Chicago firm Camins Tomasz Kritt has found a suburban partner in Des Plaines-based GVA Chicago, as the two companies recently announced a merger to become CTK Chicago Partners.
The new firm will service the industrial, office, medical and retail sectors throughout the Chicago metropolitan area by providing leasing, investment, and other brokerage services. The company will also have an international scope as a member of CP Partners Worldwide.
Harvey Camins, president and CEO of Camins Tomasz Kritt, says that he and partner Michael Tomasz made the move because they wanted to expand their firm’s geographic scope and service capabilities.
“We had been discussing that for a long-term business strategy, we wanted to expand our geographic area,” he says.
Long known as an industrial powerhouse in the City of Chicago, firm principals wanted to partner with a company that had significant in-roads to the Chicago suburban market. Camins Tomasz Kritt did provide office services, but through the merger it will now have “enhanced office leasing capability and a deeper bench.”
Camins was also attracted to the ability to add an international scope to the firm.
“We all represent clients in Chicago who have office and industrial facilities in other cities,” says Camins. “Now, we will have affiliates in cities where our clients have a real estate need.”
CTK Chicago Partners will be led by a six-member Management Committee, comprised of principals from both companies. Camins will retain his current title with Camins Tomasz Kritt. Tomasz will be chairman and Aileen Gozzola Sandstedt, who was head of GVA, will be one of the main principals.
The firm will retain offices in Chicago and Des Plaines and employ 30 agents.
Camins believes it is a good time to grow a new firm as commercial real estate—especially industrial—seems to be in a gradual recovery stage.
“We are crawling out of the hole,” says Camins. “I don’t think it will be a big spike in activity, but it will be steady growth.”
