DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE
2019-Present
Innovation Condominiums - Bryan
12 Story condominium towers
On golf course & wildlife sanctuary
New development
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Sold Assets
1993 - 2024
This was the first multifamily project built in Bryan/College Station after the financial crisis of the late 1980s.
A 128-unit project built in a strategic location operated for over 30 years under the Galindo Group ownership.
It was sold very profitably in 2024.
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Dominion Oaks
2011 - 2022
Dominion Oaks is a prestigious subdivision in Bryan, TX, offering easy access to employment and education centers. The 51-acre community features single-family homes of varying sizes and is governed by four independent homeowners' associations. Established in 2011, Dominion Oaks caters to accomplished individuals seeking a convenient lifestyle.
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Texas Enterprise Bank
2006 - 2019
By the mid-2000s, the need for bank services in the southwest side of Bryan offered a business opportunity. Mr. Galindo and his son Cid organized and raised the capital necessary to charter and operate a new bank to fill this perceived need, and Texas Enterprise Bank opened its doors in August 2006. In December 2009, after successfully placing a second round of equity, it acquired the Bryan branches of the Bank & Trust of Del Rio, TX, and created The Bank & Trust of BCS, TX. This bank operated until January 1st, 2020, at which point it was acquired by the publicly traded First Financial Bank of Abilene, TX in a very fruitful transaction.
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Regency Gardens Venture Ltd.
2013 - 2018
Continuing the southwestern expansion of the City of Bryan, in 2013 Mr. Galindo organized this company to build and operate a class “A” 200-unit apartment complex. It was sold in 2018.
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Galco Engineering Co.
1970 - 2015
With the idea of expanding Consultores Galindo engineering services beyond the borders of Bolivia into Argentina and Ecuador, in 1970 Mr. Galindo led a family investment to form a company in the tax-haven base of Nassau, Bahamas. The idea didn’t find success, but on relocating to Texas, because of favorable capital gain rates for foreign entities not engaged in trade or business in the United States, the company served well as a passive investment vehicle. It was closed in 2015.
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Royal Oaks Gardens Ltd.
1999 - 2014
Complementing the purchase of an existing swimming and tennis club to be remodeled into another branch of the Aerofit chain, Mr. Galindo formed this partnership to purchase nearly 12 acres of majestically wooded floodplain land to build an apartment complex at the boundary between Bryan and College Station. Secluded from the main streets and surrounded by tall oaks and tennis courts, 192 units were built in 1999-2000. After nearly 13 years of operation, the project was successfully sold in 2014.
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Middlebrook Gardens Ltd.
1997 - 2004
The City of Cedar Park in 1996 was still known as the first stop on the Wells Fargo horse carriage trail between Austin and Dallas. Perceiving the great potential of the location, Mr. Galindo, with the help of Cid Galindo, formed this partnership to purchase and develop some 36 acres of land on which he envisioned the largest apartment complex in the town. The land use plan includes attendant commercial tracts on the front road. The complex entailed 416 apartment units with amenities. It became a significant part of the rapid growth of the area. Despite damages to the rental industry caused by mortgage loan law changes and the dotcom bubble crash at the turn of the century, the apartment project and commercial front lots were profitably sold out by 2004.
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Aerofit Inc.
1983 - 1999
Mr. Galindo conceived and built the first Aerofit facility as a state-of-the-art health and fitness center starting in 1983. Aerofit's locations were complete full-service gyms, offering an indoor running track, courts for basketball, volleyball, racquetball, and tennis, competition 8-lane swimming pools, in-place cycling, weights, cardiovascular salons, aerobic exercise rooms, plus children care and amenitized locker rooms. Over the years, under management by Cid and Lis Galindo, it became a fitness club chain with as many as five locations throughout Bryan, College Station, and Austin, Texas. The whole system was sold in 2000 to the executive employees who operated the business, who in turn sold it to a regional chain to their great benefit.
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Spring Heights Limited Partnership
1982 - 1996
Starting in 1982, this partnership, managed by Cid Galindo, built and operated 144 rental units in the East University Park subdivision. In 1996, the whole project was successfully traded in a tax-free exchange for the land to expand the Aerofit Royal Oaks location and to build the Royal Oaks Gardens apartments.
