• Involve CRE in M&A due diligence early. CRE teams should be involved in M&A due diligence before the deal closes to identify property liabilities, lease commitments, and portfolio redundancies up front. By integrating early, CRE leaders can influence key integration decisions—including which assets to retain, consolidate or exit—ensuring that real estate strategy aligns with the business from Day 1.
• Optimize the portfolio for growth and efficiency. M&A is a catalyst to optimize the real estate footprint—not only to cut costs, but to reposition assets to support future growth. Firms should proactively identify redundant properties, plan strategic exits and reinvest in growth markets and innovation hubs. A well-executed strategy ensures that the merged company operates leaner and stronger, balancing efficiency with future-focused location and talent goals.
• Implement smart office solutions for seamless integration. Data-driven decisions are essential post-merger. CRE teams should integrate workplace management platforms, use occupancy analytics to track space utilization and deploy smart office solutions to streamline post-merger space planning and enhance efficiency. A unified tech infrastructure helps manage security access, facility maintenance and space planning more efficiently, enabling a seamless transition for employees while optimizing operational costs.
• Align real estate strategy with the new business model. Real estate strategy should reflect how the business is evolving operationally, culturally and structurally. Integration planning must consider impacts to the supply chain, internal processes and governance in addition to the physical space. This alignment becomes especially important when business models shift. If the merged entity is pivoting toward digital banking, that could mean closing branches while expanding technology hubs. If the focus is wealth management, the priority may be prime client-facing office spaces over back-office real estate. CRE leaders must work closely with executive leadership to ensure that investments reflect where the business is headed.

M&A in the financial services sector has long been a strategic lever for growth, diversification, and technological advancement. As firms navigate regulatory shifts, competitive pressures and the demand for digital transformation, M&A remains a critical pathway for achieving scale and operational efficiency. But as the pace and complexity of transactions accelerate, the margin for integration missteps narrows, especially as it relates to real estate strategy. Overlooking CRE during integration can lead to redundant space, employee disruption and missed synergy targets.

The challenge for CRE leaders is not only to manage physical assets, but to strategically position the portfolio to support transformation while minimizing disruption. With appetite for dealmaking on the rise in financial services, aligning real estate strategy with integration goals in a complex environment is becoming increasingly urgent. In fact, 76% of financial services CEOs who made a significant acquisition in the last three years plan to make one or more acquisitions in the next three years, according to PwC’s 2025 global CEO survey. Additionally, JLL’s Future of Work Surveyrevealed that 61% of financial services CRE decision-makers marked growing revenue through expansion, M&A and new markets as a top corporate goal for their business in the next five years.

Without a well-defined transition strategy, firms risk inefficiencies, cultural disconnects and increased operational costs. CRE decision-makers must be prepared to act swiftly and strategically, get involved early in the M&A process and engage specialized expertise to enhance integration. As M&A continues to reshape the financial services sector, the most successful organizations will be those that proactively align their real estate portfolios with business strategy, supporting cultural cohesion and creating long-term value.

A successful portfolio strategy balances efficiency with intentionality—it’s about creating a real estate footprint that is lean, future-ready and positioned to advance the strategic goals of the new enterprise.

Mergers inevitably reveal real estate redundancies including overlapping branches, duplicative office hubs or underutilized assets acquired through legacy growth. But identifying excess space is only the beginning. Portfolio optimization in an M&A context isn’t just about cost-cutting; it’s about reshaping the footprint to reflect the new business model, talent strategy and customer reach. The most successful transitions are those where CRE teams act early, collaborate cross-functionally and approach space decisions with a blend of data and future-focused vision.

In the office segment, BMO’s $16B acquisition of a regional U.S. bank—the largest-ever by a Canadian bank—was supported by a structured integration strategy. The bank established a 40% synergy target, and engaged with JLL Consulting pre-close to help deliver $30M in cost savings. Working collaboratively, the JLL team prioritized portfolio data integration and cleanup, identified rapid synergy savings opportunities and validated scenario feasibility with the business ahead of Legal Day 1. That process surfaced $24.5M in CRE synergies for the office portfolio, including $7M in first-year savings and a 40% rentable square footage reduction in footprint. The effort also projected nearly 50% annual cost savings and positioned the CRE function as a key stakeholder across M&A workstreams.

On the retail side, Webster Bank and Sterling Bancorp used their merger as an opportunity to consolidate and reevaluate the purpose and performance of each branch across their combined footprint. The CRE team engaged JLL as a strategic real estate partner and conducted a strategic review that considered not only lease terms and branch overlap, but also the distinct value each location provided to customers. With overlapping coverage in the Northeast U.S. and similar community banking profiles, the team executed a multi-phased optimization plan, beginning with a strategic branch review and progressing to the consolidation of corporate offices. Importantly, Webster viewed real estate as a platform to reflect the new brand and workforce model. With JLL’s support, the company used the integration to modernize its headquarters in Stamford and implement new workplace standards across key locations.

Whether it be an office or retail-focused merger, CRE leaders need to start with robust data—space utilization metrics, headcount projections, lease obligations and market trends—and complement it with scenario planning to optimize effectively. Consolidation strategies should be tested for downstream impacts on commuting patterns, customer access and ESG performance. For firms with owned real estate, this is also an opportunity to unlock value through selective sale-leasebacks or asset repositioning.

Ultimately, real estate is one of the most visible expressions of strategic direction during a merger. Whether expanding into new markets, consolidating for efficiency or modernizing for the future of work, location strategy must be grounded in rigorous scenario planning and aligned with the newly formed organization’s mission and growth trajectory. Space consolidation should be an enabler of transformation—not just a byproduct. 

Real estate plays a pivotal role in translating M&A ambition into operational reality. Institutions that treat CRE as a strategic lever rather than a downstream function are better positioned to unlock value, retain talent and execute on growth. Success depends on early involvement during due diligence, partnership with CRE advisors, thoughtful portfolio optimization that balances cost with market positioning, smart tech integration to enable seamless transitions and a footprint that reflects the new business model. Each factor in the decision-making process—including location, technology or workplace design—sends a strong message about how the companies will move forward together and where the business is headed.