PHOTO: Jonathan Thorpe/for Commercial Observer
Adam Weers
COO at Trammell Crow Company
Adam Weers wasn’t always a commercial real estate insider. He grew up near Seattle, went to college at Morehouse in Atlanta, then headed to Harvard Business School.
It was at Harvard that Weers had the good fortune to meet some folks from Trammell Crow Company during a job fair, and leveraged that into a position at the company’s Washington, D.C., office while still in school.
“There’s a pedigree within TCC of recruiting from top business schools graduates who didn’t have a lot of real estate background,” said Weers. “Draft the best athlete on the board, and then teach them to be a banker or real estate developer.”
He started as a senior associate doing financial analysis and underwriting, still feeling like he had a lot to prove. “I was soaking up as much as I could. I spent a lot of time going to design and construction meetings trying to fill in the gaps I knew I had.”
Weers spent years heading up development in the D.C. office before being promoted to chief operating officer in 2021, a move that has shifted his focus. Before the COO position, he oversaw development of the 1 million-square-foot McMillan Campus for Advancement of Health and Wellness, and the 1.5 million-square-foot Northeast Heights, a mixed-use project in Ward 7. He was also involved in the delivery of the 258,000-square-foot headquarters for the D.C. Department of General Services in Northeast D.C.
One big focus for Weers is diversity and extending the welcoming culture at TCC to marginalized groups. It’s a role he created for himself more than a decade ago. “From inception in 2011 until 2020, it was internally facing: how to increase diversity at all levels and retain diverse professionals,” Weers said. “Post-2020 we added on a lot of externally focused things: how to have an impact outside of our organization as a leader within the industry.”
TCC now works with groups like Project Destined and Toigo Foundation, both of which focus on recruitment, to amplify their work. It also distributes funds to field offices, where local personnel can best choose how best to impact their communities. Being COO is a change for Weers, but a good one. “Turns out I like running a real estate development company.”
