Lee & Associates announced that Sean Austin has returned as a principal in its industrial brokerage group. He will work from the company’s Chicago office.
Over the course of his career, Sean has represented more than 20 million square feet of Class A institutionally owned industrial projects. He specializes in the leasing and sale of industrial assets throughout the Chicago metropolitan area for institutional owners, sources industrial development opportunities, and executes tenant representation assignments for national clients.
Sean originally joined Lee & Associates of Illinois in 2018 as a vice president, focusing on the Chicago-area big-box industrial market from the city through the I-55 and I-80 submarkets. Sean was the recipient of the firm’s Clif Fincher award, an achievement designated to the highest producing Lee & Associates non-Principal in North America at their annual national Summit. He was promoted to Principal in 2021. From 2023 until his return to Lee, Austin served as Executive Vice President at Colliers.
“I am very grateful to be granted the opportunity to lead the City of Chicago industrial market for Lee & Associates and return to the firm’s exceptional culture and entrepreneurial spirit,” Sean said.
Sean began his commercial real estate career in 2003 in the dynamic Southern California industrial market where he leased and sold more than $400 million of industrial properties in the Los Angeles County/Inland Empire markets.
“Sean is a proven performer with deep relationships on both sides of the transaction,” Michael Plumb, SIOR, principal, said. “We’re thrilled to have him back.”
Sean grew up in Boston, has a BA in Economics from University of New Hampshire, and is an alumnus of Phillips Andover Academy. He played professional hockey in the LA Kings minor league system and in Europe. Sean lives in Park Ridge with his wife, daughter, and soft-coated wheaten terrier.
