Take a south side Italian guy who likes all aspects of the culinary arts and get him going in a career in industrial real estate—it’s only natural that he’d eventually settle into working with food companies.
John Basile, vice president within the Industrial Advisory Group at Colliers in Chicago, said that food is so ingrained in what we do. He would know— Basile has been working in the food industry for roughly eight years.
“The real estate-related needs of food companies, whether they are based in Chicago or throughout the rest of the country, are significant— from processing and manufacturing to distribution,” he explained.
In addition to his food industry work, Basile covers the south suburban marketplace, from the area surrounding Midway Airport all the way to University Park.
However, before he got to where he is now, there was one other field he explored—fresh out of college, he worked in the mental health industry. His experiences in that field, he noted, are the reason he is able to work around tantrums, from his clients’ to his own.
But Basile always knew that he wanted to work in real estate and found that he had reached the point in his life where he had to decide whether or not to make the move—a decision of now or never—so he did.
His entry into real estate was methodical and focused. He went through an SIOR membership directory and started cold calling firms, to understand what they were looking for and how he might fit in. He also attended one of SIOR’s “meet and greet” events.
“To start out, I didn’t want a large corporation,” Basile admitted. “I wanted a boutique, entrepreneurial firm.”
Ultimately, he settled in with Epic Savage and was paired with Jeff Locascio, another south side Italian.
And it was his first sale transaction that became his most memorable moment in the industry.
Basile recalled knocking on the door at Beamsterboer Inc., an industrial excavation company then in Orland Park, looking to determine if they’d be interested in selling their building. That following day, he knocked on the neighbor’s door, which was a media and production company, with a commission agreement in hand and suggested that the building next door would be a great expansion opportunity.
Not long after that, his first building sale/deal was completed— and although that was not his last transaction with those clients, it did teach him a valuable lesson.
“That first deal taught me two very important things, about real estate and business,” Basile shared. “It helps to have a certain degree of luck on your side when pursuing clients, but you also must work hard to keep those clients.”
After spending three years at Epic Savage, and three years at Grubb & Ellis, Basile landed at Colliers where he has been for four years.
“When you think of industrial real estate in Chicago, there’s Colliers and then there’s all the rest,” he said, speaking to the firm’s longstanding and groundbreaking experience in the field of industrial real estate.
Specifically, it’s the firm’s depth and experience that Basile said is amazing.
“The ability to pull from that, to learn from and get solutions from the people there is inspiring, and a true asset to better serving clients,” he continued. “It’s hard to get that support and the open collaboration anywhere else.”
Basile noted that the insights of senior people are beneficial because the issues and trends in the food service industry are indicative of most companies and industries operating out of industrial real estate.
“Users are better informed and smarter in their utilization of real estate,” he said. “It’s not just a matter of price per pound. It’s about occupancy costs, availability of qualified labor pools, design efficiencies and so much more.
Basile said their role, and what clients look for most, is their ability to connect the dots and to provide them with the necessary insights, analysis and support to make meaningful decisions. He added that it goes well beyond just saving another nickel per square foot.
Outside of work, Basile has served on the board of directors for Catholic Charities of the Joliet Diocese—what he considers one of his greatest accomplishments. In fact, the organization had also recognized his work and contribution and elected him Board Chairman last month.
When not working the southern Chicago industrial market or fulfilling his obligations to Catholic Charities, Basile looks to his family as well as physical activities—running, tennis, golf and skiing—to keep him busy. And then there is the cooking, baking, canning and pickling… of course—anything associated with the culinary arts.
For this summer, some of those hobbies have taken a back seat to getting settled into a new home with his wife, Kim, and children, that are five, seven and nine years old. Their new home in Lisle means a new school for the kids, something Basile and his wife point to as an exciting opportunity.