Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) has announced that Miles Loo, Jr., CRE has joined the company as executive vice president leading its Valuation & Advisory Data Center Solutions Group. He comes to the firm after founding the Mission Critical Facilities specialty group at Cushman & Wakefield. Loo and his team will be based in the Los Angeles office, working on projects globally.

During his 22-year tenure at Cushman & Wakefield, Loo spent the first ten years of his career devoted to valuing Class A high-rise and trophy office buildings and large-scale retail/entertainment centers in Downtown and West Los Angeles. In the last twelve years, he shifted his focus to data centers, performing valuations on this specialized asset class. He recognized when digital transformation first began to take shape early on, before the industry had a clear definition of the phenomenon that would soon be known as the Internet of Things (IoT). The impact of IoT has not only increased the importance of data centers for government, business and society, but has enabled other efficiencies such as artificial intelligence, virtualization, 5G networks and autonomous cars.

“Miles was keen to recognize the tremendous shift in how data centers have been utilized early in his career,” said John Busi, president, Valuation & Advisory, NKF. “As one of the industry’s leading authorities on data centers, Miles’ contribution to NKF will transcend geographic and service-line borders, and will elevate the firm’s position in this incredibly important asset sector.”

“NFK’s global reach will allow us to build our Valuation & Advisory Data Center Solutions Group exponentially, and will provide me and my team the scope to accommodate our clients worldwide,” said Loo.

Loo’s experience includes advising private equity funds, institutional investors, large pension funds, major Fortune 500 companies, cloud companies, and global IT conglomerates on investments in all aspects of data centers. These centers include mission-critical, disaster recovery centers, data colocation facilities, carrier hotels, internet getaways and life sciences properties across the world, which comprise more than 50.5 million square feet of rentable space and 25 million square feet of technical/raised floor space.