Movers & Shakers: See where the best and brightest of Chicago real estate are moving up

Kris Berger joined Compass from Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group. In the year before leaving Berkshire, the 20-year industry veteran closed $60 million in deals and was a top agent in the Hinsdale area. Berger now is the fifth-ranked overall agent at Compass.

Andrew Sandquist and JC Asensio left CBRE to join Newmark Knight Frank’s Chicago office as vice chairman and managing director, respectively, for capital markets. Sandquist and Asensio have completed sale/leaseback and net lease transactions in excess of $7.3 billion in volume, across 47 states and 10 countries, according to NKF.

Craig Cudzilo, meanwhile, joined NKF’s Chicago office as director of management services. Cudzilo has 10 years experience in the Army and 13 years in real estate. His responsibilities will include oversight of NKF’s third-party asset management portfolio throughout Chicago.

Industrial brokers Mark Nelson, Michael Nelson, Gavin Stainthorpe, Michael Conway and Brian Etten joined JLL from Chicago-based industrial firm NelsonHill, which was formed in 2010 by the Nelson brothers. They will serve as senior vice presidents at JLL, while Stainthorpe, Conway and Etten will be vice presidents.

Steven Monroe, Ted Parris and Frank Scherer, meanwhile, left NKF’s corporate lease restructuring group to join JLL as senior vice presidents of retail restructuring.

Parris has completed more than 100 million square feet of transactions valued in excess of $10 billion for major corporations like AT&T, GE Capital, Dunkin Brands and Kmart. Monroe specialized in lease mitigation and restructuring at NKF, helping clients including Starbucks, Walgreens, Shell Oil and KFC reduce their liabilities by more than $250 million.

Scherer served as managing director of NKF’s portfolio restructuring group since 2009. Prior to that he spent 35 years in the restaurant industry.

MK Asset hired Hugh Williams as managing broker and principal of its new brokerage services division. Williams joins the Chicago-based commercial brokerage from Avison Young, where he co-founded the firm’s Chicago office as the brokerage expanded outside of Canada. Previously he was a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield.

Former Avison Young broker Matthew Knafel will join Williams’ new division at MK as a senior associate.

Interra Realty named Joe Smazal and Brad Feldman senior managing partners. Smazal has completed more than $200 million in multifamily transactions since 2017 for the Chicago-based commercial brokerage, while Feldman closed more than 80 multifamily or mixed-use sales worth a total of more than $100 million in the past three years with a career total of more than $400 million in deals closed.

Jennifer Alter Warden, chief operating officer and executive vice president of Baird & Warner, was elected president of the 2019-2020 International Women’s Forum-Chicago board, and Cushman & Wakefield executive managing director Debra Moritz was named a board member. IWF is an invitation-only organization of more than 7,000 women from 33 countries, and in Chicago, it’s made up of 200 local leaders from business, the arts, academia and nonprofit fields.

Essex Realty Group Principal Jim Darrow was named president of the Lincoln Park Builders of Chicago, an honorary society of builders, developers, managers and principals of real estate-related firms.

Jessica Doll joined office landlord GlenStar as director of marketing and customer experience. The 15-year commercial real estate marketing veteran most recently was head of global brand at LaSalle Investment Management. She will oversee the “GlenStar Connect” customer experience program.

Alex Kritt, Benjamin Oxley and Robert Flaherty joined Colliers International Chicago as associate brokers. Kritt and Oxley will be part of the Rosemont-based industrial advisory group, while Flaherty will be part of the Downtown-based multifamily investment team.

Mark Hackendahl joined Entre Commercial Realty as an associate. Hackendahl has four years experience as a broker and has overseen 1.5 million square feet as a landlord rep and property manager.