This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet

Delinquent rent in Chicago could now exceed $1B, according to a survey released last week by the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance, a group of small and midsized Chicago landlords.

The high level of delinquency brought about by the coronavirus pandemic is leading to neighborhood disinvestment. With their revenue plunging to historic lows, 65% of landlords surveyed said they expect to make fewer capital improvements. In addition, nearly half expect to cut down on repairs and maintenance.

“With so much delinquent rent, many housing providers lack the funds to continue to maintain their properties,” NBOA President Michael Glasser said in a press release.

That will eventually hurt both renters and their neighborhoods.

“If a housing provider is unable to fix broken doors or leaky roofs, everyone suffers,” according to Glasser.

Other findings from the report include:

• 27% of landlords surveyed reported collecting rent below the industry standard needed for healthy operations.
• 54% reported having at least one tenant who hasn’t paid rent since the pandemic began.
• About one-third of property owners report losing money each month.

Illinois was awarded $835M in rental assistance at the end of 2020, according to NBOA. The city of Chicago will distribute nearly $80M from that program. Congress approved another, smaller rental assistance program in March.

EXECS

JLL promoted Peter Caruso to managing director for its retail advisory team in Chicago. He will manage the retail brokers and plan the merchandising and redevelopment of properties. 

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Evanston, Illinois-based Morgante Wilson Architects promoted Alicia Chlebek Blakely from project manager to associate of architecture. Blakely joined MWA in 2013 as a project manager and has project experience on several building types, including mixed-use, residential, healthcare, commercial and retail.

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Jovan Marconi joined Inland Real Estate Investment Corp. as vice president and head of investment system strategies, a newly created position. Prior to joining the Oak Brook, Illinois-based firm, Marconi held positions with Invesco, AEGON Asset Management and Mercer Investment Consulting. Most recently, he served as head of investment technology at Legal and General Investment Management America.

SALES

Clear Height Properties completed the sale of 3456 North Ridge Road, a multi-tenant industrial building in northwest suburban Arlington Heights. An undisclosed buyer acquired the 100K SF property, and the financial terms were not disclosed. Clear Height Properties bought the property in May 2018. At closing, it was occupied by three tenants. Pat Turner and Brendan Green of Colliers International represented Clear Height Properties in the sale.

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Schaumburg, Illinois-based Alpha Omega Development Group acquired 27 acres of land at 610-690 East Butterfield Road in west suburban Lombard from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, which has decided to downsize its campus. Alpha Omega will use it to open a GolfSocial golf driving range, GolfSocial’s first Illinois location. The mixed-use project will also include a Moretti’s restaurant, other retail and a residential development. David Conroy, Tim Gallagher and Rawly Lantz of Cawley Chicago Commercial Real Estate represented the seminary. Mary Riordan acted as legal counsel.

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Venture One Real Estate, through a partnership with Kovitz Investment Group, acquired a 63K SF industrial property at 905 Lakeside Drive in north suburban Gurnee. The building, currently 35% leased to three tenants, was constructed in 1989 and sits on more than 3 acres. Venture One plans to renovate the property. Donald Glyman of Tri-County Commercial Real Estate represented the seller. Robert Elbrecht, also of Tri-State, represented Venture One and will market the property.

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A local family office sold 4841 North Rockwell St., a fully occupied, 18-unit apartment building in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood, for $3.4M. The family had held the property for more than 50 years, according to Interra Realty’s Craig Martin, who represented the seller and the confidential buyer.

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A private investor bought Blue Station Apartments, a 347-unit apartment property at 2130 122nd St. in south suburban Blue Island, in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy sale. Andrean Angelov and Ryan Engle of Marcus & Millichap’s Chicago Oak Brook office marketed the property on behalf of the seller, a limited liability company. Angelov and Engle also secured and represented the buyer.

LEASES

Pre-leasing is underway for Maple Street Lofts, a six-story, 192-unit luxury rental community developed by Wingspan Development Group at 207 South Maple St. in downtown Mount Prospect, a northwest suburb of Chicago. The property, designed by Chicago-based Studio 222 Architects, includes a 16K SF Angelo Caputo’s Fresh Market grocery store on the ground floor. It is Wingspan’s third rental community in the area in three years. In 2018, Wingspan completed Buckingham Place, a 267-unit, five-story development in Des Plaines, followed in 2019 by 20West, a 71-unit mixed-use development also in downtown Mount Prospect. Both are more than 90% leased.

