Three Net-Lease Advisory Firms Merge to Form Surmount

NNN Pro, STNL Advisors and United Global Development (UGDC) are joining forces to form one net-lease focused commercial real estate platform, Commercial Observer has learned.

The net-lease advisory firms announced Tuesday they are consolidating as a new company called Surmount. Glen Kunofsky, founder of both NNN Pro and STNL, will serve as CEO of the combined firm. NNN Pro separated from Marcus & Millichap (MMI) in 2023 to create a stand-alone brokerage and then formed a strategic partnership with STNL last year. UGDC had previously operated a development services entity under NNN Pro. 

“We’ve been operating for a long time with separate lines of business and servicing the same clients, which was a little unclear to the market,” Kunofsky told CO. “We started the different businesses at different times and with different services, so the natural progression was to put everything together under one brand and basically consolidate how the market views us.”

Surmount’s leadership team will also include Nicoletti DePaul as chief operating officer. DePaul has been chief operating officer of NNN Pro since 2012.

The merger comes on the heels of NNN Pro launching a capital markets business last month led by former longtime Marcus & Millichap broker Chris Marks, as CO first reported at the time.

Kunofsky noted that the Surmount platform can provide brokerage, development and advisory services to tenants who don’t have in-house real estate departments. The combined Surmount company has more than 130 employees in New York City, Boston, Chicago and Scottsdale, Ariz. 

“Our goal is to continue to be the leader in sale-lease advisory services and dominate and serve our clients in both the existing markets and business lines, move into additional new markets, and additional new product types and gain market share through this awareness and the new branding,” Kunofsky said. “When clients come to us — from the start of the raw land process through development and through the capital markets and financing division and right through the sale — we can assist them on every level.”

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com