In the world of Dallas commercial real estate, there are brokers, and then there are the broker’s brokers. They come to the table playing a variety of roles—tenant rep, landlord rep, development, investments, sales—but whatever hat they don, they are brokers in the classic sense of the word. They make the deals happen.
D CEO consulted with a blue-ribbon panel of office and industrial veterans to assemble this list of 23 professionals we call the Power Players. There was no set metric, such as square footage or dollar amounts. Such measures can be misleading—the larger real estate shops have a lock on the larger corporate accounts, often skewing those sorts of numbers. Meanwhile, some of the best brokers work from small shops, doing deals at the street level and under the radar of the usual lists and accolades.
This list—the best brokers as chosen by their peers—includes brokers from both worlds. The subjects were selected based on reputation, intensity, foresight, negotiation skills, and integrity. They are, as one judge put it, the people you’d most want on your side if you found yourself in a Central American jail. Simply put, they get the job done.
Our 23 Power Players, described here in no particular order, are the hired guns CEOs should consult if—make that when—real estate decisions have to be made.
| Michael Wyatt Executive Director Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. Michael Wyatt is a 23-year real estate industry veteran specializing in tenant representation and corporate services. He has successfully represented more than 700 clients, developing long-term relationships built upon trust, collaboration, and results. He’s known for working punishing hours and for his high productivity, yet he still has time to carry a heavy load of charity work for a number of causes. He rarely refuses a client, working the large corporate deals but devoting equal time to the smallest of clients. He’s a regular on top producer lists, and in 2005 was recognized with Dallas-Fort Worth’s highest real estate honor, the Stemmons Service Award. |  |
| John Aldrich President The Aldrich Group John Aldrich has been doing deals in North Texas for three decades. After years in both the trenches and the C-suites, he founded his own firm, The Aldrich Group Inc., in 2004. The firm specializes in commercial real estate consulting, sales, and leasing. Aldrich has leased and sold more than 36 million square feet of office and industrial space and fully developed corporate sites totaling more than 1,200 acres. He was recognized with the Stemmons Service Award in 1992. | |
| Bob Edge Vice Chairman Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. Bob Edge possesses more than 43 years of real estate experience—he’s the man who opened Cushman & Wakefield’s Dallas office in 1974. He is one of the most active tenant representation brokers in the country and has handled many of the largest real estate transactions in Dallas, including lease negotiations, build-to-suits, dispositions, and acquisitions. He’s the man behind such corporate headquarters relocations as American Airlines, Caltex Petroleum, Occidental Chemical, and Celanese Chemical. In 2001, Edge was inducted into the Dallas Real Estate Hall of Fame, and his accomplishments and commitment to the real estate industry have garnered him additional accolades, including the Stemmons Service Award. |  |
| Tom Pearson Executive Vice President Colliers International A 30-year industry veteran, Tom Pearson’s industrial specialization includes land and building sales, leasing, and investment sales. He has played a key role in handling the national relocation of the distribution center for a Fortune 100 company and in selling major properties for some of the largest corporations in the United States. A 1993 Stemmons Service Award winner, Pearson is most regarded for the attention to detail he brings to every deal. |  |
| Johnny Johnson Principal CAPSTAR Commercial Real Estate Services He may be a principal at the firm he helped found, but Johnny Johnson is in the trenches every day, keeping his skills honed. Though he started in management and leasing, Johnson has worked all sides of the table. For 13 years, he directed leasing efforts for 13 million square feet of property in Dallas, Houston, and New Orleans for LaSalle Partners’ Dallas office. Known as a straight shooter in his dealings and a heavy lifter in his production numbers, Johnson balances his work with service on behalf of a variety of Dallas-focused organizations. |  |
| Trey Fricke Managing Principal Lee & Associates Among the youngest of the nominated brokers, Trey Fricke is ambitious and resourceful. He’s a founder and managing principal of the Lee & Associates Dallas-Fort Worth office, having begun his professional career in the unlikely area of restaurant management. Today Fricke has a specialty focus on industrial and office/technology leasing and sales in all areas central to DFW. Fricke focuses on the big picture for his industrial clients, integrating his understanding of tax, transportation, and distribution processes into the counsel he provides clients. |  |
