Red McCombs; Koontz McCombs and McCombs Plaza

After the recent passing of my dear friend and colleague Red McCombs, I had some time to reflect on the many moments and accomplishments that we shared together.  During my 18 years with Red as my partner in operating Koontz McCombs, we created both a commercial real estate development and commercial construction company from scratch.  Those entities would go on to develop, build, and purchase over $1.3 billion in real estate.  We developed hundreds of thousands of feet of office space and over 4,500 apartment units.  We clearly left our mark on the local real estate community.

I would like to share a quick story on how McCombs Plaza eventually came to be.  Recently after we started our Koontz McCombs partnership, the McCombs organization wanted to combine their entities and consolidate to a new corporate building.  Trying to find a site that would accomplish this task in a significant way is never easy and usually takes some amount of vision, daring, fortitude, and luck.  There was a 2.5-acre site right in the Trinity Plaza area at Highway 281 and Mulberry.  The site was owned by First National Bank of South Texas in reserve for a future drive-through for the bank.  The owner of the bank at that time was Mr. Fred Erck.  I called and ultimately met with Fred regarding our desire to purchase the site.  He was cordial but emphatic that he needed the land for a future drive-through, and therefore the site was not for sale.  I gave his comments significant thought because I really felt that this site would be perfect for a multi-tenant office building which could serve as the headquarters for McCombs.

I approached Fred some weeks later and threw out the idea that if I could find him a site of equal or better access to serve as a bank drive-through, would he entertain maybe a trade for his site.  He opened the door to that idea and off I went to tie up a site on the opposite side of the freeway directly across from the bank.  The site actually was better for a drive-through in that it had direct access on and off Highway 281 at a diamond interchange.  Fred, being an astute businessman, said that he would have to have the site entitled and engineered for his purpose before he would consider the trade. That task also included the approval of the Monte Vista Historical Society!  I had a lot of work to do to make this happen, but the door was cracked. 

Well, the rest is history as I was able to get all entitlements done suitable to all the parties, including Monte Vista Historical Society, Fred Erck and the City of San Antonio.  It was difficult, but so worth the effort as Fred agreed to trade, and we ultimately built a very handsome and highly successful office building, McCombs Plaza.

One unique feature of McCombs Plaza was the strategic use of the normally “boring” office lobby by making it more interactive to the public and to our tenants.  My suggestion was that Red should consider using the requisite lobby space and transform it into an area whereby he could display a portion of his lifelong collection of early American artifacts.  He had a fantastic collection of valuable collectibles of which the bulk was stashed away in storage.  With some prior planning and good design, we could utilize a good portion of the lobby to be a real display case “mini museum”.  With the support of Marsha Shields taking the lead on the McCombs side and Red’s talented curator, Colonel Obello, that idea became a reality by the time we opened the building.  What a fantastic exhibit and what a smart way to utilize lobby space to the maximum! 

However, I didn’t think the lobby would be complete without a portraiture painting of Red and Charline.  Again, I proposed a plan for getting a portrait of them to Marsha Shields who was extremely receptive on matters like this, and we pursued the idea.  I went to many art consultants but was really impressed with the ideas and expertise of Otis Parchman at Parchman Stremmel Galleries.  He referred me to a portrait artist in South Africa who had done the likes of Nelson Mandela!  His name was John Mayer.  We selected John, he flew over from Cape Town and met with Red and Charline for photos, meetings, etc.  Of course, Red grumbled about being too busy for this painting nonsense.  I instructed John on that we would like to include regarding business and personal vignettes incorporated into the painting.  I knew that task would be difficult to do tastefully.  The painting was commissioned and then became the long waiting period for the piece to finally arrive. 

The painting finally arrived at Otis’s gallery, and he was really excited and so was I.  It truly was an impactful masterpiece!  So well done to do such a great portrait of Red and Charline and to incorporate the vignettes so tastefully.

If you ever have a few minutes and you are in the Mulberry neighborhood, stop by McCombs Plaza and see the memorabilia displayed and view the heirloom painting of two legendary Texans, Charline and Red McCombs.