Instead of a canned speech, Trammell Crow delivered himself to about 200 colleagues at the Commercial Investment Real Estate Council`s annual conference in Dallas.
Disdaining a text, he opted instead to answer questions press-conference- st yle from the audience.
”Maybe this is a cop out on my part for finding an easy way not to prepare a speech, but I hope not,” he said.
Some comments the questioners elicited:
On making big deals:
”Deals? Some of `em aren`t joys. You really don`t know how they`ll turn out until they`re past.”
On the government bailout of the savings and loan industry and the resultant liquidation of real estate assets from failed thrifts:
”It has to be successful. They have the property and they must sell it. That`s their mandate. But it`s a market situation. They can`t force it out on the market, and the buyer can`t be forced to take it. But we will be watching- we will be a buyer-anything that comes up on the sales side.”
On the Japanese:
”When they put all those automobiles on our shore, they had a right to get something in return, and they are getting real estate. I don`t think any effect will be felt in our industry. The only effect will be some Japanese will come over and become American citizens, and I welcome them.
”The largest effect of that will be the mixing of cultures and societies, and that will bring us closer to a perfect world. I have yet to have one disappointment in dealing with the Japanese.”
On South America:
”Something`s happening in South America. Reality is catching up to people. The economics and political circumstances that created inflation is moderating. I hope we`ll see South America come back into the world of economic nations and we would expect to do more there.”
On the slowdown in Canadian investment in U.S. development:
”So have I slowed down. So have we all.”
On success:
”If you were my nephew or my son and we had a conversation about business, I`d say that the first thing to succeed is that you`ve got to want to. You have to make sacrifices, to keep the course. Nobody can succeed unless you make the world want you to succeed.
”My success has not been without a lot of losses and a lot of mistakes. I could walk around this town and tell war stories about our so-called successes that I would not want the press to know.”
