Newmark hires tech specialist Christina Clark to help lead SF office

Newmark has hired a veteran broker with a speciality in the tech sector to help lead its San Francisco office.

The New York-based firm, whose local office is the fourth largest commercial brokerage in the Bay Area, has appointed Christina Clark as vice chair, the San Francisco Business Times reported. She took the reins last month.

Clark, who previously served as a managing principal for Cresa, aims to expand Newmark’s tenant representation services around the world.

“I’ve always admired the firm, and over the past year, they’ve made some leadership changes and some growth changes that really made me perk up my ears and say, ‘what’s going on over there?’” Clark told the Business Times.

Newmark’s San Francisco office did more than $5.5 billion in deals last year, according to the report.

While at Cresa, Clark focused largely on such tech tenants as Meta, Airbnb and Headspace. She and Matt Lehman, a member of Clark’s team at Cresa who is joining her at Newmark as a managing director, represented Twitter in its lease of 66,000 square feet in Downtown Oakland. 

Clark’s client list also has included the financial, legal and biotechnology sectors. Some of that diversification has happened organically, she said, as those sectors have “rolled into meeting each other.”

A mounting challenge is her clients’ office needs. In San Francisco, one out of three offices stand empty in the era of remote work, with the tech sector leading the office exodus. With deal making in the dumps, commercial real estate brokers struggle as leasing markets freeze up.

— Dana Bartholomew

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