CresaPartners LLC, North America’s largest tenant representation firm, has formed a strategic alliance with international real estate advisor, Savills plc.
The arrangement will allow the two companies to provide service to international clients in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
Savills plc is a global real estate services provider listed on the London Stock Exchange. The firm has an international network of more than 200 offices in 40 countries and offers advisory, management and transactional services to clients all over the world.
CresaPartners comprises over 55 offices across North America with over 750 employees. Headquartered in Boston, it was formed in 1993 when leading regional tenant representation firms joined forces.
Together, Savills and CresaPartners will have a global alliance of over 250 offices and 22,350 employees.
“This alliance will allow us to provide client service seamlessly across global markets,” said Bill Goade, CEO, CresaPartners, in a statement. “North American clients continue to expand into Asia Pacific and Europe, and Savills extensive platform of offices and expertise in these markets will provide significant benefits for our clients.”
“Increasingly our international occupier clients are wishing to diversify and expand their operations as global markets improve. This new strategic alliance with CresaPartners will now enable us to better service the needs of these clients as they expand into new markets,” said Jeremy Helsby, CEO of Savills plc, in a statement.
“In particular, it will give CresaPartners’ clients access to our very strong Asian business where we are seeing an increased demand for space from U.S. and European occupiers from all sectors including corporate, professional and industrial. We are continuing to expand our global tenant representation platform both in Europe and Asia Pacific to better service the needs of our growing client base,” he added.
“I just returned from our International Spring Meeting in San Diego where over 325 CresaPartners advisors explored ways to better service our Global clients using the Savills platform and the local connections in world wide markets.” said Jeffrey Gage, managing principal of the Norwalk office, which provides corporate real estate services in Westchester and Fairfield counties.
The announcement comes during a period of jostling among the major firms not just to be big, but to be great.
Last January, Colliers merged with FirstServce creating a company with 15,000 employees operating in 61 countries. Cushman & Wakefield has offices in 58 countries. Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. recently opened in South Africa, bringing its employee tally to 30,000 people in 60 countries and CB Richard Ellis, which already has 29,000 employees worldwide, recently acquired the investment management business of ING in Europe and Asia in a $940 million deal.
Last week, Newmark Knight Frank became the latest New York player to flag plans for global dominance when it merged with financial services firm BGC.
“It’s a good opportunity for us to grow the business,” chairman Jeffrey Gural told Real Estate Weekly. “[In] management and leasing today, it’s important to have a big, global platform. In order to grow you need access to capital, that’s what being part of a public company provides, that pipeline [of money].”
