Commercial Real Estate
In commercial real estate, leadership must align with assets, capital, and execution. That is where we focus.
The strongest are rarely the ones this market makes visible.
Start the conversationWhy commercial real estate leadership is different.
Commercial real estate is capital-intensive, operationally complex, and performance-driven. Leadership decisions directly impact asset value, investor confidence, and long-term portfolio growth.
24 Hour Search is a premier commercial real estate executive search firm, leading Director-through-C-suite executive searches across commercial real estate platforms globally. We partner with owners, operators, and service providers to secure leaders aligned with structure, capital strategy, and operational execution.
Where we lead searches.
Performance & Portfolio Leadership
Leaders accountable for asset performance, NOI growth, portfolio strategy, and investor reporting.
Development & Construction Oversight
Executives managing ground-up development, repositioning, infrastructure, and large-scale project delivery.
Operations & Property Execution
Executives responsible for regional oversight, facilities strategy, compliance, and operational scale.
Corporate Real Estate & Transaction Strategy
Leaders directing lease negotiations, portfolio transactions, and enterprise real estate strategy.
Capital & Investment Leadership
Leaders driving acquisitions, dispositions, capital markets strategy, and portfolio optimization.
Leading a commercial real estate search outside these areas? We lead Director-through-C-suite engagements across the full platform.
Speak with usAsset class specific
How every search runs.
Intake
We map the role to your operating model, compensation reality, and long-term plan before a single name is sourced.
Search
Targeted talent mapping and market intelligence surface leaders who fit the structure, not only the job description.
Assessment
Candidates are evaluated against the business, with a clear view of how they will perform inside your organization.
Offer
We guide alignment through to a signed offer, with the discretion a leadership hire requires.
Decisions grounded in market reality.
Compensation benchmarking, competitive intelligence, and talent mapping inform every commercial real estate search. Decisions are data-informed, not speculative, grounded in current market reality across asset classes and capital structures.
Leadership we place.
A representative view of the senior commercial real estate roles we lead searches for, across capability areas.
Performance & Portfolio Leadership
- Chief Investment Officer
- Vice President of Asset Management
- Director of Portfolio Strategy
- Head of Investor Relations
Development & Construction Oversight
- Vice President of Development
- Director of Construction
- Head of Project Delivery
- Senior Development Manager
Operations & Property Execution
- Chief Operating Officer
- Regional Vice President of Operations
- Director of Property Management
- Head of Facilities Strategy
Corporate Real Estate & Transaction Strategy
- Head of Corporate Real Estate
- Director of Transactions
- Vice President of Lease Strategy
- Director of Enterprise Real Estate
Capital & Investment Leadership
- Managing Director of Acquisitions
- Head of Capital Markets
- Director of Dispositions
- Vice President of Investments
Searching for a role not listed here? We lead leadership searches across the full platform.
Speak with usWhat commercial real estate executive search actually is.
Commercial real estate executive search is the discipline of hiring senior leadership into roles where the wrong person creates real strategic, capital, or reputational damage. That includes Chief Investment Officers, Heads of Asset Management and Acquisitions, CFOs of fund managers, Heads of Development, and the operating leadership behind vertically integrated platforms. It also includes the service-provider side: senior leadership at the global and regional brokerages that serve corporate occupiers and institutional capital.
It is a different practice from generic executive search, because the work it produces is sector-specific in ways that titles obscure. A Head of Asset Management built inside multifamily is not interchangeable with one built inside industrial. A CFO who has run a public REIT is doing a different job than one who has run a private fund manager. A Managing Principal who built a brokerage office in a Tier 1 market is not automatically the leader for a different market or a different platform. The work of the search is to honor those distinctions, not to flatten them.
24 Hour Search runs Director-through-C-suite executive searches across commercial real estate platforms, with a practice built on market mapping, passive-candidate outreach, and reference work that goes well beyond a resume.
Leadership hiring is asset-class specific.
Asset class shapes unit economics, tenant dynamics, capital cycles, and the operating disciplines a leader is expected to carry. Strong leadership in one asset class does not automatically transfer to another, and a search that does not anchor on the specifics produces a slate the client cannot use.
Multifamily
Operating-driven, with leadership hires weighted toward regional asset management, multifamily-specific development, and platform finance. Search succeeds when it understands the difference between Class A urban, Class B suburban, and affordable, and the leadership disciplines each demands.
Industrial & Logistics
Capital-heavy, build-to-suit and modern logistics development continue to drive senior hiring. Leadership searches concentrate on development, acquisitions, and strategic occupier relationships, with data center development a fast-growing sub-specialty.
