Cresa was founded in 1993 when Avalon Partners, headed by Bill Goade, formed an alliance with four other commercial real estate firms: Prevé Liberatore & Barton in Miami; Cooper/Brady in San Jose and Palo Alto; Tanguay Burke Stratton in Chicago and Metrospace of Los Angeles. The firms averaged 20-year histories in their respective markets before joining together as the CresaPartners Alliance and all focused on the growing niche of tenant representation. By 1995, Cresa had grown to 30 cities. In 1998, the organization changed its structure from an alliance to that of an LLC, similar to large consulting firms, and took on the CresaPartners LLC name, expanding further to 48 offices. In 2008, with 50 North American offices, Cresa became one of the largest tenant representation commercial real estate firms in the world. In 2017, Cresa went through a consolidation, during which half of the company merged to become one entity. The offices that did not merge continue to operate under license agreements, as they did before the merger. Cresa remains 100% employee owned, and similar to other consulting firms, Cresa’s equity is widely held by their senior professionals. Cresa continues to be the largest pure tenant advisory firm in the world, with over 60 offices globally.
Overview
Cresa includes more than 60 offices and over 900 employees. The firm is a privately held, with more than one-quarter of employees serving as partners. Cresa has received multiple awards and has been included on top achievement lists, including Site Selection’s Service Provider of the Year, American Business Journals’ Best Places to Work, INC. 5000, and Realcomm’s “Top Ten Most Innovative Brokerage Firms.” Several Cresa offices have been consistently honored with Best Places to Work recognition. In 2010, Cresa was certified as a "Sustainable Business Leader", having completed the Sustainable Business Leader Program -- a program of the Sustainable Business Network that provides guidance, support and technical assistance to facilitate the "greening" of small and medium-sized businesses. United Space Alliance awarded Cresa its 2010 Small Business of the Year award for the firm’s work in developing USA’s “workplace of the future” office standards.
