GARAGES OF AMERICA - Key Persons
Mr. Johnston has over 40 years' experience in commercial and hotel development. Mr. Johnston developed hotels throughout the United States, Hawaii, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Cost Rica for Criswell Development, Rosewood Hotels, Omni Hotels and other companies. The size of the projects range from $35,000,000 to $400,000,000.
Mr. Johnston has a 1975 911 Porsche and a 1939 Ford. He is a member of the PCA Maverick Club.
Mr. Johnston graduated from Kansas State University in Construction Management in 1974. He is married and has 3 grandchildren and lives in Plano, Texas.
Chase grew up in Dallas and attended Baylor University, receiving a double major in Entrepreneurship and Management. While at Baylor, he spent his summer vacation selling textbooks door to door through Southwestern Advantage, eventually moving up to a manager position after his first successful summer. He touched multiple markets during this time and upon graduation completed over 12,000 cold calls, gave over 2,000 product demonstrations, and closed over 400 leads. This made him the most experienced undergraduate in sales at Baylor University.
As a car lover with a natural expertise in sales, Chase joins our Dallas team to learn the business as a project coordinator and will eventually join our sales team.
Craig F. Harris has over forty-five years of experience as an entrepreneur with an emphasis on industrial sales, marketing, business development and consulting. Craig began his career in the waste management industry where he founded five companies as he utilized his operational skills to oversee the management of landfills, recycling centers, commercial and residential waste collection, and commercial equipment rentals. Selling his last business in 2012, Craig began consulting and worked in business development for several commercial enterprises. In 2021, Craig joined the GoA team after a life-long enthusiasm for cars, including as a former President of the Houston Chapter of the Ferrari Club of America, and his industry skill sets have now come together.
Fred A. Gans has been involved in the real estate industry for thirty years, having participated in brokerage, acquisitions, management, consulting and the development of income producing properties. He currently owns Cornerstone development Corporation (CDC), which is a full service real estate firm in Dallas, Texas. CDC is/or has been involved in the acquisition, development, build-to-suits, leasing and management of single and multi tenant office and industrial, office warehouse, retail, self-storage, and boat/RV storage. CDC has developed over 1,000,000 square feet of office and industrial buildings, and 4,000,000 square feet of self-storage with 80 facilities in 13 states.
After Mr. Gans sold his partnership interest in over 1,600,000 square feet of Security Self Storage facilities he and CDC developed a 32 property self-storage portfolio of 1,900,000 square feet in five states and was in the 50th largest owners of self-storage in the United States. CDC sold 10 facilities individually and the 1,400,000 square feet in 22 facilities in June, 2006, to a REIT.
Gans earned a bachelor degree in business from the University of Kansas. He is a member of the National Association of Realtors, Texas Association of Realtors, The Greater Dallas Association of Realtors, North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors and Texas Mini Storage Association. He is married with two children and resides in Dallas, Texas.
Joe has been a trial lawyer for nearly 30 years. With his last law firm Greer & McGill P.C., he fought for the rights of abused senior citizens in nursing homes throughout Texas and Oklahoma. These days, he's having a blast helping our car enthusiasts in Austin and San Antonio find the perfect solution for their too many cars, not enough room problem! When he is not selling our man cave garage condos, he can be found playing music with his band "The Greers" around the Austin area.
Mark Scott joined Cornerstone Development Corporation / Garages of Texas in 2016. He was brought in to join the team because of his skills and experience in marketing, sales, and development. Combine that with his love for cars and Mark embodies the Garages of Texas brand.
Mark began his professional and successful career immediately after graduating school by partnering with Time Warner Cable. While at Time Warner Cable for 9 years, he was promoted over 4 times and received well over 22 awards in sales. As a successful B2B Sales Professional, he has generated new profit streams and built very strong business relationships along the way. His expertise and passion about cars made him an easy choice to add to the Garages of Texas team.
Mark has extensive knowledge of salesforce CRM, voice, video, data, networks, LAN/WAN, ATM, and MPLS. To further his education and knowledge, he is currently attending Champions School of Real Estate in Plano, TX and is working toward getting his Commercial Real Estate License. Mark believes that one should never stop learning and continue to add to their bag of tricks.