Keely Polczynski Jumps From CBRE to JLL

In a coup for JLL, Keely Polczynski, a highly regarded dealmaker on retail investment sales, has joined the brokerage from CBRE.

Polczynski is now a managing director in JLL’s Chicago office and will report to Senior Managing Directors Danny Kaufman and Jaime Fink, who co-lead JLL’s Chicago capital markets office, the brokerage announced Wednesday.

JLL’s addition of Polczynski follows the departure of Amy Sands, who left a similar role with JLL earlier this year to work on the landlord side of the retail business as head of investment for New York-based RPT Realty. Polczynski will lead the JLL’s Midwest retail investment sales platform in Chicago alongside Michael Nieder.

Polczynski had spent the past 20 years with CBRE in Chicago, with the title most recently of Senior Vice President with the firm’s capital markets and institutional properties team. Her former CBRE team was newly formed in 2020, after the brokerage shuffled its structure to make a new partnership. She was paired with Blake Johnson, who has been with CBRE since 2016 and focuses on selling offices.

JLL representatives did not immediately make Polczynski available for an interview, and CBRE declined to comment.

In her new role with JLL, Polczynski will continue her focus on transactions of urban and high street assets in Chicago and throughout the U.S.

Over the course of Polczynski’s career, she has brokered more than $5 billion in sales, and has been ranked within the top 10 percent of CBRE brokers in the U.S., according to JLL. Polczynski earned her bachelor’s degree in finance from Murray State University and her MBA in finance from Northwestern University.