How Data Centers Power The Profits Of CRE’s Biggest Brokerages

Ravenous demand for computing power has made data centers an increasingly large and important part of the commercial real estate market, with billions in investments planned from coast to coast. 

With so much growth, CRE brokerages are increasingly turning to data centers to drive business, with larger and larger chunks of their revenue tied to the property type. Longtime stalwarts like office leasing and capital markets have run into challenges in the last few years, but data centers keep growing.

”There is about to be more data center development in process versus office, that's just where a lot of the dollars in capital is flowing in real estate,” said Ryan Dobratz, co-lead portfolio manager for Third Avenue Management’s real estate value fund. “And so these real estate services companies are transitioning to take advantage of that.”

Data centers are simply becoming “a more important part of their overall profitability and overall investment proposition,” Dobratz said. 

Growth this year has been so expansive — outpacing consumer spending for the first time — that it has raised concerns about overbuilding and even an AI bubble.

The major brokerages are using their multipronged businesses to profit from various aspects of the data center business, including capital financing, facilities management and consulting. 

The services aspect of the business can be less capital-intensive for these brokerages and offer higher returns and recurring cash flows without the substantial capital investment required, Dobratz said.

None of the five major brokerages contacted by Bisnow — JLL, Colliers, CBRE, Newmark and Cushman & Wakefield — provided much additional commentary beyond statements made during earnings calls and in the public record. None broke down exactly how much of their revenue came from data centers. 

Canada-based Colliers reported that $10B of the firm’s assets under management are in data centers and digital assets — about 10% of the $100B it has in total.  

For CBRE, data center activity represents a significant profit sector: During a fourth-quarter 2024 earnings call, CEO Bob Sulentic noted that data center contribution to earnings leapt from 3% to 10% from 2021 to 2024, during a time when profits in that sector jumped 2.5 times.

The firm booked $9B in sales, leasing and financing transactions for North American data centers last year. Chief Financial Officer Emma Giamartino said during an earnings call that data center site monetization is expected to contribute more than half of 2025’s development profit.

“The way to think about us as it relates to data centers is we're a service provider, not an owner,” Sulentic said during a Q1 earnings call in April. “And we had a really good quarter with data centers.”

Newmark has also seen significant loan and debt activity around data centers. In Q2 earnings highlights, the company noted a $7.1B data center construction loan related to the Stargate project, and it increased capital markets revenue by nearly 40%, which “reflected significant activity for data centers.”

With $1T of new data center development expected through 2030, according to a new JLL study, locking in service income and recurring management deals offers a significant source of future income for these firms. 

Brokerages are still much smaller in terms of data center assets than REITs and other firms that focus solely on the property type, such as Digital Realty, Equinix and Iron Mountain. Digital Realty, for instance, has a market cap of $57B. CBRE’s market cap for its entire business is $49B.

Some brokerages have pointed to growth in their investment, facility management and services divisions as reflective of their increased data center exposure. Newmark, for instance, noted that its management services division registered 30% growth from valuation and advisory, which was due in large part to data center investment. 

Many of these firms have also opened up, expanded or recruited for divisions that focus on the grid and renewable power. While these types of divisions have numerous applications, experts say they’re largely focused on helping large data center campuses quickly tap into new sources of power. 

CBRE notes 25% growth in its U.S. capital markets business in Q2, attributed to “notable strength” in data centers. Facility management revenues were up 17% in the same time in enterprise and local business, the former buoyed by data center hyperscalers. 

Companies CBRE owns have also paid dividends. According to Dobratz, the firm has used its Trammell Crow subsidiary to get entitlements for land and power, taking advantage of the developer’s expertise. It builds the data centers with Turner & Townsend, another subsidiary. 

The June 2024 acquisition of Direct Line Global, which handles design, installation, maintenance and management, should help the firm appeal more to hyperscale clients.

Now, CBRE manages more than 700 different data center sites, and Turner & Townsend had 150 projects underway as of the end of 2024, having finished 500 over the last decade. 

JLL has shown a similar ability to leverage its array of services for data center revenue. Its newly christened Real Estate Management Services group, which saw an 11% jump in profits in Q2, has a portfolio that is 10% data center properties. 

The company has also expanded its offerings by acquiring data center services firm Skae in 2024 and signing a number of global deals, including a $300M deal in Arizona and a management contract in Abu Dhabi.

Going forward, Dobratz sees all the brokerages angling to get more of the data center dollar. 

CBRE will focus more on the recurring revenue aspect of the business with project and facilities management, while Newmark, more focused on the advisory end of the business, will zero in on deals and capital market dollars. He sees JLL adopting a hybrid of both approaches.  

“You're going to see real estate services companies, and other types of companies, continue to pivot to try to participate in that spend,” Dobratz said. “What you're seeing in the data center space is very similar to the broader real estate services space, where you're seeing continued consolidation, and the larger players are taking more share.”