CHICAGO—Chicago is one the nation's great cities for small businesses, but officials from Amata Office Solutions say that many of these companies can't easily find real estate brokers that specialize in serving their needs. And to fill that niche Amata, the largest privately owned office suites provider in Chicago, has just launched Amata Realty Group, an office brokerage service that will work with companies that need less than 10,000-square-feet of office space in the Chicago area.
“Even though there are more than 200,000 small businesses in Chicago, most commercial real estate brokers only deal with companies who need office space larger than 10,000-square-feet,” says Ron Bockstahler, co-founder of Amata. "From our experience working with clients that outgrew the shared office environment, we learned that businesses looking for smaller spaces were incredibly underserved yet rapidly growing in number.”
“Offering small office brokerage services is a natural extension of the services we already provide. It also solidifies for our clients that no one understands the office space needs of a small business better than Amata,” adds Bockstahler.
According to the annual Inc. 500/5000 list, Chicago ranks second in the nation in the number of fast-growing small businesses. And all that activity and growth has fueled a great deal of demand for Amata's real estate services over the past decade.
Amata is best known for its shared office facilities in downtown Chicago, but over the past five years, the firm has also helped more than 135 clients lease traditional office space, company officials say. This year alone Amata has increased its commercial brokerage service by 50%.
“Our goal has always been to help our virtual and shared office clients grow their businesses, and in some cases, moving to a space of their own is an important step in that process,” says Bockstahler. “While some of our clients have no plans to purchase or lease their own office space, others are expanding at fast rates and need to make the move with someone they can trust.”
Amata recently added two brokers to its team, with plans to hire several others over the next nine months.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
