Logistics real estate giant Prologis has hired Compass co-founder Chris Curtis to lead a new data center team.
The company this week announced it has hired Curtis in a newly created role as global head of data centers, reporting to Damon Austin, Prologis’ global head of customer-led development.
In the new role, Curtis will be responsible for growing Prologis’ data center business, including standing up a dedicated data center team; helping ‘energize’ Prologis’ portfolio of buildings and landholdings; sourcing, structuring, and executing data center developments; and developing relationships with customers to scale the business.
Curtis joins from Compass Datacenters, where he was co-founder, principal, and SVP of development and acquisitions. Prior to his 13 years at Compass, Curtis was president and principal at Curtis Investments where he developed and managed build-to-suit real estate projects nationwide.
“As some of you know, I decided to resign from Compass Datacenters a few weeks ago. What a phenomenal ride since co-founding the company in 2011 with Chris Crosby! I am honored and thankful to have played a part in the rocket ship ride,” Curtis said recently on LinkedIn.
Prologis, the largest industrial real estate company in the world, owns more than 4,000 buildings spanning almost 1 billion sq ft across 19 countries in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
Prologis said has been opportunistically investing in and developing data centers since 1999. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the company said it had started more than $500 million in data center projects.
Prologis said its customers have converted 28 buildings in the Prologis portfolio to data centers. The company said it plans to develop 20 more data centers over the next five years.
In recent years Prologis has been partnering with data center firm Skybox; the two companies are developing a number of data center campuses together in Texas, Illinois, and Virginia.