Late last year, global real estate company Matthews Southwest celebrated its 30-year anniversary by rebranding to, simply, Matthews.
Made up of several divisions based on geographic location and area of focus, the firm was launched by Canadian Jack Matthews when he and his wife moved to Dallas and looked to accumulate land for multipurpose opportunities.
Sitting in his office in South Dallas, which was the employee cafeteria when the building was part of the Sears Complex dating back to the early 1900s, Mike Garcia, president of the company’s hotel division, Matthews Hospitality, talked about the rebranding.
“When the company launched, it was a Southwest-based company, but it’s now a global company,” he said. “We now go where the opportunities bring us. We have two offices in Canada and another in Dubai. So we’re more than Southwest, and there’s more under the umbrella than what used to be.”
Matthews, née Matthews Southwest, has lived by its mission statement of “delivering impactful projects that enrich communities and create lasting value” for 30 years. This statement has been the basis for every project it has worked on.
“It’s really one of the reasons that I joined Jack and his company,” said Garcia, who spent more than 20 years with Omni Hotels & Resorts before moving to his current role. “I first met Jack when we were working together on the Omni Hotel Dallas. I was representing the brand and management, and Jack was the developer. I liked that Matthews was looking at real-estate projects that make a difference and give something long-lasting back to the community. We do the same thing with our hotel projects, as well. It has to be something that’s kind of a game changer for a community, and that is still recognized as being impactful in that community in 15 to 20 years.”
An example of that vision was the conversion of the Sears Complex to the Sears Warehouse District, which includes Matthews’ corporate office, a residential community, event venue Gilleys Dallas, the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater and the Canvas Hotel Dallas. The 76-room boutique property was formerly the Nylo Dallas South Side and sits on the site of what once was the headquarters of the Dallas Coffin Company.
Matthews owns the Canvas brand, and Garcia noted that the company plans to develop more Canvas hotels across the country.
“Jack, myself and Dave Snell, our SVP, hospitality development, rolled out the brand in 2019, and the hotel runs high occupancy at a decent rate,” he said. “We were constantly talking about developing another Canvas hotel, so we brought in former Omni executive Eric Friend as VP, development & acquisitions to grow that brand. We’re working on one here in the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex and another in Birmingham, AL. We see other opportunities that we’re looking at to expand that brand.”
He added, “Canvas is about embracing the local art or artists, whether their musicians, painters or photographers. It’s another way for us to give back and also do something we really love that is different and community focused.”
Sourcing local is also a hallmark of the Canvas brand, and Garcia noted, “The bakeries that we use are local businesses, and we just signed up with the local pastry chef to bring cookies in or buy cookies from them. We’re going through a casegoods renovation at Canvas Hotel Dallas, and our casegoods are being manufactured here in West Dallas.”
Matthews Hospitality has developed several hotels near convention centers in major markets, including the dual-branded W Philadelphia and Element Philadelphia Downtown and the aforementioned Omni Dallas Hotel. The company opened the Hotel Polaris at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs in November. The 375-room property features six F&B outlets; a spa; 40,000 sq. ft. of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space; and, naturally, three flight simulators.
“We also have a hotel under construction in Indianapolis, an 800-room Signia by Hilton,” said Garcia. “We are acting as advisors and consultants to the capital improvement board (CIB), which runs the convention center there. Then, we are in design for a 400-room Signia hotel in Savannah at the convention center, and, if all goes well, we expect to break ground in June.”
He added that he company is looking to develop more hotels in the Dallas area.
“The city of Dallas is tearing down the existing convention center and rebuilding it,” Garcia said. “That’ll be completed in 2029, so there will be a need for more hotel rooms in the downtown area. We have our eyes on a couple of sites, but nothing on our plate today. Also, Jack created a residential community just north of Dallas, and we’re looking to build a small resort there.”
As for the company’s future of Matthews and Matthews Hospitality, Garcia said the company is looking to the next generation of executives to grow and prosper.
“Jack and I, and some of the other guys around here, are in our 60s, and we’re thinking of doing this for the next 20 years,” he said. “We’ve been mindfully adding to our team for the next generation. The future is about doing what we’ve been doing, and hopefully that catches on to the next generation to continue what we built here. I think we’re building a pretty solid young team.”