AM Show HR 3 - More Of Our Conversation With Colony Ridge Founder, Trey Harris

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Trean Harris is our guest. He is the developer of
Colony Ridge. One of the great shortcomings of live radio,
especially we've been at this for two hours, is that
we don't fact check people in real time. That's for
you to do on your own credibility and all those things.
My credibility, as well as every guest, is up to

(00:20):
the audience. I don't tell you how to think. That's
not my job. Many of you are upset that I
have done an insufficient job of assaulting the guest. That's
an insult to your intelligence. You can figure, you can
come to your own conclusion. And that's the way I
look at this particular thing when I do an interview.
Otherwise I would give my opinion trait you had said earlier.

(00:42):
And I found it surprising that Cleveland ISD was sixty
percent Hispanic before y'all started this. Somebody sent me the
TAPS demographic update, and in two thousand and twelve it
was forty four percent. Does that surprise you?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's so good, It does surprise me. That's not what
I was. That's not the demographic that I was, that
I understood, And so that may be true, and maybe
the demographic information that I was that I received was wrong,
but that's not in line with what I was told Trey.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
One of the things, and what I've tried to do
is bundle questions into categories. One of the things that
has come up a lot, and you have you have
viewed this as an opportunity to put things to rest.
One of the things that has come up a lot
is this sort of insider dealing that people are looking
the other way. We talked earlier about the sheriff Bobby
Raider and his thoughts and and why a sheriff would

(01:40):
say the crime is bad because they want to get
more a higher budget to hire more more deputies, so
they have a conflict of interest or an incentive you whatever,
somebody might think. One of the things that has come
up a lot from people who are involved in different
areas is the involvement of Lewis Bergman, the county engineer
who has has approved this, an accounty engineer who provided

(02:03):
an affidavit in your lawsuit and basically made this seem
like the greatest development ever. I mean, this is a
bringing endorsement that that he does. And the point has
been made that he also owns a surveying company, he
and members of his family, and that they're doing the
surveying out there so that he has a conflict of interest.
What would you say to that?

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well, so, Lewis Bergman is a really his daughter is
the DA and his son in law is the constable
over the area of mild developments. Great family, great people.
Lewis is a really good guy. When the county was

(02:45):
trying to get him to illegally deny my plats, he
was like, hey, man, he's doing everything right. All of
his plats are, he's abiden by the law. I can't.
I can't illegally deny his plat. I mean, the county
was hostile with him for not illegally denying my plats,

(03:05):
and he didn't like what I was doing. But he said, look,
trace falling all the laws. He's doing everything by the book.
I can't. I can't deny his plats for when he
complies with all of our county and state and state
and county regulations, I can't deny that. And so the

(03:25):
county was actually up It was almost comical, but the
county was upset with him for not his unwillingness to
break the law to deny our Platz, and so yeah, no,
I think Lewis is a wonderful guy. Like I said,
his daughter's the DA, his son in law is the Constable.
Great family, great people, have nothing but good things to

(03:47):
say about them.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
But you could see where people if you had a
suspicion that Trey Harris is coming in and running a
questionable business for questionable customers, using questionable financing, you could
see where somebody would add to the suspicion that, and
his daughter is the DA, who may choose not to prosecute,
and his son in law, her husband is the Constable.

(04:11):
And this guy Bergmann is doing surveying and he's a
county engineer. You could see where to an outsider or
a person who's concerned about what you're doing, you could
see a reasonable suspicion there.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, But the truth is he did absolutely he does
have a very reputable surveying company an engineering company. But
I never used his surveying company or his engineering company
for any of the work in my neighborhood. So the
idea that he's doing all the survey and that's a
conflict of interest, that would in fact be absolutely a

