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Chicago & Midwest  + Downtown  + Retail  | 

Veteran Chicago Retail Brokers Launch Their Own Firm

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.

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First Street Retail Partners

About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).

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