Illinois native and DePauw University graduate Frederick Caldwell Tucker Sr. founded the F.C. Tucker Company in 1918. By the early 21st century, it had become the largest independent real estate company by sales revenue in Indiana and 12th in the country based on closed transactions.
Tucker Sr. moved to Indianapolis in 1918 and operated his business as a sole proprietorship, working in commercial and industrial real estate. In 1947, Tucker’s son joined the company. When Tucker Sr., died in 1958, his son and three businessmen, John A. Wallace, Robert Houk, and Edward Joseph (Joe) Boleman purchased the company, leading it through dramatic growth.
Tucker Jr. pushed for development in downtown Indianapolis in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1967, he and local investors, notably , financed the Hilton Hotel on , the first new hotel built in downtown Indianapolis in 40 years.
The F. C. Tucker and L. S. Ayres & Company partnership continued as they developed the Lincoln Hotel block, which eventually manifested as .
In the early 1970s, F. C. Tucker played a role in keeping the in Indianapolis. The real estate firm developed the team’s new home and the surrounding area, which included the Gold Building. The city of Indianapolis paid for one-third of the arena’s development and construction costs, however, an investor group that included F.C. Tucker and the paid the remaining two-thirds. At one point in the Pacers’ history, F.C. Tucker owned 30 percent ownership of the team.
The firm continued with major development projects in the 1980s. The Historic Lockerbie Hotel which originally opened in 1928 was renovated in 1982 and renamed the Canterbury Hotel. The originally known as the AUL Tower marked another project completed in 1982.
In 1986 Tucker Jr., Houk, Wallace, and Boleman retired. Tucker Jr.’s son Fred C. Tucker III took ownership, along with David W. Goodrich and H. James Litten. In 1998, Goodrich facilitated the merger of F. C. Tucker’s Commercial Real Estate Services Division to an allied commercial real estate firm in St. Louis, Missouri, after which he sold his interest in F. C. Tucker to his partners. By the year 2000, the Residential Real Estate Services Division had more than 500 sales associates in 13 offices in the Indianapolis area alone. By 2001, their residential sales revenue was $2.1 billion.
Litten purchased Fred C. Tucker III’s ownership of the firm in 2010 upon the latter’s retirement. At the time of his departure, the company oversaw 45 offices in Indiana and Kentucky and maintained 1,500 sales associates in those offices. Tucker III had been at the company for 33 years. Litten, who started at the company in 1972 as a residential sales associate, became the president of F.C. Tucker on April 1, 2010.
In 2019, the firm generated $3 billion in sales. Tucker offered a range of real estate services, which included Tucker Mortgage, Tucker/Schrader Auction Company, Tucker Relocation Services, Tucker Shepherd Insurance, Homeowner Warranty Products, Tucker School of Real Estate, Tucker Referrals, and Tucker Services. ranked F. C. Tucker as 44th on its top-500 list of largest brokerages in the U.S. for 2019.
In July 2021, Pittsburgh-based Howard Hanna Real Estate Services acquired F. C. Tucker. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Howard Hanna will keep the F.C. Tucker brand in place because of the long tenure of the firm and its large Indiana market share. Howard Hanna wants to use the acquisition to expand into Indiana and to increase F. C. Tucker’s real estate presence in the region.
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