Colliers has hired industrial specialist Sean Austin as an executive vice president. He joins Colliers’ already formidable Midwest industrial team and will focus on the Downtown Chicago market assisting clients with the leasing, acquisition and disposition of assets.
Austin most recently was a principal with Lee & Associates where he negotiated deals valued at more than $100 million in just under a 36-month period, primarily in Fulton Market and the city. Notable transactions include the sale of a 229,412-square-foot warehouse/distribution facility at 5401-5501 West Grand Ave. in Chicago for $14.6 million on behalf of Brennan Investment Group; the sale of an 80,000-square-foot, two-story warehouse at 325 North Ashland Ave. in Fulton Market for $12 million to TradeLane Properties; the sale (and subsequent lease) of 2500 South Corbett, an 18-acre land site in Bridgeport for $50.0 million; the disposition of Ravenswood Disposal Service, Inc.’s eight-acre site at 221 N. Washtenaw Ave. in the Kinzie Industrial Corridor to Prologis for $12 million; and the disposition of the American Life Bakery facility at 250 N. Washtenaw Ave. to Faropoint for $6.2 million. Notable clients include Prologis, Faropoint, Brennan, TradeLane, Sterling Bay, Transport Properties, Panattoni, IDI, Peppercorn Capital, Thor Equities and Leslie Hindman Enterprises.
He previously served as a vice president with The Kane Company in Portsmouth, NH, overseeing a 2.0-million-square-foot office and industrial portfolio. He has also worked at Cushman & Wakefield and Trammell Crow Company in Southern California where he completed deals valued at $400 million throughout the Los Angeles and the Inland Empire and was annually one of the top producers in the market.
Austin earned a BA from University of New Hampshire. After college, Austin played professional hockey for Long Beach Ice Dogs, an L.A. kings minor league affiliate as well as in Europe.
