Kraft Bets On 'Burbs; The Deal Sheet

Rumors of the suburban office market's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Although it's seen high-profile tenant flight to downtown--goodbye Motorola Mobility and Hillshire Brands--one giant has decided to stick around.

Kraft Foods Group inked a long-term, 679k SF sale-leaseback of its Northfield HQ, which was sold to W.P. Carey. Cushman & Wakefield'sMichael Rotchford, Louis Wolfowitz, Robert Elms, Ned Franke, and Christopher Porter repped Kraft, which plans to relocate about 700 employees to the Northfield site from its old Glenview HQ. With more than 23% office vacancy in Q4 (despite140k SF in net occupancy gains, according to Newmark Grubb Knight Frank), we'll still need many more Krafts to double down on the 'burbs.

SALES

Bridge Development Partners closed on five Chicago area industrial properties--or 900k SF valued at $80M--in a venture with Dallas-based Hillwood Development. The buildings are located in Vernon Hills, Addison, Elk Grove Village, and Lyons. Bridge plans to acquire and develop between $150M and $200M per year in Chicago and South Florida.

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South Street Capital paid $10.9M for a 175k SF office building (and 30k SF parking lot) at 770 N Halsted. The seller was an investor group led by River West Management president Howard Ellman, which had owned the property for 15 years. Building Equity RE's Dan Rosenberg and Peter Lynn brokered the deal, and major tenants at the 93% leased property include Northeastern Illinois and Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana.

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GLG International paid $3.8M for a 38k SF freezer/cooler facility at 2300 W Lake St. The company bought the building to accommodate the expansion of its specialty meat processing and cold storage operation. NelsonHill's Mark and Michael Nelson repped GLG, and Newmark Knight Frank Epic's John Joyce, Ryan Phillips, and Chris Ricketts repped the seller, J & S Produce.

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A 27-unit apartment building at 705 S Milwaukee Ave in Libertyville sold for $2.5M. The seller, an individual/personal trust, was repped by Andrean Angelov and Ryan Engle in Marcus & Millichap's Chicago Oak Brook office. The buyer, a private investor, was repped by James Clough in Marcus & Millichap's Chicago Downtown office.

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Ryan Engle and Andrean Angelov of Marcus & Millichap's Chicago Oak Brook office brokered the $1M sale of a 12-unit apartment property (5140 Fairview Ave) in Downers Grove. The seller was a private investor and the buyer was an LLC.

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Shank Real Estate Holdings LLC bought a 29k SF warehouse at 575 Exchange Ct in Aurora. Lee & Associates VP Nick Eboli repped Shank and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank's Justin Lerner and Joe Karmin repped the seller, Vepaca 555 LLC.

LEASING

Kapstone Paper & Packaging signed a 192k SF long-term lease with Liberty Property Trust at Butterfield III (2759 N Eola Rd) in Aurora. With the new lease, the 506k SF property is 100% occupied. Colliers International repped both Kapstone and Liberty.

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Ludlow Manufacturing leased 72k SF within a 195k SF Waukegan industrial facility (3821-31 Hawthorn Ct). The company, which provides fabrication services to original equipment manufacturers, is expanding and relocating from Gurnee. Paine/Wetzel/TCN Worldwide principal Whit Heitman, SVP Samuel Badger, and VP Brad Weiner repped Ludlow, while CBRE's Zacharia Graham repped the building owner, John Daley & Associates.

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Heartland Alliance, a human rights and services organization, renewed its lease and expanded to 37k SF at 208 S LaSalle. MB Real Estate EVP/managing director Andrew Davidson and SVP David Burkards repped Heartland, and Beitler Real Estate Services president J. Paul Beitler and VP John Paul Beitler III repped building ownership.

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Valley Fire leased 31k SF of warehouse space at 101 Raddant Rd in Batavia. Lee & Associates VP Nick Eboli repped ownership, Liberty Property, and NAI Hiffman's John Whitehead repped Valley Fire.

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Jones Lang LaSalle has been named leasing agent for Fifth Third Center, a 35-story, 1.2M SF office tower (222 S Riverside Plaza) owned by Behringer Harvard. The JLL team of Michael Curran, Brian Atkinson, and Nikki Kern will be responsible for leasing about 110k SF of available space at the 91% occupied property. JLL is now exclusive office leasing agent for Behringer's four Chicago office buildings (including 10 S Riverside Plaza, CDW Plaza, and One Financial Place) totaling 3.5M SF.

FINANCING

Multi-Employer Property Trust (MEPT) borrowed $105M from Prudential Mortgage Capital to finance a 45-story, 928k SF office tower at 200 W Madison. The 10-year, fixed-rate loan is MEPT's first mortgage on the property, which the company purchased for $217.5M in September 2011. Jones Lang LaSalle's Dave Hendrickson and Keith Largay arranged the financing.

CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

The Missner Group broke ground on a new, 41k SF medical office building, 2923 N California Ave, for the Illinois Bone & Joint Institute. Debb/Kosich is the developer and Stephen Rankin is providing architectural services. Construction is scheduled for completion in August.

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Reed Construction was selected by MB Real Estate to add new building amenities to 205|225 N Michigan Ave, including a new conference and fitness center. The new spaces will total 11k SF within the 2M SF, two-building office complex. Whitney Architects is providing architectural services.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Colliers' David Burden was promoted to principal from EVP. Last year David was named a top 10% producer by Colliers USA. He has completed about 500 sale and leasing transactions (more than 6M SF) with a gross value in excess of $1B.

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Jones Lang LaSalle tapped Trevor Ragsdale as head of the firm's Chicago industrial brokerage group, a newly created role. Trevor has been an industrial broker with JLL since 2001, completing more than 190 projects (over 33M SF) around the world valued above $1.5B.

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Collier's Michael Senner was promoted from SVP to EVP.Michael was recognized as a top 10% producer by Colliers International last year and he was named a 2012 NAIOP Industrial Transaction of the Year finalist for representing Lawson Products in a build-to-suit relocation.

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Bradford Allen Realty services tapped Allison Reynolds as director of its Oakbrook office. Allison was previously a client service specialist with CBRE in Schaumburg, overseeing 7.9M SF of office space. She is a licensed Illinois real estate broker and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona.

AWARDS

The LaSalle Wacker Building (221 N LaSalle) was awarded a TOBY for the historical building category in Chicago. MB Real Estate has managed and leased the 413k SF office building since 2010.

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