Colliers Poaches Office Broker Dan Deuter From Cushman

A high-ranking Chicago commercial property broker is switching jerseys at a time when office sales are harder to close.

Dan Deuter joined Colliers as vice chair in its Chicago office after nearly seven years at Cushman & Wakefield, the firm announced this week. Deuter, who specialized in Midwest office capital markets deals as an executive managing director at Cushman, has tallied more than $15 billion in transactions nationwide during his career, Crain’s first reported.

Deuter will zero in on multi-tenant suburban office buildings across Chicago, a niche where he’s well known among institutional investors, according to Colliers. He previously logged stints at CBRE and Pearlmark Real Estate Partners, and he cut his teeth in valuation work at Arthur Andersen after graduating from the University of Illinois.

The timing of Deuter’s exit from Cushman & Wakefield comes as transaction volume has slowed to a trickle, due in part to remote work dents in demand and interest rate plateaus. Many suburban landlords are under pressure from maturing loans and resorting to fire-sale discounts. That dynamic has opened the door for distressed trades.

The trade for a seat at Colliers’ table also means Deuter is leaving a team — including Cody Hundertmark, Tom Sitz and Jeremiah Olsen at Cushman — that have risen to become go-to investment sales brokers in the post-pandemic office market. Most recently that team represented the seller of the deeply-discounted 111 West Illinois Street tower to WindWave Real Estate and Path Construction in June for $17 million. The buyers plan a $64 million office-to-residential conversion of the top six floors into 153 apartments. The discount was steep, as the River North office building sold for $75 million in 2015.

Adding a suburban office specialist could pay off for Colliers if activity picks up in the next few years, or if investors increasingly target distressed suburban products for opportunistic buys.

— Eric Weilbacher