This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet
A Chicago-based national construction and design firm has a lot of confidence in the long-term prospects of the Fulton Market District. CRG, the development arm of Clayco, finalized a $60M purchase of nearly a full block of the district's eastern portion, according to a March 16 filing by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bridgford Foods’ 156K SF processing plant occupies the site at 170 North Green St. The Anaheim, California-based beef jerky and sausage maker will move its operations to a new facility in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, according to a February report in Crain’s Chicago Business.
CRG's plans aren't yet clear, but Bridgford had already won city council approval in 2017 to create a mixed-use project on its site with about 300 residential units, Crain’s reported.
The deal means the robust level of construction still underway in the rising submarket may continue when the coronavirus crisis ends.
Developers Focus and Shapack Partners last April began building a 750K SF office building across the street from the Bridgford plant. WeWork helped kick off construction on that project by signing up for 140K SF on three floors. Clayco is the contractor for Fulton East, a 90K SF, 12-story office tower in Fulton Market at 215 North Peoria St. being developed less than two blocks away by Parkside Realty, a company run by Chicago developers Robert Wislow and Camille Julmy.
Bridgford Foods in 2017 purchased a 177K SF industrial facility at 1415 West 44th St. in Back of the Yards for $5.5M, according to Cook County records.
EXECS
The John Buck Co. appointed Charles Wagener to principal and president of Buck Management Group. He comes to JBC with more than 30 years of experience, and most recently was executive vice president of property management and leasing with Lillibridge Healthcare Services, a subsidiary of Ventas, which owns senior living facilities, medical office buildings and healthcare-affiliated properties. Wagener also worked at JBC for nine years from 1988 to 1997, and served as general manager of Sears Tower.
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Six partners lead a new firm formed by the merger of Chicago-based residential brokerage firm @properties’ new-construction sales and marketing division and Ansley Developer Services, which handles development sales for an Atlanta-based brokerage firm. The new firm will go by @properties Developer Services. The leadership consists of @properties’ Mike Golden and Thad Wong, Ansley Atlanta Real Estate’s Bonneau Ansley, and Ansley Developer Services’ Nick Cassini, Dimitri Cassini and David Tufts.
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CRG hired Andy Perille as vice president of development. The Chicago-based Perille will work on projects throughout the nation, helping with site selection and analysis, and lead planning, design and construction activities for ground-up and value-add industrial assets. Prior to joining CRG, Perille served as vice president of design and construction for Liberty Property Trust.
LEASES
Feeding America signed a lease for 61K SF at 161 North Clark St. in Chicago, a 50-story, 1M SF Class-A office tower, and will move when the lease commences in Q4 2020. It represents a 32% expansion over the hunger-relief organization’s current headquarters at 35 East Wacker Drive. Cresa’s Mindy Saffer represented Feeding America in the transaction along with JLL’s Rob Schmidt. Newmark Knight Frank represented 161 North Clark.
SALES
Brown Commercial Group’s Mike Antonelli represented both the buyer and the seller in the off-market sale of a nearly 10K SF cold storage facility at 12 East Hill St. in west suburban Villa Park. The buyer, Premier Food Supplies, is a Troy, Michigan-based food distributor. Villa Farms Distributing and Packaging is the seller. PFS acquired the property as a second Chicago warehouse location.
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Wilmette, Illinois-based The Boulder Group, a net-leased investment brokerage firm, completed the $18.6M sale of a single-tenant net-leased Jewel-Osco property at 20 South Weber Road in southwest suburban Romeoville. The 67K SF building was renovated in 2016 and features a drive-thru pharmacy. Randy Blankstein and Jimmy Goodman of Boulder represented the seller, a private investment company based in the Southwest. The buyer is a West Coast-based private investor in a 1031 exchange.
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Cawley Chicago’s Ryan Freed completed the $1.6M, off-market sale of 651 Amersale Drive, an 8K SF, free-standing office building in Naperville. The $215/SF price was one of the highest in years for a stand-alone office building in Naperville, according to Freed. Leibel Moscowitz of Vandon Forbes represented the buyer, while Freed represented the seller, American Sale.
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Colliers International | Chicago’s Peter Block represented Zimmerman Family Trust in its $6.6M sale of 3101 North Clark St., a 23K SF retail site in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, to Newcastle Properties. CVS Pharmacy anchors the one-story, four-tenant commercial building, which also includes two restaurants.
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Marcus & Millichap’s Andrean Angelov, Ryan Engle and Brad Kreppel completed the sale of Enchanted Gardens Mobile Home Park, a 152-space manufactured home community at 508 Reagan Drive in Eureka, Illinois. The team marketed the property on behalf of the seller, a private investor, and secured and represented the buyer, another private investor.
THIS AND THAT
The largest transaction by a SIOR member in 2019 was completed by Jim Kerrigan of North American Data Centers in Chicago, according to officials from the commercial brokerage trade group. Kerrigan arranged the $345M sale of a 1.4M SF industrial space in Ashburn, Virginia, for Corporate Office Properties Trust.