(04:45):
conflict of interest. But the truth is he wouldn't do
my work and I wouldn't hire him to do my
work because of that conflict.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
You have hired Chuck Rice and Natalie Scott to lobby
for you and the state legislature and state go government.
What are the issues prior to this special session? What
are the issues, What are the bills that you look at,
What are the TCEEQ or administrative oversight? What are the
things they represent you on with the state.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
I don't think there's anything specific that we just we
employed them to basically keep us abreast of any upcoming
legislation that may impact our business or be effect because
you know, we're a developer, we're a lender. There's a
lot of regulation through the state that impacts my business

(05:35):
in a number of different ways and alters the way
we do business. And so we just need need people
at the state level to say, hey, Tredy, this is
coming down the pie, you know something, just to keep
us abreast of what's going on.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Well, obviously y'all have been added to the call of
the special session. I've never seen anything done like this.
Governor Abbott, who you've given almost a million and a
half in campaign contributions, did this almost in response to
tamp down this this growing you know, pr nightmare, he felt,
What do you expect to come out of that special session?
Have you been invited to come and address the session?

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Have you been well? I've been asked No, I've been
asked by some of the state lawmakers too if I
would be willing to come and answer questions, and I
said absolutely, I'd be more than happy to come. Just
let me know when and where, and I'll be there.
And so I have not heard dates and times, but
I'm sure they're coming either daring session or after session

(06:35):
that I'll be. I'll have the opportunity to get in
from the state and answer questions for those guys.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Have you heard what the call on Colony Ridge addresses?
Is this simply an investigation? My understanding is that it
ends up in Bettencourt's committee. I forget what committee he chairs,
but my understanding is that it ends up in his committee.
I have not spoken to him about what that charge
would look like. But it's your expectation that this is

(07:05):
an ongoing thing.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, no, I think so. I have not been I've
not been privileged to know when or when exactly they're
going to want to have asked questions for me. Like
I said, we did invite all the state legislatures, the

(07:27):
congressman and the senators for Texas out to the neighborhood
and we took them on a tour. We had probably
twenty representatives show up twenty twenty five somewhere in that
neighborhood back to showed up and went on tour with us,
and we drove them to the community and showed them
what was going on and what we do and whant
we do it, and why it's good for Texas and

(07:49):
if you will hold me, it's a good deal.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
If you will hold of me, it will be the
last one.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Remember me.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Remember Scott mount of Trey Harris is our guest. He
is the developer of Colony Ridge in Liberty County, Trey.
What have I not asked you? That is a misperception,
pushes a hot button, annoys you. Is unfair that you

(08:18):
would like to address.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Oh man, that's a tough one. I've been getting beat
up my whole life, so a lot of what some
people would view as an encumbrance to me, it's just
a challenge. You know, It's a life, is what it is.
And you get curveballs on a regular I get curve
balls on a regular basis, and so I just learned

(08:41):
to learn to get the caveball.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
So we started the conversation about whether the people who
purchased these home sites from you are illegal, whether y'all
check that, what forms of identification you have, those sorts
of things, and I think there's a great frustration because
people feel like they're constantly needing to prove that their citizens.
And if you've been to a real estate closing, there's
all this background that's done on the buyer. But as
you noted, and you are correct in this, most of

(09:05):
the hassle of a real estate closing is not the
government per se. It's the bank, and before they will
loan to you, they're the ones asking all that question
and in this case, your owner financing, so you only
need to ask or have to ask what you want
to ask. But we started talking about illegal aliens, and
I don't know what that percentage, just you don't know
what that percentage is. But the perception is it's a

(09:26):
lot of illegal aliens. Whether that's illegal, immoral, problematic, annoying,
whatever that reason may may be. But it doesn't seem
that that's a big issue for you, for better or
for worse. But it seems to me that with our
border wide open as it is, if that continues, and
it appears to that, we're going to see a massive exploit.

(09:48):
You are the most explosive growth in the country right
now as a development, because when people get here, they're
trying to find a place, whether they're hiding or whether
they just want respite. They do have jobs, they do
have money, they do have backers, and these things are
going to explode. Do you have intentions beyond colony ridge?

