Trammell Crow
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Fred Trammell Crow (June 10, 1914 – January 14, 2009) was an American
real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to other ...
from
Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
, Texas. He is credited with the creation of several major real estate projects, including the Dallas Market Center, Peachtree Center in
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, Georgia, and the
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in
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, California.William Bragg Ewald, Jr
"How Trammell Crow hit the real estate jackpot"
''Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce'', December 15, 2005


Biography

A native of Dallas, Crow earned money through a series of odd jobs as a child and later as an adolescent, including plucking chickens, cleaning bricks, and unloading boxcars. He was the fifth of eight children reared in East Dallas. His father, Jefferson Crow, worked as a bookkeeper for Collett Munger, one of Dallas' early real estate developers and the builder of the Munger Place subdivision. Crow graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1932. Unable to attend college because of the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, he worked at several odd jobs. In 1933, Crow landed a job for roughly $13 a week (equivalent to $ in ) as a runner for Mercantile National Bank in Dallas while attending night school in
accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...
at
Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...
. Upon graduation in 1938, he was, at the age of twenty-four, the youngest CPA in Texas. He then worked for three years as a
Certified Public Accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Stat ...
before joining the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
in 1940. He used his background in accounting and was offered a commission auditing the books of defense contractors. After World War II, he remained with the Navy for another year to handle final settlements with its contractors. He left the Navy after achieving the rank of commander and then returned to Dallas and saw opportunities for the growth of the city. He became an agent for North American Van Lines, a moving company. Shortly thereafter, he worked as a wholesale grain merchandiser, tripled the sizes of the warehouses, and erected new loading facilities. Once the grain business faded, he switched at the age of thirty-three to the burgeoning field of warehouse
real estate development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw Real Estate, land and the sale of developed land or parce ...
. Crow built his first warehouse in 1948 and leased it to Ray-O-Vac Battery Company. The warehouse was larger than what Ray-O-Vac needed, and Crow was able to seek additional tenants. He convinced
Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...
to sign for the leftover space, and began a career as a "speculative builder". This field was a new concept in property development, one 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. He continued from his start with a single-story warehouse on the banks of the Trinity River in the late 1940s. In partnerships with John M. Stemmons, he became one of the largest developers in the Trinity River Industrial Park. By the middle 1950s, Crow was Dallas' largest warehouse builder. His company's skyscrapers – including Dallas' 50-story Trammell Crow Center and the 53-story Chase Tower – reshaped skylines in the 1980s in cities stretching from
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to
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, California.


Trammell Crow Company

By 1970, Crow had developed the Trammell Crow Company into a nationwide organization, another innovation in a field that was, at the time, dominated strictly by local builders. ''
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'' in 1971 and ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' in 1986 called Crow the largest landlord in the US. ''The Journal'' said the company he founded was then the largest developer in the nation. Crow once had interests in nearly of developed real estate, comprising eight thousand properties in more than one hundred cities. Crow's holdings were said to be much larger than those of the better-known
William Zeckendorf William Zeckendorf Sr. (June 30, 1905 – September 30, 1976) was a prominent American real estate developer. Through his development company Webb and Knapp — for which he began working in 1938 and which he purchased in 1949 — he developed ...
and
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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."Trammell Crow Co. profile
''Austin Business Journal'' (Austin, Texas). Retrieved June 9, 2007.
Yahoo! Finance, also making a joke about the Crow name, 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 of warehouse, service center, and retail space in the United States and Canada.
Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved June 9, 2007.
As of June 2007, the company was set to grow even further with the scheduled $60 million purchase of the
HealthSouth Encompass Health Corporation, based in Birmingham, Alabama, is the nation's largest provider of inpatient rehabilitative services, offering facility-based care through its network of 166 Rehabilitation hospital, inpatient rehabilitation hospital ...
headquarters building in
Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...
.Trammell Crow to buy HealthSouth headquarters
Dallas Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes ''The Business Journals'', which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States with each market ...
, June 4, 2007
The Trammell Crow Company was privately held until 1997 when it went public on the
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(
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) under the symbol TCC. In 2006, the firm was sold to CB Richard Ellis group (
NYSE The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...
:CBRE) for approximately $2.2 billion.


