This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet
Significant office property sales have been slow in the Chicago region this year, but Fairbridge Properties just spent about $43M to acquire Oak Brook Gateway, an eight-story, 233K SF Class-A office building at 1111 West 22nd St. in suburban Oak Brook, Illinois. Located in the East/West submarket, one of the region’s strongest, the building is 93% occupied.
“This acquisition marks our proud entrance into the third largest real estate market in the U.S.,” Fairbridge Properties founder and managing partner Dmitry Gordeev said. “We are excited to own a beautiful building in a densely populated, top performing submarket that has access to a highly skilled labor force.”
Oak Brook Gateway hosts a diverse roster of 21 tenants from various industries, including Lewis University, the U.S. Census Bureau, Oxford Bank and Aerotek.
Although built by New York Life Insurance Co. in 1984, the Holabird and Root-designed steel-and-glass building has a set of modern amenities including a conference center, fitness center, full-service cafe and outdoor patio.
“Oak Brook Gateway is located in a highly-desirable area to live, work and play,” Gordeev added. “This is not only evidenced by the area’s current high density, but its future development. Hines’ brand new $500M mixed-use development will be going up across the street from our building. This addition serves as an economic boon for our community and our building.”
The Oak Brook Village Board recently gave final approval for Hines’ Oak Brook Commons project along the north side of 22nd Street near Spring Road. The 17.5-acre site will include 250 rental apartments, 104 condominium units, a 252-room hotel, three restaurants, office space, retail stores and park space.
EXECS
Tad Laws joined Cresa as Chicago market leader, part of the firm’s growth strategy launched by CEO Jim Underhill in 2017. In this newly created position, Laws will oversee a team of 25 and handle the development and execution of the Chicago office’s growth plan. He will make recruiting a priority, with a goal of doubling brokerage ranks in the next 36 months. Laws most recently served as vice president, national brokerage operations and recruiting at Newmark Knight Frank. Thus far in 2019, Cresa has made 123 new hires, bringing the company headcount to more than 1,100 employees.
SALES
Regency Development Group and its sales and marketing agency @properties started sales for The Revival, the adaptive reuse and conversion of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, a historic Ukrainian Village church, into nine luxury condominiums. Regency completed an exterior and interior renovation of the 1905 church at 921 North Hoyne St., and preserved original historic details, including the four-stage bell tower. The condominiums are priced from $579K to $1.3M. Regency worked with a team of experienced church-restoration specialists, including Chicago-based Emily Carlson of Solstice Art Source.
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Marcus & Millichap’s Austin Weisenbeck and Sean Sharko completed the $10.7M sale of a 15K SF retail center in suburban Gurnee. They marketed the 100% occupied property on behalf of the seller. Marcus & Millichap’s Capital Corp.’s Robert Bhat arranged the $6.9M nonrecourse loan. The property is on an out-lot parcel to Gurnee Mills Mall, at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Hund Club Road. It has over 1.9M SF of retail, and the borrower was able to lock in a 65% loan-to-value loan at 4.64% with 10 years interest only, according to Marcus & Millichap.
LEASES
Colliers International | Chicago’s Christopher Volkert and Brian Kling represented Follett Corp. in a three-year, 551K SF, full-building sublease to Wholesale Interiors at Duke Realty’s 2805 Duke Parkway in suburban Aurora, one of the largest industrial lease transactions in the Chicago area this year. Wholesale Interiors, a furniture supplier and distributor of commercial furniture, will expand its operations from Bensenville.
FINANCING
Associated Bank completed a $19M loan to Logistics Property Co. for the construction of Brewster Creek Logistics Park in suburban Bartlett. The project will include the development of two Class-A distribution facilities totaling 414K SF. The facilities will sit on the northeast corner of Stearns and Munger Roads at the entrance to the 670-acre mixed-use Brewster Creek Business Park. Formerly a gravel quarry, the Village of Bartlett partnered with Elmhurst-Chicago Stone Co. in 1999 to redevelop the quarry site into one of the premier business parks in the Chicago area. Associated Bank’s Andy Roberts handled the loan arrangements and closing.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Developer Related Midwest hosted a grand opening celebration Aug. 6 for Bennett Park in Chicago’s downtown Streeterville neighborhood. It was developed by Related Midwest and designed by landscape architectural firm of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, creator of Chicago’s Maggie Daley Park and The 606 trail. The 2-acre public park sits adjacent to the developer’s new 70-story One Bennett Park residential tower, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects.
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Brookfield Properties unveiled its plan to transform the top six floors of Chicago’s fabled former Marshall Field and Co. building, current home of Macy’s at State Street, into a 650K SF ultra-modern office community. Located at 24 East Washington, the project will open in 2020, and pay homage to the building’s storied past, company officials said.
They will create a new lobby and entrance to the 14-story building, which will offer some of the largest floor plates available in the city, ranging from 110K SF to 130K SF. Amenities include a 40K SF fitness center open to the public, a 10K SF rooftop garden, tenant amenity lounge and a conferencing center. Macy’s will continue to operate its store on the building’s first seven floors. Brookfield Properties is partnering on the project with Chicago-based firms Clayco, Lamar Johnson Collaborative and The Telos Group.
THIS AND THAT
CBRE recently won the 2019 Downtown Real Estate Softball League by beating JLL 11-8 in extra innings in the semifinals and then beating Colliers International 17-5 in the finals. On the season, the team went 8-2.
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One North Dearborn received the BOMA 360 Performance Building designation for demonstrating the highest standards of excellence in property management. MBRE provides property management services for the downtown Chicago office building. Building owner Beacon Capital Partners oversaw a transformation of One North Dearborn that included a newly installed gym, tenant lounge and outdoor terrace, new amenities, and achieving LEED Gold, the EPA’s Energy Star and Wired Score Platinum.
