John Arends

I am a principal at Colliers, chairman of our National Law Firm Services group, and chair of our National Tenant Advisory Council.  I have exclusively specialized in tenant representation for my entire 30+ year career.  My strengths are my deep relationships within Colliers and the Chicago market and my highly strategic approach and unrelenting negotiation style.

In my career, I have completed more than 1,500 assignments totaling more than 12 million square feet of office space for many of Chicago’s leading companies.

Local and national companies and organizations  rely on my expertise in tenant representation and strategic real estate advisory services. I am passionate about understanding my clients’ business and ensuring the real estate solution matches the business goals. I have 22 years of experience, 18 of which exclusively representing occupiers.  The 3 years I spent with the largest office landlord in the country at the time, Equity Office Properties, has given  me a unique perspective and invaluable understanding to commercial real estate. 

Chicago is home base and where a majority of my practice is concentrated, but I have completed projects in  most states and many countries. I understand the full scope of services that Colliers can provide and pride myself on ensuring my clients can get access to the appropriate resources. At the onset of Covid, I started the Office Space Podcast and have produced over 30 episodes with topics covering anything related to commericial office space. It's important to continue to grow and learn and this has provided me an outlet to do both. 

I am a senior client services coordinator with Colliers Downtown Chicago Office Advisory Group, supporting Daniel Arends, a principal and Dougal Jeppe, an executive vice president.  Having over 20 years' experience working in commercial real estate,  providing exceptional internal sales support to our broker team and our clients through efficient and high quality administrative and general support services. I assist on projects such as presentation support; listing preparation; transaction administration; gathering market knowledge through various internal and external resources and coordinating promotional and post-sales marketing materials.

Clients rely on my insights for their real estate planning, acquisition and disposition strategies. With more than 10 years’ experience in commercial real estate, I have accumulated deep industry expertise to develop comprehensive financial and research analyses. I tailor and capture each analytical approach for our clients by creating various project-specific financial models and tools to best serve their needs.