The firm is the real estate asset management platform of Franklin Templeton Investments.

[7] The firm was founded in 1982 by Stephen Furnary and John Weisz who previously worked at Citibank's real estate investment management group.

[3] During that period, real estate investment was mostly by large private institutions related to Banks and Insurance companies.

[3][4] In 1995, the founders bought out Jones Lang's interest in the firm and renamed it to Clarion Partners.

[4] On April 17, 2017, the final co-founder, Furnary retired from the firm but still remained Executive chairman and passed on operational duties to the new CEO, David Gilbert.