Keith Puritz, principal of industrial services at Avison Young, got his start in commercial real estate after first considering investment banking. As a senior in college, he flew to New York for six interviews with investment banking firms.
“I always joked that there were six rejection letters already written before the plane landed,” he said.
Fortunately, while in New York, he had an interview with Cushman and Wakefield. The interview led to more interviews in Chicago, and ultimately the start of his career, which recently took him to Avison Young (following a number of years at CBRE). He jumped into the industrial market in 1988 without knowing Chicago, real estate, or sales. He said he was fortunate to have strong mentors at C&W– Jim Connor, now a top executive of Duke Realty, and Mike Fonda, now a principal at Avison Young.
The most rewarding part of his current position, as a principal in Avison Young’s industrial division, is helping clients solve problems.
“I often ask clients what keeps them up at night. Often it is worries about their business or a particular real estate issue they are facing. When a client says, ‘Thank you…I have one less thing keeping me up at night,’ that’s when I know I’ve done my job.”
Puritz has worked with the same business partner, Brett Kroner, for 18 years. They have a five person team and share the role of ‘keeping the engine running,’ ensuring each team member has a voice, an opportunity to be accretive and maintain their focus on industrial sales and leasing for their clients in Chicago and across the U.S. They cover a wide territory and are always focused on bringing all the right resources to the table to create solutions for their clients.
Among the team’s recent new projects are a 625,000-square-foot state-of-the-art speculative facility in Waukegan, a development of Bridge Development Partners; and a 300-acre business park in Pleasant Prairie, WI developed by Venture One. “Both are unique opportunities we are excited to be a part of,” Puritz said.
Among his most memorable moments in commercial real estate is a day in the early 1990s.
“I received a call from a client wanting to see a building on President’s Day. Most businesses were closed, but being that we were in a recession, I, of course, raced out to meet them. During the tour they asked to walk the roof. The five of us climbed up the ladder, opened the roof hatch, and began the inspection. We heard a noise, turned around, and the hatch had shut. We all knew right away it was locked. With no cell phones (not many people had them back then), and no one in sight, we were effectively stranded. After staring at each other for five minutes, the decision was made. Looking back, I’m not sure what this says about people’s views of real estate brokers, but I was drafted to hang off of the building first as we created a human chain. I then dropped ten feet to the ground and was able to get back in. Thankfully, it wasn’t a modern 36-foot clear building! I have no idea whatever happened to that client, other than they didn’t buy the building.”
While getting off of that roof was an accomplishment of sorts, there are other life moments that he considers his greatest accomplishments, those that will define him for years to come.
“Aside from my wife and children, my greatest accomplishment was caring for my mom during her last 12 months before she passed away,” he said. “It was a very tough and humbling experience, to say the least, yet very rewarding as well.”
When he’s not working, he enjoys tennis, boxing, guitar, golf, and riding his Harley. He’s also a die-hard Kansas City Royals fan, although he also loves the Chiefs and Jayhawks. Another big accomplishment was being able to attend Game 2 of the World Series last year.
This summer will be more low-key, however, as he recuperates from surgery to repair a tennis elbow issue.
“After trying every other option, I’m having surgery this week, so that will shape most of my summer. I’ll be working hard at physical therapy so that I can get back to my hobbies.”
Also, his son, Connor, who’s a junior in high school, was accepted into an astro-physics program at Boston University. He and his wife, Reba, and daughter, Emme, will be spending some time there to visit him in mid-July.
