Cresa Adds Project Management Lead, Research Director to Houston Office

This article originally appeared on CoStar News.

Tenant-only commercial real estate firm Cresa has bolstered its Houston office with two new hires amid the company's global growth initiative.

John Furnace has joined the firm as a project management lead and Bryan Strong joined as a research director.

As a vice president, Furnace will be responsible for leading all phases of project management for the Houston market for the firm. He joins Cresa from Newmark Knight Frank, where he led project management for the firm's Southwest region of Texas. He has previously managed projects totaling more than 25 million square feet with a combined value greater than $500 million and completed projects for Wells Fargo, BP, Aker Solutions and Sony Pictures, among others.

Strong will be responsible for collecting and interpreting market research data, as well as providing detailed financial models comparing various transaction structures and occupancy solutions. He joins Cresa from CBRE, where he was a senior research analyst for the firm's Texas-Oklahoma region.

The two hires are among the latest additions to the firm's Houston office, which has added seven professionals over the last nine months, according to a statement from the firm. Cresa's CEO Jim Underhill noted that the global hiring blitz the firm is going through is part of the company's plan to gain market share in a very competitive commercial real estate industry.