Trammell Crow

F. Trammell Crow (June 10, 1914 – January 14, 2009) was an American property developer who created several famous projects, including Dallas Market Center, Peachtree Center (Atlanta, Georgia), and San Francisco's Embarcadero Center.

Biography

Crow was born in Dallas, Texas. As a child and later as an adolescent, he earned money through a series of odd jobs, including plucking chickens, cleaning bricks, and unloading boxcars. After completing Woodrow Wilson High School in 1932, he worked for a Dallas bank and attended night school in accounting at Southern Methodist University. He then worked for three years as a CPA before joining the Navy in 1940. After World War II, he worked as a wholesale grain merchandiser, but switched to the field of warehouse real estate development believing there was considerable room for growth.

At one point, a building he was involved with putting up for Ray-O-Vac proved to be considerably larger than the company needed, leaving Crow to seek out additional tenants. He convinced Decca Records to sign on for the leftover space, and began a career as a "speculative builder." This field was a new concept in property development, in which builders typically designed construction to meet the expressed needs of one specific company, then leased the entire space to that company after the building was in place.

Trammell Crow Company

By 1970, Crow had developed Trammell Crow Company into a nationwide organization, another innovation in a field that was, at the time, dominated strictly by local builders.

Crow's holdings were said to be much larger than those of the better-known William Zeckendorf and Donald Trump and include hotels, hospitals, residential developments, and — just as in the early days of the company — warehouses. The Austin Business Journal said in its profile of TCC, "When compared to Trammell Crow, other real estate companies are for the birds." Yahoo! Finance, in an oddly similar metaphor, said in its company profile: "It takes a tough bird to succeed in the real estate business, and Trammell Crow Company is one of the cocks of the walk." Calling the organization "one of the top diversified real estate management companies in the US," the profile estimates that the company manages nearly 550 million square feet of warehouse, service center, and retail space in the United States and Canada.As of June, 2007, the company was set to grow even further with the scheduled $60 million purchase of the HealthSouth headquarters building in Birmingham, Alabama.

Trammell Crow Company was privately held until it went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol TCC in 1997. In 2006, Trammell Crow Company was sold to CB Richard Ellis group (NYSE:CBG) for approximately $2.2 billion.

Quotes

"There's as much risk in doing nothing as in doing something."

"There must always, always be a burning in your heart to achieve. In the quiet of your solitude, close your eyes, bow your head, grit your teeth, clench your fists, ache in your heart, vow and dedicate yourself to achieve, to achieve."

Personal

Crow was a collector of Asian art. The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, his private museum, is open to the public free of charge. It is located on Flora Street in the Arts District of downtown Dallas.

He was inducted into the Woodrow Wilson High School Hall of Fame at the school's 50th anniversary in 1978.

Late in life, Crow began suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Crow died in his sleep at his ranch near Tyler, Texas, on January 14, 2009.

Further reading

Robert Sobel. Trammell Crow, Master Builder. Willam Bragg Ewald, Jr., Trammell Crow: A Legacy of Real Estate Business Innovation.

External links

• Trammell Crow Company Website
• The holding company for the Trammel Crow family's investments