EXCLUSIVE: Cresa Acquires Fischer, Its Biggest Occupier-Only Rival

Cresa purchased its biggest direct competitor and developer of a popular portfolio management software.

Dallas-based Fischer, a tenant advisory firm with 110 staff members, is being rolled into Cresa. The merger significantly boosts the size of Cresa’s portfolio business and follows several smaller acquisitions over the last two years. 

“We’re the largest occupier-only-focused advisory firm, and they were the second-largest,” Cresa CEO Tod Lickerman said in an interview. “We both have the same privilege of focus. It’s such a good fit. It’s a natural for them and for us.”  

While other firms like Savills maintain a majority focus on occupier representation, they also have small landlord representation teams. Cresa and Fischer focus exclusively on tenants.

Cliff Fischer, who founded the eponymous firm in 1985, joined Cresa’s staff as a managing principal, along with former Fischer President Ted Uzelac and Executive Vice President Chris Joyner. Fischer will also join Cresa’s board of directors. 

All of Fischer's employees came to Cresa in the acquisition, which was finalized this week. Cresa is keeping all of Fischer’s offices open — the merger will expand Cresa's markets to Pittsburgh and Memphis — but plans to relocate some employees as Fischer’s leases expire. 

Financial terms of the merger weren't disclosed, and Cresa declined to provide details. 

As part of the acquisition, Cresa is planning to deploy Fischer’s portfolio management software suite, ManagePath and Visual Manager, across its entire book of business. Lickerman said the programs offer a nuanced level of control and insight into portfolios, which helped propel Fischer’s growth.

“We love the technology,” Lickerman said. “We've seen it, we've competed against it, we really have always respected it, and we will leverage it.”

Cresa will continue to invest in the software’s development and plans to broaden its use beyond portfolios and into individual transactions, Lickerman said. The programs are also licensed by other portfolio operators, unlocking a new revenue stream while Cresa also focuses on optimizing its own holdings. 

Cresa’s business is now roughly even between portfolio contracts and individual deals, Lickerman said, while declining to disclose the employee-owned firm’s revenue mix prior to the acquisition.

“This brings more scale to our portfolio business, and it balances it out,” he said. “Cresa is a national company with 40 offices, and this is just more depth, it's more like-minded advisers and people that really fit our culture.”

Cresa has been expanding through key hires and acquisitions since 2022 when the firm relocated its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Chicago. In July, Cresa hired Newmark veteran Michael Morris to run its newly launched data center business. 

Fischer is the third Texas-based company acquired by Cresa in as many years. It acquired ESRP, a Dallas-Fort Worth-area brokerage founded by former Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith, in 2022. Two years later, Cresa acquired the 11-broker team at Fritsche Anderson to add to its presence in Houston, creating the city’s largest tenant representation firm. 

Last September, it picked up Philadelphia-based project management firm NorthStar Owners Representation, and a month later it purchased Seattle-based Pacific Program Management, which manages developments across the U.S.

Cresa is also in the early stages of the search for a new CEO, with Lickerman set to leave the top post sometime in the next two years. He joined the firm’s board in 2019 and took the top management spot in 2021.

There has recently been broader consolidation across the commercial real estate services sector, including two large deals last month. 

Compass agreed to pay $1.6B to acquire Anywhere Real Estate in September, the same month that Colliers continued its own acquisition spree with the purchase of Greystone’s Dallas-based multifamily investment sales firm.