This article originally appeared on CoStar News
Mitch Wolff and Joe Siglin Bring Experience With Large Companies to Tenant Advisory Firm
Real estate firm Cresa is building its bench of brokers in Texas more than a year after the firm acquired boutique tenant advisory firm Esrp to grow its presence in the Lone Star State.
The Chicago-based tenant advisory firm has added two longtime tenant representation brokers to its Dallas-Fort Worth team, each with decades of experience. Mitchell Wolff joins Cresa as a managing principal, while Joe Siglin joins the firm as a principal. Wolff and Siglin most recently worked at rival real estate services firm Newmark.
Both executives are trusted occupier-focused advisers with impressive client lists of top Fortune 500 companies, said Sharon Morrison, a managing principal at Cresa, who is helping oversee Cresa's statewide growth in Austin and Houston.
"While other companies are cutting, we are looking to grow," Morrison told CoStar News. "Now is the time to be opportunistic. I have seen brokers frustrated by the bureaucracies of larger companies or with the lack of support or platform at smaller companies. Cresa is unique as we are in between both of those [worlds]."
Cresa has a global partnership with Knight Frank, helping the two firms compete on potential deals worldwide together. Morrison said Cresa is seeking to add market share — especially in Texas. The former Esrp group has two seats on Cresa's board, helping shape the larger decisions made at a much bigger firm.
"We want to grow strategically and not just add a bunch of people who may dilute the culture," she added. "We are already one of the largest and best tenant advisory-only companies in the country."
Former Dallas Cowboys safety Darren Woodson, who is also a managing principal at Cresa and works with Morrison to shape the firm's growth in Texas, said both Wolff and Siglin are top-tiered talent for the firm's Dallas office.
"Both are recognized as consummate professionals who bring a wealth of market intelligence, industry experience and client connections to our firm," Woodson said, adding, "We know they'll be a terrific cultural fit and dedicated to supporting corporate tenants."
The Texas team is primarily based at The Star in Frisco, adjacent to the Cowboys' practice facility and worldwide headquarters. The firm also has an office in the Dallas Arts District in downtown Dallas. When Esrp merged its business with Cresa last year, the boutique firm kept all of its employees — who all signed off on the deal and moved forward as employee shareholders at the new firm, Morrison said.
"Before the merger, we were privately held, adviser-owned, and led company focused only on tenant advisory," she told CoStar News. "After the merger, we are still privately held, adviser-owned, and led company focused on tenant advisory. [It was] very synergistic. The difference now is we have more support, more tools, more offices and resources.
"The bigger platform has helped us with recruiting and with winning and serving new clients," Morrison added.
For Wolff, there was an opportunity at Cresa to "build again," which he has done throughout his career. He co-founded Predium, a Dallas commercial real estate group, in 2002 that later sold to Newmark in 2008. Most recently, he held the role of executive managing director at Newmark and was a member of its global corporate services group.
"Cresa is looking for seasoned professionals to build an organization that is global in nature," Wolff told CoStar News. "Really, they are at the genesis of a new era and folks like me, who have the experience, will be able to grow and flourish in a platform that is not as mature as some of the other firms out there."
Siglin also joins Cresa from Newmark, where he was a managing director specializing in corporate tenant representation with the firm's global corporate services group. Before Newmark, Siglin was also at Predium.
The two brokers have experience working with large companies, including AT&T, Flowserve, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, UPS and Bayer.
In looking ahead at the future, Morrison said companies are looking for data and analytics to support their decision-making — which Cresa has also leaned into as they help clients.
"With COVID, so much has changed," she said. "On the office side, companies are constantly looking for the right solution for the present and the future. It is constantly evolving."