This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet

The pandemic chilled significant portions of the investment market, but Lendlease has found investors are ready to put money into new multifamily assets. The developer closed nearly $200M in recapitalization loans for The Cooper at Southbank, a new luxury high-rise in Chicago’s South Loop, and for Clippership Wharf, a waterfront development in Boston.

The company holds these assets through its U.S. investment vehicle with Aware Super. In 2018, the two firms established a $2B investment partnership to develop multifamily assets.

Company officials say these latest deals will help fuel even more development.

“After the successful delivery of Clippership Wharf and The Cooper at Southbank, this recapitalization event was an important step to repatriate capital to reinvest in further multifamily development projects and assets across our key U.S. gateway cities through our partnership with Aware Super,” Lendlease Portfolio Manager Ben Byrne said.

Chicago and Boston are not the only cities where Lendlease recently scored financing deals. Global financial services firm Barings provided a $250M construction loan to Lendlease and its partner L+M Development Partners for a 42-story mixed-use tower near Columbia University in New York.

Lendlease and Aware Super worked with Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and Singapore’s OCBC Bank to close the Chicago and Boston deals.

EXECS

Sergio & Banks Real Estate founder Grace Sergio merged her company into Chicago residential real estate firm @properties. Over the past five years, Sergio & Banks averaged more than $150M in annual closed volume. At @properties, Sergio’s team will work under the name The Sergio & Banks Group. They will maintain their two current offices at 8206 West Belmont Ave. on Chicago’s Northwest Side and 2100 West Armitage Ave. in Bucktown. They will also establish an office within @properties’ new flagship location at 900 North Michigan Ave. in the Gold Coast.

***

Essex Realty Group hired Dan Shepherd and Yury Ivanou as directors. Both will concentrate on the sales of multifamily and mixed-use investment real estate. Responsibilities include asset valuation, market research and analytics, and business development throughout Chicagoland. Prior to joining Essex, Shepherd worked as an acquisition specialist and analyst for Barnett Capital. Ivanou founded House Confidant, a short-term rental company that advertised private residences for rent to corporate clients and business and leisure travelers.

***

Realtor Sue Miller was installed at a Sept. 17 ceremony as the 2021 President of Illinois Realtors. She is the managing broker of Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group in McHenry. Miller served two terms as president of her local association and is the past president of the Lakes Area Realtors Association serving southeastern Wisconsin. 

SALES

NRC Realty & Capital Advisors was retained in a U. S. Bankruptcy Court Northern District of Illinois case as the broker for 185 condominiums in the Catherine Courts Condominiums complex at 5306 North Cumberland Ave. on Chicago’s Northwest Side. The four mid-rise buildings were constructed in 1970 on more than 11 acres and have 498 total units. The complex was converted to condominiums in 2005. The units are being auctioned on Nov. 20 free and clear of all liens. Qualifying bids are due on Nov. 13.

***

An out-of-state investor bought for $1.4M a 1.25-acre retail site at 24014 Showplace Drive along Route 59 in west suburban Naperville. Paul Cawthon and Angelo Labriola of the Cawthon-Labriola Group of SVN Chicago Commercial represented the seller. The new owner intends to use the former bank branch site for an automotive business.

***

An investor acquired 3821-23 West Wrightwood Ave., a 13-unit multifamily building built in 1924 in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. The price was just over $2M, or about $159K per unit. Interra Realty’s Joe Smazal represented both the private seller and buyer in the deal, which was a 1031 exchange. Originally scheduled to close in April, the sale was canceled in March due to the coronavirus pandemic but reinstated at the original price and terms in late June.

***

A private investor bought for $5.1M a 4K SF net-leased 7-Eleven property at 4000 West 127th St. in southwest suburban Alsip. Austin Weisenbeck and Sean Sharko of Marcus & Millichap’s Chicago Oak Brook office represented the seller, a local developer, and secured and represented the buyer.

***

GCO Equities purchased an 18K SF building at 2323 Green Bay Road in North Chicago. Matt Tiegler of Keller Williams represented the buyer, and Lee & Associates’ Ryan Kehoe represented the seller, Alpha Omega.

LEASES

Northbrook, Illinois-based SNAProducts completed a lease for more than 5K SF at 714 Landwehr in north suburban Northbrook to accommodate its continued growth. The woman-owned business and its subsidiaries now occupy almost 20K SF in buildings owned and managed by Clear Height Properties. The subsidiary SNAP Healthcare will occupy the new space and use it for manufacturing, distribution and many other tasks.

