Ari Topper, CFA
Principal / Broker

Ari is a seasoned and respected commercial real estate broker with nearly 20 years of experience practicing real estate. Born and raised in the Chicago area, Ari joined Baum Realty in 2018, specializing in investment sales brokerage, commercial leasing, and investment advisory services. His firm grasp on real estate finance and underwriting, combined with his advanced interpersonal skills make Ari a rare “double threat” in the brokerage world. Ari has experience with a wide variety of property types such as multi-family, retail, office, and industrial and has represented sellers, buyers, landlords, and tenants in his career.

Ari holds the highly regarded Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, the LEED-AP designation, and is a licensed real estate salesperson in the State of Illinois. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan with a concentration in finance.

Lee Dickson
Managing Director / Broker

Lee leads Baum Realty’s Entertainment Practice focusing on incomparable performing arts organizations, immersive and experiential location-based entertainment concepts, hospitality professionals, musicians, magicians and other intriguing visionaries to meet their unusual real estate requirements. She locates remarkable, unique spaces that work well for this growing list of clients and makes creative, mutually beneficial deals for landlord and tenant. Her clients’ needs are not always understandable to commercial brokers focusing on office, retail or industrial. Theirs is a special language and she speaks it fluently.

Notable representations include Lighthouse Immersive (Immersive Van Gogh), Starvox Exhibits (The Art of Banksy), Original X Productions (Harry Potter - Magic at Play), Round Room (F1 - The Exhibition and Tupac Shakar. Wake Me When I'm Free), Immersive Co. (Perceptual Shift), Chicago Magic Company (The Magic Parlour), Albany Park Theater Project (Port of Entry), Peanuts International, Future Gallerie, Revel Global Events, The Paramount Group and Nirvana Center Dispensaries (that's entertainment, too, isn't it?).

Lee joined Baum Realty after a successful run at the helm of Dickson & Co., her commercial real estate brokerage firm specializing in urban leasing and sales. She and her partners established The Retail Group, the first brokerage firm in Chicago to specialize in retail properties and tenant representation. Later, she joined forces with Friedman Properties to create three boutique shared office suites businesses which heralded today’s popular co-working spaces. As their Director of Retail, Lee marketed and leased the block known as Tree Studios and Medinah Temple.

Doug Renner
Managing Director / Broker

Douglas Renner joined Baum Realty in 2006 bringing with him over a decade of retail experience. As a Managing Director at Baum Realty, his focus is to oversee third party leasing representation for owners, developers, and investors of retail shopping centers, single tenant investments, mixed use developments and portfolio management of disposition assignments. Doug’s clientele range from big-box grocery anchored centers and urban infill mixed use retail to single tenant net lease assets.

Doug has a 20+ year track record of success and has been responsible for lease and sale transactions valued in excess of $700 million and 2 million square feet. Doug’s successes include implementing market strategies for national, regional and local tenants as well as developers and investment landlords. Notably, Doug was responsible for leasing a competitive stretch of North Michigan Avenue between 2 and 20 North Michigan to Starbucks, Panera, and Remington’s Restaurant that changed the complexion of the street.

Past and present clients include Newcastle Limited, Duetsche Bank, RREEF, Structured Development, Cedar Street Capital, Convexity, R2 Companies, Excess Space (on behalf of CVS Pharmacies), 4 Star Restaurant Group (Remington’s, Windsor, Smoke Daddy and Crosby’s Kitchen), Home Run Inn Pizza, Cosi, Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Harbor Freight Tools, Harlem Irving Companies, Prime Group, Capri Capital, and Regency Centers.

Doug is an active member of ICSC, Chicago Commercial Real Estate Networking Club, Corporate Real Estate and Retail Site Selection Professionals. In 2014, he was a CoStar Power Broker Award winner. Charitably, he is involved in the Chicago Real Estate Annual Food Drive for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Opportunity Through Baseball, providing education and skill coaching for at risk children, Gilda’s Club and other national and local causes.

Doug holds a BA and a Master’s Degree both from the Ohio University.

Mark Fredericks Image

Mark Fredericks

Senior Vice President / Broker (312) 275-3109
Mark Fredericks
Senior Vice President / Broker

Mark Fredericks joined Baum Realty’s Landlord Representation team in 2017, bringing with him more than ten years of professional expertise in all aspects of the leasing retail shopping centers.

Mark carries a high level of skill and an impressive track record of success in leasing grocery anchored centers, multi-tenant outlots, urban retail sites, and suburban strip centers. His talent for identifying prospects for retail strip centers, researching and interpreting tenant’s business and financial sustainability, negotiating letters of intent and leases has been praised by local and national clients alike.

Prior to joining Baum Realty, Mark worked for Regency Centers, Edgemark CRE, and The Lord Companies. Mark has leased multiple power center developments within the Chicagoland area, including junior anchors and outlots, re-merchandised and leased lifestyle centers as well as multi-tenant outlot buildings. He was responsible for the leasing of a 17 property portfolio of grocery anchored shopping centers, totaling over 2.8 million square feet throughout Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota.

Mark graduated from Florida State University with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. He has been a licensed Real Estate Broker since 2007 and is a member of ICSC. Mark lives in Chicago with his wife and son.

Tyler Dechter
Vice President / Broker

Tyler Dechter joined Baum Realty in 2018. A vital team member, Tyler works on middle market investment sales assignments throughout the Midwest and has made key contributions to multiple successfully completed sales and leasing transactions.

Primarily focused on live-bid online auction transactions, Tyler also works on traditional sales assignments and provides all aspects of property due diligence and underwriting as well as landlord representation services and market analyses to his client base which includes private equity and debt funds, banks, family offices, corporations, and individuals throughout the country.

Prior to joining Baum Realty, Tyler worked at Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG). Tyler is an active member of the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council, ICSC, Urban Land Institute, and The Junior Council of Lurie Children’s Hospital. Tyler was named a top 25 Ten-X broker expert nationally by volume in 2021 and was awarded the CoStar Power Broker award in 2020. Tyler is a licensed Illinois Real Estate Broker. Tyler was born in Northbrook, IL and graduated from Butler University, earning his bachelor’s degree in finance. When not in the office, Tyler can be found on the golf course or spending time with family and friends

Kira Ford
Associate / Broker

Kira joined Baum Realty in August 2021 as a member of the Landlord Representation team with a focus on both downtown Chicago and suburban markets. Kira contributes to the team by aiding in current leasing assignments, marketing research, and seeking out prospective tenants. Additionally, Kira provides support to the tenant representation team by delving into various markets that fit into the client’s needs.

Kira is a licensed Real Estate Broker in Illinois and an active member of ICSC.

She graduated from University of San Diego with a degree in Psychology, double minoring in French and Business Administration. In her free time, Kira enjoys spending time with friends and making lifestyle vlogs on her YouTube channel.