Speaker 2 (10:08):
You know? For me, I think, like I mentioned before,
almost all of our customers ninety plus percent have a
Harris County address. So to me, I don't think that
the people that are rushing across the border right now
are really my clientele. I think my clientele is for

(10:29):
the most part, families that have been in Texas for
several generations or at least for a substantial amount of
time that they their legal status is such that it's
most of our customers are citizens, I would say, and
I said, and I would say that a large percentage

(10:50):
of our customers are not citizens, at least have their
paperwork in order that their status here is legal. Are
there any illegal aliens in my neighborhood? I would say
for sure, I would guess that, yeah, there are. But
I would also come back with that just about any
neighborhood in the hous scenario you go to, there's going

(11:11):
to be someone there that's not that their status is
not legal in the US. And so am I any
different than the other neighborhood?

Speaker 4 (11:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Do I have a higher percentage of Latinos than the woodlands? Probably?
And so do I have a higher percentage of illegals
that I mean, sorry, of Latinos that may or may
not be legal. Probably, but it's significant, I would say, probably,
not much different than any other neighborhood in the U scenario.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
Are you surprised there is so much criticism? When you
started this project, you saw whether someone loves you or
hates you, and I only hear from people who hate you,
and there are a lot of I'm assuming you know
that this is clearly a very, very profitable business model.
I was told you'll do about five hundred million in

(12:05):
land sales annually at twelve percent interests. That's thrown off
sixty million a year, and you've got some sunk costs.
You didn't pay five hundred million for it, but it's
a highly profitable business and there are plenty of people
who are looking for a way to see I don't
know what you're getting on your money, but it's pretty good.
And my guest is it's probably upwards of thirty percent

(12:27):
or more. But not a lot of models out there
doing this. This is a growth model, whether people like
it or not. There are people coming here who are
frozen out of the traditional finance process, who may be
here legally or first generation, or they may be legal,
who are going to be looking for housing. This is
going to continue, and it's going to continue unabated, and
I think if people see your numbers, they're going to
throw money at you. There's going to be a lot

(12:47):
more of this, agreed. I thought you might have more
to say there Tree.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Oh so no, I think there's Texas is one of
the best has one of the best economies in the world.
So the idea that people are coming to Texas is
a reality for their own benefit because of the climate
and the lack of restrictions and the ability to perform

(13:17):
business and to have business that is less restricted than
a lot of the other States, and certainly less restricted
than a lot of the other countries in the world.
We live in uh. Texas is a great place to
do business, it's a great place to live. The laws
in Texas are some of the best in the world

(13:37):
in my opinion, and so the fact that people are
rushing to Texas to try to better their lives is
not a surprise and shouldn't be a surprise to anybody.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Trey Harris with Colony Ridge is our guests. One of
the things that people come in and which doesn't make
this illegal necessarily just a little atypical, was that there
aren't there isn't any retail within the development of restaurants,
no strip centers, none of that. That food trucks come
in at night and it's a fiesta, there's a party,
there's music, and then the food trucks head on out.

(14:10):
But my understanding is you have an intention of developing retail.
Maybe maybe it's platted already. Is that true? Is that yours?
Or do you sell that off to How does that work?
Is that is that the case?

Speaker 2 (14:23):
No, so not at all. I mean we have been
courting retailers since day one. Our model is so unique
we're a unicorn. And so there's a lot of you
go to ATV and say hey, we want you to
come out here and build a grocery store. They go,
you know, how many people you have out there? And

(14:43):
then they drive around and look, and it's just it's
so unique and our growth rate is so unprecedented that
retailers they look at what's going on out there and
they just can't be These don't believe it. They think
when you say, hey, we've got a hundred for two
hundred families a month moving in and you tell them that,

(15:03):
they just shake their head and they think you're they
think you're lying, uh, that you don't get it.

