“In our company, we use traditional banks a lot…in the case of this deal, we had an opportunity where the seller of one of the parcels said if we could close early, there would be a significant price reduction...because he wanted to close very quickly. Our other lending sources, they just couldn't do it. The Academy Fund could, which added seven figures to our bottom line.” - Jim Young (USMA ‘94)
The Academy Fund is a private real estate fund that invests in military-veteran real estate operators and developers. We leverage relationships among Investors, Advisors, and Operators to facilitate the valuable “trust capital” and believe that intelligence, integrity and grit are competitive advantages and key inputs to building wealth. Today, we’re excited to share the story of Jim Young’s recent deal, which proves there is no limit to what you can achieve when trust is on your side.
Meet Jim Young
Real Estate Developer: Jim Young (USMA ‘94)
Company: Sabot Development, Ltd.
Jim Young is a 1994 West Point graduate, second-generation, former Army tank officer, and Managing Partner of Sabot Development, an Austin-based real estate firm Jim established following his military service. Just like a US Army tank round, to which Jim’s firm owes its namesake, Sabot Development is precise and efficient and ensures the correct positioning of places, people and capital within each real estate deal. The firm specializes in acquiring land in the path of growth and going vertical with land parcel development. Recent successes include the acquisition and disposal of land in Austin's East Riverside corridor, building student housing in San Marcos, constructing an Aloft Hotel in South Austin, and the acquisition of several multi-family development sites in North Austin and San Antonio.
The story doesn’t end there! At the end of 2021, a few years after Jim purchased a property with the intent of rezoning it, he discovered a mutual friend between himself and the property owner next door who also intended to rezone. They combined forces to raise capital and purchase two additional land parcels in order to create a larger rezone area with a bigger and better master plan. When the seller of one of the desired land parcels offered a significant price reduction in exchange for a super early closing date, Jim knew he had to act faster than traditional lending sources could operate so he turned to his trusted network of fellow military-veterans.
With help from the Academy Fund, Jim raised $7M in just seven days! He not only met the early closing date, but also added seven figures to the bottom line. Sabot Development now has multiple offers from some of the biggest national institutional buyers on deck and Jim is looking forward to cheering on the next owner of this super-property as they “go vertical.”
Jim values the command bond he shares with the underwriters of the Academy Fund:
“They roll up their sleeves, they understand the property or they understand you or they understand your background and your company focus and spend what I felt like was a lot more time getting to know the deal and trying to figure out how and why they should do the deal as opposed to, you know, a lot of lenders who try to figure out immediately how they can disqualify the deal or not do the deal.”
Jim believes Army veterans make the best real estate developers and, while we might like to disagree, we can’t argue with his success! In all seriousness, we’re excited to be part of Jim’s incredible story and hope it motivates you to “go vertical” with fellow veterans you can trust. The sky is truly the limit!
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