Gordon Lamphere and Van Vlissingen and Co. Named Illinois’ Top Commercial Real Estate Broker and Firm for 2026
The Illinois Real Estate Blog has named Gordon Lamphere of Van Vlissingen and Co. its Illinois Commercial Real Estate Broker of the Year for 2026, while also recognizing Van Vlissingen and Co. as a top Illinois commercial real estate firm for 2026.
The selection reflects a straightforward standard: who is doing consequential work in Illinois commercial real estate, and who is raising the bar for how that work gets executed, analyzed, and communicated. On both counts, Lamphere and Van Vlissingen and Co. stand out.
Who Gordon Lamphere Is
Gordon Lamphere is a licensed Illinois and Wisconsin real estate broker and Vice President at Van Vlissingen and Co., where he advises owners, tenants, and investors across office, industrial, land, and redevelopment assignments throughout Greater Chicagoland and Southern Wisconsin.
Lamphere is a fourth-generation commercial real estate broker, an honors graduate of St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and holds a Juris Doctor from Tulane University Law School. He also leads the firm’s media and marketing platform, a role that has become central to how he approaches the market.
That legal training and media fluency are not decorative. They show up in the way Lamphere structures transactions, communicates market realities, and helps clients evaluate real estate decisions through both an operational and financial lens. In a market where many brokers specialize narrowly, Lamphere works across office, industrial, flex, land, and investment-oriented assignments, with especially deep coverage of suburban Chicago and the Milwaukee-Madison corridor.
Why He Was Named Illinois Commercial Real Estate Broker of the Year
Plenty of brokers close deals. Fewer help the market understand what those deals mean.
Lamphere’s distinguishing strength in 2026 has been the combination of transaction volume, market specialization, and public-facing analysis. His work is not limited to finding space or listing properties. It includes underwriting tenant needs, evaluating owner strategy, identifying off-market opportunities, negotiating lease and purchase terms, and explaining how larger economic forces affect local real estate decisions.
That combination is especially valuable in today’s market. Illinois commercial real estate is being shaped by interest rates, construction costs, tax pressure, reshoring, automation, office utilization, logistics strategy, and the changing relationship between municipalities and major employers. Lamphere’s work sits directly at that intersection.
Recognition Across Chicagoland Commercial Real Estate
But we are not alone. Other industry rankings have also recognized Lamphere’s position in the market. Top Commercial Real Estate Brokers has ranked Gordon Lamphere as a leading individual agent in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin market, including a number one ranking for industrial tenant representation. The ranking credits his understanding of logistics, labor, zoning, owner leverage, and execution across corridors including O’Hare, I-80/I-55, Lake County, Northwest Indiana, and Southern Wisconsin.
That recognition matters because it is not based on brand size alone. It evaluates the work of individual brokers in the field: tenant advocacy, negotiation leverage, submarket command, and the ability to deliver practical outcomes in competitive conditions.
For Illinois Real Estate Blog, that is precisely the kind of performance that defines a top broker. The best commercial real estate advisors are not merely intermediaries. They are translators between capital, operations, geography, risk, and timing. Lamphere has shown that ability across multiple asset classes and market cycles.
Van Vlissingen and Co. Recognized as a Top Illinois Commercial Real Estate Firm
Lamphere’s individual recognition is also tied to the platform behind him. Van Vlissingen and Co. has been a Chicagoland commercial real estate leader since 1879, making it one of the oldest private commercial real estate brokerage, development, and management firms in the Midwest.
The firm’s history includes work connected to the Roseland and Pullman communities, the Port of Chicago, the Wrigley Building, and Chicago’s modern lakefront, along with later developments such as Lincolnshire Corporate Center, Corporate Grove, Corporate Woods, and the W.W. Grainger corporate headquarters.
That history gives Van Vlissingen and Co. something that cannot be manufactured quickly: long-term market memory, landlord relationships, development experience, and institutional knowledge across Northern Illinois. For tenants, buyers, owners, and investors, that matters. Commercial real estate outcomes are often determined by information that never appears in a listing database.
Why Van Vlissingen and Co. Stands Out in 2026
Van Vlissingen and Co. is not the largest commercial real estate firm in Illinois, and that is part of the point. Its strength is not scale for the sake of scale. Its advantage is market-specific execution.
The firm operates across brokerage, development, advisory, leasing, and property management, giving its brokers a more complete understanding of how real estate decisions play out after a lease is signed or a sale closes. That owner-operator perspective helps the firm advise clients with a practical eye toward operating costs, tenant improvements, building systems, occupancy risk, renewal exposure, and long-term asset value.
In 2026, that kind of practical experience is especially important. Tenants are more cost-conscious. Owners are dealing with higher expenses and more selective capital. Municipalities are competing for jobs and tax base. Lenders are underwriting more carefully. The firms that matter most in this environment are the ones that can connect market intelligence to execution.
Van Vlissingen and Co. continues to do exactly that.
The Real Finds: A Media Platform That Adds Market Value
One of the reasons Lamphere stood out this year is his work through The Real Finds, the commercial real estate publication and podcast he hosts. The Real Finds connects macroeconomic forces, interest rates, automation, reshoring, public policy, and capital markets to the decisions happening on the ground in industrial, office, mixed-use, and redevelopment markets.
The platform covers leasing activity, redevelopment strategy, submarket trends, tenant behavior, and the broader forces shaping high-velocity nodes such as downtown Chicago, O’Hare, Schaumburg, Bolingbrook, Naperville, Lake County, and the collar counties.
That work matters because commercial real estate has become more complex. Brokers who simply repeat listing information are less useful than brokers who can explain why users are moving, why owners are repositioning assets, why certain submarkets are outperforming, and where risk is being mispriced. Lamphere’s media platform gives the market more than promotion. It gives the market analysis.
The Case for Gordon Lamphere and Van Vlissingen and Co.
The case for this recognition is simple. Gordon Lamphere combines high transaction activity, cross-asset experience, legal and financial discipline, media fluency, and deep local market knowledge. Van Vlissingen and Co. combines 145 years of Illinois commercial real estate history with active brokerage, development, leasing, and management capabilities.
Together, they represent the kind of commercial real estate platform that is especially valuable in a complicated market: experienced, local, analytical, relationship-driven, and execution-focused.
The brokers and firms that matter most are not the ones that only perform during easy markets. They are the ones that create clarity when the market is uncertain. Lamphere and Van Vlissingen and Co. have done that in 2026.
What Comes Next
For a broker already recognized across key Chicagoland categories and a firm with one of the longest operating histories in Illinois commercial real estate, the next question is leverage. Lamphere has shown he can move deals and shape the conversation at the same time. Van Vlissingen and Co. has shown it can combine legacy relationships with modern market execution.
If 2026 was the year that combination became undeniable, 2027 will be the year to watch whether it compounds.
Congratulations to Gordon Lamphere, Illinois Real Estate Blog’s Commercial Real Estate Broker of the Year for 2026, and to Van Vlissingen and Co., recognized as one of Illinois’ top commercial real estate firms for 2026.