Sanders grew up in El Paso; in 1966 he founded International Development Corp, which in 1968 he moved to Chicago and renamed LaSalle Partners. It later became real estate brokerage giant Jones Lang LaSalle. In the late 1980s Sanders reportedly sold his stake for $65 million.
In 1991 he founded Security Capital Group in Sante Fe. It became a REIT incubator of sorts and went public in 1997, growing to $26 billion in assets by 2000. In 2001 Security Capital made $265 million selling shares of operating company CarrAmerica; sold affiliate Homestead Village to Blackstone for $740 million; and sold at least $380 million worth of stock in Archstone Communities. Security Capital also gave rise to industrial real estate giant Prologis. In 2002 Sanders sold SCG to G.E. Capital for $4 billion in cash plus assumption of about $1.4 billion in debt. According to SEC documents, Sanders made about $250 million cash in the deal.
As an encore, Sanders created a new industrial REIT, Verde Realty, which invested in properties on either side of the border, catering to the maquiladoras. In 2012 Brookfield Asset Management and Ross Perot Jr.’s Hillwood bought 81% of Verde for $886 million, including assumed debt. According to SEC documents, Sanders owned 6.4% of Verde equity, good for about $22 million.