Speaker 5 (15:09):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
And they could go to the county and pull how
many people apply for building permis this month and it
would be two hundred, but they don't. Our growth is
so unprecedented that, uh, it's hard to get people that
are in the business of development to believe how fast
we're really growing. And and so that makes it a

(15:30):
little difficult for some of the retailers to to come
out there and look and go, dang, this is really happening.
And so when they go back to their constituents, say hey,
this is a great place bening for the store here.
There's a crazy amount of growth. Uh, it's so it's

(15:52):
almost unbelievable for for uh someone that's not dealing with it.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Every other know, the numbers are crazy.

Speaker 6 (16:00):
Break.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Thank you for being our guest. You literally did not fail.
Maybe people not like your answer, but you didn't declare
anything off limits. Your lawyers would have probably preferred that
you did. I appreciate you taking the time. I appreciate
you answering our question. Democrats were crying that President Trump
needs Congress in order to make cuts to spending. Well,

(16:23):
that's odd. The patron saint the current Democrat party, Barack Obama,
said he didn't need Congress to cut waste. Remember, all
he needed was his pen and a phone.

Speaker 5 (16:34):
One of the commitments that I made the American people
was that we would do a better job here in
Washington in rooting out wasteful spending. We don't need to
wait for Congress in order to do something about wasteful
spending that's out there. Cutting waste, making government more efficient
is something that leaders in both parties have worked on.

(16:56):
We haven't seen as much action out of Congress as
we'd like.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
You know, the the federal government is being put on
display for how sloppy it is and for all the
money that's been stolen. They're running on outdated equipment. They
are operating on absolutely outdated equipment. Bill Clinton talking about

(17:26):
this thirty two years ago, and much of this equipment
hasn't been updated since then.

Speaker 6 (17:32):
First thing we have to do, and I mean the
first is to cut in essential government spending. I've been
president four weeks, and I've been president four weeks, and
I've found things that I wouldn't believed. The White House
when I became president was running on Jimmy Carter's telephone

(17:52):
system and Linda Johnson's switchboard, and this true, and highways
that is high to technology error with a procurement system
that would have broken Einstein's brain.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
So Elon goes in, and now that they're pushing these
federal workers out, what they find is they can't handle
the paperwork in our federal government. They can't. They simply
don't they they're doing this. You won't believe this. This
sounds like this sounds like Soviet Russian outdated sad cars

(18:31):
from the thirties kind of deal. Elon says that only
ten thousand federal workers can retire in any given month.
You want to know why.

Speaker 7 (18:42):
The most number of people that could retire possibly in
a month is ten thousand. We're like, whoa, why is it?
Why is that? Well, because all their time at paperwork
is manual on paper. It's manually calculated, been written down
on a piece of paper. Then it goes down to
mind and like, what do you mean of mine? Like, yeah,
there's a limestone mine where we store all the retirement paperwork.

(19:06):
Look and you look at picture of a picture of
this mine. We'll post some pictures afterwards, and this is
this mine looks like something out of the fifties because
it was started in nineteen fifty five, so it looks
like it's like a time warp. And then the speed,
then the limiting factor is the speed at which the mine,
the shaft elevator can move, determines how many people can
retire from the federal from the federal government, and the

(19:29):
elevator breaks down. And then I said sometimes, and then
you can't.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Nobody can retire.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
It doesn't that sound crazy? It takes months to retire
from the federal government because the documents in printed form
are in a limestone quarry. That's not a joke, but
we gotta laugh. You gotta laugh. If you don't laugh,

(19:55):
you go crazy.

Speaker 8 (20:02):
I'm at working at State so long.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
I can do no wrong.

Speaker 8 (20:11):
My job is once a month I go to a meet,
but luckily it's on zoom.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
And I can sit in my living.

Speaker 9 (20:26):
Room without webbing.

Speaker 8 (20:28):
Pass twenty six years of work behind me. Now it's
time that I'm retiring, and my paperwork's.

Speaker 9 (20:42):
Gonna go deep in upcave.

Speaker 8 (20:47):
In a limestone quarry, put it out.

Speaker 9 (20:53):
And going deep.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
In a cavern war.

