Former Savills President Joins PropTech Firm

PropTech firm SquareFoot has lured former Savills President Michael Colacino to the company to oversee its next stage of growth.

Colacino was most recently at Savills, where he was president for 16 years, starting from when it was still Studley and had not yet merged with London-based Savills. Colacino will also serve as president at SquareFoot.

He was part of the team that brokered Time Warner's landmark leases in Columbus Circle and Hudson Yards. He was also credited in playing a role in the merger between New York-based Studley and Savills in 2014. He left the brokerage in 2018, when Mitchell Rudin assumed the role of president.

“Whenever you have the chance to bring aboard a superstar with 30 years of experience like Michael, you leap at the opportunity,” SquareFoot CEO and co-founder Jonathan Wasserstrum said in a statement. “We have built something special over the past handful of years, and Michael is the right person to help us usher in the next decade for SquareFoot. This is a dream hire, and I look forward to seeing where Michael takes us next.”

Seven-year-old virtual brokerage SquareFoot is an office listing platform that combines proprietary technology with a team of brokers to bring the office leasing process online.

The company raised $16M in a Series B round led by DRW Venture Capital earlier this month, and the firm says it has closed more than 1,200 leases so far.

Colacino will join Jeff Rosenblatt, who was hired by SquareFoot from the Kaufman Organization in July, Crain’s New York Business reported. 

In a statement, Colacino said the company is an “exciting place to be” and that he is passionate about helping companies grow and expand their technology.

“SquareFoot has created a platform that provides evolving companies with multiple solutions — more than any traditional brokerage,” he said. “I’m energized by a place that’s defining the future of tenant representation, and real estate brokerage generally.”