Frankfurt has been employed by Trammell Crow for 20 years. He began working for the company in 1988 as a leasing agent in Southern California, he says. "I was looking to move into a major market that had institutional capital that flows in and out of the market," Frankfurt says. Tim Lobner, senior vice president for Trammell Crow, is also relocating from the company's Oklahoma office.

[IMGCAP(2)]One of Frankfurt's first goals will be to increase the staff of the office. Trammell Crow and CB Richard Ellis merged in December 2006. Trammell Crow was acquired by CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. in a transaction valued at $2.2 billion, which included approximately $1.9 billion for equity purchase with the balance attributed to transaction and integration costs, as well as repayment of Trammell Crow corporate debt, as previously reported by GlobeSt.com. Since the merger, "we have not had a fully-staffed office," he says. There is currently only a staff of five for the Chicago office. Frankfurt said he could not estimate the size that the staff will be increased to. "It is impossible to exactly predict that in the future," although there are typically between 10 and 25 employees for offices in the major markets, he says.

Frankfurt also plans to "increase deal flow" for the Chicago office, he says. Trammell Crow has recently developed and is currently working on health care facilities at Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital in Bolingbrook, IL and McLaren Regional Medical Center in Clarkston, MI; student housing projects at the University of Illinois in Urbana, IL and the University of Bloomington in Bloomington, IN; and a 685,000-sf industrial building in Joliet, IL.