News
David & Goliath
January 26, 2011
| We know covering big, well-known companies is important (for the same reason Charlie Sheen fronts tabloids and not the Big Bang Theory nerds). But when David takes on those Goliaths, resulting in a slurry of leases (including for some nuns), we have to take note. | |
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| CR|Daccord's David Ariola has sold a nun's dormitory, signed a lease extension and expansion for law firm Rakoczy Molino Mazzochi Siwik in River North, and closed a land sale on the North Side for a bank client. He started Chicago Realty in 2005 and later merged with partner Chris Hill and then development firm Daccord. The five-person team is competing with some of the country's biggest on some of Chicago's largest assignments, including representing Metra in its search for 11k SF of office space. David's also repping Metra in the retail leasing at some of its stations, leasing its 311k SF HQ building at 547 W Jackson, and evaluating land sites for potential sale or redevelopment. His other deals include RMMS expanding to occupy 24k SF at its 6 W. Hubbard offices. But one of his favorite recent transactions was representing the Sisters of the Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the sale of its 70k SF building on N. Sheridan to Loyola University. | |
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| The building was originally built by the Sisters as part of Mudelein College in 1959 and converted to a dormitory for retired nuns, with about 70 very small units in the building. With only about 30 nuns(median age 84) left in the building, he says they decided to sell so they could move in with other Sisters in Iowa. But the nuns didn't want to sell to just anyone. They were looking for the best deal and to find an institution with a good cause to buy the building. Loyola made the best acceptable offer at $9.5M and will convert the building into research labs for its Center for Urban Environmental Research and Policy department. David says the Sisters were one of his most professional and fun clients ever, but he still worried they'd make himdiagram a sentence if he used improper grammar in e-mails. |
