This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet

Office Properties Income Trust completed the $355M acquisition of the 531K SF 1KFulton property in Chicago’s Fulton Market neighborhood. It was yet another sign that, whatever the current uncertainty in the office market, fully leased Fulton Market properties are still greatly desired by investors.

Google leases 73% of 1KFulton as its Midwest headquarters, and it is 99% leased overall.

The Newton, Massachusetts-based REIT also acquired the 346K SF office property Twelve24 in Atlanta for $195M. It used cash and drew approximately $350M under its unsecured credit facility to fund both transactions, and plans to sell non-core properties to repay these credit facility drawings.

“These two Class-A office properties squarely fit our objective of owning, operating and leasing properties that are primarily leased on a long-term basis to tenants with high-credit quality characteristics,” OPI President Chris Bilotto said in a statement. “Since commencing our capital recycling strategy in 2020, we have sold more than $280M of properties and now are pleased to redeploy the proceeds into these carefully selected acquisitions of newly constructed core real estate in strong, growing markets majority leased to high credit quality tenants.”

EXECS

Lee & Associates of Illinois welcomed Michael Petrik to its retail team, focused on the Chicagoland market. Prior to joining the firm, Petrik worked as an associate at Aflac.

SALES

A 1031 exchange investor bought for $5.4M a triple net-leased BMO Harris Bank condo property at 201 South Grove St. in northwest suburban Barrington. The 30K SF condo consists of a ground-floor bank, as well as two lower levels with safety deposit boxes and office space. BMO recently spent more than $1M on tenant improvements, and the landlord spent another $1M on general building improvements. The seller is a Midwest-based developer and was represented by Randy Blankstein and Jimmy Goodman with The Boulder Group. Drew Neems and Theron May with Imperial Realty represented the buyer.

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Preservation of Affordable Housing finalized its $29.5M acquisition of Island Terrace Apartments from PNC Bank. The 240-unit tower at 6430 South Stony Island Blvd. is across from the future site of the Obama Presidential Center and has apartments suitable for a broad range of incomes and household sizes. An allocation of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from the Illinois Housing Development Authority helped make the purchase possible, according to a statement from POAH. The new owner will take over property management through its affiliate, POAH Communities, and begin renovations next year on the property, which was built in 1969.

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A net-leased buyer with a Chicagoland office bought for $2.6M a 50K SF Piggly Wiggly at 2801 14th Place in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The seller was a limited liability company. Austin Weisenbeck and Sean Sharko of Marcus & Millichap’s Chicago Oak Brook office marketed the property on behalf of the buyer. Todd Lindblom assisted in closing this transaction as broker of record in Wisconsin.

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Barron Development sold Riverwalk, a 120-unit independent senior living community at 8019 Ogden Ave. in southwest suburban Lyons, to New Frontier Cos. for $8.8M. The complex includes 99 one-bedroom apartments and 21 two-bedroom units, the majority of which are rented under affordable housing guidelines. Kyle Shoemaker of Affordable Housing Investment Brokerage represented both seller and buyer. The property was developed in 2003 using Low-Income Housing Tax Credit funds from the Illinois Housing Development Authority. Its affordability restrictions remain in place until 2033.

LEASES

Five new tenants moved into Alvarez & Marsal Property Investments’ property at 445 West Erie St. in River North, each occupying between 1K SF and 2K SF. They join more than a dozen media, technology, creative and artisanal businesses within the 53K SF brick-and-timber building. The new tenants are Cubii, a creator of fitness products; Daniel George, a custom clothing line; Aloha Poke Revival, a provider of sushi-grade fish and Hawaiian-inspired raw ingredients; Platform Pilates; and Salon Snob. Joshua Kellerman of AMPI represented the owner in each transaction. Daniel George was represented by Larry Cohn of @properties. Tim Ryan of TenantBase represented Platform Pilates and Salon Snob.

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Somerset Development signed a lease with Platinum Home Mortgage Corp. for 22K SF at Bell Works Chicagoland — the first long-term lease for Somerset's adaptive reuse of the former AT&T campus in northwest suburban Hoffman Estates. PHMC will bring in about 100 employees and use the space as a national operations center. The offices will be designed by Bell Works’ Paola Zamudio and her team at NPZ Style & Décor, in collaboration with Wendy Illian of Brilliant Spaces. PHMC will move into its new office in the autumn. 

Colliers International’s Steve Kling, Francis Prock and Darryl Silverman and The Garibaldi Group’s Jeffrey Garibaldi, Tara Keating and Lindsey Flori are marketing the office space at Bell Works Chicagoland. Colliers’ Jason Simon represented the tenant. 

FINANCING

Chicago Community Capital Fund will leverage $5M in debt capital from Woodforest National Bank to build affordable housing with no income restrictions throughout Chicagoland. C3 Fund is a minority-led group that focuses on financing properties in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

Chicago-based Ferrara Candy Co. opened its $100M, 1.6M SF distribution complex in DeKalb’s Chicago West Business Park. Ferrara has hired about half of the 500 employees that will staff the facility.

THIS AND THAT

American Landmark Properties started a spec suite program offering built-out suites with up to 3K SF at Oak Brook Place I and II, its two-building, Class-A office complex at 2301 and 2311 West 22nd St. in suburban Oak Brook. American Landmark acquired the complex in 2016 and later completed several improvements, including updating the exterior facade and landscaping, lobby and common area refurbishments, as well as adding break areas, lounges and fresh vending services.

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48th Ward Alderman Harry Osterman introduced a lending equity ordinance that would require mortgage lenders doing business with the city to provide lending data and loan denial rates by race, gender and census tract. In addition, lenders would have to disclose the number and locations of banking facilities by census tract, as well as demographic data on their employees. The measure was drafted in partnership with the Housing Policy Task Force, a group of more than 20 affordable housing advocates, developers and practitioners in Chicagoland.

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Lennar Corp. subsidiary LMC started pre-leasing at Triangle Square Apartments, a seven-story apartment complex at 2155 North Elston Ave. in the Northwest Side Bucktown neighborhood. The 298-unit development includes 21K SF of ground-floor retail space and is adjacent to a separate seven-story condominium building and a two-story commercial building, both being developed by Belgravia Group.