Patrick Russo has become a partner at Stream Realty Partners, a promotion that follows the firm’s rapid expansion of its Chicago office.
Russo takes an ownership stake in the Dallas-based real estate services, development and investment firm while maintaining his title of executive managing director and his role as leader of Stream’s Chicago office. He has been with the firm since 2019.
He also will continue an active role in office agency leasing, a niche where Stream has carved out a big role in Chicago. Stream represents owners of several well-known buildings in the city, including the Merchandise Mart; 500 W. Madison St.; 800 W. Fulton St.; and The Fields development on the North Side.
The company recently opened a larger office at 800 W. Fulton.
“Partnership at Stream is very much the ethos of the firm,” Russo told CoStar News. “For me and the people who have joined us, that’s a big reason we came here, the chance to build something and become owners together in a business. I hope it’s the first of a series of partnership announcements as we continue to grow.”
Stream has grown from just four Chicago employees in 2017 to 41 today, the company said. The portfolio of properties it leases and manages has grown over the past five years from about 7.4 million square feet to 31.5 million.
Overall, the company’s headcount has increased from 750 to more than 1,100 over the past half-decade.
A key moment in the growth of the Chicago office came last year when Stream hired a team of office leasing brokers from Cushman & Wakefield that included industry veterans Jack McKinney Jr., Mark Baby, Wendy Katz, Andrea Saewitz, Ben Cleveland, Mark Gunderson and Matt Lerner.
Russo, Adam Showalter and Jessica O’Hara last year were named office property representatives of the year at the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s Commercial Real Estate Awards event.
“All of our senior leaders in Chicago, no one is sitting around just managing,” Russo said. “Everyone is procuring business. We like to consider ourselves player-coaches.”
Russo said Stream wants to continue hiring, in particular for its office tenant broker, office property management and industrial brokerage teams. The firm also looks to develop and invest in properties, as it has in other cities.