Albert Friedman

Chief Executive Officer, Imperial Realty

Klairmont’s Chicago-based property firm built scale by buying what others overlooked.

He joined the family business in 1978, working alongside his father, the late Larry Klairmont, and helped grow Imperial from a small industrial portfolio into one of the region’s largest independent commercial landlords.

Imperial specializes in acquiring distressed office, retail and industrial assets and repositioning them through renovation and hands-on management. That strategy has produced a portfolio of more than 100 properties totaling over 10 million square feet and serving more than 3,000 tenants, though much of it is Class B space in the city’s neighborhoods and suburbs, far from gleaming skyscrapers downtown.

In a market where older office and flex properties face rising vacancy, Imperial’s ability to manage cost and tenant churn amid record-high office vacancy has become more important than acquisition prowess.

Klairmont was inducted into the Chicago Association of Realtors Hall of Fame in 2015 alongside his father, the first father-son duo to receive the honor together. They also amassed one of the largest collections of valuable and quirky cars, ranging from luxury rides to vehicles used in famous movie scenes, but the younger Klairmont moved to auction off the collection in 2025.

— Caleb McCullough