During a standing-room-only session, on October 25 at the 2016 ULI Fall Meeting, Lucy C. Billingsley, partner at the Billingsley Company in Dallas and daughter of legendary real estate leader Trammell Crow, shared lessons learned from years of running a successful development company with her husband and children. Billingsley was interviewed by Wendy Rowden, WLI Global Chair and President of 42^nd Street Development  Corp.

On what matters most: “I want to spend more money to build something beautiful. . . . So much of what is built [by the development community] is driven by yield. It is wrong to build something that will be worth less in 20 years. If we are going to build, we want the buildings to be better with time.”

On operating a company with her family: “Their [her children’s] entry into the company strengthened it. But it [the company] is the life of everyone [involved in it]. We’re all in it together. All we want is for each other to have successes.”

On taking risks: “Who do you want to be when you die? Someone who was too cautious? You have to push yourself to keep growing. To not do that limits your capacity. It [life] is a wild, exciting adventure.”