Our Story
A company rooted in relationship
When John Scovell and Ray Hunt met in 1971, a friendship was born. Soon after, Ray asked John to run his real estate company. Since then, the Hunt family has been involved in nearly every Woodbine project over the last 5 decades. John’s son’s, King and Dupree, are now leading the company with the mission to continue to build on the legacy of this partnership.
The Next Generation
When King and Dupree Scovell acquired Woodbine from their father, the mandate was simple: grow the business the same way it began: through relationships. Through family friendships that go back to their childhood, Tyson Erwin and Alexis Martinez were tapped to run Woodbine Commercial with the goal of providing real estate advisory services to likeminded clients and partners in both office and industrial.
John Scovell (left) and Ray Hunt
The Woodbine Name and Hunt Oil Connection
In the heart of East Texas, 120 miles east of downtown Dallas, Woodbine Sand can be found at a depth of 6,000 feet. Often oil-bearing, this sand has played a profound role in the development of Dallas and the surrounding area.
The most famous oil field that depended on the Woodbine Sand as its primary reservoir was the fabled East Texas oil field. Upon discovery, it was the largest oil field in the world, with estimated initial recoverable oil reserves of 5.5 billion barrels.
The discovery well of the East Texas oil field was named the Daisy Bradford No. 3. Mr. H. L. Hunt purchased the discovery well and a number of oil leases that were thought to be non-prospective. However, those leases were later found to be located in strategic areas within the East Texas oil field, and they subsequently proved to be the foundation upon which Hunt Oil Company was built.
Years later when Ray Hunt asked John Scovell to run his real estate company, Scovell took on the task of naming the business. “I didn’t want the name to be Hunt this or that,” he remembers. “Because the world already had an opinion about the family name.”
The company’s windmill logo serves as a tribute to those early pioneers—and to their innovation, adaptability and endurance.
Instead, Scovell found inspiration in the geologic formation that was significant to not only Hunt Oil Company but also early pioneers who settled in the East Texas region. These settlers frequently drilled shallow water wells and built windmills to pump the water from the Woodbine Sand to the surface.
With that, the Woodbine name was born. The company’s windmill logo serves as a tribute to those early pioneers—and to their innovation, adaptability and endurance.
Our Pillars of Development
The path to lasting partnerships is a simple one. We value a hard day’s work and understand that our reputation is built not only on persistence but also a shared vision with our partners. These are the pillars that give Woodbine the strength and resilience our partners have come to trust.
Teamwork
Woodbine is made up of unique, talented individuals who share a deep mutual respect for one another. Our goal as a company is to create an environment that allows our employees to excel as individuals and thrive as a team so we can serve our partners well. Although clients and projects may change, this philosophy governs all our decisions. The “Woodbine Way” mandates an uncompromising standard of excellence that every member of the Woodbine team must uphold and every relationship must attest to.
Trust
Very few companies can boast of the enduring industry and partner relationships that Woodbine has enjoyed during its nearly five decades of operation. Financial partners have included institutional investors/lenders, regional banks, foundations, traditional private equity funds, family offices, and high net worth individuals. Advisory clients have included public and private companies as well as municipalities, and non-profits. The longest standing relationship, however; is that which exists with Woodbine as a steward of Hunt’s capital and its legacy. This alliance–and many other repeat capital relationships alike–define the trust that Woodbine has earned.
Track Record
Under the direction of a senior leadership team with an average tenure of nearly two decades, Woodbine’s highly disciplined underwriting and conservative investment parameters have generated an average return of greater than 35 percent to its investors since 1972. Woodbine is among a very short list of developers who have expertise in office, industrial, hotel, and land. Whether it is Woodbine’s fund business that is focused on acquiring generational hold assets or our value-add platform that acquires and repositions assets in every product type, or Woodbine’s ground-up development efforts, which have changed skylines all over the country, our experience and development track record is unparalleled in the industry.