The Dallas real estate world is home to two Beck families who are often mistakenly assumed to be one in the same. Allow us to set you straight.
Henry C. Beck founded what would become The Beck Group in 1912 and later moved its headquarters from Houston to Dallas in 1924. Under Beck’s leadership, and the subsequent leadership of his son and grandson, the Beck Group has become the 10th largest architecture firm and third-largest construction firm in North Texas, according to the Dallas Business Journal.
Beck’s son, Henry C. Beck Jr., took over the company after his father’s death in 1948. Beck Jr., whose fingerprints are all over the Cotton Bowl and NorthPark Center, among others, passed away in 2007 at the age of 89. Henry C. Beck III, who goes by Peter, serves at executive chairman of Beck after decades at its helm as CEO. (Fred Perpall was named CEO of The Beck Group in 2013.)
Alternatively, the other Beck family—the one behind Beck Ventures and United Texas Bank—has no known relation to The Beck Group family.
Jeffrey Beck is the chairman of Beck Holdings, which includes Beck Ventures and United Texas. (This Beck also founded Capital Senior Living, though the family is no longer affiliated with the public company.) Beck’s sons, Jarrod and Scott, serve as CEOs of United Texas Bank and Beck Ventures, respectively. Beck Ventures developed Trophy Club and is currently working on Dallas Midtown. United Texas Bank has financed more than $1 billion in transactions since its formation in 1985.
According to Scott Beck, his father Jeffrey Beck and Henry C. Beck Jr. had an interesting introduction in the 1970s, thanks to real estate legend Trammell Crow. (Peter says he isn’t aware of the introduction, but that it’s a “great story.”)
Jeffrey Beck, who cut his teeth working for Crow, eventually wanted to venture (see what we did there?) out on his own to create a company called Beck Properties, a property management firm. But in the ‘70s, mind you, there was no efficient way to check the availability of a business entity’s name. So Jeffrey Beck applied to incorporate Beck Properties, only to learn the entity already existed—and was owned by Henry Jr. Trammell Crow, who knew both men, facilitated an introduction of the two. “My father was able to meet with [Henry C. Beck Jr.], and [Henry Jr.] relinquished the name to my dad,” Scott Beck says. “I love telling that story, because it relates to how people did business back then. There was no internet, no blockchain; there was a handshake.”