| Robert Deptula Principal Transwestern If he’s not the most productive broker on this list, Robert Deptula is certainly the most eccentric. Few in the business don’t have a Deptula story to tell. But he’s also among the busiest networkers and deal-closers, his workload running the gamut from acquisition and disposition to build-to-suit coordination and other facility management assignments. Deptula has closed more than 16.7 million square feet in transactions for his clients since he started in 1988. Those who hire him should expect both outstanding client service—and the occasional singing voicemail. | |
| David Little President David Little Real Estate David Little brings a toughened, pugilistic style to the deals he does. He’s been completing real estate transactions since the Kennedy administration—starting in 1963 doing deals in-house for Ford Motor Co. Little hung his own shingle back when disco was new, and he’s been plugging away in both the office and industrial markets ever since. His philosophy is simple—sell to sell again. Though Little initially served on D CEO’s selection committee, he is so highly regarded that his inclusion on this list was indisputable. | |
| Dave Anderson Executive Vice President CB Richard Ellis Dave Anderson does industrial deals, working almost every aspect—tenant rep, project leasing, sales, site selection, and investment property sales. Anderson’s strength is in understanding his clients’ overall business objectives and tailoring real estate strategies to best achieve them. He has a comprehensive knowledge of land development and entitlement issues, making him a go-to guy in site selection for both corporations and the development community. On project leasing and dispositions, Anderson’s keen insight into market trends and transaction activity allows owners to position their assets to maximize returns. |  |
| Carl Ewert Executive Vice President The Staubach Co. Carl Ewert is a proven leader. Comerica Bank’s relocation to Dallas from Detroit? He led that team. He has a quarter-century of experience in the business, but his role these days is putting together teams tailored to meet the real estate needs of his clients, particularly financial services firms, law firms, banks, and corporate headquarters. Staubach’s model is a bit different than competitors, relying on more of a team approach to deals, and consequently on having great quarterbacks to lead them. Ewert’s one of them. | |
| Thomas Lynn President, Corporate Services NAI Robert Lynn Thomas Lynn started in the business in 1986 working for Robert Lynn Co., then owned by his father. After success as a young broker, he purchased the company in 1993. Over the years, he served as president and CEO of NAI Robert Lynn—overseeing record revenue growth for the firm—until selling the company to his partners and current owners in 2001. In his 20-plus years of experience, Lynn has personally negotiated more than 300 commercial transactions for more than 10 million square feet, with the deals ranging in size from 5,000 square feet to 454,000 square feet. | |
| Greg Trout Principal, President of Office/ Industrial Division Henry S. Miller Another veteran who has seen Dallas’ real estate market rise and fall and rise again, Greg Trout is an executive, a manager, and a top producer. Though he oversees more than 30 office and industrial professionals, he’s still out in the field, making deals happen. More a team leader these days, Trout still manages to stay directly involved in major deals the company has closed. Those include transactions for W.W. Grainger, Bunge Oils, Regions Bank, and Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. | |
| Newt Walker President Newt Walker Co. Newt Walker’s reputation precedes him—he’s brusque, tough, and tenacious, and he excels at complicated urban land assemblages. Walker is the prototypical broker’s broker, having worked the industry since the late 1970s. Walker is the guy you don’t want to see representing the other side—otherwise you know it’s going to be a tough negotiation. He’s geographically focused on North Dallas, and it shows in his depth of knowledge of the landscape, be it in land deals, project sales, or leasing. | |
| Sam Hocker Senior Vice President Grubb & Ellis Sam Hocker is a regular top producer both within his company and in the North Texas market. He’s known for emphasizing strategic lease negotiations that benefit both the tenant and the landlord, which is how he’s built lasting relationships on both sides of the table. (He’s also known for his proud, Ron Burgundy-style mustache.) Hocker’s name is attached to several iconic deals in Dallas history—from the 1996 Blockbuster deal to the 2005 First American Corp. transaction—and his client list reads like a who’s who of big Dallas corporations. |  |
