Dive Brief:
- Revenue in CBRE’s building operations and experience segment increased 15% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, led by a surge in data center solutions demand from hyperscalers and other infrastructure services, the company said in its earnings report.
- Local, non-enterprise, facilities management revenue grew almost 35% in the Americas, CFO Emma Giamartino said on the company’s July 29 earnings call. Office and industrial activity helped CBRE grow U.S. leasing revenue 24% year over year, according to the company’s earnings presentation.
- CBRE expects significant AI investment to help its data center services, which include buildouts, maintenance and operations, grow revenue by about 25% annually over the next five years and then above 15% as the build cycle matures, CEO Bob Sulentic said.
Dive Insight:
Companywide, CBRE revenue rose 16% to $11.2 billion, with resilient businesses up 15% and transactional businesses up 19%.
Resilient businesses include facilities management, critical infrastructure services, property and project management, loan servicing, valuations, other portfolio services and investment management.
CBRE’s building operations and experience growth was driven by a 68% increase in critical infrastructure services revenue, including a 30% boost in its data center solutions business, much of it from hyperscalers, according to Sulentic.
Infrastructure services revenue reached nearly $1.2 billion, jumping more than 45%, Sulentic said. Although the company provides services during the buildout of data centers, half of its data center revenue is from downstream work, “managing them, refitting them [and] doing project work,” Sulentic said.
Facilities management revenue grew 11% year-over-year to $5.3 billion, including high-teen growth in local, non-enterprise management business across all regions, Giamartino noted. Enterprise facilities management success was led by the technology, media and telecommunications sectors, she said.
Transactional businesses include property sales, leasing, mortgage origination, carried interest and incentive fees in the investment management business, and development fees.
The company generated its highest U.S. office leasing revenue of any second quarter, driven by large deals in gateway markets, Giamartino said.
“There is a real return to the norm,” Sulentic said. “People are really focused on what office space can do for their businesses [and] for the productivity of their businesses — exciting their employees about being part of the company, getting their young people educated and brought into the business … Our big occupier clients are thinking about that a lot and they’re competing with each other to have space that allows them to get those things done.”
CBRE saw office strength across legal and financial services as tenants upgraded and expanded their space, Giamartino said. Legal is one area that is bucking the talk about some sectors being disintermediated by AI, Sulentic said.
“We’re having tremendous leasing success with law firms, unlike we ever had before, and it is because they recognize the importance of office space to their business,” he said. “It also is because they’re using AI for certain things and then doing other things with their talent. That’s causing their headcount not to go down the way some people might think.”
The company saw the most U.S. industrial leasing growth in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, which Giamartini said reflects increased demand from third-party logistics providers and companies engaged in advanced manufacturing.