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DeCoty Coffee Company
1988 - 1992
The Ducote family, owners of the Lake Nasworthy project, also own the coffee roasting and distributing company DeCoty Coffee Co. based in San Angelo, TX. In 1988 they conferred upon Mr. Galindo all of the stock, policy, and executive powers needed to rescue the company from the results of a failed inter-family leveraged buy-out financed by a bank. By the end of 1991, the company was making a profit again. The stock was sold to a board member friend of the family who kept the principal heir in the ownership. The company continues to operate successfully.
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Bera de Bolivia Ltd.
1972 - 1987
For close to 500 years, most of the minerals extracted in Bolivia were shipped as ore to Europe for smelting and refining. In 1970, for the first time in its history, Bolivia began smelting tin within the country. Incentivized by the newly available pure tin metal, in 1972 Mr. Galindo and Boris Zorotovic founded Aleaciones de Bolivia (ALBOL) to manufacture solder wire. In 1975, ALBOL merged with Paul Bergsoe A.G. from Denmark to expand its markets and capacity, changing its name to Bera de Bolivia. Bera became a significant supplier of solder wire to sustain the booming manufacture of electronics. In 1987 the company was sold to its employees.
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Lake Nasworthy Estates
1985 - 1988
Lake Nasworthy, in the West Texas city of San Angelo, is the area’s only large permanent body of water. As such, its shores are highly valued real estate. In 1985, the Ducote family began a small-boat canal development intended for upscale houses in their 200-acre lake-front ranch. Upon the failure of their efforts, the family contacted Mr. Galindo to find an alternative use for the land. After arranging financing for the infrastructure of a conventional subdivision, including a new sewage plant for the city, the project was developed. A third party built 200 units on a piece of the land and leased them to Goodfellow US Air Force Base as personnel housing. The rescue phase of the project was finished by 1987.
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Western National Bank, N.A.
1982 - 1986
Having previously served as a director of Citizens Bank of Bryan, TX and sensing the need of a bank to serve the areas being developed by the Braver Corporation, Mr. Galindo led a group of investors to charter Western National Bank in 1982. By 1988, the banking, savings & loans, and oil crises of the second half of the decade forced a take-over of most of the financial institutions in Texas by the federal government. Western National Bank and its acquired First State Bank of Caldwell were lost in this process.
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Galindo-Wood, Inc.
1982 - 1984
Together with Mr. JW Wood, Mr. Galindo organized this corporation to purchase and develop approximately 130 acres of land about 2 miles east of Texas A&M’s eastern boundary in College Station, Texas. The project entails low-rise multi-housing complexes, a medium-rise office building, and a flagship hotel for the community, as well as multiple retail outlets for shops, restaurants, and offices. It also includes a large fenced-in dog park. The extremely rapid development and sale of the lots proved that the risky nature of the investment was justified even at the outset of a major financial crisis. The owners held the company until more than 60% of its assets were sold in 1984, and then sold 100% of the stock.
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Brazos County Municipal Utility District #1
1974 - 1981
In order to provide municipal potable water, sewerage, and storm water drainage for the land intended to be developed, in 1974 Mr. Galindo, acting on behalf of the Braver Corporation, secured from the City of Bryan and the State of Texas the permits necessary to form Brazos County MUD #1, as well as to float bond financing for the required infrastructure. The first and subsequent second bond issues provided funds to enable nearly 513 acres of land contiguous to the northwest boundary of Texas A&M to be developed. The development agent was The Braver corporation that, starting with its first 78-acre Westwood Estates project, eventually acquired and developed most of the land within the MUD. Ultimately the MUD was absorbed by the City of Bryan in 1981.
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Villa West Services, Inc.
1976 - 1981
Brazos County MUD #1 needed an operator to make utility connections, maintain its sewage treatment plant, send and collect bills, and keep its records. In lieu of hiring staff in 1976, it contracted for these services with this company incorporated by Mr. Galindo to provide these and other services such as solid waste pick up and disposal. The company was disbanded in 1981 when the City of Bryan absorbed the MUD.
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The Braver Corporation Inc.