| Rex Glendenning President, Owner/Broker REX Real Estate Starwood in Frisco? Rex Glendenning did it. Granite Park in Plano? Did it. The Bridges of Frisco? Did that, too. Gates of Prosper? You bet. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed not to find a major raw land deal on the northern edges of the Dallas market that Glendenning didn’t have a hand in. He’s a broker in the classic sense of the word—he even keeps it as his company title. For the past 27 years, he has brokered deals for thousands of acres of undeveloped land that subsequently became DFW’s new growth submarkets. |  |
| Jeff Ellerman Executive Vice President The Staubach Co. Another quarter-century veteran of Dallas commercial real estate, Jeff Ellerman focuses solely on tenant rep for office users and has for his entire career. He’s a big-game hunter who’s been involved in many of the largest transactions in the Dallas area, but he’s not above working with smaller users, either. He’s coming up on his 10th year at Staubach, where he’s represented clients including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, FedEx Kinko’s, and JPMorgan Chase, among many others. | |
| Phil Puckett Executive Vice President of Downtown Office CB Richard Ellis Phil Puckett serves as the senior broker in the downtown Dallas office for CB Richard Ellis’ Brokerage Services Division, specializing in tenant representation office brokerage. Simple as that; he’s that focused. Puckett is known for his attention to client service and for his ability to bring together big players. Like some others on this list, Puckett’s been involved in some of the marquee transactions in Dallas, such as Bank of America’s 2007 lease of 480,000 square feet in downtown Dallas and 367,000 square feet in the Infomart. |  |
| Stuart Smith Senior Vice President UGL Equis Stuart Smith has been all around the block. He’s a 25-year veteran with experience in all phases of office and industrial real estate, including facility acquisition and disposition, environmentally problematic properties, tenant and landlord representation, and site acquisition. He works well both alone and on teams, providing corporate services both locally and regionally. Throughout his career, Stuart has completed more than 800 assignments totaling more than 60 million square feet. |  |
| Pat Haggerty Principal Pat Haggerty Co. Pat Haggerty is a relationship-builder. With an industry pedigree that goes back to the early 1970s and a past stint as a suburban city councilman, Haggerty has always been about establishing lasting client relationships. He focuses primarily on the submarkets north of I-635, and handles everything from tech and office deals to industrial transactions. He provides clients a kind of personal service so often lost with the bigger houses and with consolidation in the industry. | |
| Jack Fraker Vice Chairman CB Richard Ellis Jack Fraker has more than 25 years of experience in commercial real estate, specializing in the sale of investment properties for institutional clients as well as tenant representation—both office and industrial—for corporate real estate clients. He has consistently been a top national producer in investment sales, representing some of the country’s biggest corporations, pension fund advisors and real estate investment trusts. He has leased or sold more than 430 million square feet and approximately 6,600 acres of development sites in more than 60 cities across the country, as well as in Europe, Mexico, and South America. |  |
| Bill McClung Executive Vice President Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. With three decades of experience and a reputation as one of the most ethical professionals in the business, Bill McClung is a top producer for the Cushman & Wakefield office. He works both sides of the table—representing both tenants and landlords—and he’s known for the uncanny resourcefulness he brings to solving problems for clients. McClung has been recognized with a number of industry accolades, including the prestigious Stemmons Service Award. |  |
| Richard Carlson President The Carlson Co. Richard Carlson entered the world of Dallas commercial real estate in 1984, and he’s been a top producer almost from the start. After surviving the crash of the late 1980s, he and four colleagues formed The Carlson Co. in 1993, focusing on both office and industrial real estate. Carlson is highly regarded by his peers for his integrity and ethics, and he focuses solely on tenant and buyer representation, which he says is important in avoiding conflicts of interest. |  |
| Gordon Foster Principal Foster and Co. An Arkansas native, Vietnam veteran, and former sailor, Gordon Foster made his way to Dallas in 1978 and has been doing industrial real estate deals ever since. His experiences run the gamut—in land acquisitions for build-to-suit, tenant representation, industrial leasing, income property sales, and design-build consultation. He started his own company in 1987—a time when many real estate companies were foundering—and has been going strong ever since. Working deals on his own or with limited partners, he’s done 31 million square feet of industrial transactions and 1,100 acres of improved industrial land. |