***

Henry Broch expanded its lease within 1947-1953 Delany Road in north suburban Gurnee. The U.S.-based international food ingredient, processing and co-packing company started with 32K SF at the end of 2019 and shortly thereafter moved into 74K SF. This latest transaction brings it up to 106K SF. Westmount Realty Capital owns the building. Lee & Associates’ Ryan Kehoe represented Henry Broch.

***

Second City Prints signed an 86K SF industrial lease for a renovated and repositioned Class-B building at 1020 Olympic Drive in west suburban Batavia. Avison Young’s Tom Curtis, John Moysey and Fort Richardson represented landlord Midwest Industrial Funds. Darwin Realty’s Brendan Sheahan represented the tenant. Midwest Industrial Funds recently completed renovating the 121K SF building after purchasing it in 2019 in a transaction negotiated by the Avison Young team.

FINANCING

Parkview Financial provided a $22.75M construction loan to a joint venture of Noah Properties and MPM Holdings for the development of a for-sale, 67-unit townhouse project in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood. It will consist of eight three-story buildings on 2.2 acres at 4155 West Melrose St., 3202 North Kildare St. and 4200 West Belmont Ave. The developers have already started construction and anticipate completing the work by spring 2021.

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 

Chicago-based Ascend Real Estate Group and its sales and marketing firm, @properties Developer Services, opened a new condominium model in Superior House, a 12-story, 33-unit luxury condominium building at 366 West Superior St. in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. Prices for the three-bedroom units range from $1.8M to about $2.4M. Designed by Chicago-based FitzGerald Associates Architects, all homes are on a corner and include a large inset terrace.

***

Principle Construction Corp. completed a 96K SF addition to the 194K SF building at 10411 80th Ave. in Wisconsin’s Pleasant Prairie. Principle constructed the original building in 2017 and is expanding on a speculative basis for the new owner, STAG Industrial. Principle’s Kent Nepras was the senior project manager, and Principle’s Dennis Crawford served as superintendent on the project. Partners in Design Architects provided design services.

***

J.C. Anderson completed a 22K SF, full-floor office renovation project on the 37th floor of Two Prudential Plaza in Chicago for Gannett Fleming, an infrastructure and engineering firm that relocated from One Prudential Plaza. The construction team was led by Seth Erlich, Andrew Mott and Mike Diduch. Eastlake Studio provided architectural services, and Amanda Matthews from Gola Corporate Real Estate provided project management services. Gannett Fleming’s team was led by John Kenny and Beth Barrett.

THIS AND THAT

David Wolf and Christine Lutz launched Wolf Development Strategies, a full-service development advisory, marketing and sales firm for luxury residential developments across the U.S. Formerly known as ON Collaborative, the firm was founded by Wolf in 2017 and acquired earlier this year from residential real estate brokerage company NRT LLC.

Wolf Development Strategies is leading sales for 1400 Monroe, a collection of 42 luxury residences in Chicago’s West Loop; The DeMarcay, an 18-story condo tower in downtown Sarasota, Florida; and The Standard, a 15-story condo building in the South Market District of downtown New Orleans. Lendlease also retained the firm to lead sales and marketing for the next phase of its Southbank neighborhood development in Chicago’s South Loop. Lutz joined ON Collaborative in 2017.

***

LaSalle Investment Management established the LaSalle Real Estate Scholarship for Black and Latino/a Minorities, a five-year, $100K per year commitment to provide rising Black and Latinx college sophomores the opportunity to receive $10K for their educations. It will also include mentorship meetings with LaSalle executives on careers in real estate investment management and the real estate industry in general. LaSalle is initially partnering with Chicago’s Roosevelt University, as well as historically Black colleges and universities Morehouse College, Spelman College and Florida A&M University.

***

MB Real Estate’s research team released its second-quarter Market Snapshot for 2020 on Chicago’s central business district. The CBD office market had 38K SF of positive absorption, and the direct vacancy rate increased by 72 basis points to 13.41% due to unleased new inventory added to the market. The amount of available sublease space increased by 425K SF to a total of 3.7M SF, bringing the total vacancy rate to 15.94%. Leasing and investment sales activity was slow as companies re-evaluate their plans for the future.