CBRE has announced that Kristina Metzger has been promoted to senior vice president and will lead CBRE Capital Markets’ newly created data centers specialty practice.

The appointment is part of CBRE Capital Markets’ continued investment in alternative property types to provide integrated services across three primary lines of business — investment sales, finance, and investment banking. The new data centers team adds to an extensive service offering that includes specialty practices for affordable housing, aviation, corporate capital markets, healthcare, hotels, gaming, golf & resorts, manufactured housing, net-lease, self-storage, student housing, and senior housing.

Metzger has extensive knowledge and experience in data center real estate, having represented clients in transactions totaling more than $3 billion. Based in San Diego, she will be responsible for building a practice in a growing sector that is complementary to CBRE’s Data Center Solutions (DCS), the leading service provider to data center owners, occupiers, and investors, and CBRE Capital Advisors, the investment banking business of CBRE in the Americas.

“A key differentiator that contributes to CBRE’s market-leading industry position is our deep bench of strategic advisors, with specialist market and sector experience. Our professionals who operate in the alternative sectors are focused on the specific needs of clients, providing a depth of expertise that is rarely found in the industry. Kristina is a nationally recognized data center expert with deep client relationships and is well qualified to drive our capital markets in this space to the next level,” said Chris Ludeman, global president, Capital Markets, CBRE.

North American data center investment volume totaled more than $12 billion in 2018, inclusive of single-asset, portfolio and entity-level transactions, according to recent CBRE research. Capital availability remained abundant throughout the year, with 33% of total investment volume focused on single-asset and portfolio transactions vs. 27% in 2017.

“Demand for data center investment has never been greater as aggressive foreign capital, institutional investors and infrastructure funds have started targeting the asset class. As many of these groups enter the space, they are targeting direct investments and also joint ventures, recapitalizations, and the outright purchase of data center operating companies. There have never been more creative solutions to capitalize data center transactions than there are today,” said Metzger.

Since 2009, Metzger has been a member part of CBRE’s Data Center Solutions. Prior to focusing exclusively on the disposition and acquisition of data center investment properties, Metzger was one of CBRE’s top data center tenant advisors, having represented AT&T, American Express, Boeing, Broadcom, DirecTV, among others, in some of the industry’s largest and most complex data center transactions.

The appointment follows the promotion of Christopher Fudacz to lead a data center specialty practice for CBRE’s Valuation and Advisory Services (VAS). Based in Chicago, Fudacz will coordinate a team of specialists across the U.S with the objective to develop and expand the platform nationally.