On Halloween, as you no doubt recall, the largest commercial real estate company in the world, CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc., announced it was acquiring Trammell Crow Company for $2.2 billion. The deal isn't expected to be completed till the end of this year or the beginning of 2007--or whenever Trammell Crow shareholders and the feds give the deal the A-OK. But there will likely be some fall-out from the merger--specifically, the likely displacing of brokers working at Trammell Crow.
To that end, reports Globe St.com this morning, Grubb & Ellis Co.--which sells and leases everything from motel and retail properties to multifamily dwellings--brought in to head its Dallas office a Highland Park High School and SMU grad, David R. Richards, who was also the fourth-round draft pick of the San Diego Chargers in 1988. In fact, Richards actually had a fairly lengthy career as an NFL journeyman; during his nine years in the league, he also played guard with the Detroit Lions, Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots. But he's better known as one of the players who sued the league over its Plan B free agency system, which, the players alleged, was a violation of antitrust laws--something with which a jury agreed in 1992, awarding Richards $240,000 in damages.
Richards tells GlobeSt.com he wants to "double the 30-broker team and triple revenues within three years," and he's already trying to recruit brokers who might be looking to leave the Crow's nest. Maybe he's...drafting them? Sack me. --Robert Wilonsky