1974 - 1981
This corporation owned the Westwood Estates, La Brisa, Shirewood, and Villa West developments. Organized in 1974 by Mr. Galindo with the help of Dr. Lee Lowery PhD, the Braver (BRAzos riVER) corporation was the seminal land development entity that, after establishing the Brazos County Municipal Utility District #1 (proto-city), became the genesis of the Galindo Group. Braver Inc. and Messrs. Galindo and Lowery through other entities, were primary developers of 617 acres adjacent to the northwest boundary of Texas A&M University. The land uses are mostly for individual and multifamily residential purposes, but included parcels for commercial use that housed a large grocery store, restaurants, service shops, banks, office building, medical clinics, churches and other businesses. Several companies were spun off to develop different tracts. Some tracts were later sold as companies to benefit from lower tax rates. Braver Corporation was sold in 1982 to its legal counselor Don Mauro and associates, who continued land development within the MUD.
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Danish Pantebreve Investments
1972 - 1980
As consul of the Kingdom of Denmark in Bolivia since 1968, Mr. Galindo was exposed to the system of second lien mortgages in Denmark, and in 1972 established a business buying and selling bonds in Copenhagen. He kept the trading active until 1980, thereby directly learning the intricacies of mortgage finance.
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Consultores Galindo, Ltda.
1963 - 1979
Quitting his blossoming engineering job in the most well-known construction company of Texas, in late 1963 Mr. Galindo and Joseph Elliott, a Texas A&M classmate, traveled from Houston, Texas to Cochabamba, Bolivia in a truly adventurous surface voyage. Settled in Cochabamba, Mr. Galindo started his own consulting engineering company. Over the next 10 years, the company was involved in studying the feasibility of numerous investment projects, producing final design plans and supervising the construction of highways, bridges, airport runways and terminals, potable water, waste water and storm water systems, streets, buildings, stadiums, reservoirs, the erection of high-tension power lines, and a variety of other civil works. The company was sold to its employees in 1975, and it continued to operate it until 2016.
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Westwood Fourplexes and Villa West Fourplexes
1975 - 1978
These fourplex projects comprised 24 and 12 units respectively in the company's first developments in Brazos County Municipal Utility District #1. Built in 1976 to supplement the single-family Westwood States subdivision, they provide a housing option for those who want to live in the area but are not yet ready to own a home. The complexes were sold to individual owners of The Braver Corporation, and by 1985 they had been re-sold to the owners' significant benefit.
Governance
Ramiro and Cid Galindo have held directorial positions at multiple banks, have been board members on non-profits, and have been appointed to various state positions:
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Turkey Creek Conservation & Recreation Preserve
2014 - Present
The purpose of this 501(c)(3) company created by Mr. Galindo and his son Cid in 2014 is to create a nature sanctuary by acquiring, protecting, and preserving land in its natural estate along the 13.5-mile main stem of the creek and some of its tributaries. Its three-member board is shared with a representative of the city of Bryan and a third land donor.
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Texas Bank and Trust of Bryan College Station
Created 2009 - merged with FFIN 2019
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Texas Enterprise Bank
Founder and chairman 2006 - merged with TB&T 2009
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Texas Public Policy Foundation
1998 - 2007
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Texas Health, Racquet & Sports club Association
Founding chairman 1996 - 1999, departed 2002
Lifetime achievement award, 2000
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Brazos River Authority
Appointed to Board 1989 - 2001
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St. Joseph's Regional Health Center
1984 - 1996
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DeCoty Coffee Company
1989 - 1992
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Western National bank, N.A.
1982 - 1987
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University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas
Board of Trustees 1979 - 1985
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Citizens Bank of Bryan, Texas
Board of Directors 1977 - 1981
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Bera de Bolivia Solder Co.
Founder and Director 1972 - 1987
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Honorary Consul of Denmark
1968 - 1974
As representative of the Kingdom of Denmark in Bolivia, Mr. Galindo helped Danish companies exponentially increase their exports to Bolivia. In recognition of his valuable services, in 1977 he was invested by the Queen as a Knight of the Royal Order of the Dannebrog.
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Consultores Galindo, Ltda.
1964 - 1977