Three veteran Chicago retail brokers have left Baum Realty Group to launch their own firm, bringing with them a stable of well-known clients, including Starbucks and Chipotle Mexican Grill, Crain’s Chicago Business reported. Allen Joffe, Adam Secher and Julie Williams are now brokering retail leases at their new firm, First Street Retail Partners.
Joffe and Secher, former Baum partners, had spent most of their careers at the Chicago-based brokerage—Joffe since 1993 and Secher since 2001—while Williams started there in 2020.
“Having started my real estate career 29 years ago with (Baum founders) David and Doug Baum, I am grateful for the opportunity and vision the brothers had when I started learning from one of the best on the leasing front,” Joffe, First Street’s managing broker, said in a joint statement with Baum Realty.
First Street represents both landlords and tenants, including Starbucks and Chipotle, two clients that Secher and Joffe represented while with Baum Realty, also a retail specialist.
Pictured, from left: Allen Joffe, Adam Secher and Julie Williams.
