Another group of commercial real estate veterans has gone out on their own in Atlanta.

Stephen Pond, formerly with NAI Brannen Goddard, has joined up with Jeff Henson and Chip Sipple, both of whom were with Lincoln Property Co., to form Industry Real Estate Partners, a boutique investment sales brokerage firm in Atlanta.

The firm's focus will be on representing buyers and sellers of office and industrial properties between $5M and $30M throughout the Southeast, Sipple said.

Pond said the idea for them to strike out together was cemented late last year. He and Henson have 15 years of experience in the industry, and Sipple has 12. While their expertise varies, from leasing space for landlords to representing tenants, all three gravitated toward capital market transactions in recent years, Sipple said.

“Covid kind of created the perfect storm, so to speak,” Pond said. “We were already competing for the same business, so we said, 'Let's get together and kind of create this brand.'”

The trio officially launched the company this month and already has $90M in pending sales at different stages in its pipeline, including an 800K SF industrial portfolio in Northwest Atlanta that is scheduled to go under contract this week, Pond said.

Industry Real Estate Partners is the latest boutique firm either being launched by or attracting veteran commercial real estate players from bigger shops in Atlanta.

Earlier this year, two retail CRE veterans, Merritt Lancaster and Jack Arnold, formed their own boutique brokerage firm, Bridger Properties. Former CBRE Vice Chairman of investment Sales Tom Shafer left the brokerage giant and joined Atlanta-based Capital Real Estate Group to spearhead a new investment sales platform.