EARLY LIFE AND CAREER

Jeff Swaney was born hungry. This in part because his timing was off. Born in and towards the end of that city of Detroit Michigan’s glory, he would experience and witness the grit, fire and convulsing of a city in collapse in the late 60’s and 70’s. Jeff’s hunger became an insatiable seductive primitive need for answers to everything.

Unexpectedly erupting from that beginning, Jeff’s wild and crazy life’s journey blossomed completely out of the norm. Through a tough childhood, doing the shitty work in dilapidated Detroit factories, he survived as a working stiff, Lutheran school altar boy rock star, awkward teen and college graduate.

Stories from his alma mater Michigan State University, back when the university had little or no rules governing it’s 65,000 students running wild, show what exceeding the limits of limitless looked like. After graduation, he embarked on a yearlong world-wide solo backpacking journey starting in intense Hong Kong. Bartering his way, with black market cash, blue jeans, hooch, frisbees and whatever was in demand as currency across the globe, with a starting bank of $650 cash, a round-the-world ticket on a third-world airline and a Eurail pass provided Jeff with his true education. He slept in hostels, heroin dens, parks, cemeteries, boat docks, castles and various strangers’ homes along the way. Traditions, beliefs, and secrets as old as time, together with powerful out of body experiences, further propelled him on his nutty trajectory.

He returned to the states penniless, enlightened, enriched, and searching for his mission in the world. He took a hard right through the doors of Forbes best company of the year Hewlett-Packard Company in Dallas, Texas. During his 5-year career in tech, he witnessed the birth of the first crude PCs, the advent of LSI / VLSI chip fabrication and then automated network management which all changed the world in a tech explosion.

ENTERTAINMENT THANG

Itching to do his own thing, he left the corporate world to pursue his newfound interest – Downtown Dallas, Texas and the fallen from grace Deep Ellum district. The freedman’s town, established in the 1800s, would become a nationally recognized center of jazz and blues into the 1920’s, but declined sharply following World War II into nothingness. Fast forward into 1983, Jeff discovered a war zone of boarded up decrepit properties, strewn trash, and a large homeless population, not unlike the Detroit inner city with which he was so familiar. In that rubble, he found the spark of some artists and musicians he befriended that had taken up residence there. It was raw inspiration. He was on fire with his newfound calling that he had somehow envisioned during his world travel, with deep passionate purpose to revitalize Ellum and celebrate music and art with life changing effect. 

In the summer of 1985, Jeff launched a series of roving “warehouse parties” in the area that were the talk of the town. He engaged numerous partners in the business, most notably a young Mark Cuban who partnered with Jeff on his first bash.

He landed a permanent locale for the festivities at The Club Clearview, where patrons enjoyed “underground” entertainment before the use of cell phone or internet technologies. Its success, and the corresponding birth of dozens more clubs and restaurants would draw international notice. Clearview became the nexus of Texas underground art, music, and fashion then, together with its siblings The Art Bar & Cafe (1989) and the Blind Lemon Bistro and Bar (1991). Many celebrities were feted such as the band Pink Floyd after its sold-out shows at Texas stadium in the ‘90s—at all-night private parties. At this apex, the local media dubbed Jeff the first “Mayor of Deep Ellum.”

 He sold Clearview together with his other entertainment holdings in 2000. The club closed in 2005 after a spectacular 20-year run, with D Magazine honoring it as #17 of the top 35 most impactful influences in all of Dallas’ history. During that same period, Jeff, starting in 1987, launched his first real estate deals in the Dallas area under the Delphi Group, Inc. moniker.

SERIOUS BUSINESS

Launching a real estate company with his club proceeds during the devastating S&L crisis was a bold move. With no experience whatsoever, he set out into the mayhem, recounting the desperation and backroom dealings in which he had remarkable success.

During and after the S&L crisis, Delphi took on numerous assignments assisting the RTC, FDIC, and Amresco, among other banks, in liquidating their portfolios. Jeff consulted, leased, brokered, and/or developed over a dozen multi-use and residential projects in Downtown Dallas amongst 100’s of transactions, on the Parkway in Addison, Texas, which led to ollaborating again with friend Mark Cuban on developing Yahoo!/Broadcast.com’s Deep Ellum headquarters in the late 90’s, and accolades for work in the historic Munger Place in Dallas with home builder David Weekly. Contributing over 25 years of pro bono urban planning in Deep Ellum, Jeff’s personal hallmark achievement was facilitating a seven-mile stretch of bike-hike trail (East Dallas Veloway/Santa Fe Trail) that he spent 15 years championing and lobbying for in Dallas, Austin and Washington DC, resulting in a 28-mile loop around a transformed Dallas area. Jeff resided for over 15 years in a restored-with-flair two-story 7,000 sq. ft. office/loft/art studio. The 1940s-era former grocery store, located on Commerce Street in Ellum’s center was featured in local tours and national publications.

During this time, he amassed a sizeable collection of properties he renovated, treating the historic buildings as living beings. He was particularly fond of an area he dubbed “New East Elm,” a former haunt of Dallas legend Jack Ruby famous for shooting Lee Harvey Oswald in ‘63, where Jack ran his nightclub as well as supposed headquarters of underground gambling rackets and brothels of the 1930’s-40’s. Jeff, a “Camelot” fan and well versed on Conspiracy Theory, found New East Elm especially noteworthy, as JFK was assassinated by Oswald (supposedly!) on Jeff’s birthday in Dallas at age 5 in 1963. Cosmically, years later, Jeff hosted Oliver Stone at Clearview for Oliver's JFK movie wrap party. Many more ethereal convergences with JFK lore recounted seem more than coincidental.

Finding his role as a PT Barnum like facilitator, Swaney grew his enterprise into myriad successful businesses and transcended to conscious capitalism and mentoring others in angel funding. He has helped spearhead numerous diverse startups by providing angel venture capital and consulting, resulting with successes and total valuations over 1 Billion dollars.

THE ARTS

Jeff has been a supporter of myriad arts organizations and individuals. Involved in fundraising for over 30 charities in 35 years including the 500 Inc, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, The Family Place, The American Heart Assn, The Jewish Community Center, Bryans House, Habitat for Humanity, The Central Dallas Association, The Deep Ellum Foundation, East Dallas Chamber of Commerce - Dallas Black Dance Theatre and DIFFA.

Immersed in the Deep Ellum’s artistic community, he has been an avid collector of local art with many of the 42 artists in the collection represented nationally, including friends Dan Rizzie, Andy Bennett, David McCullough, Bill Haveron, Steve Pietsch, Frank Campagna and Clay Austin. In 2002, Jeff purchased and renovated a second home in Bend, Oregon, where he eventually moved. There, he helped launch the Bend Film Festival in 2004 and served on the Tower Theatre board for a five-year term 2006-2011.