beauxwright, so I tend to evaluate opportunities with a conservative lens and dig into the fine print. I enjoy thinking about what could go wrong and how we’d figure our way out of particular challenges.
Beauxwright was built on the foundation of creating and cultivating long-term relationships. Why is this so important in what you do?
Strong relationships are fundamental to what we do because without them we wouldn’t exist. We recognize the power of battle-tested relationships and subscribe to the theory that approaching transactions with a “one and done” attitude means that you won’t be in business very long.
Like your Beauxwright partner Eric Speckman, you’re also a licensed real estate broker. What made you decide to pursue this and does it play a role in your day-to-day life?
While I don’t use my license in my day-to-day life, I’m glad I decided to become a licensed broker. I chose to pursue my real estate license because I wanted to better understand how the agency world worked and preserve the option to use my license someday.
What about your job do you find the most rewarding?
I love visiting some of our projects well after they’ve been completed to see and experience how people are enjoying a place that we worked really hard to create.
How long have you lived in Charlotte and what drew you here? How would you describe the growth the city has seen over the years? What do you like most about living/working in Charlotte?
My wife, Chrissy, and I have been in Charlotte for almost seven years. She’s a native Charlottean, which definitely played a role, but we chose Charlotte because of its appeal as a great city to raise a family and do business. The growth in Charlotte over the years has been fun to be a part of, both personally and professionally. We moved here from Austin, TX, and were there when they were experiencing a similar rate of growth (I guess they still are). The wave of young professionals attracted to Charlotte’s many qualities reminds me of Austin in a lot of ways. What I like most about working in Charlotte is that it’s a young enough city that we, as owners of a small development company, can still make a meaningful mark on the built environment.
You’re very active in the community. Describe some of the organizations and causes that are most important to you and why.
We have two young girls, so I’m admittedly not as active as I’d like to be. I am actively involved as a member of the Parent Advisory Committee at the First Presbyterian Church Weekday School. I’m co-chairing a committee this year as part of that role as well. I also participate as a member of the Urban Land Institute. Fostering financial literacy is another cause that is important to me as I see it as foundational for young adults.
If you had to choose only five words to describe Beauxwright, what would they be?
Creative, determined, passionate, fun, resilient.
What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?
Travel more, stop and smell the roses every once in a while, use your savings to buy real estate in South End.
Lighting Round!
- Favorite restaurant: Jimmy Cantler’s Riverside Inn - Annapolis, MD
- Beach or mountains: Beach
- Favorite day of the week: Saturday
- Call or text: Text
- Favorite hobby: Running