Jerry J. Moore

Moore was born in Houston to Polish-Jewish immigrants in 1927, the son of a plumber.[1][2] He attended San Jacinto High School in Houston but dropped out after sophomore year to sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door (he would later earn a high school equivalency diploma in 1987).[1] In 1958, he founded Jerry J. Moore Investments, and after borrowing money from banker Irvin Shlenker (father of Sidney Shlenker), he purchased a small house in North Houston which he fixed up and sold.[1] Using the proceeds he repeated the same pattern, purchasing houses, small apartment buildings, and strip malls primarily in working-class neighborhoods in Houston.[1] In the mid 1960s, he focused on finding run-down strip malls in high-traffic areas and after sprucing them up, he would increase the rent anywhere from 20 to 40 percent.[1] He was able to undercut his competitors who focused on new construction as he used his own workers for renovation and maintenance.[1] The strategy was very successful and he soon stopped renovating houses and apartments to focus on strip malls and then began purchasing full-fledged shopping malls.[1] By 1989, he was the largest shopping-center developer in the United States with more than 160 properties and 19 million square feet of space in Texas of which 70 percent was in greater Houston.[1] In 1991, Texas Monthly ranked him the third richest Texan.[1]

In 1993, he planned to take his company public as a real estate investment trust and hired Kidder Peabody but the appetite for new REITs had soured.[1] In 1994, he again contemplated going public in partnership with Morgan Stanley who was interested in buying his portfolio.[1] In January 1995, Morgan Stanley agreed to purchase a controlling interest in 50 percent of Moore's properties for $400 million (although $300 million was in assumed debt).[1][3] In 1997, after his two-year non-competition agreement with Morgan Stanley ended, Moore returned to purchasing shopping malls.[1] His net worth was then estimated at between $600 million and $800 million.[1]

In 1955, he married Jean H. Moore; they had three children: Terri Moore Conwell; Jeff Moore; and Shelly Moore.[4] He died on November 23, 2008 and was buried at Beth Yeshurun Cemetery.[4]

Moore purchased an eighteenth-century French château that had been transplanted to Texas brick-by-brick.[5][1] Moore also had an extensive car collection with over 700 antique cars[6] including thirty Duesenbergs.[1][2] Most of his assets were allocated to limited partnerships so that his children would not have to pay estate taxes after his death.[1]

Moore's creed was "A dollar borrowed is a dollar earned."[1]