APRIL 30, 2004
DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL

Christine Perez, Senior Writer

Entrepreneur finds two ventures appealing

After more than a decade of helping Dallas real estate magnate John Amend grow WorkplaceUSA into one of the largest development firms in the country, Jack Seifrick left in the summer of 2002 to seek his own destiny. He didn't know what kind of business he wanted to run; he only knew he wanted to own it.

Seifrick, a CPA, spent months networking and talking with business brokers, looking for the perfect "widget company" to buy. But prices were high, with many businesses coming off a banner 2001, and he never found anything that worked.

By the spring of 2003, Seifrick had become enamored with two very different possibilities: co-owning an internationally renowned hotel design firm, or launching a community bank in Lakewood. Unable to choose between the two, he decided to take on both.

His "afternoon job" is running Paul Duesing Partners, which specializes in the interior design of luxurious boutique hotels. Based in Uptown, the company recently completed work on the Las Ventanas and Palmilla resorts, both in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Known as a celebrity haunt, Palmilla grabbed headlines in February when it hosted Oprah Winfrey, Barbra Streisand, Tom Cruise and other stars at John Travolta's 50th birthday party.

Duesing launched his own firm in 2001, after a 17-year career at Dallas-based Wilson & Associates, where he designed everything from the Cape Town Ritz Carlton in South Africa and the House of Blues Hotel in Los Angeles to London residences for the Sultan of Brunai and Mohamed al Fayed.

His reputation helped attract business, but his firm lacked focus without a manager in place. Duesing met Seifrick in early 2003, and the pair clicked. Seifrick became co-owner of the firm, and was named DEE, or "director of everything else." After that, Duesing said, the company took off.

"Jack is totally my left brain," he said. "He has incredible organizational skills and a tremendous background in management. Having him here is bliss for me because it totally frees me up to concentrate on the creative side."

Seifrick is overseeing the company's expansion into hotel investment and development, as well as its newly launched residential division, Personal Resorts.

"We design the entire environment, from the moment you approach the property, from the landscaping and exterior architecture, to the sound your tires make as they go across the pebbles on the driveway," Seifrick said. "We do complete interiors, down to custom table-top designs to selecting the china and glassware. We call it 'sensory design' -- everything you can feel and hear and see and smell. It's the overall impression that creates the leisure lifestyle, which is what we're all about."

Paul Duesing Partners is working on about a dozen hotel projects around the world. It has 12 employees and expects to hire more this year. The company is projecting $3 million in revenue for 2004.

Raised in Columbus, Ohio, Seifrick got a business degree at Ohio State before earning his MBA at Harvard. After working as a CPA for Arthur Andersen, he became controller of a seafood processing company in Florida. By 1990, he had married and had two daughters. He and his wife were determined to raise their children in Dallas, where all four grandparents lived.

Seifrick wanted to get into real estate and was told by a family friend that John Amend was the most knowledgeable real estate executive in Dallas, so he began pestering Amend for a job.

"I did not want to hire him," Amend said. "Here was this CPA with thick glasses, a guy who was literally counting shrimp in Florida, with no real estate experience. He just kept coming back. Finally I agreed to let him work for me on a commission-only basis. For months he didn't make any money, but that quickly changed. When he walked out of here, Jack was a millionaire, many times over."

Seifrick was named chief operating officer at WorkplaceUSA and put in charge of implementing Amend's vision: creating a company that provided bundled real estate services, everything from architecture and engineering to finance and technology. By 2001, with Amend as the engine and Seifrick the transmission, WorkplaceUSA had become a 300-employee, $700 million machine.

Now called The Amend Group, the company has downsized quite a bit since then, with the development sector taking a dive after 9/11. Amend said Seifrick's departure was a big loss.

"It's a tough thing organizationally to replace a guy with his talent and ability, but I wouldn't want it any other way," he said. "If you lose people because of failure, that's one thing. But if you lose people because the things they've learned from you and the economic security they've gained help them realize their dreams, how can you feel bad about that?"
In early 2003, Seifrick began exploring the possibility of launching a community bank near his home in Lakewood, on the east side of Dallas near White Rock Lake.

"It has so much character and history, and on top of that, it's the second-most affluent community in the Metroplex," he said.

The area hadn't had a local bank since Lakewood Bank & Trust was folded into Wells Fargo in the mid-1990s, Seifrick said. He spent most of 2003 putting together a business plan and raising $8 million in capital.

Professional Bank N.A. is owned by 47 local families, with Seifrick as the chairman and largest shareholder. It opened in temporary space on Jan. 23 and expects to have $6 million in loans out by the end of April.

Next month, Professional Bank will move into its permanent home, a 5,000-square-foot building at the northwest corner of Abrams Road and Prospect Avenue. A $600,000 renovation of the building is nearing completion, with Duesing overseeing the project.

Seifrick said the design is inspired by "Celebrating the Third Place," a book by Ray Oldenburg, which talks about creating places where people feel welcomed and relaxed.

"Branch banking in America has become a very monolithic thing," Seifrick said. "We want people to feel like they can grab a cup of coffee and sit down and read the newspaper. We're going to have rotating art exhibits and open up the building for community use. If we're going to be supported by the neighborhood, we have to be an asset to the neighborhood.

When looking for an executive to run the bank, Seifrick came across Jim Veirs, a banker in his early 60s, who had founded Texas Central Bank in Dallas (now owned by Washington Mutual), and Mark Smith, a banker in his late 40s who was heading up the DeSoto branch of Inwood Bank. Again unable to choose between two appealing options, Seifrick decided to hire them both.

Veirs, CEO, handles big-picture and regulatory issues. Smith, president, focuses on loan production and day-to-day operations. Helen Donaldson, formerly with Security Bank in Garland, is CFO, rounds out the four-person executive team, all of whom will share a newsroom-style office when they move into their new space next month.

Foregoing the large corner offices and creating a "Third Place" environment are just two of Seifrick's nontraditional ideas, Smith said. The chairman hosts a weekly meeting where all staffers read and discuss various books.

"Jack brings a fresh perspective to the banking world," Smith said. "Most bankers just accept things as a normal course of business. Jack isn't afraid to ask 'Why?' or 'Why not?'"

A s for Seifrick, he's finding his dual career to be "incredibly stimulating."

"I take my left-brain talents and apply them in a right-brain environment at the bank, and do just the opposite at Paul Duesing Partners," he said. "I have a say in the strategy of two growing businesses, and a vested interest in both their success."

Contact DBJ writer Christine Perez at cperez@bizjournals.com or (214) 706-7120.