Speaker 9 (20:56):
Now one noses.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
It's a lifestarck.

Speaker 9 (21:02):
Quarry's five people.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
I don't even know.

Speaker 9 (21:12):
It'll be discovered by.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
Releasing illegal alien child rapists to own the Republicans. Boy,
you've really fallen far at that point. Ice in Boston
has been forced to arrest a Guatemalan illegal alien charged
with multiple counts of raping children after officials in Essex County, Massachusetts,

(21:49):
ignored their detainer requests and released the illegal alien on
bail after he was arrested. The story from Fox News
is Bill Illusion, who has done such a great job
on illegal immigration issues for years.

Speaker 10 (22:06):
It's hard to believe there are any jurisdictions out there
that wouldn't cooperate with ICE when it comes to illegal
aliens charged with forcibly raping children, But in Massachusetts it's
just routine.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Take a look at this case.

Speaker 10 (22:17):
ICE Boston just announcing they arrested this Guatemala illegal alien
charged in Massachusetts with three counts of aggravated child rape
and three counts of forcible rape of a child.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
So the question is why was he on the streets
right well.

Speaker 10 (22:30):
I says their detainer request on him was ignored by
the Essex County Superior Court due to sanctuary policy.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
The locals released.

Speaker 10 (22:38):
Him into the community on bail without any notice to ICE.
In a statement, the director of ICE Boston says, in
part quote, Jose Fernando Perez has been charged with some
horrific crimes against the minor in our commonwealth. He is
exactly the type of alien we are targeting with our
worst first policy. He posts a significant danger to the
children of Massachusetts and we will not tolerate such a

(22:59):
threat to our community. ICE Boston also announcing the arrest
of this Turkish illegal alien charged in Massachusetts with assaultant
battery against an intellectually disabled person and witness intimidation, but
I says their detainer on him was also ignored by
the sanctuary city of Somerville. He had also been released
into the public elsewhere around the US.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
I Seattle arrested this Salvadoran.

Speaker 10 (23:23):
Illegal alien wanted in his home country for aggravated homicide.
Here in Los Angeles, ICE arrested this Guatemalan illegal alien
charged with sexual assault and rape with a gun. And
in Colorado, the DEA announced their top ten arrests of
illegal immigrants in recent days, including several affiliated with Trendy
Aragua and others with egregious crimes like kidnapping, child sexual assault,

(23:47):
and fentanyl trafficking and Dana. I was talking to a
law enforcement source in Massachusetts about the child rape case
that I referenced, and I asked, like, there's got to
be some sort.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Of a catch here, right, forget about cooperating with ICE.

Speaker 10 (23:57):
How does somebody charge with so many counts aggravated forcible child.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
Rape even get released on bail in the first place.

Speaker 10 (24:04):
The response I got was, quote, welcome to the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Breaking CBS special report. CBS is Margaret Brennan is reporting
that webinarized free speech is responsible for the Hindenburg crash.
Imagine hating Trump so much that you're willing to put
a child rapist, illegal alien back out on the streets
to rape more children because otherwise it might health Trump.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf
of Mexico.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
To the Gulf of Mit Michael Berry, which has a
beautiful way.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Earlier in the week on the Evening Show, I played
on the twenty first, on the day that rushed past,
we played. By the way, anytime I say I, I
mean we, because we are truly a group effort here.
Something may have been suggested, and occasionally I use the

(25:07):
word I when I mean we. I don't ever want
there to be any doubt of that.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
It is.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
It might be called the michael Berry Show, but it's
really a team that's working together on every aspect of
what we do. It is inextricable. The whole is greater
than the sum of the parts. To be very clear,
And if it ever seems I have forgotten that or
I'm not expressing that properly, let it be known I
never ever forget that. I played. We played a clip

(25:41):
of the Rush Limbaugh talking about American exceptionalism, and it
really going back and listening to that. You know, we
were listening to audio as a group to prepare for
the four year anniversary of his paste. And of course
there's Catherine announcing his death, and there's there's you know,

(26:06):
him talking about Kamala Harris as Willie Brown's mattress. He
knew about her in a way that people didn't. And
there was a clip of him saying that that the
Democrats never tell you what they're going to do before
an election because their ideas would never pass. And we

(26:27):
played for you the President Trump awarding Rush Limbaugh the
country's highest civilian honor, which no other Republican would have
done that. Bush wouldn't have dared do that because Rush
is dirty. He can't be in the salons of Georgetown.
He doesn't he's too crude. He talks to the common people.

