Ron Frain joins Sterling Bay to head industrial division

Ron Frain will join Sterling Bay to oversee the development company’s newly formed industrial division, according to a statement from Sterling Bay.

The company’s Managing Principal Andy Gloor will reunite with Frain who hired him out of college in 1994.

“Ron was my first boss and my mentor. I look back on all those years and realize how incredibly fortunate I was to learn the business from a man who has accomplished so much,” Gloor said.

Over the years Frain has formed three of the most successful commercial real estate and development firms in Chicago with hundreds of millions of square feet in transactions along the way. He started his career at Gottlieb/Beale as vice president and director where he successfully managed development and marketing activities for both industrial and office buildings.

Several years later, in 1972, he and the other principals of Gottlieb/Beale formed Hawthorn Realty Group, where Frain served as executive vice president, chief administrative officer and director of industrial development.

In 1978, he co-founded Frain Camins & Swartchild, where he was chairman until the sale of the firm in 1997 to New York-based Insignia/ESG, playing an instrumental role in the ascent of FC&S to Chicago’s largest independently owned real estate company.

Frain left Insignia/ESG in December of 2000 to co-found Bridge Development Partners. Today, Bridge is a major player in the Chicago industrial development market. His departure from Bridge was part of the larger succession strategy that he and the firm put in place in 2015.

Frain is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and an active member of the Association of Industrial Real Estate Brokers, Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association and the University of Wisconsin Club of Chicago.