Trammell Crow Hires Skanska Exec To Open Boston Office

One of the largest CRE development firms in the U.S. has poached Skanska talent to launch its Boston office. 

Dallas-based Trammell Crow is opening a Boston office and hired Skanska executive Charley Leatherbee to head up and grow the local presence, the company announced Tuesday.

Leatherbee will serve as a senior vice president and business unit leader, responsible for all development and acquisition projects. Trammell Crow plans to build a multi-product Boston portfolio across the office, multifamily, life science and industrial sectors. 

“We are pleased to expand our footprint into Boston, where market fundamentals are strong and a well-diversified economy with a deep talent pool, strong investor appetite, and robust demand for new development across all product sectors is evident,” Trammell Crow CEO Matt Khourie said in a prepared statement. “Charley is recognized as one of the top developers in Boston with a diverse background in a variety of product lines, including office, multifamily and life sciences … We are confident that under his leadership, TCC will become one of the leading developers in Boston.”

While executive vice president and regional manager of Skanska’s Boston office, Leatherbee led nearly 2M SF and more than $1B of Greater Boston projects, including developments like the 121 Seaport office tower. 

Trammell Crow has offices in 16 U.S. cities and has developed or acquired 2,700 buildings valued at nearly $65B since the company’s founding in 1948. It is an independently operated subsidiary of CBRE Group, which is Massachusetts’ largest CRE brokerage firm. 

Skanska has named Russell DeMartino to replace Leatherbee as executive vice president at the Boston office. The company also promoted Carolyn Desmond to vice president of development.