(26:51):
It was a stroke of genius and brilliance and as
it should be, righteousness by Donald Trump. But I just
wanted to air something that is sort of what explains
what make America great again means, and that is to

(27:12):
dare to be great, to bear, to dare to lead
the world, to dare to say to the world. We're
doing it right. Do it more like us instead of
the Obama apology tour to dare to embrace what made
us great, which is American exceptionalism. And here is Russe Limbau,

(27:39):
in my opinion, at his finest, laying that out. This
is what Maga means.

Speaker 4 (27:45):
What American exceptionalism is not. It is not that we
are better people. It is not that we are superior people.
It is not that we are smarter people. It is
not that God loves us and hates everybody else. It
is not that God prefers us. It is not that

(28:10):
God doesn't prefer anybody else. American exceptionalism has nothing to
do with anything but freedom and liberty. Here is what
American exceptionalism is. By the way, this is one of

(28:32):
the fundamental reasons why I got so excited when presented
with the idea of writing a book about the truth
of American history in stages and various elements for young people.
My book Rush Revere in the Brave Pilgrims is all

(28:52):
about the exceptionalism of those people.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
So what is it?

Speaker 4 (28:59):
Well, if you know the history of the world, read
your Bible, read whatever historical account of humanity you hold dear,
and what you'll read around is human tyranny. You'll read
of bondage, you'll read of slavery. The vast majority of

(29:20):
the people, the vast majority of the human beings who
have lived and breathed and walked this planet, have lived
under the tyranny of despots. The vast majority, it isn't
even close. The vast majority of the people of this

(29:42):
world since the beginning of time have never known the
kind of liberty and freedom that's taken for granted every
day in this country. Most people have lived in abject
fear of their leaders. Most people have lived in abject

(30:05):
fear of whoever held power over them. Most people in
the world have not had plentiful axes, access to food
and clean water. It was a major daily undertaking for
most people to come up with just those two basic things.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
Just surviving.

Speaker 4 (30:32):
Was the primary occupation of most people in the world.
The history of the world is dictatorship, tyranny, whatever you
want to call it, subjugation of populations. And then along

(30:53):
came the United States of America. Pilgrims are the first
to come here seeking freedom from all of that. They
were oppressed because of their religion, they were told they
had to believe in the King and his God, whatever
it was, or they would be imprisoned. They led an

(31:21):
exodus from Europe to this country of people of the
same mindset. They simply wanted to escape the tyranny of
their ordinary lives. This country was founded for the first
time in human history, a government and country was founded

(31:43):
on the belief that leaders serve the population. This country
the first in history. And this is the exception ex
cept except the exception to the rule is what American

(32:03):
exceptionalism is. And because of this liberty and freedom that
our country exists, because the founders recognized it comes from God.
It's part of the natural yearning of the human spirit.
It is not granted by a government. It's not granted
by Putin, It's not granted by Obama or any.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
Other human being.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
We are created with the natural yearning to be free,
and it is other men and leaders throughout human history
who have suppressed that and imprisoned people for seeking it.
The US is the first time in the history of
the world where a government was organized with a constitution
laying out the rules that the individual was supreme dominant,

(32:48):
and that is what led to the US becoming the
greatest country ever because it unleashed people to be the
best they could be, unlike it had ever happened. That's
American exceptionalism.

Speaker 6 (33:00):
Headies and gentlemen, eldess, nights left for joining, Thank you,
and goodnight.