Trammell Crow Co history

He passed his C.P.A. exam in 1938 and joined Ernst & Ernst as an auditor.

After serving in the Navy during World War II, he returned to Dallas in 1946.

Trammell Crow Company, founded in Dallas, Texas in 1948, is one of the nation’s oldest and most prolific developers of, and investors in, commercial real estate.

The Embarcadero Center breaks ground in San Francisco, preceded by Peachtree Center’s completion in Atlanta in 1965.

Although most of his projects were in the Dallas area, by 1970 Crow had developed properties throughout many parts of the United States.

Despite continued success through 1973, the petals began to fade as the American economy had begun to falter and the Crow organization became unwieldy.

By 1974 Crow, at age 60, was facing serious financial duress and negative company cash flow.

In 1975 Crow had to ask his senior partners to liquidate some of their assets to help relieve some of the massive debt that was burdening the company.

Though the company struggled to survive through 1976, the following year saw a rebirth of the Trammell Crow organization.

Trammell Crow continues to demonstrate leadership in the hotel space, creating the Wyndham Hotel Company in 1981.

By 1982, near the end of the recession, the figure had ballooned to about $3 billion.

Crow was instrumental in bringing the Republican National Convention to Dallas in 1984.

The organization's assets skyrocketed to over $13 billion, and by 1986 the company had 90 offices with over 3,500 employees.

When Fortune magazine named him to the United States Business Hall of Fame in 1987, it called him “one of the most innovative developers in history.”

As demand for new properties plummeted in 1988, investment capital also dried up.

The company eliminated eight of its 17 regional offices and reduced the number of employees to 2,650 by the end of 1989.

In 1991 TCC was capitalized as a privately held corporation.

In 1992, the Dallas-based company developed 2.8 million square feet of new space at a value of $209 million.

In 1993, TCC managed over 240 million square feet of commercial space.

Crow also came up with the idea for a bronze sculpture erected in 1995 on a downtown Dallas plaza of three cowboys and 70 six-foot-high longhorn steers.

The Trammell Crow Company went public in 1997, and its shares began to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

In early 2001 the company announced an internal reorganization, simplifying its structure so that all its management services were under one leadership umbrella.

Since 2006, TCC has been a wholly owned subsidiary of CBRE.