Glade Knight

Knight was born on March 11, 1944, in Spanish Fork, Utah.  He was educated at Brigham Young University, 1962-64 and 1966-68.  He served in the  U.S. Army, from 1968 to 1971, having been drafted into the Army in 1968, during his senior year at Brigham Young University. He was stationed at Fort Lee.

He is chairman of Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista; a board member of the Council for America’s First Freedom; on the advisory board of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Graduate School of Real Estate and Urban Land Development; and is a founding member and lecturer at the Entrepreneurial Department of Brigham Young University’s Marriott Graduate School of Business Management.   He holds an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Southern Virginia University, awarded in 2000.

He and his wife Kathleen are the parents of four children: sons Justin and Nelson; daughters Amy Babb and Megan Schlensker; and 13 grandchildren.

Knight began as a true cowboy!  He enjoys riding, ranching, and his cutting horse achievements include Brazos Bash Non-Professional 4-Year-Old Champion, 2009; Augusta Futurity Non-Professional Classic Challenge Reserve Champion, 2010; Non-Professionals Champions Challenge Reserve Champion, 2010.   He competes at the highest level in cutting-horse events, where riders demonstrate the ability of their mounts to quickly separate cows from a herd.

The companies Glade Knight founded are now worth billions of dollars.

“I started with $100,“ said Knight, chairman and CEO of the four Apple REIT companies based in Richmond. “Anything over that is a profit.“ [1]

Today his companies and their 80,000 shareholders own more than 200 hotels, almost exclusively top-line Marriott and Hilton brands, in 31 states, making them one of the nation’s largest hotel owners.  Locally, he owns the Richmond Marriott Hotel downtown in Virginia.

Knight’s secret for success is simple: work hard, stay out of debt, treat people well.

“I’ve done nine public companies. We have raised over $5 billion. We pay all cash for our hotels,“ Knight said.

Real estate investment trusts—REITs—own and operate income-producing real estate: hotels, apartments and office buildings. Individuals buy shares to invest in the firms.

Most of the difficulty in real estate comes from over-leveraging, he said.

“We took the risk out of the real estate market,“ the 66-year-old Knight said. “We became our own bank.“

Well-located properties producing good incomes that aren’t burdened by debt are “pretty safe,“ he said.

“If a property falls on difficult times, you don’t default on your mortgage,“ he said. “You don’t have a mortgage to default on—and you wait for the property’s value to increase.“

The Apple REITs hold properties for five to seven years, then sell or merge the companies, Knight said. “You build value, and then you sell that value.“

One of five children, Knight grew up on a horse and cattle ranch in Utah.  He is used to hard work, the kind that envelopes you 24/7.  On the ranch, he was always up at 4 a.m.  His boyhood experiences kindled a lifelong passion for horses and ranching. “He’s a cowboy at heart,“ said his son Justin, now president of the Apple REIT companies.  Knight remembers his family struggling to pay the bills.

His son Nelson, who is the Apple REITs’ senior vice president of development, said, “My father said he learned the art of negotiating through buying and selling cattle, and horse trading.“

Knight began small, putting together investors that bought apartments, office buildings and hotels. He merged his business with a Washington company.  Eventually, he was involved in nearly 100 tax-sheltered partnerships. Then the bottom fell out.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, tax-sheltered properties with their substantial deductions and credits were hot investments. “The purpose was to borrow as much as you could and get the tax write-off,“ Knight said.

But federal tax law reforms in 1986 got rid of those tax shelters, smashing the value of the investments.

“It was just devastating,“ he said. “People were going out of business. Real estate values plummeted.“

For Knight, it was a time of sleepless nights, of getting up at 3 a.m. and going into the office early.

“I spent a number of years just working out difficult partnerships,“ he said. “We never lost any properties. We performed quite well.“

“Though it was difficult, it was a most creative time,“ he said, “to learn how creative I could be.“

During that tough period, he went into his office one day and said, “I’m going to raise $250 million, $300 million. I’m going to pay all cash, have no debt and I’m going to take advantage of the real estate market.“

“They thought I’d lost my mind.“

He set up Cornerstone Realty Investment Trust, took it public in 1997 and merged with Colonial Properties Trust in 2005. And, Knight said modestly, “We did very well.“

Still, Knight, a trim, firmly built man, says he never anticipated having his business listed on the stock exchange, never expected that he’d run a slew of companies and that he’d oversee a college or own large ranches.

For Knight, doing the best he can is doing service for others: family, church, community, shareholders, customers.

Bill Marriott, chairman and CEO of Marriott International Inc., has been Knight’s friend for years.

“He is an outstanding businessman and generous philanthropist,“ Marriott said. “He is a great family man, church leader and superb horseman.“

In 1996, Knight led a group of fellow Mormons in taking over what is now Southern Virginia University, which was about to close its doors.

Now thriving, the liberal arts college in Buena Vista caters to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though it has no official ties to the church.