CHICAGO—Kinzie Real Estate Group just turned five this month, and its history hasillustrated the recovery and growth in the region's real estatemarket. The Chicago-based firm started out specializing inservicing distressed real estate, a good business in 2011, and bythe end of that first year, Kinzie had grown to just under 20employees. But these days it helps launch and build new luxurymultifamily developments, among other projects, and now has morethan 50 employees across three divisions and over $100 milliondollars in construction activity slated to start thisyear.

“When we launched five years ago,market demand was strong throughout the Midwest for servicingdistressed real estate,” says Steve Spinell, president of the Kinzie group. “Our corecompetencies in receivership, asset management, brokerage andgeneral contracting services perfectly positioned us for success ina tricky market.”