Harlan Crow is in the news. The conservative billionaire has recently gained a whole new level of fame as the longtime friend and secret benefactor of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who appears to have broken even the light ethics laws surrounding the nation’s highest court. Thomas has failed to disclose decades of lavish gifts from Crow, ProPublica reported, and even a real-estate deal between the two in which Crow acquired and renovated the house where Thomas’ mother lives, apparently rent-free. But while Crow may have a whole new level of public notoriety, his family has been one of the richest real-estate dynasties for two generations, and he inherited a commercial real-estate empire.
The 74-year-old is the chairman and former CEO of Crow Holdings, a private Texas-based real-estate investment and development firm which manages $29 billion in assets, its website. The firm was founded 75 years ago by Crow’s father, Trammell Crow, and its massive size at its peak made him the largest landlord in the U.S., according to the New York Times. In the same publication’s obituary for Trammell Crow, he was recognized as an innovative developer who once had interests spanning nearly 300 million square feet of real estate, totaling to 8,000 properties in more than 100 cities.
