Harlan Crow

Crow has gotten as much attention for the effect he’s had on New York City and Washington, D.C., as he’s continued to be a straw that stirs the drink for Dallas in recent years.

Crow drew headlines a couple of years ago over disclosures of lavish gifts he made to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, including financing on some undisclosed real-estate transactions involving Thomas and his family, a matter that raised ethical questions about influence and judicial transparency. 

His signature Old Parkland office campus — dotted with statuary, plaques and a campanile honoring great thinkers and historical figures of all stripes, and filled with family offices and other investment outfits — is a seminal development as the city grows its financial industry amid talk of “Y’all Street.” And it’s more so now that the New York Stock Exchange has decided to lease 28,000-square-feet at Old Parkland for its Texas offshoot. 

Crow Holdings flows from the fortune made by his father, the legendary Trammell Crow, who handed the family business over to Harlan in the late 1980s. Crow Holdings separated from the Trammell Crow Company in the late 70s as part of a restructuring of the family’s real estate empire. Trammell Crow Company was eventually acquired by CBRE in 2006. 

Crow grew operations within Crow Holdings across multifamily, industrial and office markets, managing billions in assets until 2017, when he tapped Michael Levy as the first outside CEO of the 70-year-old company. Levy, a lifelong New Yorker, moved to Dallas to join the company, and has overseen its rise to become one of the largest apartment developers in the U.S.