Smerd Group is a family-owned real estate business now in its third generation. Started by Meyer and Merle Berger on Jan. 29, 1945 as an industrial supplies wholesaler called M. Berger Co., the family began acquiring real estate in 1957 with the purchase of the old Frank & Seder warehouse (which was later sold) on the Boulevard of the Allies and the Follansbee Steel warehouse on the South Side eight years later.