Bill Newsome and Doug Compton formed Southwind Capital in 1996. Newsome manages the company on a day-to-day basis. He has overseen the company’s growth to out-of-state markets and into a regional company.
He has led the company’s diversification effort into its three primary lines of business – multi-family, healthcare real estate and land development. He is actively involved in the firm’s transactional activities, entitlement work and capitalization of the portfolios.
Newsome has a 20-year real estate career. Prior to Southwind, Newsome was director of development and finance for Hock Development Corp., a regional firm based in Durham, N.C. While at Hock, Newsome managed an institutional-grade suburban office portfolio. Additionally, the company had healthcare facility development relationships with Duke University Medical Center and HealthTrust (hospital on-campus). Newsome was also an active manager of development activities for Independence Park, once of the preeminent mixed-use developments in the Research Triangle.
Newsome started his career as a commercial loan account manager with InterFirst Bank Dallas. He later joined Wachovia (First Union), ultimately managing a regional commercial real estate lending group for the company’s North Carolina bank.
Newsome holds two degrees from the University of Kansas – a bachelor’s degree in journalism and an MBA. He and his wife, Tecile, have four children, and reside in Lawrence.
Doug Compton is the owner of First Management, Inc., a general contractor and property management firm based in Lawrence. First Management has served as a general contractor for real estate development by Southwind Capital and Compton individually. In recent years it has become one of the major third-party general contractors in the Lawrence market.
Compton built the company from its infancy in the late 1980s to an annual revenue level in excess of $25 Million. Today, First Management employs approximately 150 people. It has separate excavation, plumbing, painting and landscaping divisions.
The property management division handles all such functions for Southwind’s and Compton’s multi-family and commercial properties. It also provides some third-party services.
Compton has been an active developer for his personal portfolio, including significant multi-family and commercial interests. Many of the commercial properties are in Downtown Lawrence.
Before devoting all of his time to his real estate and construction businesses, Compton had farming, retail and restaurant interests in the 1980s. He maintains significant farming interests in the Lawrence area.
Compton is a former Lawrence City Commissioner and a graduate of the University of Kansas.
He and his wife, Lara, have three children, and reside in Lawrence.