Name: Laningham, Charles
Title: Fmr. owner of Charlan Enterprises, Inc. and chairman of Pavillion Bank.
Texas A&M Class: 1960
Inducted: 2025
Biography
Charles C. Laningham has a farming background, with his mother originating from Pineland in East Texas, and his father from View, near Abilene, Texas. He grew up on a five-acre farm on the north side of Houston, actively participating in 4-H and FFA. He earned a full scholarship to Texas A&M University, graduating in 1960 with a B.S. in Agricultural Economics and as a Distinguished Military Student.
Following graduation, Charles served two years in the 2nd Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas, and he then continued his service in the Texas National Guard and Army Reserve, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. Post-military, he returned to Houston to pursue a career in finance, working in banking and in commercial insurance.
In 1969, he moved to Dallas and found corporate life slower than his military experience. Through supporting his son’s after-school activities, he met another father running a fire restoration company. Together, they started a business refurbishing and selling apartments and small retail properties. In these ventures, Charles identified the nexus of his Agricultural Economics degree foundation, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his passion for business success as highly challenging, stimulating, and motivating.
During the early stages of his career in real estate, Charles invested in several apartment complexes with partners, building a multifamily property portfolio in the Dallas area. His partner’s fire restoration business continued to expand into other Texas cities, and the property management company grew rapidly. In 1975, Charles founded Charlan Enterprises, Inc., operating as Jamespoint Management Company. He has been involved in real estate since 1967, gaining experience in managing income-producing properties, primarily apartments. Charlan Enterprises, Inc. and its subsidiaries have served as General Partner in numerous partnerships owning or developing garden apartments, office buildings and shopping centers located in Dallas, Houston, Temple, and Bryan/College Station, Texas, with the combined assets’ value exceeding nine figures.
Since 1982, Charles has concentrated his efforts on owning and managing multiple student housing apartment complexes and other properties for Texas A&M and Blinn (Junior) College in Bryan/College Station, Texas, and for Baylor University in Waco. This specialization enabled his company to survive the economic recessions in the late 80s, early 90s, early 2000s, and the current downturn.
In 1984, he organized Pavillion Bank in Dallas and served as its first Chairman. In 2017, he acquired a new property in Bryan using proceeds from selling two older student properties in College Station. The Laningham family now holds super majority ownership of a 3,162-bed, four-property portfolio managed by Greystar Management Company. Jamespoint Management Company oversees their interest as asset manager. They are seeking additional student properties in select markets, focusing on Bryan/College Station, Waco, and Huntsville markets. Recently, they purchased an interest in a new property under construction on the west side of Bryan.
Charles is a maroon-blooded Aggie with an affection for mentoring young and aspiring Aggies, especially those students who desire to work in and learn more about the real estate industry. He has provided his mentoring acumen to students in the Colleges of Architecture and Agriculture and Life Sciences. He has been a guest, Professor-for-a-Day speaker in AGEC 223-423-424 classes and a mentor to several AGEC 425 Agribusiness Entrepreneurship students. He has also played an instrumental role in shaping the vision for revitalizing the appraisal and real estate curriculum in the Agricultural Economics undergraduate program through his involvement in key stakeholders’ meetings.
Charles and his wife, Frances, reside in Dallas, Texas. They retired in 2024 and turned the operating responsibilities of their companies over to their daughter, Rene, and son, Ron ’84.
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