EXCLUSIVE: Cresa Hires 27-Year Newmark Veteran To Launch Data Center Segment

Cresa has launched a dedicated data center platform, taking a 27-year veteran from Newmark to lead its aggressive push into the segment. 

Michael Morris joined Cresa to head a new full-service business line called Cresa’s data center capital markets and advisory platform. In an interview with Bisnow, Morris said he was drawn to make the leap between firms because Cresa is pushing hard to become a leading name in the space.

“I've been provided with any and all necessary resources to build the top practice in the world,” he said. 

Before joining Cresa, Morris launched Newmark’s data center business roughly 20 years ago. As the head of the data center consulting practice, Morris worked on projects with every major hyperscaler and on developments for key industry names like Digital Realty Trust, CoreSite, Verizon and CyrusOne, according to a release. He left Newmark as a vice chairman.

Over his career, Morris has completed more than 1,000 transactions across 50 global markets. 

Sumner Putnam, a longtime colleague from Newmark, also joined the team at Cresa as a managing principal. The lease negotiation, site selection and colocation specialist has decades of data center experience, including at JLL. Matt Deutsch rounded out the departing Newmark team that headed to Cresa.

Since joining the firm, Morris has grown the team to six professionals from Cresa's Chicago headquarters. He is looking to bring in roughly 10 more across core markets to build out a national presence, he said. 

The group is already busy with assignments, Morris said, although he declined to name clients. 

“We have millions of square feet of requirements that we're already working on, as well as probably over a gigawatt of capacity worth of transactions,” he said. 

Cresa’s new platform offers advisory solutions, planning, transaction structuring, capital markets solutions, and tenant and landlord representation. 

The inclusion of landlord services is something of a departure for the occupier-focused commercial real estate firm, but it is one that Morris said is necessary because of the unique occupancy dynamics in the sector. 

“The data center and infrastructure industry is extremely different from traditional real estate,” he said. “In many cases, the owner or owners of properties are the occupiers. To really provide true value to everyone involved in the transaction, we need to be able to have expertise on all sides.” 

Cresa senior analyst Mackensey Gawne, who had already been providing some site selection services for data center customers, is also part of the new dedicated platform.

Morris said he is focused on growing the firm’s North American operations while the team works with the global real estate agency Knight Frank, which launched an official partnership with Cresa in 2021, on projects outside the region.  

Cresa, a private company with a presence across North America, has been growing through acquisitions. In the last 16 months, it has picked up four U.S. real estate firms, and last year it acquired Seattle-based project management firm Pacific Program Management. 

“The data center infrastructure expansion underway is one of the most important technological challenges of our time,” Cresa CEO Tod Lickerman said in a statement. “Michael and his team are true data center leaders and provide significant, unique advantages to our clients with strong insight, advocacy and the ability to get deals done.”