Keith Puritz and Brett Kroner join Avison Young in Chicago

High-profile industry leaders become Principals, will focus on industrial sales and lease transactions on behalf owners and users

CHICAGO, IL, March 30, 2015 /CNW/ - Danny Nikitas, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of the company's Chicago office, announced today the strategic hiring of high-profile commercial real estate industry veterans Keith Puritz and Brett Kroner in Chicago.

Effective immediately, both Puritz and Kroner become Principals of Avison Young and will continue to work as a team. They will focus on negotiating industrial sales and leasing transactions on behalf of owners and users in the Chicago metro region and other areas of the Midwest. Kroner and Puritz were most recently with CBRE in Chicago, where they served as Senior Vice-Presidents.

At Avison Young, Puritz and Kroner will advise new and longtime local, national and international clients on all aspects of industrial real estate solutions, including capital markets services. They will also collaborate with Avison Young's large group of industrial real estate specialists in Chicago, across the Midwest and throughout the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Germany.

"Brett and Keith are two highly experienced industry leaders who will add tremendous value to our industrial brokerage platform," comments Nikitas. "They are assertive professionals who represent both owners and users with equal expertise and energy. Working closely with the existing Avison Young industrial team, they will exponentially enhance our ability to serve clients."

Nikitas continues: "Furthermore, Keith and Brett are well known in the industry for representing their clients with unparalleled ability, and we are excited to have these two professionals on board. Combining their existing clientele with the ability to grow in our collaborative environment has us eager to get started right away. This is a great addition for our team."

Puritz brings 26 years of commercial real estate experience to Avison Young while Kroner provides 19 years. Together, they have completed more than 1,000 transactions spanning more than 50 million square feet of industrial space with an aggregate value in excess of $2.5 billion. In the process, Puritz and Kroner have provided real estate solutions for many prestigious corporate, institutional and private companies on a local, national and international basis, including Wal-Mart, Bombardier, Pfizer and Bridgestone Tire. The services have included: building acquisitions and dispositions, land transactions and entitlements, landlord and tenant representation, build-to-suit projects, sale/leasebacks, investment sales, lease renewals, tax consulting, facilities management, financial consulting, cost segregation and project management.

Avison Young opened its first U.S. office in Chicago in January 2009 and has expanded steadily in the local marketplace and Midwest region since then. With the addition of such visionary professionals, adds Nikitas, the firm is poised to further expand its industrial footprint in Chicago and across the Midwest while providing a higher level of service to clients nationally and internationally.

"I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to continue working with Brett at Avison Young," states Puritz. "We couldn't be more pleased to become Principals of this fast-growing firm, while serving clients on an international basis and having a leadership role in the company's strategic global expansion program. Ultimately, we will be able to grow our business while providing a very high level of service to our clients."

"Keith and I are looking forward to collaborating with our new colleagues across the company," says Kroner. "The firm is an industrial market leader and a commercial real estate company that strives to make a difference in its local communities. We're both delighted to be part of such a dynamic and innovative company, and to have the opportunity to reap the benefits of its Principal-led culture and client-centric focus." 

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Biographies

Keith Puritz
Keith Puritz brings 26 years of commercial real estate experience, primarily as an industrial market specialist, to Avison Young. Prior to joining the firm, he was a Senior Vice-President of CBRE's industrial properties group in suburban Chicago. During his career, he has completed sales and lease transactions valued in excess of $2.5 billion, and gained considerable experience and expertise in industrial property acquisitions and dispositions, leasing, land transactions, investment sales and build-to-suit projects.

Prior to joining CBRE, Puritz was a Senior Director with Cushman & Wakefield in Chicago, where he serviced industrial clients. During his many years in the industry, he has earned numerous awards. From 2002 to 2013, he was a member of CBRE's top industrial team in Chicago. He was also honored as CBRE's top industrial producer in Chicago four times (2002, 2004, 2005, 2009) and ranked second on seven occasions. He also ranked as Cushman & Wakefield's No. 1 industrial producer in 2000 and 2001, and cracked the firm's "Top 100" for all brokerage professionals in the U.S. every year between 1995 and 2001. In addition, he received several nominations for NAIOP Industrial Transaction of the Year, winning with colleague Brett Kroner in 2011, as well as Industrial Build-to-Suit of the Year, Suburban Office Build-to-Suit of the Year, and Industrial Redevelopment of the Year. In 2005 and 2009, he was named Industrial Broker of the Year by the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and was a finalist for the same award five other times. Puritz holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Kansas.

Brett Kroner
Brett Kroner brings 19 years of industrial real estate experience to Avison Young, most recently as a Senior Vice-President at CBRE in Chicago. His team, which included Keith Puritz, ranked as the firm's No. 1 industrial team in Chicago between 2002 and 2013. Kroner also earned entry to the company's chairman's circle from 2008 to 2013. Before moving to CBRE, Kroner was a Director with Cushman & Wakefield, focusing on industrial property transactions in the Chicago metropolitan area from 1997 to 2002. Prior to 1997, Kroner spent two years with CB Commercial of Denver, Inc. as part of an industrial redevelopment team for Stapleton Airport. His areas of expertise include strategic planning, transaction management, logistics analysis, development and design/build advisory, structured finance and tax, engineering, economic incentives counseling, asset valuation, project management, and land acquisitions and development.

Kroner's industry achievements (with Keith Puritz) include being named Industrial Broker of the Year by the Greater Chicago Food Depository in 2005 and 2009. In 2011, Kroner shared the 2011 NAIOP Industrial Transaction of the Year with Puritz; and in 2002, Kroner received the Frank Mahoney Award for Excellence in Brokerage through the Association of Industrial Brokers. He is an active member of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR), NAIOP, and the Association of Industrial Real Estate (AIRE), and a former member of the Young Industrial Brokers Association. In his community, he currently serves as a participant in Lake County Partners, and Vice-President of Finance and executive board member with the Cancer Wellness Center. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in communications from Western Michigan University where he played hockey and was inducted as a member of the Order of Omega Academic Honors Society.

Avison Young is the world's fastest-growing commercial real estate services firm. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Avison Young is a collaborative, global firm owned and operated by its principals. Founded in 1978, the company comprises 1,700 real estate professionals in 66 offices, providing value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management, financing and mortgage placement services to owners and occupiers of office, retail, industrial and multi-family properties.

www.avisonyoung.com

Avison Young was a winner of Canada's Best Managed Companies program in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and has demonstrated its commitment to the program and successfully reapplied for the designation as a Gold Standard winner in 2014. 

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Editors/Reporters
• Please click on links to view and download photos of Keith Puritz and Brett Kroner:
http://www.avisonyoung.com/sites/default/files/content-files/Media_Room/Temp/Keith_Puritz.jpg 
http://www.avisonyoung.com/sites/default/files/content-files/Media_Room/Temp/Brett_Kroner.jpg

SOURCE Avison Young Commercial Real Estate (BC)

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