Market on Fire

2014 was a bang-up year for commercial real estate in Dallas-Fort Worth. D CEO honors the region’s top projects and players.

Everywhere you look across North Texas, construction cranes are flying high. With a burst of corporate relocations and expansions and brisk population growth, demand is particularly strong for new office, industrial, and multifamily space.

Massive mixed-use developments, including CityLine in Richardson and Cypress Waters near Coppell, are quickly taking shape. And several more, like Legacy West in Plano and The Star in Frisco, are getting underway.

Investors continue to have an appetite for all property types in Dallas-Fort Worth, a region that’s led by some of the top real estate talent in the nation.

Now in its third year, D CEO’s Commercial Real Estate Awards honors the best deals and developments of 2014, as well as standout individual performers in the industry. The number and caliber of entries in this year’s program made judging difficult, to say the least. But after evaluating hundreds of submissions, editors selected finalists and winners in 15 categories, from Community Impact to Developer of the Year.

The winners are profiled in this feature. Visit our commercial real estate news site, D Real Estate Daily, for in-depth stories and photos of all 51 honorees.

Broker of the Year

Since 2000, Brian O’Boyle has brokered $9 billion in deals. That’s billion with a “b.” In 2014 alone, he had more than 70 closings—including the sale of Lincoln Las Colinas Apartments, the largest multifamily transaction in Texas. He ended the year with more than $1 billion in production. Not bad for a guy who started his business at his kitchen table. 

After graduating from Ohio University, O’Boyle became a salesman for Owens Corning Fiberglass. A few years into it, he began buying homes and small apartment properties, rehabbing them and pocketing the profits. He went into real estate full-time in 1979, working with other brokers until going solo in 1982. Today he leads a team of seven sales pros in Dallas and three in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

O’Boyle, who won the prestigious Stemmons Service Award in 2002, says he wanted his own firm so he could control his own destiny. “The early years were tough, but they taught me to master handling rejection,” he says. “I was able to carve out a niche by specializing in deals in South Dallas and Oak Cliff.”

About 15 years ago, O’Boyle formed a partnership with other area multifamily brokers to form The Apartment Network, which evolved into  Apartment Realty Advisors. ARA was acquired in December by BGC Partners, the company behind Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.

“I always thought I could be successful,” O’Boyle says. “Going from working out of your house to being purchased by a publicly traded company has been a very fulfilling experience.”

Finalists: Randy cooper, DTZ; Terry Darrow, JLL; Jeff Ellerman and Phil Puckett, CBRE; Dawn Greiner, SRS Real Estate Partners.