Mojy Haddad, President & Founder, CHS Architects and Oakhollow Group

Mojy Haddad, president and founder of CHS Architects and Oakhollow Group, spoke with Invest: about the ways in which his businesses are able to work together to create developments in a unique, exceptional way. He also discussed how the company’s location in Arlington offers singular opportunities for continued growth in a tight market.

What have been some of the recent highlights and key milestones for CHS Architects and Oakhollow Group?

Just to put it in perspective, CHS Architects, primarily, provides architectural services for my Real Estate development company, Oakhollow Group. We are essentially two companies, and for the projects that we will be discussing, Oakhollow Group is the developer, and CHS Architects is the architectural arm of the company. 

The key milestone for our Company in 2024, was our 40th year Anniversary. It was 40 years ago that we established our Headquarter in Arlington, and soon after, a large satellite office in Houston, providing Architectural services all over the U.S. and overseas. 

I would say the completion of Main 7 Townhomes in Downtown Arlington, an urban style single family attached development, Waters Edge at Viridian, Legacy at Viridian retail centers, and strong leasing activities in 2024, have been the highlights for our companies, CHS Architects and Oakhollow Group. We were actually quite busy, with designs, development and leasing activity in a strong Arlington market during the entire 2024, in spite of the economic downturn. While, in the same time period, other parts of the County have been hurting due to high interest rates and other factors related to the economic downturn.

Have you noticed any incoming trends or changes in the way architecture work is being carried out in the Dallas-Fort Worth area?

The Dallas Fort Worth area is not any different than most of the country in terms of architectural trends and changes. However, I believe it is the responsibility of the architects and eventually the developers, as well as the owner and final decision maker, to respond to the market change and users’ behavior. 

For instance, in the retail segment, I firmly believe that the focus has shifted to more neighborhood centers and mixed-use developments to respond to customers shopping, dining and living trends. Customers do not want to drive far from their homes for services such as dining, personal services, medical care, entertainment, etc. The days of big box stores and regional malls are gone. E-Commerce and COVID have changed consumer trends forever. The most notable trends have been the conversions of Big Box stores and demolition and/or conversion of Regional Malls into lifestyle mixed use developments. 

Which of the company’s services do you expect to drive growth moving forward?

Retail and mixed use with residential components will definitely continue to drive growth. Since COVID, the office market and office culture have changed substantially. The office segment is seeing large vacancies. This has impacted rental rates and bottom lines for developers, which has halted or slowed down the construction of office projects. Retail has been the primary driver in our area and for our companies. On the contrary, the retail market with low vacancies in the range of 4-5% in the Arlington area, has been strong for several years and will continue to be strong based on limited supply and high demands. I have shopping centers, in the Arlington market, with a waiting list for occupancy. I don’t recall this in my 40 years of being in the business in Arlington. 

From a business perspective, what makes Arlington an attractive location to attract business and investment opportunities?

Location is the key factor. Arlington is essentially at the center of the metroplex. I’ve lived here for 50 years and when it was time to pick a location for my company, I chose Arlington because I am able to get to DFW Airport within seven minutes, for my business travels, and anywhere in the metroplex in 15-30 minutes. Arlington also has access to all of the big-city amenities such as museums, major league sports five-star hotels, and many other entertainment options for business and leisure. The location has been so great; that many people are moving to Arlington from different parts of the Country and the Region too. People are looking at Arlington differently than they used to, because we’ve been so heavily featured in sports media as well as being a known business friendly City. From a business and investment point of view, we have a great mix of moderately priced housing to executive homes, world-class Tier I Research University UTA-Arlington, General Motors Plant, DR Horton’s national headquarters, E-Space North American Headquarter, Bell Flight Research Center, Texas Health Resource, access to highly skilled workforce and a well-funded EDC, just to mention a few. Top all of that with the City’s business friendly culture and elected officials, and low property taxes are among many advantages that Arlington has, in attracting businesses and investors.

How is CHS Architects leveraging new technologies and innovation to provide the best service and performance to your clients?

We have an advantage to perform Architectural services for our own development company, Oakhollow Group, so we do not have to resort to new technologies in the same way that other Architectural firms may need to. The design and Architectural world has evolved over time, and our projects are requiring more sustainable designs and investment in new technology that can enhance users experience.

Are there any disruptive factors affecting the way in which you conduct your work and relationships with clients?

There will always be unknown factors that arise, such as COVID, as one example. Other unknown factors are the shifting political environment, changing rules and regulations at local, state and federal levels, rising construction costs, and material, and availability of supplies that can make a huge impact on our work. Many cities are becoming a lot tougher on permitting and taking longer time to process and approve permits. Fortunately, Arlington is business friendly to developers and businesses, which is indicative of the city’s culture as a whole. The mayor and city council members take the time to listen to developers and business community, regarding any issues such as, permitting process and brainstorming solutions to expedite the processes. In Arlington, the City Council approved, several years ago, quarterly Developers Round Table meetings (DRT), with staff from every department attending and oftentimes City Council members join too. This has been a great tool for the city’s successful relationship with the business community and developers, which I have not seen elsewhere.  

The elected officials in Arlington have recognized the fact that delays or hold ups of permits costing, not only the city money, in terms of business and property taxes and in most cases sales tax too, but the Developers and businesses as well. 

How does CHS Architects and Oakhollow Group work with elected officials at the city, county and state levels to fulfill and accomplish the company’s goals?

I have great relationships with the City of Arlington elected officials, as well as with many other cities and counties and elected officials in the DFW area. I’ve been in the business in Arlington for 40 years, so I have had the time to build relationships and an excellent reputation, both as an architect and as a developer. I differentiate myself from competitors by being willing to spend more money on my developments, because as an architect, I pay more attention to details in my developments, and clients / tenants are willing to pay for the increased quality. The cities know my quality work well enough that, if I put my name on a project, it is going to be of high quality and that is what most cities strive for, high quality developments. 

Where would you like CHS Architects and Oakhollow Group to be in terms of growth over the next two to three years?

Personally, I am not so much about growth and numbers as I am about quality. I see CHS Architect and Oakhollow Group develop more quality mixed-use and retail developments in the coming years. If I continue my quality developments, the growth will follow, as it has for the past 40 years, I own additional properties and am actively looking for more land, waiting for the right time to develop them, so hopefully we will be able to move forward on these projects within the next two to three years. Especially with the Presidential election behind us, I am optimistic about the economic outcome in Texas and in particular in Arlington. Texas has, historically, had the strongest economy in the Nation. I have personally witnessed at least four cycles of economic downturn nationally, in the past 40 years, but in my experience, I have considered them a bump in the road for the economy in Arlington and Texas as a whole. I recall breaking ground in 2009 for a 100,000 SF mixed use development in Arlington, during the worst national economic downturn, but that proved to be my most successful project, as nobody was developing anything at the time since banks weren’t making any loans. I believe, during the last 3-4 years, we have gone through similar situations as 2009, but we are coming out of it stronger.