The new Lee office will cover the three major metropolitan markets in Wisconsin: Madison, Milwaukee and the Greenbay/Fox Valley area. Its primary focus will be on Madison and Southeastern Wisconsin. The office has expertise in all of the four real estate food groups plus development. As is the norm for Lee & Associates, the new office will send 6% of its gross profits to Lee & Associates nationally.

The founding principals of the new Wisconsin office are Steve Doran, most recently with Milwaukee-based Mid America Real Estate Group; John Brigham, formerly the founder/owner of East Madison Real Estate; Blake George, previously an SVP with NAI MLG Commercial; Richard Stern, previously founder of Stern Enterprises LLC; John Walsh, previously with Madison-based Munz Corp.; and Randy Wilson, formerly with the commercial division of Madison-based Re/Max Preferred.

George tells GlobeSt.com the brokers have known each other and done deals together for the past 15 years, but none has worked on the same team until now. "There was a mutual respect for each others' skill sets even though we were competitors," he says.

As for why they made the move, the group wanted the increased responsibility and control and the rewards that can come with that risk. "We were looking for a support system that offered us the freedom to manage our own local office," says Doran, a retail specialist.

The new office gives the Lee & Associates network five Midwest offices. The others are in Illinois, Michigan and Missouri.