Office
The most cyclical asset class right now. Leadership hires weigh heavily on asset management, repositioning expertise, and capital markets fluency to navigate refinancing and debt restructuring against a difficult occupier market.
Retail & Mixed-Use
Retail leadership is operating-intensive and relationship-driven. Mixed-use platforms add development and entitlement complexity that requires leaders fluent in public-private partnerships and multi-jurisdiction approvals.
Hospitality
Operating discipline is the differentiator. Leadership hires concentrate around asset management, brand management, and capital partnerships that respect the operating side of the business as much as the real estate side.
Land & Development
Long-cycle work with material exposure to entitlements, labor, and capital. Leadership hires must combine technical development judgment with the political and capital relationships the work actually depends on.
The senior CRE seats we know best.
Each role below has a dedicated page covering what the seat actually owns, where strong resumes break down, and how 24 Hour Search runs the search.
Deal-end leadership across owner and operator platforms.
Returns protection across the hold and through cycles.
Investment thesis, capital allocation, investor relations.
Debt, equity, and the lender relationships behind them.
Ground-up across asset classes and geographies.
Fund mechanics, audit, and capital events.
Operating leadership at the CEO’s right hand.
Service-provider corporate occupier portfolios.
Senior integrator on major service-provider accounts.
Brokerage office and regional leadership.
The case for retained-grade search in CRE.
Internal recruiting works for roles where the candidate pool is active, the role is well understood, and a wrong hire is recoverable. None of those are typical of senior CRE leadership searches. The strongest candidates are sitting in seats with carry, deferred compensation, and long-standing relationships keeping them in place. They are not on job boards, do not return cold outreach from databases, and require a real conversation about a real opportunity before they will look.
The cost of the wrong leadership hire in commercial real estate is rarely just the salary paid. It is the deals not done, the assets mismanaged through a cycle, the team that quietly leaves, and the investor confidence that takes years to rebuild. An accountable executive search engagement exists to make that risk someone’s explicit job — and to put ownership of the outcome inside the engagement rather than outside it. 24 Hour Search delivers that accountability with the methodology of retained search on contingent terms — the rigor without the retainer.
For more on how 24 Hour Search structures engagements, see How We Engage.
What CRE leaders ask before retaining a search.
When should I engage an executive search firm for a CRE leadership hire?
Engage a search firm when the role is senior enough that hiring the wrong person creates strategic, capital, or reputational risk you cannot easily recover from. That usually means Director-through-C-suite roles in commercial real estate where the strongest candidates are passive, the seat is specialized enough that an internal recruiter cannot evaluate it confidently, and the cost of a mishire materially outweighs the cost of the search itself.
What is the difference between retained executive search and contingent recruiting in commercial real estate?
Retained search firms charge an upfront retainer regardless of outcome and run a defined process to a defined conclusion. Contingent recruiting is paid only on placement, which usually incentivizes speed and volume over fit. 24 Hour Search is built differently: we deliver the methodology of retained search — market mapping, passive-candidate outreach, deep reference work, accountability for the outcome — on contingent terms. You get the rigor without the retainer, and we earn the fee when the hire actually lands.
Which CRE asset classes does 24 Hour Search cover?
We place leadership across office, industrial and logistics, retail and mixed-use, multifamily including affordable, hospitality, and land and development. Asset-class fluency matters at the leadership level — a Head of Asset Management built inside multifamily is not interchangeable with one built inside industrial, and the search anchors on the specifics of the actual portfolio.
Do you work with owners and operators, service providers, or both?
Both. On the principal side, we place leadership for owners, operators, REITs, funds, and developers. On the service-provider side, we place senior leadership for global and regional CRE service providers and brokerages, including Heads of Transaction Management, Account Leaders, and Market Leaders or Managing Principals.
How long does a typical CRE executive search take?
Most Director-through-VP searches close inside 60 to 90 days from engagement to accepted offer. C-suite searches usually run 90 to 120 days. The variable is rarely candidate availability — it is the clarity of the brief, the discipline of the interview process, and the speed of internal decisions. We work with clients to reduce friction at each of those points.
How is 24 Hour Search different from a typical CRE recruiter?
Our methodology is retained-grade — market mapping, passive-candidate outreach, deep reference work, accountability for the outcome — but the engagement is structured on contingent terms. Every search is run personally by an experienced practitioner with a CRE-fluent background, and the mandate is to reduce the risk of the wrong hire, not to fill the seat fastest.
The cost comparison, side by side: retained, contingent, and 24 Hour Search.
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