Veteran leasing broker Michael Lirtzman has joined Colliers International as an executive vice president and principal to lead the firm’s downtown Chicago agency leasing practice, announced Jim Carris, executive managing director and Chicago market leader.
“Michael brings such a unique perspective to the position with years of experience on the ownership and development sides of the business,” said Carris. “With that in mind, we are going grow the team around him while taking a more holistic approach to our agency assignments. We’re confident that with Michael at the helm we will be introducing a new roadmap for how this business is successfully executed.”
Lirtzman has been tasked with building the group in a demanding environment. Leveraging Colliers’ global platform of services, he and his team will provide a comprehensive and flexible service delivery for ownership, where all parties’ interests are aligned and without a one-size-fits-all solution. The goal is to provide a customized, long-term business plan that not only sees ownership through the good times, but also charts a stable course through the bad.
“Given today’s conditions we need to solve for a very different set of problems than we did a just few short years ago,” said Lirtzman. “We want to provide a truly integrated service delivery for ownership where we position our clients to deal successfully with short-term problems that impact long-term plans via solutions that are flexible and adaptable.”
Lirtzman most recently served as director of leasing at Sterling Bay where he was responsible for the oversight and transaction execution on the firm’s national portfolio of office assets including more than 6 million square feet in Chicago. Projects ranged from new development to adaptive re-use as well as the acquisition of iconic Class A assets.
Lirtzman also successfully launched and leased up multiple new local developments in other markets including Portland, Oregon, and Miami, Florida. Notable projects and transactions in Chicago include: newly constructed office towers in the Fulton Market submarket including the 205,000-square-foot 210 North Carpenter Street and the 555,000-square-foot 333 North Green Street; the lease-up and redevelopment of 600 West Chicago, a 1.4-million-square-foot creative loft office building in River North; the redevelopment and stabilization of the iconic Prudential Plaza, a 2.3-million-square-foot, two-tower complex in the East Loop; and the redevelopment and lease-up to 100 percent of the vacant 311 West Monroe Street in the West Loop. Notable tenant transactions at these projects and others include Google, Ernst & Young, Mayer Brown, West Monroe Partners and Edelman, among others.
Before joining Sterling Bay Lirtzman was an executive vice president at Transwestern where he led the Chicago office’s leasing division and advised clients on acquisitions, redevelopments and successful leasing strategies and campaigns.
“Brokers and clients rave about Michael,” said Carris. “The repeat business he generates speaks to his reputation as one of the best in our business. We’re glad he has joined the Colliers team and are beyond confident that he is the right person to lead agency leasing for us.”
Lirtzman is a graduate of the University of Michigan.
