Craig Hall

Hall has been a landlord since his freshman year at University of Michigan. He had saved up $4,000 and used it to put a down payment on a rooming house in Ann Arbor, providing housing during the university’s student-tenant rent strikes. By age 21, he was a millionaire and owned more than 20 buildings.

By 35, he had 4,500 employees and $4 billion in assets, including 72,000 apartment units, and was part-owner of the Dallas Cowboys. But the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s hit his business hard; he sold his stake to avoid bankruptcy.

Now, the Michigan native is best known for his developments in Frisco and Downtown Dallas. 

Hall successfully predicted Dallas’ northward expansion when he started construction on Hall Park in Frisco in 1997 — before the tollway extended to Frisco. The development now spans 162 acres and includes 15 buildings. 

He also made a contrarian play for two downtown skyscrapers in 1994 and 1995. He sold them for nearly double the purchase price three years later. His investment in Downtown Dallas continued with his development of HALL Arts, a mixed-use development that includes luxury condos, office space and restaurants. 

Not all of his bets have been successful. He lost hundreds of millions of dollars when he bought $116 million worth of American Airlines stock before the airline filed for bankruptcy in 2011.

— Jess Hardin