Cross Street, a full-service residential real estate firm specializing in multifamily leasing, home sales and third-party developer services, has added property management to its national platform with its recent incorporation of Peak Properties.
The partnership allows Cross Street to serve clients across their “full stack of housing needs,” said Shane Rachman, president of Cross Street. Its clients include renters and homebuyers as well as investors and developers.
“This cross-pollination allows us to serve as a one-stop shop for our investor clients while continuing to deliver on our people-first, high-touch service in leasing and management,” Rachman said.
He said the move is also significant for Cross Street, which is headquartered in Chicago, because the company began as a spinoff of affiliate Peak Realty in 2024.
“Coming together with Peak is a full-circle growth moment for us, where the firm we grew from now becomes a part of us again,” Rachman said. “By integrating Peak’s management infrastructure with Cross Street’s creative leasing and marketing capabilities, we’ll be able to continue to grow in Chicago and expand our reach in other markets, including Denver and Cleveland.”
Cross Street’s combined leasing and management portfolio now includes nearly 12,000 rental units in the three cities.
Prior to the formal integration of Peak, Cross Street and Peak worked closely in their hometown of Chicago, where Peak will continue to operate under its own name.
Rachman said the new organizational structure will allow Cross Street to bring to other cities the same competitive advantage it has enjoyed while working with Peak in the Windy City. Previously, when its leasing and marketing teams served clients in Denver or Cleveland, Cross Street would team with local management operators.
“We quickly realized that a lot of the things we knew how to do so well at home in Chicago set us apart from local operators in those cities,” Rachman said.
Under its now fully vertically integrated model, the firm plans to bring the same aligned approach and operational efficiencies that have driven its success in Chicago to its other markets.
The combined resources of Cross Street and Peak also allow the company to better meet evolving client needs, particularly on the management side.
“Our clients are raising their expectations for service levels, the data they receive and how they strategically think about their assets,” Rachman said. “Plus, in a world where rents are rapidly rising, particularly in Chicago, there’s an emphasis on balancing renewals versus new leases and providing higher touch at every turn.”
Cross Street is implementing processes to improve operational efficiencies. Rachman said this includes consolidating its data management to provide more actionable insights for clients.
Rachman added that the firm’s vertically integrated platform gives clients more flexibility than traditional property management companies by allowing them to choose individual services à la carte or the full suite of services.
The goal is to create “clearer sources of truth” on data points important for its clients, he said.
“We pride ourselves on being transparent with the people we work with, whether they are a renter, buyer, investor or developer,” Rachman said.
Taylor Maggi, Cross Street vice president of marketing and systems, said operational improvements will not only improve synergies between Cross Street and Peak but also allow the company to continue to provide the high-touch customer service it prides itself on.
In keeping with the Cross Street motto that it operates at the “corner of people and place,” its recent moves will allow the company to remain nimble and responsive to the needs of local markets, she said.
“Shane continues to elevate us as a company by leveraging technology to not only improve our systems but also make us better informed, which in turn allows us to provide better service to our clients,” Maggi said.
Acting as a partner to its clients — whether it involves consulting a developer on pricing or helping a first-time buyer find their ideal home — helps set Cross Street apart from competitors, Rachman said.
He pointed to the company’s portfolio leasing managers, a role he said doesn’t exist at many other firms. Acting as a complement to traditional property managers, their job is to use artificial intelligence and other tools to study the local rental market, comp performance and advise owner clients on how to competitively position their properties and optimize revenue opportunities.
“With us, a client will get someone who is thinking about the expense side and the resident touch piece, as well as someone who is thinking about what the market’s doing,” he said. “It’s extra brain power to help our clients think strategically in different directions at once.”
With the Peak announcement behind it, Cross Street’s priorities for 2026 turn to ensuring it has the technological firepower and operational efficiencies to continue to grow in its three primary cities as a full-service residential real estate leader.
“We’re putting systems in place so that we can scale at the rate we’ve been doing while improving internal communications about our goals now that our team has over 200 people working across different departments and offices,” Rachman said. “Our entrepreneurial culture has always been part of our magic, and we want to keep it as strong as when we were a five-person operation, even as we recruit the best talent. If we continue to couple efficiency with a superior client experience, that’s going to win for us every time.”
This article was produced in collaboration between Cross Street and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.
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