This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet
Conor Commercial Real Estate began the development of Brewster Creek Commerce Center in northwest suburban Bartlett. The 436K SF speculative industrial development will be completed in Q2 2021 and serve e-commerce and logistics companies in need of a large-scale distribution facility.
"In terms of proximity to the Western O’Hare submarket and the Elgin O’Hare Expressway, this will be the largest scale new cross dock speculative building to come available in 2021 with heavy trailer parking requirements and access to high quality labor in a mature business park," Conor Executive Vice President Brian Quigley said in a press release.
It’s a good time to launch new projects. Industrial tenants set a Chicagoland leasing record in 2020 by taking 24.9M SF within buildings larger than 200K SF, up from 20.7M SF in 2019 and 16.4M SF in 2018, according to Colliers International’s year-end report on the sector. Developers had 25 such projects underway, totaling 18.5M SF, another regional record.
Conor’s new 25-acre site is within a 670-acre business park at Bartlett Road and Spitzer Road. Tenants within the business park include McKesson, ITW, Greco & Sons, Rana, Creative Werks and Cheese Merchants of America.
The design-build team of McShane Construction Co., V3 Cos. and Harris Architects Inc. will provide design and construction services.
EXECS
Karin Kraai accepted the position of executive director of The Goldie Initiative, a group that works to advance the careers of women in real estate through scholarships, mentoring programs, leadership development and networking opportunities. It was started by Goldie B. Wolfe Miller, the founder of Goldie B. Wolfe & Co. Kraai served as a board member for the initiative for more than 10 years and was board president from 2015 to 2017. She formed Kraai Advisors LLC, a commercial real estate consulting firm, in 2020.
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Golub & Co. hired Erica Rogers as vice president on the company’s downtown Chicago office leasing team. A 27-year veteran of the Chicago commercial real estate industry, Rogers will work closely on the leasing of 300 South Wacker Drive, 111 West Washington St., 444 North Michigan Ave. and several others. Most recently, she spent four years as an agency leasing representative for JLL’s suburban and downtown office portfolio.
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Matt McClellan joined Mag Mile Capital as a Chicago-based associate vice president of originations. McClellan’s previous experience includes more than five years in the commercial real estate debt and equity markets.
LEASES
Costco Wholesale Corp. and Costco Innovel Solutions signed a lease for 30K SF in Woodfield Preserve Office Center at 10 North Martingale Road in Schaumburg. Costco will occupy the space in April. CBRE’s William Elwood and Robert Graham represented Zeller, the building’s owner. David Stefancic and Lexis Livengood of Cushman & Wakefield represented Costco.
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Phillips Edison & Co. signed a lease with Dave’s Hot Chicken, a Los Angeles-based restaurant chain, to open a more than 2K SF outlet at Naperville Crossings, a 146K SF shopping center in west suburban Naperville. It is the first Dave’s in the Chicagoland market. Baum Realty Group’s Allen Joffe represented the tenant.
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Illinois Policy, an independent research and advocacy organization, signed a lease for 9K SF earlier this quarter at 300 South Riverside Plaza. Jamey Dix and Colton Riemenschneider of The Telos Group represented owners Third Millennium Group and David Werner Real Estate. The 1.1M SF tower sits on the west bank of the Chicago River in Chicago’s West Loop. Transwestern’s Larry Serota, Kimberlyn de Buhr and Daye Williams represented the tenant.
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Peak Properties was appointed by Strategic Properties of North America to manage the leasing for K-Square at 1749 North Wells St. in Chicago, a 22-story Lincoln Park apartment building with 268 units. Peak already handled property management for the property, which went through a rehab and condominium deconversion in 2018.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
ML Realty Partners developed a multi-tenant, rear-load industrial building at 760 East North Ave. in west suburban Glendale Heights. The company acquired the 7.5-acre parcel in the fall of 2019 and completed construction of the 116K SF building in January. Designed by Harris Architects and constructed by Meridian Design Build, the building features 32-foot clear heights. Kelly Disser, Eric Tresslar, Michael Freitag and Dion Ursino of NAI Hiffman will lease the building.
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Developer JK Equities topped out 1400 Monroe, a 42-unit residential development in Chicago’s West Loop. The company started construction over the summer and plans to deliver the condominiums by fall of this year. Summit Design + Build is leading the construction project. WOLF Development Strategies handles sales and has sold 60% of the units.
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Chicago-based architectural and interior design firm Wright Heerema Architects completed a build-to-suit office building in suburban Oak Park for Turano Baking Co. The 25K SF building at 6520 Roosevelt Road includes office space and a test kitchen. Wright Heerema collaborated with the Turano family to create a custom-designed building across the street from its old offices. Wright Heerema and Turano partnered with general contractor Executive Construction Inc., structural engineer TGRWA and MEP/FP engineer Salas O’Brien.
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General contractor Summit Design + Build completed construction on an adaptive reuse project at 1900 West Lawrence Ave. in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood. The nearly 100-year-old building was home to a Sears store that opened its doors in 1925 and permanently closed in 2016. Summit transformed the building, which spans the length of a city block, into 59 rental residences and first-floor retail. The building’s five-story tower now houses the development’s lobby, as well as amenity and lounge spaces. DeVry University occupies 90% of the available retail space. CA Ventures and Springbank Capital Advisors partnered on the deal. Gillespie Design Group served as the project architect.
CORRECTION, March 15, 3:15 P.M. CST An earlier version of this story misstated the addresses of several properties Golub & Co.'s Erica Rogers will work on. The story has been updated.
