“Having started my real estate career 29 years ago with (Baum founders) David and Doug Baum, I am grateful for the opportunity and vision the brothers had when I started learning from one of the best on the leasing front,” Joffe, First Street’s managing broker, said in a joint statement with Baum. “It’s a bittersweet occurrence after having grown the company, built a great culture and worked with so many fantastic clients.”

First Street represents both landlords and tenants, including Starbucks and Chipotle, two clients that Secher and Joffe represented while they were at Baum, also a retail specialist. Other clients in their tenant portfolio include Blaze Pizza, Five Guys, Kay Jewelers and Jimmy John’s.

“We have a good solid customer base that we have been working with for decades that we continue to service,” Secher said.

Secher said the separation was amicable.

“We’ve been friends and partners for decades,” Baum CEO David Baum said in the joint statement. “We will continue to be friends and partners, just not under the same flag.”

Two other Baum retail brokers, Matthew Fetter and Lauren Tucker, also recently left the firm to start their own Chicago brokerage, Third Coast Commercial Real Estate.