Art collection

Trammell Crow was an enthusiastic collector of East Asian art. His son, Trammell S. Crow, went to
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
with Alex Kerr, and sometime later, after Kerr was more established, he became an art purchaser in
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for the Trammell Crow Company at the behest of his father. In 1998, 598 of the family's best pieces were donated to the people of Dallas with the founding of the Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art. He also commissioned several pieces from artist Bjørn Wiinblad, also sculptor David Cargill, incorporating them into his Dallas hotel and real estate projects.


Personal life

In 1981, Crow received the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...
. In 1989, Crow was an original inductee of the Woodrow Wilson High School Hall of Fame, which was established in connection with the school's sixtieth anniversary. Crow was instrumental in bringing to Dallas the
1984 Republican National Convention The 1984 Republican National Convention convened on August 20 to August 23, 1984, at Dallas Convention Center in downtown Dallas, Texas. The Republican National Convention, convention nominated President of the United States, President Ronald Re ...
, which renominated
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Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
and
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George Herbert Walker Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
. He and his wife, the former Margaret Doggett, were avid collectors of Asian art, for which they established a museum, The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art. This private museum is open to the public without charge. It is located on Flora Street in the
Arts District An arts district or cultural district is a demarcated urban area, usually on the periphery of a city centre, intended to create a 'critical mass' of places of cultural consumption - such as art galleries, theatres, art cinemas, music venues, and p ...
of
downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
Dallas. Crow married his wife Margaret in 1942. At the time of his death, they had been married for sixty-six years.Margaret Crow, philanthropist and matriarch of prominent family, dies at age 94 , Obituaries , Dallas News
/ref> The couple had six surviving children: Lucy C. Billingsley, Robert Tramell Crow, Harlan Crow, Howard Crow, Stuart Crow, and Trammell S. Crow. The Crows have sixteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His eldest son, Robert (1943–2011), was addicted to drugs during the 1980s and often found himself in rehabilitation clinics. Late in life, Crow suffered from
Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...
. He died at age 94 in his sleep at his ranch in
East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that consists of approximately 38 counties. It is roughly divided into Northeast Texas, Northeast, Southeast Texas, Sout ...
on January 14, 2009. He is interred at the
Texas State Cemetery The Texas State Cemetery (TSC) is a cemetery located on about just east of downtown Austin, downtown Austin, Texas, Austin, the Capital (political), capital of the U.S. state of Texas. Originally the burial place of Edward Burleson, Texas Revo ...
in
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, Texas. His widow Margaret died in 2014, five years later, also at the age of 94.


Awards

Crow was awarded the H. Neil Mallon Award by the World Affairs Council in 1986. The H. Neil Mallon Award, hosted by the World Affair Council of Dallas/ Fort Worth, is presented annually to individuals who have excelled at promoting the international focus of North Texas. The prestigious Mallon Award is named after the Council's founder and is presented annually to individuals who have excelled in promoting our region's international profile. Funds raised from this event support the World Affair Council's public and education programming, international exchanges, and diplomatic services. Trammell Crow Park in Dallas is named after Crow.


References


Further reading

* * *


External links


Trammell Crow Company Website

The holding company for the Trammel Crow family's investments
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crow, Trammell 1914 births 2009 deaths American businesspeople in real estate American art collectors Military personnel from Dallas People from Tyler, Texas Businesspeople from Texas Texas Republicans American accountants Ranchers from Texas Woodrow Wilson High School (Dallas) alumni Southern Methodist University alumni United States Navy officers Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in Texas Burials at Texas State Cemetery 20th-century American businesspeople Crow family