‘People Power Everything’: How Putting People First Leads To CRE Success
When Emma Alhalel was starting her real estate career, she expected she would need to specialize in either residential or commercial real estate.
But when she interviewed with Chicago-based brokerage Peak Realty, which recently rebranded as Cross Street, she discovered that not only did the company work in both specialties, allowing her to explore both routes, but it would support her continuing development as a real estate professional whether she chose one specialty or pursued both.
She signed on the dotted line and joined the brokerage.
Three years later, Alhalel said that her enthusiasm about being part of the Cross Street team hasn’t wavered, thanks largely to the company’s “people first” culture.
“The people are what got me here and the people are why I stay,” she said.
Cross Street is a full-service brokerage rooted in Chicago, with a second office located in Denver. With roots originating in leasing, Cross Street has grown to support a specialized sales team, Cross Street Group, and has become a trusted partner for developers and ownership groups, said Cross Street Founder and President Shane Rachman.
Its accomplishments include having leased more than 15,000 units and selling more than $200M of multifamily and residential properties in Chicago and Denver in the past five years. When the company expanded to Denver in 2023, the team looked forward to leveraging its culture to continue growing in existing and new markets.
Additionally, the February 2024 rebrand from Peak Realty to Cross Street reflected the brokerage’s commitment to meeting the real estate industry’s evolving needs, Rachman said. The new brand also allowed the brokerage to expand on its residential and multifamily real estate services, including a new focus on sales in addition to leasing.
“The brokerage was created with a clear vision, to provide brokers with a platform where they can develop their careers without any ceilings on their potential achievement,” Rachman said. “Cross Street’s identity was curated around its core values: devoted customer service, keen expertise in real estate and above all, a love for people.”
Rachman said Cross Street’s new slogan — “The Corner of People and Place” — reflects the brokerage’s desire to help people achieve their real estate goals, whether they are team members building their own books of business, real estate developers who need data and marketing resources to inform their project decisions or clients deciding on their next home.
“Having the right people with us is our North Star because people power everything,” Rachman said. “Our goal within the brokerage is to attract and retain top-level sales talent who can help us bring value to our projects.”
Alhalel said that the company culture is among the reasons she loves working at Cross Street.
“Working with the right people and feeling supported is crucial to finding success and happiness in an industry,” she said. “We all want each other to feel at home here and feel like we can build a path forward.”
When brokers join Cross Street, they participate in a two-week training program and are mentored by the firm’s director of broker development. Upon meeting specific key performance indicators, the brokers are assigned to leasing projects and begin their own unique career journeys.
Brokers who exceed their KPIs are assigned to larger projects with a portfolio manager, who teaches them the skills to work with ownership groups.
Rachman said Cross Street supports its brokers’ professional development by hosting weekly trainings and working with brokers to develop individualized business plans. As brokers progress in their careers, Cross Street enables them to make the leap from leasing to sales. The company’s senior brokers each do $10M or more deals in residential sales annually.
Alhalel said that the leadership team establishes strong and approachable communication through consistent check-ins with employees.
“There’s a lot of support that comes inherently through the team’s communication and the check-ins that feel very authentic,” she said. “Supervisors may ask, ‘What can I do to make your life easier or better?’ or ‘How can I help you love working here even more?’ It feels very organic.”
Rachman said Cross Street’s people-first mentality extends to helping real estate developers achieve their goals. Cross Street provides developers with insights about tenants’ needs and preferences, as well as how the type of unit can impact rent.
Developers will soon be able to view this information through the company’s custom-built business intelligence tool, which provides deeper insights to help developers make better-informed strategic decisions in real time, Rachman said.
“Our process is about expectation-setting, which comes from listening to the developer and understanding what they want to accomplish, and then aligning ourselves with the project goals,” Rachman said. “The best outcome is when clients love the work we do and want to partner with us on all projects moving forward.”
Cross Street works hard to fulfill and exceed the promises it has made with both its internal team and clients, Rachman said. These commitments include providing insight and expertise in the person’s best interest, maintaining transparent communication and approaching projects with “creativity and boldness.”
Rachman said that these values will help Cross Street continue to grow and help clients for years to come.
“Having an entrepreneurial mindset means doing things a certain way because they work, but there are no rules,” he said. “If we're not doing something the right way, we’ll change it. The organizations that grow forever are the ones that are always learning and improving. That’s our company’s commitment as well.”
This article was produced in collaboration between Cross Street and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.
Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.
