Brian McCririe is the Executive Managing Director of SVN | Denver Commercial and National Council Chair for Occupier Services at SVN International. For more than 25 years he has advised corporate occupiers and tenants across the Denver Metro market on the commercial real estate decisions that move their businesses forward — not just the leases they sign.
He writes here for the executives who run those businesses: the CEOs, founders, and finance and operations leaders deciding where their company works, how much room it needs, and what that footprint should do for them over the next decade.
Real estate is a tool, not a cost
There's an old marketing line: people don't want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole. Real estate is the drill. Growth is the hole.
Most companies never see it that way. They treat real estate as a cost to minimize — a line item the CFO would gladly eliminate if the company could somehow operate without a place to work. That instinct is rational, and it's also where most occupiers leave the most value on the table.
The executives who outperform treat real estate differently. They treat it as a tool that improves their probability of winning — a lever on revenue, talent, margin, and speed. Same lease, same building, entirely different outcome, because they asked a better question before they signed.
Put simply: investors buy yield, control, and tax strategy. Occupiers buy growth, efficiency, talent, access, and flexibility. Brian's work is making sure the second group actually gets what they're paying for.
What Brian actually solves
A lease is the mechanism. It's almost never the objective. Behind every occupier decision is a business outcome the real estate is supposed to deliver:
- Revenue growth — getting into the right location, trade area, or footprint to grow sales
- Talent — using location, commute, amenities, and workplace experience as recruiting and retention tools
- Operating efficiency and margin — cutting wasted space and occupancy cost without cutting capability
- Flexibility — preserving expansion rights, contraction options, renewal leverage, and clean exits
- Risk reduction — controlling cost, securing term, and avoiding the disruption of a forced move
- Speed — entering Denver, opening faster, or securing a strategic foothold before a competitor does
When real estate is working, those outcomes show up in the operating results, not just the rent line. When it isn't, the company is paying for a tool it never learned to use.
Who Brian works with
Brian advises corporate occupiers and tenants across the Denver Metro market — companies with the scale and complexity to treat real estate as a strategic decision rather than an errand. That includes growing companies signing their first real lease, established firms renegotiating or relocating a headquarters, and multi-location operators rationalizing a portfolio.
The common thread is an executive who wants an advisor who thinks like an operator, not a transaction processor — someone who starts with the business problem and works back to the real estate, instead of the other way around.
Background
Brian McCririe, MCR, is one of the most experienced occupier-side commercial real estate advisors in the Denver Metro market. As Executive Managing Director of SVN | Denver Commercial and National Council Chair for Occupier Services within SVN International, Brian leads a specialized advisory practice built entirely around the needs of tenants, corporate real estate executives, and owner-occupants, never landlords.
Over a 25+ year career, Brian has completed more than 1,750 commercial real estate transactions totaling over 9.6 million square feet leased or acquired on behalf of occupier clients. His work spans direct leases, renewals, relocations, consolidations, portfolio rightsizing, build-to-suit, and owner-occupant acquisitions. Primary market focus includes Denver's CBD, LoDo, DTC, Cherry Creek, and Greenwood Village submarkets, with multi-market and global transaction execution for corporate clients managing distributed real estate portfolios.
Brian holds the Master of Corporate Real Estate (MCR) designation and is an active member of CoreNet Global, ICSC, and DMCAR. He is a published contributor to the Colorado Real Estate Journal, where he writes on occupier strategy, lease risk, and market intelligence for Denver-area businesses. His 'First Principles' approach (reasoning from fundamentals rather than market convention) has made him a trusted advisor to C-suite executives and corporate real estate leaders navigating lease decisions, HQ relocations, and portfolio strategy across the Denver Metro and beyond. Brian can be reached at brian.mccririe@svn.com or +1-303-763-0848.
What you'll find on this blog
Essays for executives who'd rather use real estate than merely pay for it. Expect frank takes on occupier strategy, the Denver market read from the tenant's side of the table, and the thinking behind treating a lease as a growth decision — written in the language of the boardroom, not the floor plan.
If you've ever caught yourself wishing you could run your business without real estate at all, that's worth a conversation. It usually means the tool is working against you instead of for you — and that's a fixable problem.
Work with Brian
If your company is facing a portfolio, lease, relocation, or site-selection decision in the next 6 to 18 months, the best time to talk is before the search starts — while every option is still open.
Book a strategy consultation »
Connect
- LinkedIn: Brian McCririe
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- Email: brian.mccririe@svn.com
Brian McCririe | Executive Managing Director, SVN | Denver Commercial | Denver, Colorado