By day, Michael Lirtzman advises some of the country’s largest office landlords. By night, he plays lead guitar in a Chicago-area rock band. Now, the veteran broker is bringing that same energy to CBRE’s national office investor leasing group.
Lirtzman is a managing director of national investor leasing at CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm. He reports to another Chicago-based executive, Mike Watts, who is president of the group dedicated to providing a wide range of services to national and international investors such as large institutions.
Lirtzman’s recent hiring from Colliers is the latest step in Dallas-based CBRE’s efforts in recent years to create a practice dedicated to major landlords seeking continuity within their far-flung portfolios or, to draw further on his musical experience, getting everyone performing together.
The team built by Watts in recent years has shown offstage creativity aimed to bring together a wide range of services — from leasing and management to marketing, branding and business development — to serve major clients. In doing so, CBRE hopes to add entire portfolios of business rather than chasing one-off deals.
“They’re delivering something to their clients that I think is unique in the industry,” Lirtzman told CoStar News. “This is a platform that’s poised to win more business from these clients and adapt to a changing world. The behavior pattern that we’re seeing is, these clients like one-stop shopping where there’s consistent delivery of services.
“They know if they have a problem, they don’t need to make 50 phone calls. They can make one phone call.”
That call will go to Watts, Lirtzman or Jennifer Johnson in Chicago, or to Nikki Cupit in Dallas. Those leaders connect landlords to local CBRE professionals across the globe as they lease, buy, sell, develop or reposition properties.
Seeking some time to 'just focus on the music'
Lirtzman, who was raised and now lives in Chicago’s northern suburbs, is the father of three daughters in their 20s.
As for his guitar playing, he spends his free time as the lead guitarist for rock band Tribeless, a group that performs at summer festivals, bars and other venues and events in the city and suburbs.
“It’s one of those things where you can put everything in life aside and just focus on the music and having fun with the audience,” Lirtzman said. “We have a lot of friends and family come see us. My wife always says, ‘You look so happy up there.’ It’s because I am.”
Aside from performing music, Lirtzman most recently was a principal and head of U.S. office agency leasing at Colliers. Previously, Lirtzman was director of leasing at Chicago-based developer Sterling Bay and an office leasing broker at Transwestern.
His assignments have included representing landlord KBS in leasing at Accenture Tower, a 40-story tower at 500 W. Madison St. in the Loop business district, and representing Sterling Bay in-house on a large lease with Google at 210 N. Carpenter St. in Chicago’s Fulton Market.
In his new role, Lirtzman will no longer have a hands-on role in office leasing.
"Michael brings a strong investor perspective and a deep understanding of office leasing strategy across market cycles,” Watts said in a statement. “His experience advising owners on acquisitions, repositioning and leasing execution will be an important asset as we continue to expand our platform and support our clients.”