Bradley Co. acquires commercial real estate firm X Ventures

Bradley Co. acquires commercial real estate firm X Ventures
X Ventures’ Chip Bowling, left, and Bill Bowling, center, signed a deal today to become part of Bradley Co., whose president, Brad Toothtaker, right, looks on.

GRAND RAPIDS — Bradley Co. LLC wants to bolster its presence in West Michigan’s commercial real estate market via a new acquisition.

The South Bend, Ind.-based real estate brokerage and property management firm announced today that it had acquired X Ventures, a Grand Rapids commercial real estate brokerage and consulting firm founded in 2013.

X Ventures co-founder and President Chip Bowling told MiBiz the decision to sell the firm stemmed from a desire to enhance the services it could offer clients. He said the sale broadens the scope of X Ventures into property management, investment offerings and multi-family development.

“We came to work everyday saying, ‘How do we do things better? How do we deliver better services to our clients?” Bowling said. “Bradley was that answer. We did this because we’re always looking for ways to do things better.”

The deal also allows X Ventures to expand its footprint beyond West Michigan and gives the firm access to Bradley Co.’s existing markets in Southwest Michigan and around Indiana.

Likewise, executives at Bradley Co. say the transaction — which closed on Monday morning — provides the firm enhanced access to the booming West Michigan market.

“It allows us greater bandwidth and capabilities within the marketplace … more purview over deal volume and transnational knowledge,” said Brad Toothaker, president of Bradley Co. “It makes both the organizations smarter with their respective reaches than what we currently have.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Current plans call for X Ventures to be co-branded with Bradley Co. for the time being, but those assets may be converted to Bradley Co. branding over time.

Bradley Company plans to move its Grand Rapids office into X Ventures’ space in the Exhibitor’s Building adjacent to the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Toothaker said.

Jim Ens, a real estate attorney with Miller, Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey PLC in Grand Rapids, represented X Ventures in the deal.

Bill Bowling, a West Michigan commercial real estate veteran and X Ventures partner, was also instrumental in the deal, said Chip Bowling.

All employees and brokers of both firms will be retained as part of the transaction, executives said. The newly combined firms employ 260 people, with 15 licensed professionals based in Grand Rapids.


Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Bradley Toothaker’s last name.