Each year, Midwest Real Estate News elects a new class to its Midwest Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame. Our 2018 class has just been announced, and copies of that issue have been sent. But before we start running those profiles online, we are highlighting the careers of the CRE pros who were selected for our 2017 Hall of Fame class. This week, we look at the successful career of Randy Blankstein, president of The Boulder Group in the Chicago suburb or Northbrook, Illinois.
Top producer: How successful is Randy Blankstein? He has personally handled $3 billion in net lease transactions during the 20 years he’s made that his specialty. He operates a Northbrook, Illinois, boutique real estate firm with a long reach: The Boulder Group closed single-tenant net lease sales in Texas, Massachusetts, Florida and Missouri, as well as Illinois, in one four-week period in late 2017.
Big-time success: Since Blankstein founded The Boulder Group in 1997, the company has racked up the acquisition and disposition of more than $4 billion of single-tenant net-lease real estate transactions. From 2011 to 2016, the firm was ranked in the top 10 companies in the nation for single tenant retail transactions by both Real Capital Analytics and CoStar.
Blankstein was ranked by CoStar as the number-one net-lease broker in the nation in 2015, and received honorable mention for the 2014 Net Lease Executive of the Year honor given out by Commercial Property Executive Magazine.
Like a rock: Blankstein worked a few years for one of the larger national firms after his 1991 graduation from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder, then founded, at 26, the Boulder Group. The name isn’t the only connection he retains from his college days: He still likes to ski in Colorado.
Stats: The Boulder group regularly produces triple-net-lease market reports, analyzing trends for segments ranging from big-box retailers to dollar stores – and Blankstein pays attention to them.
“In an industry where, sometimes, flash over substance is a widely used approach, I have always tried to take a different approach,” he said. “Throughout my career, I have always made decisions using data rather than subjective opinion. Many have come and gone in this industry as they have focused on short term gains without an understanding of potential repercussions. One thing I have prided myself on is the long-term vision and outlook I have had for our firm over its 20 years of existence.”
