Cushman & Wakefield has expanded its Capital Markets Data Centers team with the addition of two senior professionals focused on the growing data center segment. The firm announced that Luke Marchand has joined as managing director and Kip Soltesz has joined as senior director.
Both executives are based in Washington, D.C. and will concentrate on capital markets assignments for data center clients. Their roles place them within Cushman & Wakefield’s Capital Markets Data Centers team, where they are expected to focus on transactions and advisory work tied to the data center ecosystem.
Marchand arrives with extensive commercial real estate experience and a specialized emphasis on data center land acquisition, development, and capital markets work. His background includes responsibility for sourcing and advancing development opportunities in this niche, with a particular focus on hyperscale-oriented projects. At his prior firm he was involved in creating and executing a development pipeline tailored to the requirements of hyperscale data center users.
Before joining Cushman & Wakefield, Marchand served as vice president of acquisitions at TA Realty. In that role, he was responsible for sourcing and executing a hyperscale-focused data center development pipeline. That experience deepened his familiarity with identifying suitable land sites, assembling development opportunities, and structuring capital for large-scale digital infrastructure projects.
Soltesz joins Cushman & Wakefield with a professional background that spans both the technology and real estate sectors. His experience includes exposure to corporate data center strategies as well as the real estate processes needed to deliver facilities that support those strategies.
Most recently, Soltesz worked at Amazon Web Services, where he was involved in data center acquisitions and development. His role there included contributing to the identification and advancement of data center projects, aligning site selection and development activity with the operational needs of a major cloud services platform.
Marchand and Soltesz will coordinate closely with Cushman & Wakefield’s DC Metro Capital Markets team. By integrating with that group, they will be able to tap into the firm’s regional investment sales experience, relationships with capital providers, and debt and structured finance capabilities to address client requirements.
The combined efforts of the Capital Markets Data Centers team and the DC Metro Capital Markets team are intended to support data center clients across the Mid-Atlantic and on a national basis. This structure is designed to provide clients with a single platform for guidance on investment sales, capital raising, and development-related needs tied to data center assets.
With these hires, Cushman & Wakefield is adding dedicated expertise that connects data center land and development strategies with capital markets execution. The move underscores the ongoing intersection of technology infrastructure requirements and institutional real estate capital in key U.S. markets, including the Washington, D.C. region and the broader Mid-Atlantic.
