Commercial real estate firms across Chicago and the broader Midwest are reporting a series of organizational moves, management assignments and strategic shifts in focus. The activity spans brokerage expansion, leadership appointments in real estate capital markets, new property management assignments and a merger between two development platforms.
McColly Bennett Commercial Advantage is expanding its brokerage footprint in Will County by opening an office in New Lenox and adding two brokers to support its commercial dealmaking. The firm has appointed Joe Nugent as vice president and real estate broker and named Esmerelda Roman as a real estate broker. With the New Lenox office, the company now maintains a commercial presence in Valparaiso, Dyer, Bourbonnais and New Lenox.
KeyBank Real Estate Capital, based in Cleveland, has added Brandon David as a vice president within its income property group. Reporting to regional executive Robert Ray, David is tasked with managing and growing relationships with West Coast-based real estate sponsors across all product types. His role includes working with clients to deliver financing solutions that range from construction and bridge financing to permanent debt, agency lending and balance sheet execution.
RMK Management Corp has been retained to oversee leasing and property management for The Bellwether, a 14-story, 117-unit rental community in Chicago’s Loop neighborhood. The property represents an office-to-residential conversion of the former office building at 79 W. Monroe. The building, originally constructed in 1905 and expanded in 1924, previously served as office space and as a major bank headquarters. In 2025, R2 Companies began redeveloping the landmark into residential use. The Bellwether is described as the first completed office-to-residential conversion under the city of Chicago’s LaSalle Street revitalization initiative.
Devon Self Storage, a member of The Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, Inc., has assumed property management responsibilities for three self-storage facilities located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Bowling Green, Kentucky. The three-property collection comprises 1,863 units totaling 281,693 rentable square feet and represents an expansion of Devon’s third-party management platform in regional self-storage markets.
In the development arena, UrbanStreet Group and Wingspan Development Group have completed a merger of their operations. Wingspan serves as the national development arm of Nicholas Family of Companies (NFOC). Under the new structure, Wingspan will transition its future pipeline of multifamily and mixed-use projects to UrbanStreet, enabling Wingspan to concentrate on rapid growth in commercial sectors such as sports and entertainment venues, retail, industrial and land development. UrbanStreet will lead multifamily development efforts going forward, while Nicholas & Associates will continue to provide construction services for multifamily projects within the alliance in Illinois, Florida and Wisconsin.
Together, these updates highlight continued repositioning of legacy office assets, expanded third-party management platforms, deepened capital markets coverage and consolidation among development firms active in both residential and commercial sectors.
