Amata Office Solutions, the largest privately owned office suites provider in Chicago, announced the formal launch of Amata Realty Group, an office brokerage service that specializes in working with companies requiring as much as 10,000 square feet of office space in the Chicago area.
“Even though there are more than 200,000 small businesses in Chicago, most commercial real estate brokers only deal with companies who need office space larger than 10,000 square feet,” said Ron Bockstahler, co-founder of Amata. “From our experience working with clients that outgrew the shared office environment, we learned that businesses looking for smaller spaces were incredibly underserved yet rapidly growing in number.
“Offering small office brokerage services is a natural extension of the services we already provide. It also solidifies for our clients that no one understands the office space needs of a small business better than Amata,” added Bockstahler.
According to the annual Inc. 500/5000 list, Chicago ranks second in the nation in the number of fast-growing small businesses. With a growing number of entrepreneurs and small and large companies choosing to open offices in Chicago, Amata has seen demand for its real estate services soar over the past decade.
Although Amata is more well-known for its state-of-the-art shared office facilities in downtown Chicago, over the past five years, the firm has successfully helped more than 135 clients lease traditional office space. This year alone, Amata has increased its commercial brokerage service by 50 percent as companies have become more comfortable with the idea of leasing their own space.
“Our goal has always been to help our virtual and shared office clients grow their businesses, and in some cases, moving to a space of their own is an important step in that process,” said Bockstahler. “While some of our clients have no plans to purchase or lease their own office space, others are expanding at fast rates and need to make the move with someone they can trust.”
“When our rapid growth inside of Amata’s shared space became too crowded for our team, Amata was there to help evaluate our needs, present logical alternatives and steer us through lease negotiations in an office space that will help accelerate our growth even more,” said Todd Black, chief operating officer at OPTOMI LLC, an IT staffing company.
According to Bockstahler, by offering a wide range of real estate services, from virtual and shared office solutions to brokerage services, Amata is able to work with companies no matter what stage of growth they are in.
“It makes sense for us to officially launch our brokerage division now as we prepare to expand this service offering and meet an unfulfilled need in the market,” said Bockstahler.
Amata recently added two experienced brokers to its team, with plans to hire several others over the next nine months.
