Development and property management firm Travis Hyde Properties has been making an impact on the community of Ithaca since being founded in 1977. The community-minded company executes on innovative ideas for sustainable development and economic growth, and is literally building its vision for Ithaca’s future. This week, we sat down with Travis Hyde President Frost Travis, a graduate of the Cornell Program in Real Estate (MPS-RE ‘00), to learn more about the path that has him leading Travis Hyde to where it is today.
It’s quite common for individuals from all walks of life to turn to become development professionals. Frost started his career about as far removed from real estate as possible – he had studied English and Medieval German literature and spent some time fishing in Alaska for a number of years. He was initially exposed to real estate by working for Travis Hyde Properties, his family business, but was enamored after taking a course on the subject. Frost decided to enroll in Cornell’s Program in Real Estate, the precursor to the Baker Program in Real Estate, for the opportunity to explore the breadth of what the industry had to offer.
Frost left Cornell with an expanse of real estate knowledge and a substantial alumni network that he considers a competitive advantage to Cornell graduates. After spending some time in New York City as the Director of Construction with Urban American Management, owned by the Eisenberg family who are friends of the Baker Program, Frost found himself back in Ithaca joining Travis Hyde Properties, ready to make a difference in his community using the power of the built environment. Frost is driven by the prospect of seeing and realizing value where there would otherwise be blight. He’s committed to developing in a sustainable manner and has been working to protect Ithaca’s rich architectural history by repurposing architecturally significant sites. The large number of historical sites in Ithaca’s urban core has left Frost – a proponent of urban density – to be innovative in the way he approaches urban development. For example, Travis Hyde just finished Ithaca’s first micro-apartment building, a concept more common in cities with ten times the population of Ithaca, in order to make the best use of available space in Ithaca’s core. This project saw a five floor, 18,000 square foot vertical addition to an original two story 1923 Tudor Revival building that the project preserved. Frost and his family have been contributing to Ithaca’s growth for years; from Frost’s perspective, growth is a positive factor for quality of life, and if Ithaca wasn’t changing, it’d be declining. He’s committed to prevent that from happening.
Frost left us with some advice to those seeking to enter the real estate industry: be ready to pivot in any direction. Real estate is such a rapidly changing field, you always need to be ready for what’s coming.
