This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet

General contractor Skender completed construction on the new Walgreens Technology Center of Excellence, a 200K SF open office space in the redeveloped Old Post Office at 433 West Van Buren St. Hundreds of employees, including e-commerce, mobile, pharmacy technology and digital team members, will eventually work in the office, which spans multiple levels and buildings of the redevelopment.

Walgreens in 2018 was the first major tenant to sign on to the project, and this was Skender’s first of several renovation projects in the iconic art deco building, which had been sitting vacant since the late 1990s. Walgreens’ space features a staircase, open and private offices, collaboration and conferencing spaces, data rooms, and kitchen and lounge spaces.

Other project team members included Mace as owner’s representatives, architect and engineering firm Stantec and the Walgreens construction and architecture departments.

“It’s remarkable to be involved in the repurposing of this nearly 120-year-old historic building,” Stantec principal Donna Becco-Schroeder said in a press release. “Our design was inspired by the City of Chicago because Walgreens is an iconic brand throughout many of the local neighborhoods. Our goal was to create a city-scale environment inside the building based around the idea of a city plan.”

EXECS

Ryan Cos. promoted Jim McDonald to president of the Great Lakes Region. He most recently served as senior vice president, market leader of the region. Former regional President Tim Hennelly elected to rejoin the development team to pursue real estate development deals. McDonald joined Ryan Cos. in 1999 and spent his first decade on the construction side before migrating to Ryan’s development arm.

Working from Ryan’s suburban Chicago office since 2000, McDonald focused on expanding its health care, senior living and industrial build-to-suit business. His near-term goals include opening a downtown Chicago office in the coming months.

***

Conor Commercial Real Estate added two employees to its corporate headquarters office in suburban Rosemont. Mike Fausone joins the firm as a development manager, and James Rose joins as a senior development analyst. Fausone now oversees all development projects in the greater Chicago area and the southeastern U.S. Before joining Conor, Fausone was an associate at Related Midwest. Rose will handle project underwriting and development committee memos for Conor's Chicago-area projects. He recently served as a senior financial analyst for JAX Financial Servicing.

***

Lee & Associates Illinois promoted Nick Eboli to principal. Eboli is with the firm’s industrial services group and focuses on tenant and owner representation, primarily in the Fox Valley and I-88 submarkets.

The firm also promoted Rick Anesi to senior vice president. He specializes in tenant and owner representation in North DuPage, west and north Cook, and Lake counties.

In addition, the firm welcomed Johnny Joyce to its industrial team. Prior to joining Lee & Associates, Joyce worked as a senior adviser at SVN Chicago Industrial.

SALES

A venture led by Drexel Properties President Jeff Weinberg bought 4621-25 North Lincoln Ave., a 29-unit mixed-use building with 25 apartments and four ground-floor retail spaces, and 2243-51 West Eastwood Ave., a 16-unit rental community. Both are in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood. A venture of Pioneer Acquisitions was the seller, and the price was $9.5M. Both parties were represented by Interra Realty’s Joe Smazal.

***

Bridge Development Partners, a privately owned development and acquisition firm of Class-A industrial properties, completed over $2.2B in transactions during 2020. The Itasca, Illinois-based firm acquired 10 properties across the nation totaling about 6.5M SF and valued at more than $1.4B. The company also sold 13 projects totaling approximately 5M SF and valued at $800M.

***

German investor René Gerdom, CEO of Ruger Holdings, purchased for $6.3M a single-tenant free-standing hospitality property at 164 East Grand Ave. in the Streeterville neighborhood. Scott Maesel and Drew Dillon of SVN | Chicago Commercial represented the seller, Chicago-based R2. Hampton Social leases the nearly 9K SF building.

***

Clarion Partners sold its Laraway Distribution Center, a 736K SF distribution facility in Joliet, for an undisclosed price. Exeter Property Group was the buyer. Built in 2008, the fully leased, Class-A warehouse sits on 34 acres at 1151 East Laraway Road. Colliers International Chicago’s Jeff Devine and Steve Disse represented Clarion Partners.

LEASES

Shorr Packaging Corp. leased all 245K SF of Scannell Properties’ DuPage Business Center facility in West Chicago, which Peak Construction Corp. completed in 2020. Peak also completed a set of tenant improvements for Shorr at the facility.

***

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 

Structured Development and Evergreen Real Estate Group hosted a Feb. 3 groundbreaking for Schiller Place Apartments, a three-building, 48-unit mixed-income rental community at 711, 731 and 749 West Schiller St. on Chicago’s Near North Side. Located immediately south of Structured’s NEWCITY development on land that was formerly home of the Isham YMCA, Schiller Place will include three four-story buildings with 16 apartments each.

The developers will set aside 40 units for households earning between 30% and 60% of the area median income. Evergreen and Structured representatives joined 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett Jr., officials from the Chicago Housing Authority, Illinois Housing Development Authority, Hudson Housing Capital, CIBC Bank and others at the socially distanced ceremony.

***

J.C. Anderson completed a renovation project for German engineering and technology company Robert Bosch at One Tower Lane in Oakbrook Terrace. Bosch will relocate approximately 350 employees from its automotive aftermarket division at 2800 South 25th Ave. in Broadview to its new space. The 92K SF build-out transformed the top five floors of the 31-story office building. The J.C. Anderson team was led by Seth Erlich, Andrew Mott, Bob Hickey and Bill Dennison. Whitney provided the architectural services, and Cushman & Wakefield provided the project management services.

***

General contractor Summit Design + Build completed the build-out of a 14K SF clubhouse for Chief, a private network for women who are C-level executives or rising vice presidents. The company was launched in 2019 to help drive women into positions of power. The clubhouse is on the second and third floors of 1040 West Fulton St., a new, heavy-timber building which also hosts Summit Design + Build’s new headquarters. The clubhouse is Chief’s first Chicago location. Chicago-based GREC Architects served as the project architect.

THIS AND THAT

Working with Chicago-based developer Sterling Bay and its joint venture partner, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, SVN | Chicago Commercial listed 1100 West Grand Ave. in Chicago for sale. The 22K SF parcel in River West is adjacent to Fulton Market and River North and was recently rezoned by the city of Chicago for residential development.

***

Tishman Speyer received WiredScore Gold certification for its 320 North Sangamon St. project. The 13-story, 270K SF office building is being co-developed with Chicago-based Mark Goodman & Associates. It is slated for completion in early 2021. The project architect is Chicago-based Solomon Cordwell Buenz. Ellen May, Adam Mitchell and Olivia Parker of Tishman Speyer are the project’s leasing representatives.

***

Medium Rare Restaurant Group is coming to Chicago. The Washington, D.C.-based steak frites restaurant chain is searching for properties in Chicago’s affluent, high-density residential neighborhoods. The locations should be in existing restaurant spaces of roughly 3K SF. The move is part of Medium Rare's plans to expand to more than 26 new cities.