This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet

Building owners are taking advantage of low interest rates to refinance existing debt and cash out while they can. Vornado did so in a big way last week with a $675M refinancing of Merchandise Mart.

It's a smart play for a building valued at over $1B. Vornado took out the new five-year loan at a 2.7% interest rate. The proceeds of that loan paid off a $550M loan at 5.6% interest and closing costs. Vornado wound up pocketing $124M. To the winner goes the spoils.

SALES

Prime Property Investors sold Arbors of Brookdale, a 281-unit multifamily property in Naperville (shown), to Friedkin Realty Group for $60M. Prime bought the asset for $32M in December 2009.

***

The Flolo Corp purchased a 42k SF industrial property at 1400 Harvester Road in West Chicago. CBRE’s John Hamilton, Mike Sedjo and Jack Brennan repped the buyer, and David Prell repped the seller, Acts Four Thirty Two.

***

Lee & Associates’ Terry Grapenthin and Jeff Galante repped the seller, Tru Fragrance & Beauty, in the sale-leaseback of a 51k SF industrial facility at 7725 South Quincy St in Willowbrook. The buyer was Zilber Property Group.

***

Berkadia facilitated the sale of Cedar River Bluffs Apartments, a 170-unit multifamily community in Cedar Rapids, IA. The seller was Cedar Bluffs Development, an entity controlled by local developer Scott Byers, and the buyer was CRB Housing Cooperative.

***

The Boulder Group’s Randy Blankstein and Jimmy Goodman completed the following transactions:

• Repped the seller in the $5.6M sale of a single-tenant net-leased Insurance Auto Auctions property at 891 Ballardsville Road in Eminence, KY.
• Repped the buyer in the $1M sale of a single tenant Starbucks property at N65 W24950 Main Street in Sussex, WI.

***

NAI Hiffman’s Brad Weiner, Whit Heitman and Sam Badger repped ThermFlo/Zonatherm in the acquisition of a 4.3-acre site at Corporate Grove Business Park in Buffalo Grove. ThermFlo/Zonatherm will build a 42k SF HQ on the site (rendering shown), the first build-to-suit project in Lake County in a few years. Lee & Associates’ Ryan Kehoe repped the seller.

***

Stream Capital Partners completed the following transactions:

• Jonathan Wolfe and Annie Koch repped the seller, Hamilton Partners, in the sale of a 9,400 SF Bright Horizons Daycare property at Hamilton Lakes Business Park in Itasca.
• Jonathan Wolfe and Jordan Shtulman repped the seller of a 53k SF Hobby Lobby in Franklin, WI.

LEASES

NAI Hiffman’s Terry Herlihy repped the ownership of Regent O’Hare Business Center, a JV between Distribution Realty Group and Pearlmark, in its three latest leases totaling 56k SF in Elk Grove Village:

• Wigdahl Electric signed a 30k SF lease at 1802 Brummel Ave, and was repped by Colliers’ Jonathan Kohn and Tom Rodeno.
• Koeckritz Rugs signed a 23k SF lease at 507 Busse Road, and was repped by Colliers’ John D’Orazio.
• PreGel America leased 3,440 SF of flex office space at 915 Busse Road, and was repped by CRESA’s Ed Lowenbaum.

***

NAI Hiffman’s Aubrey Van Reken repped the tenants in the following leases in the East-West Corridor:

• Cornerstone Family Health signed a new lease for 1,543 SF at 3080 Ogden Ave in Lisle.
• RR Financial Services signed a new lease for 1,830 SF and relocated its financial and tax advisory group to 900 Oakmont Lane in Westmont.
• Heartspeak Institute renewed its 2,581 SF lease at 2625 Butterfield Road in Oak Brook.

***

Lee & Associates’ John Sharpe and Cushman & Wakefield’s Terry McMahon completed the following leases on behalf of landlord Ashley Capital:

• West Logistics leased 125k SF at Enterprise Building II in Sturtevant, WI.
• Buske Logistics leased 75k SF at Yorkville Business Center in Yorkville.

HIRES/PROMOTIONS

LM Commercial Real Estate hired Amy Hall as SVP. Amy has nearly 20 years of commercial real estate experience and will lead an aggressive expansion of the firm’s brokerage division in the Chicago area.