Real Estate Forum - September 2011

LEGENDS & ICONS 65

Staubach

ROGER STAUBACH

It falls to very few men to forge a legendary career in professional sports and then bring their leadership skills to bear in a completely different discipline. Roger Staubach is among that number, having won the nickname “Captain America” during his decade as quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys and then heading up one of the industry’s leading corporate real estate services firms. Staubach had prepared for his post-NFL career from early in his tenure with the Cowboys, joining the Henry S. Miller Co. in 1970 and becoming one of its top brokers in football’s off season. In 1977, Staubach and fellow broker Robert Holloway formed the Holloway-Staubach Corp., taking on the development of the Hillcrest Oaks office complex in Dallas. Two years later, Staubach retired from professional football to concentrate

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full time on commercial real estate, and in 1982 he bought out his partner and renamed the firm the Staubach Co. A quarter-century later, Staubach stepped down as CEO while remaining chairman, by which time the firm had more than 1,000 employees and more than 70 offices throughout North America. Rumors began swirling about a Staubach Co. merger with Jones Lang LaSalle and, in June 2008, the speculation proved to be fact, with JLL and Staubach announcing a $613-million deal. The merger did not include SRS Real Estate Services, which Staubach and Chris Maguire founded in 1986 as Staubach Retail Services and which today is reportedly the largest national retail real estate company in the country.

BARRY STERNLICHT Among the major investment firms borne of the S&L crisis was Starwood Capital Group, which Barry Sternlicht founded in 1991 to buy up distressed apartment buildings. The following year, Starwood Capital closed its