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Naperville, Illinois-based asset manager Calamos Investments signed a lease for the top floors of Fulton East, a new building at 215 North Peoria St. in Chicago's Fulton Market area. The firm will keep its Naperville headquarters. The Fulton Market office will host up to 100 people and function as a central meeting and event space.

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Global Logistical Connection leased 100K SF in the Route 6 Business Center, a new 442K SF warehouse facility at 23647 West Eames St. in southwest suburban Channahon. It is an expansion from the company’s current location, 60 Rawls Road in Des Plaines, where it leases 17K SF. Colliers International Chicago’s Ned Frank represented GLC. Colliers’ David Bercu, Charles Canale and Kataline Villalpando represented Clarion, owners of Route 6 Business Center.

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Chicago-based data analytics firm IRI relocated its headquarters from 150 North Clinton St. to 203 North LaSalle St. Its new space was redesigned with a focus on employee safety and now includes high-tech ventilation and air filtration systems. JLL’s Meredith O’Connor, Jake Ehrenberg and Matt Carolan represented IRI.

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Supply chain and warehousing firm Associated signed a full-building, 44K SF lease for 490 Windy Point Drive in west suburban Glendale Heights. Newmark’s Corey Chase represented Associated in the transaction. The property includes a more than 2K SF office. Associated will use the new site to complement its 87K SF headquarters in northwest suburban Addison. 

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Nite Owl Packaging leased 45K SF at 1141 West Bryn Mawr in west suburban Itasca. Chris Nelson and Jeff Janda of Lee & Associates’ Illinois office represented Nite Owl. Exeter Property Group owns the building. 

FINANCING

Parkview Financial provided a $9.7M construction loan to a joint venture of Noah Properties and MPM Holdings for the ground-up construction of 48 apartment units and 10K SF of ground-floor retail at 6336-60 West Belmont Ave. in Chicago. The developers have begun construction and anticipate completing the two-building, four-story project by late 2021. 

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Chicago-based JLL arranged $197M in senior debt for the refinancing of a 10-property retail portfolio totaling more than 1M SF across the Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Chicago, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle metro areas. JLL’s Tarik Bateh, Greg Brown, Bruce Ganong, Keith Largay, Chris Hew and Drew Heitstuman worked on behalf of the borrower, a co-investment partnership managed by Regency Centers Corp. The portfolio is roughly 97% leased.

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Mag Mile Capital’s Prabhat Jayara completed a $5.7M, five-year, fixed-rate loan for an 18K SF retail center at 8201-8231 Calumet Ave. in Munster, Indiana, on behalf of the buyer, Translucence Management.

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 

Data center firm Aligned broke ground on a hyperscale data center campus at 505 Northwest Ave. in west suburban Northlake. The 520K SF facility will be the first data center constructed on the 18.5-acre campus, known as ORD-01.

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March construction starts in the Chicago metro area totaled $900B, according to a new report from Dodge Data & Analytics. That is a 12% increase over March 2020. The growth was driven by an expanding residential market. March residential construction starts in the metro area totaled $478M, an 86% increase over March 2020. Nonresidential construction for the month totaled $422M, a 23% decline from March 2020.

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J.C. Anderson completed a 50K SF office build-out for Burns & McDonnell, a Kansas City, Missouri-based engineering and design firm, at 200 West Adams St. in Chicago. The three-floor build-out included the addition of several conference rooms, a pantry area, an elevator lobby, a fully integrated videoconferencing boardroom and a new staircase to connect the floors. J.C. Anderson’s team was led by John Angelovich and Darrel Panfil. Hydzik Schade Associates provided architectural services.

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CIM Group and Golub & Co. opened The Front Room, a new 5K SF tenant lounge on the third floor of 444 North Michigan Ave. Designed by Huntsman Architectural Group, The Front Room is part of a larger repositioning program. CIM Group and Golub & Co. bought the 36-story, 517K SF 444 North Michigan Ave. in 2018.