John Hennessey

Four veteran commercial real estate executives have formed another Boston-based brokerage that specializes in tenant representation, a niche they say gives companies looking for space an advantage amid recent consolidation in the commercial real estate industry.

Thompson Hennessey & Partners offers tenant representation with a salary-based compensation model designed to minimize conflicts of interest, cofounder and Principal John Hennessey said.

The original Thompson Hennessey & Partners was founded in 1990 and acquired in 2011 by Newmark Knight Frank. Four months later, BGC Partners agreed to acquire Newmark’s 26 offices nationwide. Hennessey said the two companies had growing pains as they tried to integrate.

In 2014, he and Thompson accepted an offer to help build a new Boston office for DTZ as co-managing directors. That arrangement was quickly disrupted by more industry consolidation, as DTZ was acquired by TPG Capital and merged with Cassidy Turley (which in turn merged with Cushman & Wakefield). With Cassidy Turley’s Boston leader Joe Fallon set to lead the new entity, Hennessey said it was time to return to a boutique operation. And Newmark hadn’t acquired the rights to the Thompson Hennessey & Partners brand.

“We said, ‘The name still has recognition, but let’s do it differently this time,’” Hennessey recalled.

Led by partners Hennessey, Thompson, Christopher McMahon and Richard Robinson, the company has a tenant-only business model similar to Boston-based Cresa. The model is designed to root out conflicts of interest when different brokers within the same firm represent tenants and landlords at the same property. With a small staff of senior-level executives, the new company doesn’t have the sort of turf battles common at larger brokerages, Hennessey said.

“In the bigger firms, all of a sudden a guy with expertise on Route 495 is working with a client downtown. He doesn’t really know about the downtown market, but he doesn’t want to share his fee with the downtown team,” he said.

Partners are paid under a salaried structure determined by a compensation committee that takes into account various factors, including willingness to collaborate with colleagues. Although its specialty is the territory inside Route 495, the firm is representing clients on a nationwide basis with a commitment to senior-level representation.